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Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813

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Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813, by Robert Malcomson, details the story of the American victory, through the use of a combined navy-army operation, which saw the capture (and partial destruction) of York (now Toronto). Serious students of the War of 1812 and of Zebulon Montgomery Pike likely will find this to be the definitive work on this fascinating military action. The battle cost General Pike his life, but it also gave him earthly immortality through the eventual naming of Pike's Peak. This book, unlike many, gives the contest a respectibility which will please honest citizens on both sides of the sometimes-argumentative Canadian-U.S. border. More importantly, for Americans, while many Canadian historians, from the mid-Nineteenth Century to the present, have tended to accept every outrageous claim leveled against the invading Americans, this serious study does much better than that. This book is truly scholarly and investigative and may be the first publication about the battle by a Canadian historian, since the booklet by Col. C. P. Stacey in 1963, which truly is even-handed. In being fair-minded, Malcomson dissects many of the battle's legends which are not even supported by primary British and Canadian sources. And, when it comes to the reseach, the bibliography, and the explanatory endnotes, Malcomson scores up around the 95 percentile mark. Numerous and various characters in the drama, from Gen. Pike, to Gen. Sheaffe, to Rev. Strachan, get fair and complete treatment. Malcomson even further identifies the long-elusive eyewitness of the contest, P. Finan. In addition, there are excellent illustrations and important appendices. Finally, pleasing to this Yankee Baby Boomer and amateur historian, Canadian Boomer Malcomson uses English miles in his discussion (but also converts them to metric distances in the notes). In summation, this volume is highly recommended for both Canadian and American readers who enjoy searches for historical truth.

As an American, I know surprisingly little about the War of 1812. It could be summed up into Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans; the British burning of Washington D.C; and Francis Scott Key writing the National Anthem. Thank goodness for renowned experts like Robert Malcomson whose excellent book "Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813" will educate a new generation.

Malcomson begins by giving an administrative overview of Upper and Lower Canada in the early 1800s, and an introduction to the military personalities that would later influence the events of the battle of York (Toronto). The ambitions of Governor Sir George Prevost to build York into the British prime naval base on the Great Lakes, clouded his ability to see that the town was poorly sited for defense against American attack. The die had been cast for this frontier town.

Going back to my ignorance of the War of 1812, I almost missed the explanation for how the war came to be. For a war that came about over trade embargoes and Americans being pressed into service on British ships, Malcomson coverage of the international relations among England, France, and the United States in the early 1800s was adequate for the purposes of the book.

A battle is merely a point in time in an overall campaign. Malcomson provides a detailed look into the campaign season of 1812, and further delves into the strategy of America for the opening of the 1813 campaign season. With the thawing of the lakes in April 1813, Maj Gen Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey set out for the first ever combined Navy / Army amphibious operation in American history. Malcomson supports the description of the battle with multiple charts showing the position of forces as the battle unfolded.

Readers learn the tragic demise of Brig Gen Zebulon "Montgomery" Pike as he led his troops in the assault on the Grand Magazine in York. Malcomson presents a balanced view of the battle, offering personal accounts of the British soldiers, Canadian militia, and the American military forces who participated in the battle. These well-footnoted accounts are drawn from sources such as personal letters, memoirs, newspapers, and regimental histories.

Contrasting the hero Brig Gen Pike, Malcomson documents the story of the battle's scapegoat, Maj Gen Roger Sheaffe, commander of the British troops during the battle. Sheaffe certainly could have taken additional offensive action, but the poor siting of the town defenses all but assured the final outcome of the battle. In addition to the shame of losing the battle, Sheaffe forgot or did not permit his forces to gather overcoats and backpacks prior to the 150 mile retreat to Kingston.

As battle narratives go, "Capital in Flames" is an exceptionally well-written book. It puts the battle into both the overall international context, as well as establishes its relevance in the overall campaign. This was the first of Malcomson's books that I have read. I will certainly seek out more of them.

This is truly an excellent book, and the one review with a single star rating obviously meant to give the book a five star rating. The book covers the American attack on Toronto, known as York at the time, in the War of 1812, but it is much more than that. Author Malcomson gives a very complete background of the conflict on the US/Canadian border, indeed from the Canadian side -- a factor that made the book even more interesting to me. It's scholarly coverage is evidenced by the fact that of the book's 489 pages, 158 are appendices, notes, etc.

As usual in this war, there was much blumdering and bravery on both sides. Each made extensive use of poorly trained militia, and the results were sometimes farcial. The Americans executed their first ever amphibious operation and it was successful. A well-known military leader was lost, General Zebulon Pike, the man who gave his name to Pike's Peak in Colorado. The Canadians fought fiercely, if unevenly, and ultimately their capital of Upper Canada was burned by the Americans, although the expedition turned out to have little effect on the outcome of the war. On the other hand, the events were extremely important to the residents of York and environs.

The writing is crisp and even exciting. Somehow the narrative does not flag in the details, and I found myself hoping that the York citizens would somehow pull a rabbit out of the hat and repel the invaders. However, the American naval strength was too great, and the British attention was focused on other theaters. Commodore Chauncey was extremely active in building up American naval power on Lake Ontario, and both General Dearborn on the American side and General Prevost on the British were guilty of blunders and ineptitude. I guess it really is true, the side that blunders least usually wins.

The author also focused on the President of Upper Canada, Sir Roger Scheaffe, a name probably unknown to the vast majority of Americans. He was alternately active and slow, inept yet concerned. He was unable to put a proper defense together, and the loss of York was the result. Of course, President Madison was forced to fly from Washington, DC, when the British attacked, and that was the nation's capital.

At any rate, I really recommend this book. It is a delightful read, and the reader will learn a great deal about the War of 1812 on the northern border as a result. One should even learn that Canadians did not want to become part of the US and fought hard against us as a result. I was struck with the similarities between the antagonists, pretty much as they all came from the same original stock, and in some ways it seemed rather like the American Civil War. Mostly the people in the interior were left to their own devices, and everything was more or less improvised on both sides. Oh well, Canada had to wait until Elizabeth II for their independence. Personally, I think they deserved better.

This is a great book.

CAPITAL IN FLAMES: THE AMERICAN ATTACK ON YORK, 1813
ROBERT MALCOMSON
NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS, 2008
HARDCOVER, $42.95, 512 PAGES, MAPS, PHOTOGRAPHS, APPENDICES, GLOSSARY, DRAWINGS


The raid on York grew out of confused strategic planning by U.S. planners in the early months of 1813. Secretary of War John Armstrong, who took over from the hapless William Eustis in January, understood the capture of Quebec or Montreal would be decisive to the U.S. war effort. Both cities were too well defended to be seriusly threatened by U.S. forces then within striking distance, however. Instead, Armstrong proposed directing the next offensive at Kingston and following up with attacks upon York, Fort George, and Fort Erie. With President James Madison's approval, Armstrong sent the necessary orders to Major General Henry Dearborn, commander of the Northern Army.

Dearborn traveled to Sacket's Harbor, the jumping-off point of the invasion. There he received alarming reports that Sir George Prevost, governor in chief of British North America, was at Kingston at the head of thousands of British troops, who were preparing to attack Sacket's Harbor across the ice. When the attack failed to materialize, the cautious Dearborn nonetheless told Armstrong that Kingston was too strongly defended and therefore the plan given to him by the secretary of war wasn't feasible. Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey, naval commander of the Great Lakes, devised instead a joint operation to raid York and to destroy the two ships being built there. This would give Chauncey the lead in the ongoing shipbuilding war on Lake Ontario. Then Chauncey would carry Dearborn's army to the western end of Lake Ontario, where it would attack and seize Fort George.

York, the capital of Upper Canada, was defended by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, victor at Queenston and Brock's successor as president-administrator of the province. Sheaffe commanded about 800 defenders, the usual mix of regulars, militia, and native warriors. Expecting a two-pronged attack that would cut off escape of his troops eastward to Kingston, Sheaffe positioned his regulars, augmented by militia and Indians, behind earthworks on both the eastern and western edges of the city. The bulk of the militia, he positioned in the city proper, from where it might respond to threats from either direction. At dawn on 27 April, Chauncey's fleet began landing 1,700 soldiers west of the city under the command of Brigadier General Zebulon Pike. Pike's men pushed the outnumbered defenders back toward York, assisted by heavy gunfire from Chauncey's fleet. Seeing the British regulars pulling back, many of the York militia lost heart and withdrew from the battle. Sheaffe, who had demonstrated inspirational leadership during the fighting, ordered the main magazine blown rather than allow the gunpowder to fall into enemy hands. The resulting explosion killed or wounded over 200 Americans. Pike, who was questioning a captured sergeant, was struck on the back by a falling rock. Evacuated to a ship, Pike lived long enough to receive the British flag from his victorious troops.

Officers of the Canadian militia negotiated the surrender of the city while Sheafe hurried his remaining regulars toward Kingston. Infuriated by the loss of so many of their comrades in the explosion , bands of U.S. soldiers destroyed public buildings and property and vandalized private homes. Dearborn, crippled by the loss of Pike, couldn't impose control over his ill-disciplined troops. The unrestrained troops were aided in these violations of the customs of war by a sizable number of pro-U.S. citizens of York, who took the opportunity to strike back at the city's loyalists for the harassment suffered since the start of the war. Many tendered their parole to Dearborne's officers. By the rules of war, British authorities couldn't require of parolees their service in the militia nor call them up for public work connected with the war effort.

The Americans remained until May 8. They captured one ship; the other had been destroyed by the British. Chauncey carried off naval stores intended for Captain Robert Barclay's Lake Erie squadron, thus assisting Oliver Hazard Perry's victory later that year. Prodded on by the same militia leaders of York who couldn't get their men to fight, Prevost replaced Sheaffe for his unsuccessful defense of that city. Major General Francis de Rottenburg succeeded Sheaffe as commander of British forces in Upper Canada. Dearborn and Chauncey returned to Sacket's Harbor, where the fleet was replenished and the army reinforced for the next phase of the campaign, the attack on Fort George. Long after the war, York was renamed Toronto and continued on as the capital of the province of Ontario.

CAPITAL IN FLAMES: THE AMERICAN ATTACK ON YORK, 1813 is a brilliant and highly readable account of military history that is written with a strong emphasis on detail. The author clearly avoids the national bias by placing the American attack on York in proper perspective while at the same time keeping it within the larger contours of American and Canadian history. With the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 less than a year away, this book belongs on the shelf of anyone wanting a better understanding of this often overlooked and under studied war.



Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

I just finished this book yesterday. It is excellent, even handed, and well researched. The author's insight's into Zebulon Montgomery Pike's character and military abilities were particularly interesting. Highly recommended!