General Van Rensselaer had commanded that the “Heights had to be taken.”  Wool, a gallant soldier, only twenty-three, suffering from a bullet that had passed through both his thighs—­no superior officer coming to his support—­volunteered for the duty.  He expressed his eagerness to make the attempt.  Gansfort, a brother officer of Wool’s, had been shown by a river guide a narrow, twisting trail, used at times by fishermen, leading to the summit.  This he pointed out to Wool as a possible pathway to the Heights, where a force of determined men might gain the rear of the British position.  Wool, at the same time, had also been informed that Williams, hitherto on the Heights, had been ordered to descend the hill to assist Dennis—­which was Brock’s first command on reaching the redan.  Followed by Van Rensselaer’s aide, who had orders “to shoot every man who faltered,” Wool at once commenced the ascent, leaving one hundred of his men to protect the landing.

Picked artillerymen led the way.  Concealed by rock and thicket, and unobserved by the British—­the trail being regarded as impassable—­they reached the hill-top, only thirty yards in rear of the solitary gun in the redan.  The noise of their movements was drowned by the crash of the batteries, which reduced Hamilton’s stone house to ruins and drove Crowther and his small gun out of range.  The shells from the enemy’s mortars rained upon the village, and his field-pieces subjected the gardens and orchards of Queenston to a searching inquisition.

On reaching the summit, Wool, when the last straggler had arrived, formed his men, without losing a minute, and emerging from ambush, fired a badly-aimed volley at the astonished Brock and his eight gunners, and with a wild shout rushed down upon the redan.

* * * * *

When the United States flag was raised over the gun, which Wool, to his deep chagrin, found spiked, the troops at Lewiston realized that the battery had been taken.  Their courage returning, they rushed to the boats below, hoping to participate in a victory which, while hitherto a question in their minds, now seemed beyond all doubt.

Brock, on regaining the bottom of the slope, seeing that the main attack was to be made at Queenston, sent Captain Derenzy with a despatch to Sheaffe at Fort George.

“Instruct Major Evans,” he wrote, “to turn every available gun on Fort Niagara, silence its batteries, and drive out the enemy, for I require every fighting man here; and if you have not already done so, forward the battalion companies of the 41st and the flank companies of militia, and join me without delay.”

Mounting his horse, he galloped to the far end of the village.  Here he held a hurried consultation with the few officers present, and despatched Macdonell to Vrooman’s to bring up Heward’s Little York volunteers at the double.  He then instructed Glegg to order Dennis, with the light company of the 49th, less than fifty strong, and Chisholm’s company of the York militia, to join him, and also to recall Williams and his detachment.  When these arrived he took command.