Battle of Fort George - American Plans

American Plans

The Americans drafted a new plan on February 10, 1813. The plan was to attack Kingston, then York from Sackets Harbor with 4,000 soldiers. Only then were they to assault Fort George. Simultaneously 3,000 soldiers from Buffalo, New York were to capture Fort Erie then march on Fort George. This plan was changed to avoid Kingston because Major General Henry Dearborn, commander of the United States armies on the frontier with Canada, believed there were 6,000 to 8,000 British soldiers at Kingston due to a false report.

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. The American army was then transported across the lake in Chauncey's ships to Fort Niagara. Dearborn planned to attack Fort George next, but his army required rest and reorganisation. No preparations had been made to accommodate the troops at Fort Niagara, and they suffered considerable shortages and privations for several days. In particular, the wounded were left without shelter or medical attention.

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. (The British maintained that Scott had only been paroled pending an exchange, and protested when he took up the appointment.) Scott improved the army's administration and pushed forward the plans for the forthcoming attack. At the same time, Lieutenant 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.

At Fort George, the Americans planned to land on the shore of the lake rather than on the shore of the Niagara River. The troops would be supported as they landed by twelve schooners, each mounting one or more heavy cannon, which could approach the shore closely. Two larger vessels, the corvette Madison and the brig Oneida would engage the nearest British batteries.

The American army numbered approximately 4,000 regular infantry. The force was divided into four waves, which would land in succession. The first wave was to be commanded by Scott himself, the second by Brigadier General John Parker Boyd, a professional soldier, and the third by Brigadier General William H. Winder, a recently commissioned lawyer. A brigade under a political appointee, Brigadier General John Chandler, formed the reserve, together with most of the artillery under Colonel Alexander Macomb. The Army's second-in-command, Major General Morgan Lewis, was nominally in overall command of the landing force. Dearborn, the commander in chief, would observe from aboard the Madison.

As the American preparations proceeded, on May 25 they began to bombard Fort George from their positions along the river and from Fort Niagara, and also from Chauncey's schooners. 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. Several log buildings within Fort George burned down, and the women and children in the fort were forced to take shelter within the bastions.