On the 12th, Fort Niagara was invested. So negligent were the officers that on the morning of the 13th one of the gates was found open, and the enemy entered without opposition to a victory which might have been almost bloodless had not the attacking force, incensed by the burning of Newark, been led to revenge; a number of the garrison were bayoneted; Lewiston was sacked, plundered, and almost entirely destroyed. A body of soldiers pressed on to the town of Niagara Falls. They were met on the heights by a small force which was not able to check them and the whole Niagara region was laid waste. The Indians were turned loose and many innocent persons perished at their hands. The advance on Buffalo and Black Rock was only temporarily checked and on the 30th these cities were captured and plundered as elsewhere described. Only four houses were left in Buffalo and one in Black Rock. Such was the revenge of the burning of Newark. These were dark days along the Niagara, when hatred never bred in honest warfare flamed up in the hearts of men, and the beginning of the story goes back to the inhuman destruction of old Newark. Toward the latter part of March the campaign of 1814 was opened by General Wilkinson in the north, but little being accomplished he was soon superseded by General Brown. By the end of June the Northern army was gathered under Brown, once more prepared to carry the war into Canada, Buffalo being the headquarters. On the morning of the 3d of July, before daylight, General Scott crossed the river from Black Rock to invest Fort Erie. General Ripley was to have followed immediately, but he was delayed so long that it was broad day before he reached the Canadian shore. Scott pushed forward and drove the enemy's pickets into the fort. Brown, not waiting for Ripley, pushed into the forest in the rear of the fort, extending his lines so as to enclose the post. Ripley then appeared and took position in connection with Scott's command. The fort was then summoned to surrender, which summons, on account of its weak condition, was soon complied with just as reinforcements were on their way to give aid. To stop the advance of these troops, Scott was sent with his command down the river. His march of about sixteen miles was a continual skirmish with the British, and finding the enemy in force across the Chippewa Creek he encamped for the night. Before morning of the fifth he was joined by the main body of Brown's army. On the east was the river, on the west a heavy wood, and between the armies the Chippewa and Street's creeks. The British had also received reinforcements during the night, and the battle of Chippewa was opened by each army attempting to test the other's strength.