On May 26th, a number of boats which the Americans had built at the "meadows," five miles up stream from Fort Niagara, were launched. The British battery opposite opened fire on them, and as they came down stream the batteries of Fort George cannonaded them. Fort Niagara, its batteries and dependencies replied vigorously. When night came the boats were safely taken past Fort George, and around Fort Niagara to the lake shore, to FourMile creek. Early on the morning of May 27th the troops were embarked from the fort and the camp on the vessels and boats, and at once proceeded to the attack. The guns of Fort Niagara and its batteries were turned on Fort George. The warships took their assigned positions, some to bombard Fort George and its batteries, some to silence the batteries on the lake near where the troops were to land. Amidst a terrific bombardment, the men led by Colonel Scott, landed, drove back the British, captured Fort George, and by noon were in quiet possession of every battery on the river, the British fleeing with precipitation. A storm coming up, the fleet sailed up the river and anchored nearly opposite Fort George. 1 From May 27th till December, 1813, Fort George was in the possession of the Americans, and the headquarters of the Army of the Center was here, and thus on British soil. General Dearborn, General Wilkinson, Colonel Scott, General Harrison and General McClure of the New York militia were successively in command, and were frequently at Fort Niagara. On May 26th, a number of boats which the Americans had built at the "meadows," five miles up stream from Fort Niagara, were launched. The British battery opposite opened fire on them, and as they came down stream the batteries of Fort George cannonaded them. Fort Niagara, its batteries and dependencies replied vigorously. When night came the boats were safely taken past Fort George, and around Fort Niagara to the lake shore, to FourMile creek. Early on the morning of May 27th the troops were embarked from the fort and the camp on the vessels and boats, and at once proceeded to the attack. The guns of Fort Niagara and its batteries were turned on Fort George. The warships took their assigned positions, some to bombard Fort George and its batteries, some to silence the batteries on the lake near where the troops were to land. Amidst a terrific bombardment, the men led by Colonel Scott, landed, drove back the British, captured Fort George, and by noon were in quiet possession of every battery on the river, the British fleeing with precipitation. A storm coming up, the fleet sailed up the river and anchored nearly opposite Fort George. From May 27th till December, 1813, Fort George was in the possession of the Americans, and the headquarters of the Army of the Center was here, and thus on British soil. General Dearborn, General Wilkinson, Colonel Scott, General Harrison and General McClure of the New York militia were successively in command, and were frequently at Fort Niagara. FORT GEORGE ABANDONED. On December 10th, word came to Fort George that 1,500 Brit ish regulars and 700 Indians were advancing toward it, with a view to its capture and the expuision of the Americans from Canadian soil hereabouts. McClure's garrison was not a large one; only sixty effective men. He was not a man of courage. He decided to abandon Fort George and to concentrate all his troops in Fort Niagara. For about two months he had had in his possession the fol lowing, sent from Sackett's Harbor: WAR DEPARTMENT, October 4, 1813. SIR. - Understanding that the defense of the post committed to your charge may render it proper to destroy the town of Newark, you are hereby directed to apprise the inhabitants of this circumstance, and invite them to remove themselves and their effects to some place of greater safety. JOHN ARMSTRONG. : Brigadier-General MCCLURE, or officer commanding at Fort George. McClure had never carried out this order. All of a sudden, in the middle of a most rigorous winter, he decided to abandon Fort George. Most of the guns were spiked, and all movable stores put on boats. Then, falling back on this old order from the War Department (which had been sent to him long before winter set in, and with the very idea of preventing unnecessary hardship), he gave notice to the inhabitants of Newark that in a few hours the town would be burnt. This order of his own he carried out. The village was set on fire in several places and 150 houses were consumed. While it was burning the American troops crossed to Fort Niagara. It was a sorry day for that fort (and for the frontier) when it became the headquarters of General McClure. In such haste was he to get away from the rapidly advancing British troops, and to get behind the guns of Fort Niagara, that he did not even try and demolish any of the works of Fort George; and his excuse for the burning of Newark, "that it might not be left as a shelter for the enemy," was nullified by the fact that he left the barracks on the river bank intact, and serviceable tents for 1,500 men in Fort George.1 Several good cannon and a quantity of shot were also left behind. When the British took possession of Fort George and the ruins of Newark it was toward Fort Niagara, behind whose walls McClure, the destroyer of Newark, had taken refuge, that their thoughts at once turned for revenge. General McClure, possibly appreciating this, promptly, on December 12th, moved his headquarters to Buffalo, from whence, on December 18th, he issued a proclamation warning the people of the preparations of the British to make a descent on the American side of the Niagara.2 But he made no provision against it, not even sending a special message to the officers in Fort Niagara, trusting solely to his general order to them of some days before.3 Captain Leonard had been left in command of that fort, and warned that an attack might be expected. It was this same officer who a little over a year before had evacuated this same fort; but, on seeing the British starting to occupy it, had (1) British Official Report, Niles' Register, vol. V, No. 21. (2) McClure's Proclamation, December 18, 1813. (3) McClure's General Order, December 12, 1813. |