cooperate. An attempt to carry out the plan on the night of October 10/11 was thwarted by bad weather. Smyth marched his detachment back to Black Rock, New York. Van Rensselaer attacked Queenston with the troops he had at Lewiston on the night of October 13/14, without Smyth's troops. During the ensuing Battle of Queenston Heights, the guns of Fort George and Fort Niagara began to fire at the opposite fort. During the exchange the Americans ended up burning the court house, jail, and fifteen or sixteen other buildings. During this battle Fort George was left under the control of Major Evans and there were no more than twenty soldiers acting as the main guards. American plans The Americans drafted a new plan on February 10, 1813. The plan was to attack Kingston, then York from Sackets Harbor with 4,000 soldiers. Only then were they to assault Fort George. Simultaneously 3,000 soldiers from Buffalo, New York were to capture Fort Erie then march on Fort George. This plan was changed to avoid Kingston because Major General Henry Dearborn, commander of the United States armies on the frontier with Canada, believed there were 6,000 to 8,000 British soldiers at Kingston due to a false report. On April 27, the Americans on Lake Ontario under Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey gained success at the Battle of York, occupying the town for several days and capturing many guns and stores, although Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and several dozen soldiers were killed by an exploding magazine. The American army was then transported across the lake in Chauncey's ships to Fort Niagara. Dearborn planned to attack Fort George next, but his army required rest and reorganisation. No preparations had been made to accommodate the troops at Fort Niagara, and they suffered considerable shortages and privations for several days. In particular, the wounded were left without shelter or medical attention. On May 15, Colonel Winfield Scott took up his appointment as Dearborn's Adjutant General (i.e. Chief of Staff), having been exchanged after being captured at the Battle of Queenston Heights in the previous year. (The British maintained that Scott had only been paroled pending an exchange, and protested when he took up the appointment.) Scott improved the army's administration and pushed forward the plans for the forthcoming attack. At the same time, Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry of the United States Navy, who had arrived from