Siege of Fort Erie

The siege of Fort Erie, also known as the Battle of Erie, from 4 August to 21 September 1814, was one of the last engagements of the War of 1812, between British and American forces. It took place during the Niagara campaign, and the Americans successfully defended Fort Erie against a British army under Gordon Drummond. During the siege, Drummond's troops suffered high casualties in a failed storming attempt; they also suffered casualties from sickness and exposure in their rough encampments. Unaware that the British were about to abandon the siege, the American garrison launched a sortie to destroy the British siege batteries, during which both sides again suffered high losses.

After the British abandoned the siege, the reinforced American army followed up cautiously and forced a second retreat at Cook's Mills but, with the onset of winter and shortage of supplies, they withdrew. They demolished Fort Erie before leaving the area. The attempted siege ended one of the last British offensives along the northern border, the other being the failed British assault on Plattsburgh.

The Americans under Major General Jacob Brown had crossed the Niagara River and captured Fort Erie on 3 July 1814. After defeating a British force at the Battle of Chippawa, they advanced north but the British reinforced their troops in the Niagara peninsula. On 25 July, the bloody but indecisive Battle of Lundy's Lane was fought, during which Brown was severely wounded.

Following the battle, the outnumbered American troops, now under the command of Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, withdrew to Fort Erie. Ripley advocated abandoning the fort and retreating across the Niagara, but Brown overruled him and summoned Brigadier General Edmund P. Gaines from Sackets Harbor to assume command.

The British, under the command of Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond (the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada), had suffered high casualties at Lundy's Lane. Drummond nevertheless claimed that the Americans had been forced to retreat in disorder, and he intended to drive them from the Canadian side of the Niagara. His troops followed the Americans slowly and reached the fort on 4 August. Drummond's division numbered 3,000, but Drummond complained about the quality of the troops and the degree to which the units were composed of mixed detachments and companies. His slow advance gave the Americans vitally needed time to reorganise and to reinforce their defences.

The original British fort consisted of two two-story barrack buildings, with fortified cannon bastions connected to them. The barracks were connected by a thick stone curtain with the main gate located in the centre. The rear of the fort (facing away from Lake Erie) consisted of an open terreplein, raised 6 feet (1.8 m) above the base of the dry ditch which surrounded the fort, with two redoubts located on the corner. The redoubts were incomplete and offered little protection. The front of the fort was protected by a large earth wall with a forward gun emplacement. The fort was also divided in half by an earth wall and ditch, but this too was incomplete. At least a third of the rear defenses were makeshift wooden walls or earthworks, some of which were only 1 metre (3.3 ft) high. A gun emplacement was located in the centre redan (raised platform). The fort contained a total of six guns.

The dry ditch surrounding the fort had a 9 feet (2.7 m) high wooden wall in the centre. This wall was angled outwards and was sharpened to prevent any enemy from leaping into the ditch, which also had sharpened sticks placed up and down the walls to help impale or wound enemy soldiers. The ditch was used as a garbage dump and a sewer by the defenders, creating a slippery and smelly swamp at the base that would slow enemy attacks and likely cause disease in any wounds.

Since capturing the fort, the Americans had made significant improvements to its defenses under Brown's direction and now redoubled their efforts to entrench themselves. Since the fort was too small to hold the entire American force, they extended the earth wall to the south for an additional 800 metres (0.50 mi) to a rise made of sand, known as Snake Hill, where they constructed a gun battery. To protect the north end of the position, the Americans threw up an earth wall connecting the northeast bastion of the fort to the lake. On the shore was another fortified gun emplacement, known as the Douglass Battery from its commander, Lieutenant David Douglass of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Abatis (obstacles made of felled trees) were placed in front of the earth walls.