brilliant but well managed. The
fort was a prize of no ordinary worth. It contained an immense quantity
of commissariat stores, three thousand stand of arms, a number of
rifles and several pieces of dismounted ordnance. On the works were
twenty-seven heavy guns.

The greatest possible precautions were adopted to secure success.
Major-General Riall followed Colonel Murray, with the whole body of
Western Indians, stout, athletic, brave men, inured to fighting, the
1st battalion of the Royals, and the 41st regiment to support him, in
case of need. Success had been achieved without the general's aid; but
instead of resting satisfied with that which had been already
accomplished, Riall wisely pushed on before the news of the capture of
the fort could be spread about, on Lewiston, where the enemy, in some
force, had erected batteries, with the view of destroying Queenston.
Seeing Riall coming up in their rear, the enemy were compelled to
retreat, and they abandoned their position with such precipitation,
that two field pieces, with some small arms and stores fell into the
hands of the British. It was now that the burning of Newark was to be
revenged. The Indians and the troops were let loose upon the enemy's
frontiers and Lewiston, Manchester, and the country around were laid in
ruins. Determined to follow up his success, Drummond proceeded to
Chippewa. He fixed his head-quarters there on the 28th of December, and
on the morning after was within two miles of Fort Erie. Without loss of
time, he reconnoitred, and finding the enemy's position at Black Rock
assailable, he determined upon a second nocturnal attack. General Riall
accordingly crossed the river, with four companies of the King's
regiment and the light company of the 89th, under Colonel Ogilvy, and
two hundred and fifty men of the 41st regiment, and the grenadiers of
the 100th regiment, under Major Frend, together with about fifty
militia volunteers and a body of Indians. The landing was effected
about midnight. As before the advanced guard proceeded cautiously but
were not quite so successful as before in preventing alarm. They
surprised a picquet and captured not the whole, but the greater part of
it. They did still more. The bridge over the Conguichity Creek was
secured in spite of the repeated efforts of the enemy to dislodge the
assailants. But all did not yet go well with the British. The boats
required to bring over a second division had necessarily to be track