[1] Brock died by gunshot wound to the chest on the morning of October 13, 1812, leading a charge of British regulars and Canadian militia up the Heights to regain the Redan Battery, earlier captured by American infantry forces under Captain John Wool.

One of Brock's aides-de-camp, John Macdonell was also mortally wounded while attempting to lead a subsequent abortive charge when his mount was shot from beneath him and fell on him.

The combined British, Canadian, and First Nations forces eventually won a resounding victory under the command of Major-General Roger Hale Sheaffe.

The Upper Canada Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland ordered its removal because he did not want to include a newspaper critical of the government in the monument.

The attack was presumed to have been orchestrated by Benjamin Lett,[4] an anti-British agitator and participant in the 1837 Rebellion although a subsequent Assize failed to confirm this.

[5] Brock and Macdonell's remains were removed after the monument's disassemblage and reinterred in the Hamilton Family Burial Grounds at Niagara Parkway and Dee Road in Queenston.

They read: Here lie the earthly remains of a brave and virtuous hero, / Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, / Commander of the British forces, / and President Administering / the Government of Upper Canada, / Who fell when gloriously engaging the Enemies / of his Country, / at the head of the Flank Companies / of the 49th Regiment, / in the Town of Queenstown, / on the morning of the 13th October, 1812, / aged 42 years.

Inside the monument's base are a number of brass plaques: Brock and Macdonell's epitaphs, a list of donors and builders, and a tribute to the British, Canadian, and First Nations soldiers who died at the Battle of Queenston Heights.

The monument, illuminated at night, marks the end of an interpretive historical walking trail that leads down and then up Queenston Heights, recounting key events in the battle.