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Battle of York
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The Battle of York was a battle of the War of 1812 fought on April 27, 1813, at York, Upper Canada, which was later to be renamed Toronto. An American force supported by a naval flotilla landed on the lake shore to the west, defeated the defending British force and captured the town and dockyard. The success of the operation was marred by acts of arson and looting carried out by the American force.
ng the War of 1812, Lake Ontario was both the front line between the British and American forces, and also part of the principal British supply line from Quebec to the various armies and outposts to the west.
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Encyclopedia
The Battle of York was a battle of the War of 1812 fought on April 27, 1813, at York, Upper Canada, which was later to be renamed Toronto. An American force supported by a naval flotilla landed on the lake shore to the west, defeated the defending British force and captured the town and dockyard. The success of the operation was marred by acts of arson and looting carried out by the American force.
Background
During the War of 1812, Lake Ontario was both the front line between the British and American forces, and also part of the principal British supply line from Quebec to the various armies and outposts to the west. At the start of the war, the British had a small naval force, the Provincial Marine, with which they seized control of the lake, and also of Lake Erie. This made it possible for British forces under Major General Isaac Brock to gain several important victories during 1812, by shifting his small force rapidly between threatened points to defeat disjointed American attacks individually.
The Americans appointed Commodore Isaac Chauncey to regain control of the lakes. He created a squadron of fighting ships at Sackett's Harbor, New York by purchasing and arming several lake schooners and laying down new purpose-built fighting vessels. However, no decisive action was possible before the onset of winter, during which the ships of both sides were confined to harbour by ice.
American planning
To gain control of Lake Ontario in 1813, the Americans would either have to defeat the ships of the Provincial Marine in a naval battle, or capture their bases and dockyards and destroy them in port. It was known that, while the British had started constructing a sloop of war at Kingston and another at York to match Chauncey's squadron, the Provincial Marine lacked experienced officers and crews, and would be unlikely to risk battle with Chauncey until they were reinforced. Thus, the Americans would have to attack one or both of these ports.
On January 13, 1813, John Armstrong, Jr. was appointed United States Secretary of War. Himself a former serving soldier, he quickly appreciated the situation, and devised a plan by which a force of 7,000 (out of roughly 19,000 in the United States regular army) would be concentrated at Sackett's Harbor on April 1. Working together with Chauncey's squadron, this force would capture Kingston before the Saint Lawrence River thawed and substantial British reinforcements could arrive in Upper Canada. The capture of Kingston and the destruction of the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard together with much of Provincial Marine, would make almost every British post west of Kingston vulnerable if not untenable. After Kingston was captured, the Americans would then capture the British positions at York and Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara River.
Armstrong conferred with Major General Henry Dearborn, commander of the American Army of the North, at Albany, New York during February. Both Dearborn and Chauncey agreed with Armstrong's plan at this point, but they subsequently had second thoughts. That month, Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the British Governor General of Canada, travelled up the frozen Saint Lawrence to visit Upper Canada. This visit was made necessary because Major General Roger Sheaffe, who had succeeded Brock as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada after Brock was killed at the Battle of Queenston Heights, was ill and unable to perform his various duties. Prevost was accompanied only by a few small detachments of reinforcements, which participated in the Battle of Ogdensburg en route. Nevertheless, both Chauncey and Dearborn believed that Prevost's arrival indicated an imminent attack on Sackett's Harbor, and reported that Kingston now had a garrison of 6,000 or more British regulars.
Even though Prevost soon returned to Lower Canada, and deserters and pro-American Canadian civilians reported that the true size of Kingston's garrison was 600 regulars and 1,400 militia, Chauncey and Dearborn chose to accept the earlier inflated figure. Furthermore, even after two brigades of troops under Brigadier General Zebulon Pike reinforced the troops at Sackett's Harbor after a gruelling winter march from Plattsburgh, the number of effective troops available to Dearborn fell far short of the 7,000 planned, mainly as a result of sickness and exposure. During March, Chauncey and Dearborn recommended to Armstrong that when the ice on the lake thawed, they should attack the less well-defended town of York instead of Kingston. After York, they would then attack Fort George.
Although York was the Provincial capital of Upper Canada, it was far less important as a military objective. Armstrong, by now back in Washington, nevertheless acquiesced in this change of plan as Dearborn might well have better local information. Historians such as John R. Elting have pointed out that this effectively reversed Armstrong's original strategy; and, by committing the bulk of the American forces at the western end of Lake Ontario, would leave Sackett's Harbor vulnerable to British reinforcements arriving from Lower Canada.
Battle
The Americans appeared off York late on April 26. Chauncey's squadron consisted of a ship-rigged corvette and a brig, together with twelve schooners. The embarked force under Dearborn and Brigadier General Zebulon Pike numbered between 1,600 and 1,800 (mainly from the 6th, 15th and 16th U.S. Infantry, and the 3rd U.S. Artillery fighting as infantry).
York's defences consisted of a fort a short distance west of the town, with the nearby "Government House Battery" mounting two 12-pounder guns. A mile west was the crude "Western Battery", with two obsolete 18-pounders. Further west were the ruins of Fort Rouillé and another disused fortification, the "Half Moon Battery", neither of which was in use. Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, was present at York to transact public business. He had under his command only four companies of regulars. The Militia was ordered to assemble, but only 300 of the 1st and 3rd York Regiments could be mustered at short notice. There were also about 40 to 50 Indians (Mississaugas and Ojibwa) in the area.
Early on April 27, the first American wave of boats, with Major Benjamin Forsyth and a company of the U.S. 1st Rifle Regiment, landed about west of the town, supported by some of Chauncey's schooners firing grapeshot. Because Sheaffe could not know where the Americans would land, Forsyth's riflemen were opposed only by some of the Indians led by Indian Agent James Givins, who were outflanked and retreated into the woods after a stiff resistance. Sheaffe had ordered a company of the Glengarry Light Infantry to support the Natives, but they became lost in the outskirts of the town.
As three more companies of American infantry landed accompanied by General Pike, the Grenadier company of the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot charged them with the bayonet. The Grenadiers were already outnumbered and were repulsed with heavy loss. Pike ordered an advance by platoons, supported by two 6-pounder field guns, which steadily drove back the other two companies of Sheaffe's redcoats (another company of the 8th regiment, and one from the Royal Newfoundland).
The British tried to rally around the Western battery, but the battery's travelling magazine (a portable chest containing cartridges) exploded, apparently as the result of an accident. This caused further loss and confusion among the British, and they fell back to a ravine north of the fort, where the militia were forming up. Meanwhile, Chauncey's schooners, most of which carried a long 24-pounder or 32-pounder cannon, were bombarding the fort and Government House battery. British return fire was ineffective.
Sheaffe decided that the battle was lost and ordered the regulars to retreat, setting fire to the wooden bridge over the River Don east of the town to thwart pursuit. The militia and several prominent citizens were left "standing in the street like a parcel of sheep". Sheaffe instructed the militia to make the best terms they could with the Americans, but unknown to the senior militia officers or any official of the legislature, he also despatched officers to set fire to a warship under construction in the dockyard (HMS Isaac Brock) and to blow up the fort's magazine.
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