Scott's regulars break Riall's line at Chippawa; the British general had taken them for militia
By early 1814, Napoleon's defeat in Europe freed British veterans to sail for Canada, and Secretary of War John Armstrong Jr. wanted an American victory before they arrived. On July 5, near the Niagara River at Chippawa, Ontario, Brigadier General Winfield Scott's brigade met British Major General Phineas Riall's Right Division in open ground. Riall, mistaking Scott's gray-clad regulars for militia, advanced his troops into a crossfire and watched his lines break after roughly 25 minutes of volley fire. It was a landmark demonstration that trained American regulars could hold their own against British regulars in a standing fight.
Chippawa proved the U.S. Army could be built, not just raised, and Scott's rigorous drilling at Buffalo became the template for professional training that followed. The lineage runs forward literally: ten current U.S. Army infantry battalions still perpetuate regiments that stood in that line, and the 6th Infantry Regiment carries the motto "Regulars, by God" in tribute.
QWhy did Winfield Scott's men fight in gray instead of the Army's regulation blue?
A supply mix-up diverted the blue uniforms meant for Scott's brigade elsewhere in the quartermaster system, leaving his men to march on Chippawa in gray roundabouts intended only as a stopgap. Scott, notoriously particular about appearance and discipline, had separately blasted the black coatees given to the 21st US Infantry as "a disgrace to the uniform and soldier of the army of the United States" and given away his own spare blue coats rather than let them wear it. The gray cloth turned into an accidental piece of battlefield deception: British commander Phineas Riall glanced at the color and assumed militia, not trained regulars. West Point's cadet gray uniform is often said to trace its origin to this same battlefield mix-up.
QWhat happened to Winfield Scott before the battle even started?
While breakfasting in a farmhouse near his outposts, Scott came close to being captured by British light infantry, militia, and allied Indian forces who had begun sniping at his pickets from the surrounding woods. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Pearson's covering force had been driven back the day before, on July 4, as Scott advanced north from Fort Erie; the sniping and near-capture of Scott on the morning of July 5 came from a separate British light infantry, militia, and Indian force preceding Riall's main body. It was a brief, largely overlooked skirmish before the main battle began later that morning.
QHow badly was the British 100th Regiment hurt at Chippawa?
Official returns listed heavy British losses across the board, but the 100th Regiment's collapse was recorded in particularly stark terms: after the battle it was left with "one Captain and 3 subalterns doing duty, with 250 effective men." A separate U.S. Army document signed by Assistant Inspector-General Azariah Horne recorded the numbers of captured British wounded and unwounded prisoners, while Captains Bird and Wilson were separately listed in the official British casualty return as wounded and taken prisoner. Modern research suggests the actual kill count was lower than the official 148 reported dead, closer to 74 regulars, 18 militiamen, and 16 Indians, with more men captured than originally recorded.
