During the assault on Fort George on May 27, 1813, Colonel Winfield Scott led the American landing force up the steep, rain‑soaked riverbank under heavy fire, surviving the violent explosion of a British powder magazine that threw him from his horse. After a sharp fight, Scott hauled down the British flag with his own hands and pressed aggressively after the retreating enemy. An 1858 account by Charles J. Peterson records that Scott even disregarded two successive orders from General Morgan Lewis to halt his advance, insisting that the British rear guard was nearly within his grasp. The victory secured the American foothold at the mouth of the Niagara River and showcased Scott’s fierce independence — a trait that shaped both his early battlefield reputation and the internal command tensions of the War of 1812.