ime to divert the enemy from Detroit; but in the
autumn of 1812 he was ready to attempt an invasion of Canada by way of
Niagara. The direct command was given to Major General Stephen Van
Rensselaer of the New York State militia, who was to advance as soon as
six thousand troops were assembled. At first Dearborn seemed hopeful of
success. He predicted that "with the militia and other troops there or
on the march, they will be able, I presume, to cross over into Canada,
carry all the works in Niagara, and proceed to the other posts in that
province in triumph."

The fair prospect soon clouded, however, and Dearborn, who was of a
doubtful, easily discouraged temperament, partly due to age and
infirmities, discovered that "a strange fatality seemed to have pervaded
the whole arrangements." Yet this was when the movement of troops and
supplies was far brisker and better organized than could have been
expected and when the armed strength was thrice that of Brock, the
British general, who was guarding forty miles of front along the Niagara
River with less than two thousand men. At Queenston which was the
objective of the first American attack there were no more than two
companies of British regulars and a few militia, in all about three
hundred troops. The rest of Brock's forces were at Chippawa and Fort
Erie, where the heavy assaults were expected.

An American regular brigade was on the march to Buffalo, but its
commander, Brigadier General Alexander Smyth, was not subordinate to Van
Rensselaer, and the two had quarreled. Smyth paid no attention to a
request for a council of war and went his own way. On the night of the
10th of October Van Rensselaer attempted to cross the Niagara River,
but there was some blunder about the boats and the disgruntled troops
returned to camp. Two nights later they made another attempt but found
the British on the alert and failed to dislodge them from the heights of
Queenston. A small body of American regulars, led by gallant young
Captain Wool, managed to clamber up a path hitherto regarded as
impassable. There they held a precarious position and waited for help.
Brock, who was commanding the British in person, was instantly killed
while storming this hillside at the head of reinforcements. In him the
enemy lost its ablest and most intrepid leader.

The forenoon wore on and Captain Wool, painfully wounded, still clung to
the heights with his two hundred and fifty men. A relief column which