Buffalo Burns!!!

Several cross-border exchanges in 1812 and 1813 led to an all-out British assault on the raw but thriving settlement of Buffalo. On October 9, 1812, American Naval Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, and volunteers crossed the Niagara to seize the Detroit and the Caledonia. In 1813, Americans captured Fort George on May 27, and on May 14 [sic] American forces retaliated by burning the mills at Dover, Upper Canada. Americans burned Newark on December 10 and abandoned Fort George; on December 19 British forces under Colonel John Murray captured Fort Niagara and burned Lewiston and Manchester. On December 30, 1813, British forces landed at Black Rock, burned the village, then moved south and burned the village of Buffalo, forcing the American military and civilians to evacuate and leaving the east side of the Niagara River a no man's land. A handful of men, including Dr. Cyrenius Chapin and Seth Grosvenor, set up a cannon at Main and Niagara Streets and fired a couple of shots toward the advancing British, but the defense failed. Margaret St. John appealed to the British general for the protection he had promised to women and children, and guards were stationed at her house, which survived the conflagration; the stone walls of the jail and the blacksmith shop also survived. As Buffalo burned, citizens fled in many directions, some as far east as Canandaigua, while the seat of government and the Buffalo Gazette moved to Harris Hill for the winter and the militia reformed at Williamsville. Many refugees spent the winter in places such as Batavia, Canandaigua, Hamburg, Willink, Boston, and Warsaw, and most did not dare return until the American army encamped in Buffalo in the spring of 1814. On January 1, 1814, the British burned a handful of buildings still standing in Buffalo. The tide turned in the summer of 1814 as American forces pushed back: General Jacob Brown seized Fort Erie on July 3, General Winfield Scott won at Chippawa Creek on July 5, American and British forces fought to a draw at Lundy's Lane on July 25, American forces withstood a British siege at Fort Erie in August and September, and American forces withdrew from Canadian territory on November 5. Both sides ultimately re-entrenched to their initial territories, preserving the same boundary that persists to this day.

Buffalo, New York · United States