General Armstrong states, in his History of the War of 1812, that General Sheaffe said this explosion was accidental, his own soldiers having been involved in its effects. General Whiting repeats this. But both Armstrong and Whiting are clearly in error. If General Sheaffe ever said this, he said what he knew was untrue. His words—such as they may have been—may have referred to the earlier explosion at the Western battery and been mistaken to apply to the main explosion. We have his own reiterated writings, that the magazine was exploded by his order. One of these statements is made in a hurried letter, whose almost illegible handwriting betrays the state of mind to which this gentleman had been reduced. It was written while he was on his retreat to Kingston, and is addressed to his superior officer, Sir George Prevost. The published text before me reads in part as follows (italics editorial):
Haldimand, 30th April.
My Dear Sir George,—I have the mortification of reporting to you that York is in the possession of the enemy, it having on the 27th inst. been attacked by a force too powerful to resist with success. Sixteen vessels of various descriptions full of men, including their new ship the Madison, formed their flotilla. The Grenadiers of the King's suffered first in the action with the enemy (in which Captain W. Neale was killed), and afterwards severely, in connection with other corps, by the accidental explosion of a battery magazine, which at the same time disabled the battery. I caused our grand magazine to be blown up....
I am, my dear Sir George, your very faithfully devoted servant,
R. H. Sheaffe.
Another letter from General Sheaffe, dated Kingston, May 5th, when he had become more composed in mind than he seems to have been during his inglorious if not disgraceful flight, gives a more coherent account and many further details. I cite it in full, from the original MS. now in the Department of Archives at Ottawa, as kindly copied and certified for me by Mr. L. P. Sylvain of the Library of Parliament:
Kingston, 5th May, 1813.
Sir,
I did myself the honour of writing to Your Excellency on my route from York to communicate the mortifying intelligence that the Enemy had obtained possession of that place on the 27th of April, and I shall now enter into a fuller detail, than I was enabled to do at the date of that letter.
In the evening of the 26th of April I received information that many Vessels had been seen from the Highlands to the Eastward of York, soon after daylight the next morning the Enemy's Vessels were discovered lying to not far from the shore of the peninsula in front of the town; they soon afterwards, sixteen in number of various descriptions, made sail with a fresh breeze from the [p. 2] eastward, led by the Ship lately built at Sackett's harbour, and anchored off the point where the french fort [Rouillé] formerly stood; many boats full of troops were soon discovered assembling near the Commander's Ship, apparently with an intention of effecting a landing on the ground off which he was anchored: our troops were ordered into the Ravine in the rear of the Government Garden and fields; Major Givens and the Indians with him were sent forward through the wood to oppose the landing of the Enemy—the Company of Glengary Light Infantry was directed to support them, and the Militia not having arrived at the Ravine, The Grenadiers of the King's Regiment and the small portion of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles belonging to the Garrison of York were moved on, led by Lt Colonel Heathcote of that corps, commanding the Garrison; this movement was directed to be made within the wood, [p. 3] parallel to the Lake-side, and only so far from it, as not to be discovered by the Enemy's Vessels, several of which were not at a great distance from the shore: Captain Eustace's company of the King's Regiment, and some Militia that were quartered at the east end of the town, and had been left there during the night, lest the Enemy might make some attempt on that flank, were ordered, with the exception of a small party of the Militia, to join these troops—which was soon effected: while these operations were going on Major General Shaw, Adjudant General of Militia led a portion of the Militia on a road at the back of the wood to watch our rear, and to act according to circumstances; by some mistake he led the Glengary company away from the direction assigned to it, to accompany this detachment, so that it came late into action, instead of being near the Indians at its commencement; the movement of the other troops was retarded [p. 4] by the difficulty of the wood, while the Enemy being aided by the wind, rapidly gained the shore under cover of a fire from the commodore's ship and other vessels, and landed in spite of a spirited opposition from major Givens and his small band of Indians; the Enemy was shortly afterwards encountered by our handful of troops, Captain McNeal of the King's Regiment was early killed while gallantly leading his Company which suffered severely: the troops fell back. I succeeded in rallying them several times, and a detachment of the King's with some Militia, whom I had placed near the edge of the wood to protect our left Flank repulsed a column of the Enemy which was advancing along the bank at the Lake side: but our troops could not maintain the contest against the greatly superior and increasing numbers of the Enemy—they retired under cover of our batteries, which were engaged with some of their Vessels, that had begun to beat up towards [p. 5] the harbour, when their troops landed, occasionally firing, and had anchored at a short distance to the westward of the line from the Barracks to Gibraltar Point; from that situation they kept up a heavy fire on our batteries, on the Block House and Barracks, and on the communications between them, some of their Guns being thirty two pounders; to return their fire, we had two complete twelve pounders, and old condemned guns without trunnions (—— eighteen —— pounders) which, after being proved had been stocked and mounted under the direction of Lieut. Ingouville of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, whom I had appointed Assistant Engineer; a twelve pounder of the same description was added during the Engagement; with these defective means the Enemy was kept at bay for some time, when, by some unfortunate accident, the traveling Magazine at the Western battery blew up and killed and wounded a considerable number of men [italics editorial]; many of them belonging to the [p. 6] Grenadier Company of the King's Regiment, the battery was crippled, the platform being torn up, and one of the eighteen pounders overturned: the Magazine was replaced and the battery restored to some order, but it was evident that our numbers and means of defence were inadequate to the task of maintaining possession of York against the vast superiority of force brought against it, though providentially little mischief had hitherto been done by the long continued cannonade of the Enemy, except to some of the buildings: the troops were withdrawn towards the town, and the grand Magazine was at the same time blown up [italics editorial], the Enemy was so near to it, that he sustained great loss, and was, for a time, driven back by the explosion; some of our own troops were not beyond the reach of fragments of the stone, though they escaped with very little injury; Captain Loring, my aide-de-camp, received a severe contusion, and [p. 7] the horse he rode was killed.
The troops were halted at a ravine not far to the westward of the ship yard, I there consulted with the Superior Officers, and it being too apparent that a further opposition would but render the result more disastrous, some of the Enemy's vessels indicating an intention to move up the harbour, in order to co-operate with their land forces, I ordered the troops of the line to retreat on the road to Kingston, which was effected without any annoyance from the Enemy; when we had proceeded some miles we met the Light Company of the King's Regiment on its march for Fort George, I had sent an express the preceding evening to hasten its movement, but it was at too great a distance to be able to join us at York.