Wednesday July 25, 1759. Fort Niagara was already hard pressed before yesterday’s disaster. The British siege trenches have pushed to within 80 yards of the fort’s stone walls. Gun batteries across the river (where Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, now stands) pound the fort from the rear. The British commander Prideaux stepped in front of a mortar on July 20 and had his head taken off, but the attack has never slowed.
Today, when Pouchot, the French commander, receives details of Lignery’s disaster, he negotiates the surrender of Fort Niagara to William Johnson. He and his men become prisoners of war.
Instead of fighting to hold on to Fort Pitt, the British now command Lake Ontario – barely 200 km from Montreal.
