midnight
The retreating van of Riall 's army now returned , with a body of militia -- twelve hundred in all . The Americans also brought up fresh reserves , and the combat was renewed with increased fury . Thin lines of fire , marked the position of the infantry , while from the hot lips of the cannon flashed red volleys of flame , revealing in brief gleams the disordered ranks struggling in the gloom . By midnight , after six hours of mortal conflict , seventeen hundred men lay dead or wounded on the field , when the Americans abandoned the hopeless contest , their loss being nine hundred and thirty , besides three hundred taken prisoners . The British loss was seven hundred and seventy . To-day the peaceful wheat-fields wave upon the sunny slopes fertilized by the bodies of so many brave men , and the ploughshare upturns rusted bullets , regimental buttons , and other relics of this most sanguinary battle of the war . Throwing their heavy baggage and tents into the rushing rapids of the Niagara , and breaking down the bridges behind them , the fugitives retreated to Fort Erie , where they formed an entrenched camp .