Red Coats and Grey Jackets: The Battle of Chippawa, 5 July 1814

Geoffrey Hayes is an assistant professor of history at the University of
Waterloo.

The Battle of Chippawa marked the last British defeat in Upper Canada in
the War of 1812. The battle and Brigadier Winfield Scott both became
American legends. Canadians have preferred to remember the later Battle
of Lundy’s Lane instead. As a result, the Chippawa battlesite nearly
became a housing development in 1991. Almost two centuries later,
Chippawa is finally returning to public memory, with much credit due to
Canadian military historian Donald Graves. He has combined good
scholarship in a highly readable text to examine the battle of July 5,
1814.

Graves begins with a short overview of the war, and then offers three
chapters on the armies themselves and their tools of the trade. The
American and British soldiers who met that day on Samuel Street’s farm
were well-trained professionals. Their muskets and cannon were
notoriously unreliable, but as a collection of after-battle sketches
reveals, they were still capable of much damage. Mercifully, Graves
relegates his detailed weapons comparison to an appendix, thus sparing
the reader who is less interested in technical detail.

Writing a battle narrative is difficult, but Graves’s six chapters on
the battle recount much of the fear, confusion, and human tragedy of the
day. The contemporary accounts are useful, though Graves makes sure that
his reader sees through the wealth of myth that has since clouded the
battlefield. Another appendix examines six “myths and anecdotes”
about July 5, 1814. Among them is the famous line attributed to the
British General Riall, who first thought the approaching Americans were
militia, clad in grey. Upon seeing them move under fire, Riall
supposedly exclaimed, “Why, these are regulars!” The phrase is
unconfirmed but significant, for Graves concludes that Riall erred by
underestimating the American enemy. At day’s end, more than 700
American and British soldiers were killed or wounded.

This is a deceiving book in many ways, for its poorly reproduced
illustrations give it an amateurish look. There is nothing amateurish
about it. The quality of writing and information is superb.