Engagements On Lake Ontario - Operations in 1813

Operations in 1813

Chauncey had the advantage in ships and men once the ice melted. He and General Henry Dearborn, the commander in chief of the American armies in the north, had the opportunity to strike a blow before British seamen and officers could reach Canada and travel up the St. Lawrence. An attack on Kingston would have been decisive, but Chauncey and Dearborn persuaded themselves that it was defended by 5,000 British regulars (there were in fact only 600). They instead attacked York, the provincial capital. On 27 April at the Battle of York, they defeated the outnumbered defenders under Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe and looted the town. They captured the brig Duke of Gloucester and also several cannon which were destined for the British squadron on Lake Erie, (which contributed to the later American victory at the Battle of Lake Erie). The British themselves set fire to the part-completed corvette Isaac Brock to prevent it falling into American hands.

Chauncey and Dearborn then defeated the British army on the Niagara River at the Battle of Fort George on 27 May. At both York and Fort George, Chauncey's schooners and gunboats (commanded at the latter engagement by Oliver Hazard Perry) had proved very effective in supporting troops landing from boats, by suppressing British batteries and inflicting heavy casualties on British troops who attempted to prevent the Americans landing.

The American commanders had left themselves vulnerable to a potentially decisive counter-attack. While they were preoccupied at the western end of Lake Ontario, Commodore Yeo had arrived in Kingston, accompanied by 465 officers and seamen of the Royal Navy, to take charge of the British squadron. Embarking troops under Prevost, who happened to be in Kingston on public and Army business, he almost immediately attacked the American base at the Battle of Sacket's Harbor on 29 May. Although this was a strategically bold stroke, both Yeo and Prevost attacked cautiously and called off the attack when they met with stiff resistance. The Americans had prematurely set fire to the captured Duke of Gloucester and a heavy sloop of war under construction, the General Pike, but managed to put out the fire when the British withdrew. The Gloucester and large quantities of stores were destroyed, but the Pike was saved.

Chauncey hastened back to Sacket's Harbor, and remained in harbour awaiting the completion of the Pike. While the Americans declined to contest the lake, Yeo's squadron assisted in driving the American army on the Niagara peninsula back into Fort George, and captured or destroyed large quantities of stores. On 1 July, Yeo attempted to destroy the Pike while it was fitting out by mounting a raid on Sacket's Harbor in small boats, but called off the attack when he feared that deserters would have alerted the Americans.

Chauncey's full squadron put out on 21 July. They first contemplated an assault on the British defensive positions at Burlington Heights at the western end of the lake, but found the defenders too well-prepared to risk the operation, and instead they briefly captured York again, this time causing little loss, and even returned some property looted in the earlier attack.