Battle of York

43°39′09″N 79°22′54″W / 43.65250°N 79.38167°W / 43.65250; -79.38167

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 York, Upper Canada (present day Toronto, Ontario) Result United States victory[1]
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Upper Canada Ojibwe	United States
Commanders and leaders
Roger Hale Sheaffe James Givins John Robinson  Aeneas Shaw	Zebulon Pike † Isaac Chauncey Henry Dearborn
Strength
300 regulars 300 militia 40–50 Natives	1,700 regulars[2] 14 armed vessels
Casualties and losses
82 killed 112 wounded (including 69 wounded prisoners) 274 captured 7 missing[3]	55 killed 265 wounded[1]

The Battle of York was a War of 1812 battle fought in York, Upper Canada (today's Toronto, Ontario, Canada) on April 27, 1813. An American force, supported by a naval flotilla, landed on the western lakeshore and captured the provincial capital after defeating an outnumbered force of regulars, militia and Ojibwe natives under the command of Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

After Sheaffe's forces were defeated, he ordered his surviving regulars to withdraw to Kingston, abandoning the militia and civilians. The Americans captured the fort, town, and dockyard. They themselves suffered casualties, including force leader Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and others killed when the retreating British blew up the fort's magazine.^[4] After the Americans carried out several acts of arson and looting, they seized ordnance and supplies from the settlement and subsequently withdrew from the town weeks later.

Although the Americans won a clear victory, the battle 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.