The Battle of York was a War of 1812 battle fought in York, Upper Canada (today's Toronto, Ontario, Canada) on April 27, 1813. An American force, supported by a naval flotilla, landed on the western lakeshore and captured the provincial capital after defeating an outnumbered force of regulars, militia and Ojibwe natives under the command of Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
After Sheaffe's forces were defeated, he ordered his surviving regulars to withdraw to Kingston, abandoning the militia and civilians. The Americans captured the fort, town, and dockyard. They themselves suffered casualties, including force leader Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and others were killed when the retreating British blew up the fort's magazine. After the Americans carried out several acts of arson and looting, they seized ordnance and supplies from the settlement and subsequently withdrew from the town weeks later.
Although the Americans won a clear victory, the battle did not have decisive strategic results as York was a less important objective in military terms than Kingston, where the British armed vessels on Lake Ontario were based.
Background
York, the capital of Upper Canada, stood on the north shore of Lake Ontario. During the War of 1812, the lake was both the front line between Upper Canada and the United States, and also served as the principal British supply line from Quebec to the various forces 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 Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. This made it possible for Major General Isaac Brock, who led British forces in Upper Canada, to gain several important victories in 1812 by shifting his small force rapidly between threatened points to defeat disjointed American attacks individually.
The United States Navy appointed Commodore Isaac Chauncey to regain control of the lakes. He created a squadron of fighting ships at Sackets Harbor, New York by purchasing and arming several lake schooners and laying down 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 their harbours by ice. To match Chauncey's shipbuilding efforts, the British laid down the Sloops-of-war Wolfe at Kingston and Sir Isaac Brock, at York Naval Shipyards.
Prelude
American planning
On January 13, 1813, John Armstrong Jr. was appointed United States Secretary of War. He quickly assessed the situation on Lake Ontario and devised a plan by which a force of 7,000 regular soldiers 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 most of the vessels of the 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 Hale Sheaffe, who had succeeded Brock as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, 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. Although York was the provincial capital of Upper Canada, it was far less important than Kingston as a military objective. Historians such as John R. Elting have pointed out that this change of plan effectively reversed Armstrong's original strategy, and by committing the bulk of the American forces at the western end of Lake Ontario, it left Sackett's Harbor vulnerable to an attack by British reinforcements arriving from Lower Canada.
Armstrong, by now back in Washington, nevertheless acquiesced in this change of plan as Dearborn might well have better local information. Armstrong also believed that an easy victory at York would provide the government with a significant propaganda coup, as well as bolster support for the Democratic-Republican Party for the gubernatorial election in New York.
The attack was originally planned to commence in early April, although a long winter delayed the attack on York by several weeks, threatening the political value of such an attack. In an attempt to overcome these delays, Democratic-Republicans supporters circulated proclamations of victory prior to the battle to the New York electorate. The American naval squadron first attempted to depart from Sackets Harbor on April 23, 1813, although an incoming storm forced the squadron back to harbour, in order to wait out the storm. The squadron finally departed on the next day.
British preparations
The town of York was not heavily fortified, with insufficient resources preventing the construction of necessary works needed to adequately defend it. As a result, Sheaffe had instructed government officials in early April 1813 to hide legislative papers in the forest and fields behind York, to ensure they would not be seized in the event of an attack.
York's defences included the town's blockhouse situated near the Don River east of the town, the blockhouses at Fort York to the west, and another blockhouse at Gibraltar Point. The settlement was also defended by three batteries at the fort and the nearby "Government House Battery" which mounted two 12-pounder guns. Another crude battery, known as the Western Battery, was located 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) west of the fort, in present-day Exhibition Place. It contained two obsolete 18-pounder guns, which originated from earlier conflicts and had been disabled by having their trunnions removed, but they were fixed to crude log carriages and could still be fired.
Fort York was also defended by a western wall and a small unarmed earthwork between the fort and the Western Battery. About a dozen cannons, including older condemned models, were mounted in these positions, in addition to two 6-pounders on field carriages. Further west were the ruins of Fort Rouillé, and the Half Moon Battery, neither of which was in use.
Sheaffe was at York to conduct public business. He was originally scheduled to leave the settlement for Fort George but had postponed his departure due to suspicions of an American assault on York. His regulars, most of whom were also passing through York en route to other posts, consisted of two companies (including the grenadier company) of the 1st battalion 8th Regiment of Foot, a company of the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles, a company-sized detachment of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles, a small squad from the 49th Regiment of Foot, and thirteen soldiers from the Royal Artillery. There were also 40 or 50 Mississaugas and Ojibwe warriors, and the Canadian militia.
The American naval squadron was spotted by British sentries posted at the Scarborough Bluffs on April 26, who alerted the town and its defenders using flag signals and signal guns. The Militia was ordered to assemble, but only 300 of the 1st and 3rd Regiments of the York Militia, and a company of the Incorporated Militia, could be mustered at short notice. Sheaffe expected the Americans to launch a two-pronged attack, with the main American landing to the west of Fort York, and another landing in Scarborough to cut off a potential retreat to Kingston. To counteract this, Sheaffe concentrated most of his regulars, the Native warriors and a small number of militiamen at Fort York, while most of the militia and the companies of the 8th Regiment of Foot positioned themselves at the town's blockhouse.
Battle
The Americans fleet appeared off of York late on April 26. Chauncey's squadron consisted of a ship-rigged corvette, a brig and twelve schooners. The embarked force commanded by Brigadier General Zebulon Pike numbered between 1,600 and 1,800, mainly from the 6th, 15th, 16th and 21st U.S. Infantry, and the 3rd U.S. Artillery fighting as infantry. Dearborn, the overall army commander, remained aboard the corvette Madison during the action.
Early on April 27, the first American wave of boats, carrying 300 soldiers of Major Benjamin Forsyth's company of the U.S. 1st Rifle Regiment, landed about 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) west of the town, supported by some of Chauncey's schooners firing grapeshot. The American force intended to land at a clear field, west of Fort York, but strong winds pushed their landing craft 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) west of their desired landing site, towards a wooded coastline in today's Humber Bay. Forsyth's riflemen were opposed only by Native warriors, led by James Givins of the British Indian Department, and the grenadier company of the 8th Regiment of Foot, who were dispatched to the area by Sheaffe. Only the Natives initially engaged the American landing. With American cannon fire threatening the roads on the waterfront, the British units dispatched from Fort York had to traverse through the forest behind the waterfront; and were unable to reach the landing site before the Americans started their landings.
Sheaffe had also ordered a company of the Glengarry Light Infantry to support the Natives at the landing, but they became lost in the outskirts of the town, having been misdirected by Major-General Aeneas Shaw, the Adjutant General of the Canadian Militia, who took some of the militia north onto Dundas Street to prevent any wide American flanking maneuver. After it became apparent that no landing would occur east of the settlement, Sheaffe recalled the companies of the 8th Regiment of Foot from the town's blockhouse.
As the landings progressed, the British and Native force was outflanked and began to fall back into the woods. The U.S. 15th Infantry Regiment was the second American unit to land, with bayonets fixed, under a hail of fire, shortly followed by Pike, who assumed personal command of the landing. Sheaffe arrived with the rest of the 8th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles, and a few dozen militiamen after the U.S. 15th Infantry Regiment had landed. The grenadier company of the 8th 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 Sheaffe's force. After Sheaffe failed to get the Fencibles to renew their advance, the British began to withdraw, with the newly arrived Glengarry Light Infantry covering the retreat.
During these landings, the American naval squadron bombarded the four gun batteries defending York. Chauncey's schooners, most of which carried a long 24-pounder or 32-pounder cannon, also bombarded the fort and Government House battery, with Chauncey himself directing them from a small boat. British return fire was ineffective.