Action at Butler's Farm

A small-scale but incredibly violent battle, typical of the Niagara theatre, the Action at Butler's farm was not a planned engagement, but rather a haphazard brawl between Six Nations Indigenous British allies and American forces in July of 1813 as British forces and Indigenous allies sought to recapture eastern Niagara.

At daybreak on July 8, 1813, small force of British regulars of the 8th Regiment, Upper Canadian Dragoons, and Six Nations and Ottawa indigenous warriors set out to retrieve medical supplies which had been buried in haste by the retreating British forces following their defeat at the Battle of Fort George in May of 1813. In July of 1813, the Niagara Peninsula stood in a precarious position, with opposing British, Indigenous, and American forces facing off. After the battle of Stoney Creek on June 6th, the rapidly advancing American Army had been thrown back, and the British forces skirmished with the occupying Americans regularly, with Indigenous allies and the local Lincoln Militia proving to be invaluable in this type of warfare.

Two day prior, four Upper Canadian Dragoons captains had been dispatched to determine whether the medical supplies buried at the property of Mr. Cassel Chorus, a member of the 1st Lincoln Militia, remained and could be recovered. Discovering the good condition of the supply cache, the dragoons (including William Hamilton Merritt, builder of the Welland Canal in the 1830s) stumbled across American pickets, who briefly retreated before returning with hundreds of reinforcements, chasing off the captains who miraculously escaped without injury.

On July 8th, three of the dragoons were despatched with a contingent of regulars from the 8th Regiment and militiamen to dig up and secure the medical supplies buried at Chorus' farm. An Indigenous warparty of Six Nations and Ottawa warriors of the Grand River, led by Chiefs John Norton and Blackbird and accompanied by Indian Department translators, travelled with the recovery party to provide security against possible American attacks. The detachment managed to travel to the farm and excavated the supplies, but while the recovery party's wagons were being loaded with the medicine, the Indigenous warriors covering the retrieval came under fire from American units of the 13th Infantry Regiment.

While the wagons withdrew from the farm to Major General Francis Baron De Rottenburg's headquarters further west, the Indigenous warparty engaged in battle with the 13th. A particularly notable participant in the battle was 13 year-old John Law, whose father had been captured and elder brother killed in the Battle of Fort George in two months prior. Taking up arms in spite of his young age, Law fought alongside the Indigenous forces for hours, only to be dragged off the battlefield by his irate mother as the battle was coming to a close.

The battle lasted for several hours, however when American reinforcements increased American numbers to 500, the warparty began to retreat. Hoping to outflank and cut off Norton and Blackbird's warriors, about 50 American regulars under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Eldridge moved up his enemy's flank. Eldridge's detachment was subsequently ambushed by Indigenous warriors hidden in a ravine, and 18 soldiers were killed in the first volley, with only seven of the ambushed Americans escaping. As more reinforcements from the 13th Regiment streamed to the battle, the Indigenous-British force withdrew to the safety of the British picket line, having achieved their objectives. As the gun-smoke settled across the battlefield, 22 soldiers of the 13th US Infantry Regiment lay dead, among them the pugnacious Lieutenant Eldridge, and 12 had been taken prisoner. The pugnacious Lieutenant Eldridge had been taken prisoner, but then fired upon a warrior after having surrendered, and was subsequently shot by the Indigenous force. Two Indigenous warriors had sustained wounds in the engagement, but no casualties were recorded from either Norton's indigenous warriors or the British recovery party.

The battlefield of this action was first commemorated in 1937 with a plaque, detailing the action, the belligerents, and the resulting casualties. A bilingual plaque recently replaced the older anglophone commemoration. Nearby is a heritage plaque to Colonel John Butler, one of the founders of Niagara-on-the-Lake, and after whom the site of this battle is named. The site is open to the public, but as it is also the Butler family cemetery, visitors are asked to be respectful of the deceased who are interred at the location.