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Journal of The Friends of Fort York & Garrison Common Vol.26, No.2 April 2022
The dawn of the invasion of Toronto by Gary Gibson
eastern end of Lake Ontario. On board were almost 1,800 troops, including artillery, of Brigadier General Zebulon Pike’s brigade. Defending York was a collection of British regulars, York militia and First Nations warriors totalling about 1,000 men under the command of Major General Sir Roger Sheaffe (the successor to Isaac Brock, killed the previous October). The painting shows the five leading warships in Chauncey’s squadron as they approach York shortly after Original map courtesy of Dr. Andrew Stewart dawn on a sunny Tuesday, April 27. All ships have sails set to take advantage of the rising east wind. Leading is the 24-gun corvette Madison flying Chauncey’s broad blue pendant (as it was called then) on the mainmast. It’s likely that he was also flying, as we see in the painting, a signal flag on the mizzen mast: “Regulate your sailing by the Commodore.” Following the flagship are the armed merchant schooners Julia, Pert, Ontario and Hamilton. The remaining seven schooners and the 18-gun brig Oneida are out of view to the right (the other schooners were named Raven, Governor Tompkins, Fair American, Growler, Asp, Scourge and Conquest). All the ships are packed with troops and towing empty flatbottomed boats soon to be used as landing craft. The figures shown on deck are naval officers and crewmen and a variety of army officers. It had been an unpleasant crossing: “Heavy squalls, many of the men sick,” wrote one junior officer in his journal. The enlisted men remained below deck during the entire voyage where it was dark, cold, and damp. Cooking was impossible and there weren’t any toilets. For most this was their first time afloat, and they’d already spent several days onboard waiting to leave
Dr. Gary Gibson of Sackets Harbor, N.Y., is a retired computer scientist and a distinguished historian of the naval war on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. He is a past president of the Sackets Harbor Battlefield Alliance. For an outline of primary and secondary sources on the Battle of York, see page 12. “The most traumatic day …” is from the dust jacket of Robert Malcomson’s comprehensive account of the battle. Peter Rindlisbacher’s 2021 painting is titled “American Squadron Approaches York; April 27, 1813.”
Captain John Walworth’s compact account of the battle was written to his father-in-law two days after the fighting. His wife’s father was an army colonel who would have known some of the casualties mentioned. Courtesy Library & Archives Canada
to do much at any fortified place on the other side – but I am in hopes they will be able to give a good account of a equal number, let them meet them where they will – In a small pocket diary, William Beaumont describes the voyage to York. It is clear that only a few persons in the American force knew their eventual destination: 24th A.M. Put out of harbor with a fair wind, tho mild and pleasant the fleet sailing in fine, affording a very pleasant scene thro the day. 25th, 6 Ock, [o’clock] A.M. Morning most delightful. Wind fresh and increasing, not fair, obliging us to beat. Getting along slowly. 26th, Wind pretty strong in the morning, increasing to a strong blow, so that the swells were high, tossing our vessels smartly about. Several seasick – was myself. At half-past four o’clock passed by the mouth of the Niagara River. This circumstance baffled our imagination where we were going. We were first impressed with the idea of Kingston, then to Niagara, but now our destination must be Little York. At sunset came in view of York Town and the Fort, where we lay all night within three or four leagues. John Walworth describes the fighting on shore the following morning:
the next morning was thirteen killed and one hundred 6th 6th 15th and four wounded in the Infantry the and suffered considerably – Gen Pike was killed by my side 15th 16th Cap Hoppock of the Capt Lyon of the and Lt 15th Bloomfield of the were killed – Capt Muhlenberg – Capt Humphries Capt Sadler Lt Shill and myself were wounded but none severely…. We took four Batteries several pieces of cannon, and an immense quantity of Military Stores of every description &c &c … our men fought with the greatest resolution and no one was found wanting in his duty. Although it is not clear whether he was an actual eyewitness, Doctor Beaumont also gives a lively description of the fighting. After the American landing, he writes, A hot engagement ensued, in which the enemy lost nearly a third of their men and were soon compelled to quit the field, leaving their dead and wounded strewed in every direction. We lost but very few in the engagement. The enemy returned into [the] garrison, but from the loss sustained 1st in the engagement, the undaunted courage of our men, and the brisk firing from our fleet into the Garrison with 12 and 32-pounders, they were soon obliged to evacuate it and retreat with all possible speed. Driven to this alternative, they devised the inhuman project of blowing up their Magazine (containing 300 Bls [barrels], powder), the explosion
except four men – whom I took prisoners – and was in the advance at the time of the explosion of their Magazine – the Gen spoke of my conduct in the highest terms of approbation to his aid several times while advancing, but for fear it will not read well I will not praise myself any more. After the battle at York, Captain John Walworth was part of the attack on Fort George in May but soon transferred to the 33rd recruiting service. He was promoted to major in the Infantry a year later but saw no more service in the field and was honorably discharged in June 1815. He married a second time and he and his wife had two children. Following his military career, Walworth went into business in Plattsburg and later became a court official in New York, where he died in August 1839. Dr. William Beaumont participated in the Niagara campaign of 1813 and the battle of Plattsburgh in 1814. He was discharged after the war and practised as a doctor in Plattsburgh but reentered the army in 1820. He served at the military post on Mackinac Island and was called upon to treat a Canadian voyageur, Alexis St. Martin, who had been severely wounded by an accidental shotgun blast to his abdomen. Beaumont did not expect St. Martin to live, but he did, although his stomach wound did not heal properly, leaving a hole into his stomach through which
Dr. William Beaumont, 1785-1853 Beaumont was an assistant surgeon in the 6th Infantry during the occupation of York and left a grim description of the human cost of the fighting. After the war, he became famous for his enlightening experiments in digestion. Sketch after portraits by Greg Legge © Ensign Heritage Art Collection
Beaumont could observe the process of digestion. Beaumont conducted experiments on St. Martin and wrote a treatise on the subject of digestion, becoming known as the “Father of Gastric Physiology.” Beaumont retired from the army in 1840 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he died in 1853 after suffering from a fall on ice-covered steps. Alexis St. Martin, never expected to live very long, returned to his native Quebec, where he expired at the age of 78 in 1880. Donald E. Graves is the author or editor of more than 20 books in Canadian military history, including definitive accounts of many of the battles of the War of 1812.
Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading he Walworth-Simonds correspondence is found in T Manuscript Group 24 (F16) of Library & Archives of Canada. William Beaumont’s two notebooks were published in St. Louis by Jesse S. Myer as Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont (Mosby 1912), available on the Internet Archive. Greg Legge’s revealing illustrations of Beaumont, the American rifleman, the British grenadier and the York militiaman were commissioned for this article. Robert Malcomson’s book Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 (Robin Brass 2008) is surely the definitive treatment of the subject and is possibly the most broadly and deeply researched book on any aspect of the War of 1812. An insightful summary of the battle is in Carl Benn’s Historic Fort York, 1793-1993, published by Natural Heritage in 1993. The town’s casualties are recalled with archival clarity in York’s Sacrifice: Militia Casualties of the War of 1812, by Janice Nickerson (Dundurn 2012). All of these books are available at the fort’s Canteen as well as in cyberspace at theToronto History Museums online shop. Thomas Jefferson’s laughable matter of marching (on the front page) is from a letter he wrote to his friend and political ally William Duane, a newspaperman, on August 4, 1812. The army officer on the rough passage was Joseph Dwight, who recorded his company’s collective misery on April 27, 1813 – the day we see in Rindlisbacher’s painting. About the subsequent lawlessness (and for the details of some interesting wardrobes) see “Silver, booze and pantaloons: the 12 The Fife and Drum April 2022
Sources & Further Reading
American looting of York in April 1813,” by Fred Blair, in the April 2020 F&D. The American and British official correspondence relating to York in 1813 is in William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812. A Documentary History. vol.3 (Naval Historical Centre 1992) and William C.H. Wood, ed., Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, vol.2 (Champlain Society 1928). There are also plenty of interesting primary sources in Edith Firth, ed., The Town of York, 1793-1815 (Champlain Society 1962) and in the relevant volumes of E.A Cruickshank, ed., The Documentary History of the Campaigns upon the Niagara Frontier 1812-1814 (9 volumes, 1896-1908). Cruickshank, whose output was prodigious and slightly chaotic, is also mostly available on the Internet Archive. The editor of these eyewitness accounts wishes to thank Tom Fournier, Gary Gibson and Ewan Wardle for their kind assistance in its preparation.
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