They themselves suffered casualties, including force leader Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and others killed when the retreating British blew up the fort's magazine.

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.

[10] To match Chauncey's shipbuilding efforts, the British laid down the Sloops-of-war Wolfe at Kingston and Sir Isaac Brock, at York Naval Shipyards.

Working together with Chauncey's squadron, this force would capture Kingston before the Saint Lawrence River thawed and substantial British reinforcements could arrive in Upper Canada.

This visit was made necessary because Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, who had succeeded Brock as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, was ill and unable to perform his various duties.

Even though Prévost soon returned to Lower Canada, and deserters and pro-American Canadian civilians reported that the true size of Kingston's garrison was 600 regulars and 1,400 militia,[13] Chauncey and Dearborn chose to accept the earlier inflated figure.

Historians such as John R. Elting have pointed out that this change of plan effectively reversed Armstrong's original strategy, and by committing the bulk of the American forces at the western end of Lake Ontario, it left Sackett's Harbor vulnerable to an attack by British reinforcements arriving from Lower Canada.

[15] As a result, Sheaffe had instructed government officials in early April 1813 to hide legislative papers in the forest and fields behind York, to ensure they would not be seized in the event of an attack.

To counteract this, Sheaffe concentrated most of his regulars, the Native warriors and a small number of militiamen at Fort York, while most of the militia and the companies of the 8th Regiment of Foot positioned themselves at the town's blockhouse.

Early on April 27, the first American wave of boats, carrying 300 soldiers of Major Benjamin Forsyth's company of the U.S. 1st Rifle Regiment, landed about 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) west of the town, supported by some of Chauncey's schooners firing grapeshot.

[22] Forsyth's riflemen were opposed only by Native warriors, led by James Givins of the British Indian Department, and the grenadier company of the 8th Regiment of Foot, who were dispatched to the area by Sheaffe.

After Sheaffe failed to get the Fencibles to renew their advance, the British began to withdraw, with the newly arrived Glengarry Light Infantry covering the retreat.

[26] This caused further loss (including 20 killed) and confusion among the British regulars, and they fell back to a ravine at Garrison Creek north of the fort, where the militia was forming up.

[28] Sheaffe decided that the battle was lost and ordered the regulars to retreat, setting fire to the wooden bridge over the River Don east of the town to thwart pursuit.

[38] However, historian Robert Malcomson has found this return to be inaccurate: it did not include militia, sailors, dockyard workers or Native Americans and was incorrect even as to the casualties of the regulars.

[43] The Americans took over the dockyard, where they captured a brig (Duke of Gloucester) in a poor state of repair, and twenty 24-pounder carronades and other stores intended for the British squadron on Lake Erie.

Sheaffe later alleged that local settlers had unlawfully acquired government-owned farming tools or other stores looted and discarded by the Americans, and demanded that they be handed back.

[22] Dearborn similarly emphatically denied giving orders for any buildings to be destroyed and deplored the worst of the atrocities in his letters, but he was nonetheless unable or unwilling to rein in his soldiers.

His soldiers' disregard for the terms he arranged, and local civil leaders' continued protest against them, made Dearborn eager to leave York as soon as all the captured stores were transported.

For example, Militia officers Chewitt and Allan, the Reverend Strachan and others wrote to Governor General Prévost on May 8, that Sheaffe "kept too far from his troops after retreating from the woods, never cheered or animated them, nor showed by his personal conduct that he was hearty in the cause.

Secretary of War Armstrong wrote, "[W]e cannot doubt but that in all cases in which a British commander is compelled to act defensively, his policy will be that adopted by Sheaffe – to prefer the preservation of his troops to that of his post, and thus carrying off the kernel leave us the shell.

[57] However, early proclamations of victory issued prior to the battle, did contribute to the reelection of Daniel D. Tompkins, the Democratic-Republican candidate to be the Governor of New York.

[59] Strachan wrote to Thomas Jefferson that the damage to Washington "was a small retaliation after redress had been refused for burnings and depredations, not only of public but private property, committed by them in Canada".

[60] Chauncey and Dearborn subsequently won the Battle of Fort George on the Niagara peninsula, but they had left Sacket's Harbor defended only by a few troops, mainly militia.

[61] Chauncey sought to relieve the British-Native blockade of Fort George, by attacking British supply lines at Burlington Heights at the western end of Lake Ontario.

[48] Anticipating Chauncey's intentions, Major-General Francis de Rottenburg, Sheaffe's successor as Lieutenant Governor, ordered the bulk of the troops at York to Burlington Heights.

The Ontario Heritage Foundation erected a plaque in 1968 near the entrance to Coronation Park, Exhibition Place, Lake Shore Boulevard, in commemoration of the event.

The plaque reads: On the morning of July 31, 1813, a U.S. invasion fleet appeared off York (Toronto) after having withdrawn from a planned attack on British positions at Burlington Heights.

Their landing was unopposed: there were no British regulars in town, and York's militia had withdrawn from further combat in return for its freedom during the American invasion three months earlier.

[65] Arriving near York's harbour, the American squadron dispatched USS Lady of the Lake to negotiate under a white flag, in a ploy to evaluate the town's defences.