But the campaign against Montreal was already over.
Wilkinson had found that Hampton had started back for
Lake Champlain while the battle was in progress; so he
landed at St Regis, just inside his own country, and went
into winter quarters at French Mills on the Salmon river.

In December the scene of strife changed back again to
the Niagara, where the American commander, McClure,
decided to evacuate Fort George. At dusk on the 10th he
ordered four hundred women and children to be turned out
of their homes at Newark into the biting midwinter cold,
and then burnt the whole settlement down to the ground.
If he had intended to hold the position he might have
been justified in burning Newark, under more humane
conditions, because this village undoubtedly interfered
with the defensive fire of Fort George. But, as he was
giving up Fort George, his act was an entirely wanton
deed of shame.

Meanwhile the new British general, Gordon Drummond, second
in ability to Brock alone, was hurrying to the Niagara
frontier. He was preceded by Colonel Murray, who took
possession of Fort George on the 12th, the day McClure
crossed the Niagara river. Murray at once made a plan to
take the American Fort Niagara opposite; and Drummond at
once approved it for immediate execution. On the night
of the 18th six hundred men were landed on the American
side three miles up the river. At four the next morning
Murray led them down to the fort, rushing the sentries
and pickets by the way with the bayonet in dead silence.