Battle of Lundy's Lane - Aftermath

Aftermath

In the early hours of the morning of 26 July, Brown ordered Ripley to recover the abandoned British guns the next day. Reinforcing his exhausted men with detachments which had been left at Chippawa, Ripley moved out at daybreak with 1,200 soldiers but found that Drummond had reoccupied the battlefield with 2,200 men. Ripley withdrew, unmolested. The American army fell back to Fort Erie, first deliberately destroying the old British fortifications along the Chippawa River and burning the bridges behind them. Because they were short of transport, they had to abandon or destroy much equipment and supplies to make room for the wounded on the available wagons. Drummond was later to claim from this that the Americans had retreated in disorder. In fact, after burying some of the British and Canadian dead on the battlefield and burning many American corpses in large funeral pyres, the British had themselves withdrawn to Queenston until Drummond received reinforcements.