Battle of York

Infobox Military Conflict


caption= "The Death of General Pike at the Battle of York" . American engraving, 1839.
conflict=Battle of York
partof=the War of 1812
date=April 27, 1813
place=Present day Toronto, Ontario
result=American victory
combatant1=flagicon|UK British Empire
combatant2=
commander1=flagicon|UK Roger Sheaffe
combatant1=flagicon|UK United Kingdom
combatant2=
commander2=
strength1=300 regulars
300 militia
100 Indians
strength2=1,500 [Borneman p.103]
casualties1=62 killed
94 woundedElting, p. 118]
300 captured [Borneman p.104]
casualties2=70 killed
220 wounded [Roosevelt, p.188]

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 become Toronto, Ontario. 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. This made it possible for British forces under Major General Isaac Brock to gain several important victories during 1812.

To regain control of the lake, the Americans sent Commodore Isaac Chauncey to construct a squadron of fighting ships at Sackett's Harbor, New York, although no decisive action was possible before the onset of winter.

American planning

To gain control of the lake 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 sloops of war at Kingston and York to match Chauncey's squadron, the Provincial Marine lacked experienced officers and crews, and would be unlikely to risk battle with Chauncey. 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. [Hitsman, p.136] 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 had 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 St. 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, was ill and unable to perform his various duties, and Prevost was accompanied only by a few small detachments of reinforcements. Nevertheless, both Chauncey and Dearborn believed that this 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,Charles W. Humphries, "The Capture of York", in Zaslow, p.254] Chauncey and Dearborn chose to accept the inflated figure. Furthermore, even after two brigades of troops under Brigadier General Zebulon Pike reinforced Sackett's Harbor after a gruelling winter march from Plattsburg, 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, not Kingston but the less well-defended town of York instead. This was the Provincial capital of Upper Canada, but it was far less important as a military objective. After York, they would then attack Fort George.

Armstrong, by now back in Washington, acquiesced as Dearborn might well have better local information. [Elting, p.94] 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 Mississauga and Chippawa Indians in the area.Hitsman, p.138]

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 four miles (6 km) 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, now supported by two 6-pounder field guns, which steadily drove back the other two companies of redcoats (another company of the 8th, and one of 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. [Hitsman, p.332, fn] 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, leaving the militia and several prominent citizens "standing in the street like a parcel of sheep".John Beikie, Sherriff of York, quoted in Charles W. Humphries, "The Capture of York", in Zaslow, p.258] He 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 ordered a warship under construction in the dockyard ("HMS Isaac Brock") to be set on fire and the fort's magazine to be blown up.Hitsman, p.140]

When the magazine exploded, Pike and the leading American troops were only two hundred yards away, or even less. The flag had been left flying over the fort as a ruse, and Pike was questioning a prisoner as to how many troops were defending it. Pike was mortally injured by flying stones and debris. The explosion caused over 100 casualties on both sides.

urrender

The militia tried to arrange a capitulation, but the process took time. The negotiators had to ply back and forth between the shore and the corvette "USS Madison", which Dearborn refused to leave. When he eventually did so, Reverend John Strachan (who held no official position at the time) first brusquely tried to force him to sign the articles for capitulation on the spot; and then accused Chauncey to his face of delaying the capitulation to allow the American troops licence to commit outrages.Charles W. Humphries, "The Capture of York", in Zaslow, p.261] For their part, the Americans were angry over their losses, and because the ship and fort had apparently been destroyed after negotiations for surrender had begun.

Eventually, the articles for surrender were signed early on April 28. The Americans took over the dockyard, where they captured a brig in poor state of repair (the "Duke of Gloucester") and twenty 24-pounder carronades and other stores intended for the British squadron on Lake Erie. The "Brock" was beyond salvage. By chance, another ship-rigged vessel, the "Prince Regent", which carried 16 guns, had sailed for Kingston two days before the Americans had been sighted. [Forester, p.124]

Forsyth's company of the 1st U.S. Rifle Regiment was left as guard in the town, but between April 28, and April 30, American troops carried out many acts of plunder. Some of them set fire to the Parliament buildings. (It was alleged that they had found a scalp there [Charles W. Humphries, "The Capture of York", in Zaslow, p.264] though folklore had it that the "scalp" was actually the Speaker's wig.) Other Americans looted empty houses on the pretext that their absent owners were militia who had not given their parole as required by the articles of capitulation. Dearborn emphatically denied giving orders for any buildings to be destroyed and deplored the worst of the atrocities in his letters, but he was nonetheless unable or unwilling to rein in his soldiers. Chauncey later returned some looted property, including books from the public library.

Aftermath

The Americans sent the captured stores away on May 2 but were then penned in York harbour by a gale. They left York on May 8, in miserable weather, and required a period of rest at Fort Niagara on the Niagara peninsula before they could be ready for another action. Sheaffe's troops endured an equally miserable fourteen-day retreat overland to Kingston. Following complaints about his conduct by the Provincial Assembly, Sheaffe lost his military and public offices in Upper Canada as the result of his defeat.

The most significant effects of the capture of York were probably felt on Lake Erie, since the capture of the ordnance and supplies destined for the British squadron there contributed eventually to their defeat in the Battle of Lake Erie.

The many acts of arson and looting committed by American troops at York later became a justification for the later Burning of Washington by British troops. However the British commanders at Washington said the goal was to attack Washington instead of Baltimore "on account of the greater political effect likely to result," and did not mention York. [Roger Morriss, "Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772-1853" (University of Exeter Press, 1997), P. 104. ]

Notes

References

*cite book|author=Walter R. Borneman|Borneman, Walter R.|title=1812| location=New York | publisher=Harper Perennial|year=2004
*cite book|last=Elting|first=John R|title=Amateurs to Arms: A Military History of the War of 1812|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=New York|year=1995|isbn=ISBN 0-306-80653-3
*cite book|last=Forester|first=C. S.|authorid=C. S. Forester|title=The Age of Fighting Sail|publisher=New English Library|isbn=0-939218-06-2
*cite book|last=Hitsman|first=J. Mackay|title=The Incredible War of 1812|publisher=Robin Brass Studio|location=Toronto|year=1995|isbn=1-896941-13-3
*cite book|last=Latimer|first=Jon|title=1812: War with America|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2007|isbn=0-67402-584-9
*cite book|last=Zaslow|first=Morris|title=The Defended Border|publisher=Macmillan of Canada|city=Toronto|year=1964|isbn=0-7705-1242-9