Bird's-eye view showing the arrival of the American fleet prior to the capture of York, April 27, 1813

Painted c. 1913.
Owen Staples (1866 - 1949).
Watercolour, tempera and pen and ink.
Toronto Public Library, TRL, J. Ross Robertson Collection, JRR 905.

The Battle of York, a relatively small engagement of the War of 1812, was a major event in the history of Toronto.

This picture shows the American fleet, under Commodore Isaac Chauncey, firing its guns on the shore and harbour entry, while landing its troops west of the settlement (no. 134). The enemy army of 1700 soldiers pushed the outnumbered defenders - 300 British regulars, 300 York militiamen and about 200 aboriginal warriors altogether - eastwards to Fort York (no. 20). The six-hour battle ended when the British blew up the fort's gunpowder magazine (20h), burned the Sir Isaac Brock (no. 77) and retreated eastward to Kingston.

Owen Staples painted this detailed reconstruction 100 years after the battle. It probably was commissioned by John Ross Robertson to commemorate the centenary in 1913. A key shows in detail the properties of many of the principal residents, and the location of all the military buildings and the residences of private citizens on the day of the capitulation. The drawings of the United States armed vessels shown in the picture are absolutely exact in every detail and copied from originals in possession of the United States naval authorities at Annapolis, Md., and in Washington, D.C.