Sackets Harbor to the western end of the lake. Under the command of Henry Dearborn, 1,700 American regulars disembarked before dawn at what is today Sunnyside Beach. Although York was the capital of Upper Canada, the garrison there was small, consisting of only about three hundred regulars, four hundred militia and dockworkers, and about fifty to one hundred Natives. The American troops easily drove back the small force that met them, while their warships demolished the batteries on the shore.
British general Roger Hale Sheaffe, who had become commander of forces and administrator of Upper Canada after Brock’s death, advised the militia officers to surrender the town, to burn the naval storehouses, and to blow up the stone magazine in the small fort where the ammunition was stored, to keep it out of the enemy’s hands. The explosion was so huge that it was heard as far away as Niagara. Tons of falling debris from the blast damaged property, and thirty-eight American soldiers were killed, another 222 wounded. Among the dead was American brigadier general Zebulon Pike, Dearborn’s commander on shore.
Dearborn came ashore himself then to assume command, and the surrender was negotiated. Sheaffe and the British regulars abandoned the garrison at York, the militia was allowed to return home, and private property was ordered to be left untouched. But during their six-day occupation the Americans burned Government House — the residence of the lieutenant-governor — the parliament buildings, and other public buildings. When some of their shops and private homes were also robbed, the citizens of York felt they had been abandoned by the British.
In the invasion, the British lost their naval and military stores at York as well as a ship that had been under construction there. When the American fleet sailed away, it took with it one of the British vessels.
Now that York had been captured, the Americans set their sights on the Niagara frontier. The plan was that if attacks along the Niagara River turned out to be successful, the Americans would move on to Kingston.
The warmer weather had arrived, and James and Laura Secord and their five children left St. Davids and returned to their home in Queenston. It was time to prepare the ground for planting. Spring always brought new life, and the Secords were hopeful of a brighter future. But the war was not yet over, and in May it returned to the Niagara Peninsula.
On May 25, 1813, the American fleet under Commander Chauncey began a cannon bombardment of Fort George, setting its log buildings on fire. Because of the heavy shelling, Brigadier General John Vincent and his staff of regulars and militia were unable to stop the American troops under Colonel Winfield Scott, Dearborn’s chief-of-staff, from landing two days later on the Canadian side.
After spiking the guns and destroying any ammunition they couldn’t carry with them, Vincent hastily evacuated the fort, leaving behind the women and children who lived there. The British, outnumbered four to one, suffered heavy casualties: fifty dead and three hundred wounded or missing.
Vincent retreated with his troops along the Niagara River to Queenston, where he cut north, marching his men to a British supply depot in a farmhouse belonging to John De Cew (also De Cou) near Beaver Dams. The large, stone house had been built before the war by De Cew, and he’d offered it to the British army as a depot for supplies and ammunition. It occupied a commanding position, high on the escarpment.
The next day, Vincent sent the militia home and took the regulars to Burlington Heights (Hamilton) at the head of Lake Ontario, where there was an earthen fort. He ordered all the troops from the Niagara frontier to join him there — the troops escaping from Fort Erie, as well as those from Amherstburg on the western frontier. Burlington Heights gave the British a harbour-front location high above the lake and close by land routes to both York and Amherstburg.
Although the Americans were now in control of the whole of the Niagara Peninsula, they had not accomplished everything they had set out to do. They had planned to completely destroy Vincent’s army, which would have left Upper Canada west of Kingston entirely in their hands.
While Chauncey’s fleet had been busy softening up the defences at Fort George for the American attack, British commander Yeo had tried unsuccessfully to capture Sackets Harbor. When that failed, he sailed toward Burlington with troops and supplies for Vincent’s army that had arrived there following the evacuation of Fort George.
In July 1813, Chauncey, in his new ship, the General Pike, with its twenty-six guns, would again head for York, where for the second time the American troops would occupy the town, seizing supplies and burning storehouses, although this time the damage would be less severe.
During the final weeks of navigation in 1813, Chauncey’s fleet would control Lake Ontario. Regardless, small boats carrying British troops and Canadian militia between York and Kingston would still manage to get through unscathed. And in Kingston Harbour, the shipbuilders would continue to reinforce Yeo’s fleet.
After Vincent had evacuated Fort George and retreated to Burlington Heights, the settlers in the Niagara region feared that the British were about to abandon them, believing that they were preparing to retreat to Kingston, leaving the western part of the province to the Americans. The Americans had taken Fort Erie, and when General Dearborn ordered a corps of American soldiers to pursue the British to Burlington Heights, they began to advance up the peninsula.
On June 5, a force of 3,400 American infantry made camp for the night in a field at Stoney Creek, where they would wait for the American cavalry to catch up before the attack on Burlington. They felt quite safe. They had the Niagara Escarpment on one side and a swamp on another. Their sentries were posted at the only place the encampment might be vulnerable.
They hadn’t counted on a local boy named Billy Green, who’d been keeping an eye on the American troop movements, and who had told the British at Burlington Heights the location of the enemy camp.
Sometime after midnight on June 6, while the Americans slept, a force of 704 British soldiers led by commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey advanced on the sentries who were guarding the encampment. Harvey had ordered his men not to use their muskets for fear of arousing the enemy; the element of surprise was crucial.
After silently bayoneting the American sentries, however, the British troops rushed the camp, cheering and waking up the Americans, who started shooting. What resulted was total confusion. In the dark, men fired on their own troops, and General Vincent, who’d been persuaded by Harvey to try the nighttime attack, got himself lost in the woods, not to be found until the next day by his men.
Before dawn, the fighting ended, but each side thought the other had won, and everyone left the scene. The Americans retreated as far as Forty Mile Creek (Grimsby), and the British went back to Burlington Heights, taking with them one hundred prisoners.
At Forty Mile Creek the Americans thought they would be safe, but on June 7 the British fleet suddenly appeared on the horizon. Farther inland, the dismissed Canadian militia and the Natives were beginning to assemble. The American general, Henry Dearborn, ordered all the American troops to retreat to Fort George. His forces subsequently pulled out of Chippawa, and before leaving Fort Erie, set fire to it.
The Americans retreated from Forty Mile Creek so quickly that they left behind hundreds of tents, wagonloads of camping supplies, baggage, and barrels of flour. The British army picked up these supplies as they advanced. The people of Niagara would later delight in telling how it had taken the Americans four days to reach Stoney Creek, and less than one to run back.
Vincent moved all his troops from Burlington Heights, and within a few days he had detachments at Twenty Mile Creek (Jordan), Twelve Mile Creek (St. Catharines), De Cew’s farmhouse near Beaver Dams, and an advanced post near Ten Mile Creek. Reinforcements of British regulars arrived, and Vincent was able to send some on to Proctor at Amherstburg.
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