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Nearly 180 years to the day after British troops stormed Fort Niagara tearing down Old Glory from its ramparts in a storm of gunfire and bullets, the historic Star Spangled Banner that flew over the fort came home to a triumphant welcome. The story began in June 1812.
Fort Niagara was the only United States post on the Niagara River when war was declared on Great Britain on June l8, 1812. The post was the base for an invasion of Canada that resulted in the occupation of Fort George in May 1813. By December 1813, however, United States forces had been so reduced that it was deemed necessary to evacuate Fort George. After burning the fort and the village of Niagara-on-the-Lake, American troops retreated to Fort Niagara and Buffalo.
The British soon followed. On the night of December 18th-19th, a 562-man assault crossed the Niagara River and marched to Fort Niagara. Finding a gate partly open as the sentries were changing, the attackers burst in upon the sleeping garrison. Resistance from American soldiers in the South Redoubt was overcome, and the fort was in British hands by 5:00 a.m. Among the military items captured in Fort Niagara was the garrison's flag.
The fall of Fort Niagara cleared the way for Major General Sir Gordon Drummond, commander of British forces in Upper Canada, to conduct operations along the Niagara River which resulted in the destruction of the Village of Lewiston, Niagara Falls and Buffalo. Fort Niagara would remain under British control until returned to the United States on May 22, 1815.
One of General Drummond's aides left Fort Niagara for Quebec with the garrison flag on December 20, 1813. On January 6 he presented the flag, as a war trophy, to Sir George Prevost, British commander-in-chief in North America. The flag remained in Quebec until May 18, 1814 when Prevost sent it to London with the American flags captured at Fort Mackinac, MI and Fort Ontario (Oswego, NY). All three were to be "laid at the feet of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent", later King George IV. Interestingly the British always took careful inventory of everything they captured and this old Fort Niagara flag...