At the instigation of Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell and without sanction from his superiors or the government of the United States, the Americans also destroyed private houses and other property, prompting British commanders to demand reprisals in other theatres of the war.

Campbell insisted, both at the time[3] and subsequently in a note to the British Major General Phineas Riall, commanding the division on the Niagara Peninsula, that he personally ordered the destruction without any sanction from his superiors or the United States government, in retaliation for the burning of the American settlements of Havre de Grace (on Chesapeake Bay), Lewiston and Buffalo the previous year.

[4] The official notes of protest from Riall and complaints by Sinclair and other Americans prompted the United States Army to hold a Court of Enquiry, presided over by Brigadier General Winfield Scott, on 20 June.

The court concluded that Campbell was justified in burning the mills and distilleries which might have been used to supply flour and spirits to the British forces, and that some adjacent buildings were unavoidably involved.

[4] Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of the Canadas and commander in chief of the forces there, wrote on 2 June to Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, commander of the North American Station of the Royal Navy, without noting that Campbell had not acted under orders: ...in consequence of the late disgraceful conduct of the American troops in the wanton destruction of private property on the north shores of Lake Erie, in order that if the war with the United States continues you may, should you judge it advisable, assist in inflicting that measure of retaliation which shall deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages.

[8]Cochrane in turn wrote from his station in Bermuda on 18 June to John Wilson Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty: I am most decidedly of opinion that the readiest way to attain this object is to bring home to the supporters of the Government which authorizes this unnatural system of warfare a full share of its dreadful calamities and to this end, I have issued to the commanding officer of H.M. blockading squadron an order, accompanied by a secret memorandum...

&c, &c, &c. Whereas... it appears that the American troops in Upper Canada have committed the most wanton and unjustifiable outrages on the unoffending inhabitants by burning their mills and houses, and by a general devastation of private property...