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Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Malcomson
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Category: Book
List Price: $42.95
Buy New: $29.37
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1259396
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 1896941532
Dewey Decimal Number: 971.034
EAN: 9781896941530
ASIN: 1896941532
Publication Date: August 15, 2008
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Product Description
As Canada's central depot and naval dockyard on the Great Lakes early in the War of 1812, the capital frontier town of York (present-day Toronto) was a prime target for American forces. In April 1813 a squadron of warships under U.S. Commodore Isaac Chauncey sailed up Lake Ontario and landed about 1,800 soldiers there as the renowned explorer Gen. Zebulon Pike led his men into battle. Though the Americans took the town, their victory proved disappointing. Malcomson challenges conventional ideas about the battle as he brings to life the politicians, soldiers, and citizens whose destinies clashed at York.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Outstanding battle narrative from the war of 1812 July 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As an American, I know surprisingly little about the War of 1812. It could be summed up into Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans; the British burning of Washington D.C; and Francis Scott Key writing the National Anthem. Thank goodness for renowned experts like Robert Malcomson whose excellent book "Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813" will educate a new generation.
Malcomson begins by giving an administrative overview of Upper and Lower Canada in the early 1800s, and an introduction to the military personalities that would later influence the events of the battle of York (Toronto). The ambitions of Governor Sir George Prevost to build York into the British prime naval base on the Great Lakes, clouded his ability to see that the town was poorly sited for defense against American attack. The die had been cast for this frontier town.
Going back to my ignorance of the War of 1812, I almost missed the explanation for how the war came to be. For a war that came about over trade embargoes and Americans being pressed into service on British ships, Malcomson coverage of the international relations among England, France, and the United States in the early 1800s was adequate for the purposes of the book.
A battle is merely a point in time in an overall campaign. Malcomson provides a detailed look into the campaign season of 1812, and further delves into the strategy of America for the opening of the 1813 campaign season. With the thawing of the lakes in April 1813, Maj Gen Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey set out for the first ever combined Navy / Army amphibious operation in American history. Malcomson supports the description of the battle with multiple charts showing the position of forces as the battle unfolded.
Readers learn the tragic demise of Brig Gen Zebulon "Montgomery" Pike as he led his troops in the assault on the Grand Magazine in York. Malcomson presents a balanced view of the battle, offering personal accounts of the British soldiers, Canadian militia, and the American military forces who participated in the battle. These well-footnoted accounts are drawn from sources such as personal letters, memoirs, newspapers, and regimental histories.
Contrasting the hero Brig Gen Pike, Malcomson documents the story of the battle's scapegoat, Maj Gen Roger Sheaffe, commander of the British troops during the battle. Sheaffe certainly could have taken additional offensive action, but the poor siting of the town defenses all but assured the final outcome of the battle. In addition to the shame of losing the battle, Sheaffe forgot or did not permit his forces to gather overcoats and backpacks prior to the 150 mile retreat to Kingston.
As battle narratives go, "Capital in Flames" is an exceptionally well-written book. It puts the battle into both the overall international context, as well as establishes its relevance in the overall campaign. This was the first of Malcomson's books that I have read. I will certainly seek out more of them.
 Robert Malcomson's CAPITAL IN FLAMES is a capital book June 20, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813, by Robert Malcomson, details the story of the American victory, through the use of a combined navy-army operation, which saw the capture (and partial destruction) of York (now Toronto). Serious students of the War of 1812 and of Zebulon Montgomery Pike likely will find this to be the definitive work on this fascinating military action. The battle cost General Pike his life, but it also gave him earthly immortality through the eventual naming of Pike's Peak. This book, unlike many, gives the contest a respectibility which will please honest citizens on both sides of the sometimes-argumentative Canadian-U.S. border. More importantly, for Americans, while many Canadian historians, from the mid-Nineteenth Century to the present, have tended to accept every outrageous claim leveled against the invading Americans, this serious study does much better than that. This book is truly scholarly and investigative and may be the first publication about the battle by a Canadian historian, since the booklet by Col. C. P. Stacey in 1963, which truly is even-handed. In being fair-minded, Malcomson dissects many of the battle's legends which are not even supported by primary British and Canadian sources. And, when it comes to the reseach, the bibliography, and the explanatory endnotes, Malcomson scores up around the 95 percentile mark. Numerous and various characters in the drama, from Gen. Pike, to Gen. Sheaffe, to Rev. Strachan, get fair and complete treatment. Malcomson even further identifies the long-elusive eyewitness of the contest, P. Finan. In addition, there are excellent illustrations and important appendices. Finally, pleasing to this Yankee Baby Boomer and amateur historian, Canadian Boomer Malcomson uses English miles in his discussion (but also converts them to metric distances in the notes). In summation, this volume is highly recommended for both Canadian and American readers who enjoy searches for historical truth.
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