Gaines Takes Command at Fort Erie, HMS Magnet Blown Up to Prevent Capture

AUGUST 5, 1814:  U.S. Brigadier General Edmund P. Gaines takes command from the wounded Major General Jacob Brown at Fort Erie, Upper Canada, then under British siege after the Battle of Lundy's Lane..

On Lake Ontario, Lt. George Hawksworth drives the HMS Magnet ashore and blows it up to avoid captured by Commodore Isaac Chauncey's American squadron.  The U.S. had superiority on the lake at the time.

--Brock-Perry