Battle of York

Battle of York
Part of the War of 1812
Battle of York by Owen Staples, 1914. The American fleet before the capture of York.
Date April 27, 1813 Location Present day Toronto, Ontario Result American victory
Belligerents
British Empire United Kingdom Upper Canada Ojibway	United States
Commanders and leaders
Roger Hale Sheaffe	Zebulon Pike  † Isaac Chauncey Henry Dearborn
Strength
300 regulars 300 militia 100 Natives	1,700 regulars 14 armed vessels
Casualties and losses
82 killed 43 wounded 69 wounded prisoners 274 captured 7 missing	55 killed 265 wounded

 British Empire

The Battle of York was fought on April 27, 1813, in York (present-day Toronto), the capital of the province of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario), during the Anglo-American War of 1812. An American force supported by a naval flotilla landed on the lake shore to the west and advanced against the town, which was defended by an outnumbered force of regulars, militia and Ojibway natives under the overall command of Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

Sheaffe's forces were defeated and Sheaffe retreated with his surviving regulars to Kingston, abandoning the militia and civilians. The Americans captured the fort, town and dockyard. They themselves suffered heavy casualties, including force leader Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and others killed when the retreating British blew up the fort's magazine. The American forces subsequently carried out several acts of arson and looting in the town before withdrawing.

Though the Americans won a clear victory, it 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.

York, the provincial 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 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 Major General Isaac Brock, leading the British forces in Upper Canada, to gain several important victories during 1812 by shifting his small force rapidly between threatened points to defeat disjointed American attacks individually.

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