On the 10th day of December 1813—a bleak day that was not soon forgotten by the Loyalist residents of the prosperous village of Fort George, in close proximity to the fort of that name—the residents of that village were rudely informed at four o’clock in the morning by the American soldiers occupying the fort that their solidly built homes, their sole protection from the harsh winter that was shortly to try their stamina, were to be thoroughly razed to the ground a scant two hours later. Many of the residents, fearing the devastating loss of their worldly possessions—either irreplaceable, or replaceable with great difficulty since many of these cherished items could only be imported from England at great cost—moved their belongings out of their doomed houses in preparation for the threatened conflagration. The soldiers failed to appear when promised, leading many to return their goods to their homes—the magnitude of that error becoming apparent 0nly when sundown arrived and the soldiers with it.