On July 3, 1814, American forces launched a successful amphibious assault to capture Fort Erie in Ontario, Canada, marking the second time during the War of 1812 that the strategic British stronghold changed hands. The lightning-fast operation secured a vital foothold across the Niagara River for the American army.
The fascinating layer to this victory is that it was executed with meticulous, dead-of-night stealth to catch the British completely off guard. American Major General Jacob Brown ordered his men to cross the treacherous river in total silence under the cover of a pitch-black midnight fog. The surprise was so absolute that the British commander realized he was completely surrounded before a major battle could even begin, forcing him to surrender the entire fort and its garrison with minimal bloodshed.
Photo Source: Image by Robert Linsdell via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
