PART V.

AMERICAN FLEET AND ARMY RETURN TO SACKETT's HARBOUR--MAKE PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACKING FORT GEORGE AND THE TOWN OF NEWARK, WHICH, AFTER A SEVERE BATTLE, THEY TAKE AND OCCUPY.

After evacuating York, the American fleet and army proceeded again to Sackett's Harbour, where preparations were immediately made for invading the Niagara frontier. On the 20th of May the American fleet again ascended Lake Ontario, and on the morning of the 23rd they appeared off the mouth of the Niagara river, soon after which, the weather being favourable to their purpose, they attacked Fort George and the town of Newark (now Niagara), by land and water. Early in the morning of the 27th of May the enemy commenced a combined attack upon the fort, having previously, on the 24th and 25th, materially injured the works by a warm cannonade from their ships and batteries. A body of about 800 riflemen, under Colonel Winfield Scott, landed near the Two Mile Creek, while the fleet ranged up in the form of a crescent, extending from the north of the Lighthouse to the Two Mile Creek, so as to enfilade the British batteries by a cross fire. The riflemen, after forming and ascending the bank, were met by the British, and compelled to give way in disorder, and return to the beach, from whence they kept up a smart fire under cover of the bank. In the meantime, another body of upwards of 2,000 men, under the command of General Lewis, made a landing, and formed on the beach under cover of a tremendous cannonade of round shot, and showers of grape and canister from the fleet, that swept the adjacent plain, and compelled the British to retire. General Vincent, finding the works torn to pieces by the enemy's artillery, and no longer tenable against so overwhelming a force, caused the fort to be dismantled, and the magazines to be blown up, and retreated to Queenston, leaving the Americans to take possession of the ruins of the fort. The British loss consisted of fifty-two killed and upwards of three hundred wounded and missing [more than half the entire force]. The Americans state their loss at thirty-nine killed and a hundred and eleven wounded.