to contain 500 men were secretly brought overland from Gill’s Creek. A furious storm of wind and rain swept over his camp while the troops were drawn up in readiness to enter the boats, and the pilot of the expedition deserted in the darkness. In consequence the attack was postponed. The rain continued with unabated violence for twenty eight hours until the roads became almost impassible. Van Rensselaer then desired to wait a few days in the hope of reverting to his original plan, but the impatience of his troops seemed to be increased by their recent failure, and the pressure brought to bear upon him was too great to be withstood. His force was now still further increased by the arrival of three hundred and fifty regular soldiers under Lieut. Col. Chrystie at Four Mile Creek, east of Fort Niagara. The appearance of these boats and the detention of a large force near that place led Brock to believe that an attempt would be made to land to the westward of Niagara and prevented him from reinforcing the detachments at Queenston, and though he had become aware of the attempt to cross the river there, he regarded it simply as a feint to divert his attention from the true point of attack. The evident activity of the enemy near Buffalo at the same time restrained him fromm weakening the right of his extended line.
The river as it issues from the gorge at Queenston is barely six hundred feet in width, and flows at the rate of about four miles an hour. The cliffs which wall it in above are almost perpendicular, yet on the Canadian side, in many places, were so overgrown and almost concealed, by shrubs and trees, which struck their roots into the clefts and crannies of the rocks as to make it possible for an ordinarily active man to climb up with little difficulty from the water’s edge to the summit. A few hundred yards west of the landing stood the village, consisting of a stone barracks and about twenty scattered dwellings surrounded by gardens and orchards. The waggon-road leading from Niagara formed the principal street and wound up the heights beyond. Another road, commencing at the landing and crossing this at right angles, led to St. Davids, throwing off a branch which ascended the heights about a mile to westward, and finally united with the portage-road above. In the angle formed by the intersection of these two roads at the southeast corner of the village stood the large stone house of the Hon. Robert Hamilton with its walled courtyard and substantial out-buildings. The adjacent plain was dotted with many farmhouses near the roads, and the fields were generally enclosed by ordinary rail-fences diversified, near the foot of the heights by an occasional low stone wall. Half-way up the side of the mountain a small redan battery had been built with its angle fronting the river and armed with an eighteen-pounder, and at Brooman’s Point, nearly a mile below, a twenty-four pound gun had been mounted en bazbette on a crescent shaped earthwork commanding, although at very long range, both landings, and the breadth of the river between. Capt. Williams with the light company of the 49th was stationed at the redan, and the grenadiers of the same regiment under Capt. James Dennis and Chisholm’s company of the 2nd Yorks were quartered in the village. Outposts and sentries watched the river from the landing to Frooman’s Point which was occupied by Capt. Samuel Hatt’s company of the 5th Lincoln. The entire force of regulars and militia distributed about Queenston did not exceed two hundred men. Cameron’s and Howard’s companies of York militia lay at Brown’s Point, three miles distant, but there were no other regular troops nearer than Fort George.
Fatigue duty and frequent alarms had begun to tell upon the health and spirits of the men, and at dark on the evening of the 11th Brock learned with concern that some men of the 49th had become insubordinate and even threatened the lives of their officers, but an inquiry showed that their misconduct was caused by drink, and they were liberated with a reprimand.
All that day and the next, parties of influence lined the opposite shore and fired incessantly at any living thing that met their eye on the Queenston side. The houses near the river were riddled by their fire, and even a boat bearing a flag of truce became a target for their bullets.
In a battery, named Fort Gray above the village of Lewiston, two eighteen-pounders were mounted with the intention of silencing the gun in the redan, and two mortars and the same number of six-pounders were planted on the bank of the river to cover the landing and drive the British out of Queenston, Chrystie’s and Fenwick’s regiments of regulars from Fort Niagara, and three militia battalions trom Schlosser were marched to Lowiston by inland roads after dark on the evening of the 12th, and long before the appointed hour of three o’clock more than 4,000 men were assembled there without exciting attention. Twelve boats, each of which could carry thirty men, and two others having a capacity of eighty each, manned by veteran fishermen familiar with the river, were moored at the landing. The
