East Coast Great Lakes / Saint Lawrence River West Indies / Gulf Coast Pacific Ocean The Battle of Fort George was fought during the War of 1812, in which the Americans defeated a British force and captured Fort George in Upper Canada.

[21] During this battle Fort George was left under the control of Major Evans and there were no more than twenty soldiers acting as the main guards.

[21] On April 27, the Americans on Lake Ontario under Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey gained success at the Battle of York, occupying the town for several days and capturing many guns and stores, although Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and several dozen soldiers were killed by an exploding magazine.

No preparations had been made to accommodate the troops at Fort Niagara, and they suffered considerable shortages and privations for several days.

[23] On May 15, Colonel Winfield Scott took up his appointment as Dearborn's Adjutant General (i.e. Chief of Staff), having been exchanged after being captured at the Battle of Queenston Heights in the previous year.

At the same time, Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry of the United States Navy, who had arrived from Lake Erie to request sailors and supplies for his squadron and was temporarily serving as one of Chauncey's senior officers, reconnoitred the landing sites at the mouth of the Niagara River, taking bearings and placing marker buoys.

The troops would be supported as they landed by twelve schooners, each mounting one or more heavy cannon, which could approach the shore closely.

A brigade under a political appointee, Brigadier General John Chandler, formed the reserve, with most of the artillery under Colonel Alexander Macomb.

[25] The gunners in the fort and the nearby batteries were using cannonballs which had been heated in furnaces until they were red-hot, then quickly loaded into cannons and fired.

Just after dawn on May 27, an early morning fog dispersed to reveal the American vessels off the lake shore to the west.

[26] Scott's troops began landing west of the mouth of the Niagara River, while Perry's schooners silenced the nearby British batteries.

Scott's force was reinforced by the leading troops of Boyd's brigade, which was just landing, and the British were driven back in turn.

[27] As Winder's brigade also began landing,[27] Vincent realized that he was outnumbered and outflanked and decided to evacuate his soldiers before they were completely encircled.

[29] (Some British women and children had been left behind in the fort in the hasty retreat and would have suffered heavy casualties if the demolitions had proceeded as Vincent ordered.)

Scott continued to press after Vincent and the American batteries bombarded the retreating British from the other side of the river.

Vincent's rearguards, including Merritt's Troop of Provincial Dragoons, held off Scott although several stragglers were captured.

However, the American plan had allowed for only two companies of light dragoons commanded by Colonel James Burn to cross the Niagara 5 miles (8.0 km) above Fort George cut off Vincent's retreat.

[5] General Boyd offered his own personal tally - 107 killed, according to his burial parties, with 175 wounded brought in and another 105 unwounded prisoners.

When the Americans broke off the pursuit, Vincent continued his retreat to Beaver Dams, near present-day Thorold, Ontario, where he gathered in the other British regular detachments from Fort Erie and other posts higher up the Niagara, and temporarily disbanded the militia, before falling back to Burlington Heights near the western end of Lake Ontario.

After a disaster when a sortie against a British outpost was surrounded and forced to surrender by Native Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams, they remained largely inactive on this front until they abandoned Fort George in December 1813.