While New England was halting in its support of the war, the people of the South and West were alive with enthusiasm in favor of prosecuting it with sharp and decisive vigor.  They had already suffered much from the Indians under British control, and the massacre at Chicago kindled a flame of indignation not easily to be controlled by prudence.

The government resolved to retrieve the disaster at Detroit, by an invasion of Canada on the Niagara frontier.  For this purpose, a requisition was made upon the governor of New York for the militia of that State.  He patriotically responded to the call, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last of the Patroons and a patriotic Federalist retired from public life, was commissioned a major-general and placed in command of the militia.  The forces were concentrated at Lewiston on the Niagara River, Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain, and at Greenebush, opposite Albany.

The British had, meanwhile, assembled a considerable force on Queenstown Heights, opposite Lewiston.  At midsummer, hostile demonstrations had been made on Lake Ontario and on the St. Lawrence frontier.  Both parties early sought to get control of those waters, and the preparation of armed vessels on them was vigorously begun.

An armistice was concluded by General Dearborn.  This armistice enabled Brock to concentrate forces at Detroit and compel Hull to surrender.

On the morning of the 13th of October, just after a heavy storm, Colonel Soloman Van Rensselaer passed over the river near Lewiston with less than three hundred men.  They routed the British there, who fled toward Lewiston pursued by Captain John E. Wool, who, though wounded, did not relinquish the pursuit.

General Brock and his staff at Fort George hastened to the scene, but were compelled to fly, not having time even to mount their horses.  In a few minutes, the American flag was waving over the fort.

Brock rallied his forces and, with fresh troops, pressed up the hill after the Americans, but, after a terrible struggle, was driven back and mortally wounded.  General Sheaffe, who succeeded Brock, rallied the troops.  Only two hundred and forty Americans were on the heights.  Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Major-General) Winfield Scott had passed over the river to act as a volunteer.  At request of General Wadsworth he took active command.  The Americans, reinforced to six hundred, were assailed by a horde of Indians under John Brandt.  Scott led a charge against them and drove them to the woods; but overwhelming forces of British poured in on the Americans, and Van Rensselaer, who had gone to send over militia, found they would not cross the river, their excuse being that they were not compelled to serve out of their own State.

Overwhelming numbers compelled the Americans to surrender.  All the prisoners were marched to New Ark, where Scott came near having an encounter with two Indian chiefs.