Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

---

Burlington Heights, expedition to.

The British maintained for some time a fortified camp at Burlington Heights, at the western end of Lake Ontario. There they made a depository of stores; and to capture these an expedition, composed of 300 land troops, under Col. Winfield Scott, borne by the fleet of Commodore Chauncey, left the mouth of the Niagara River, July 28, 1813. The usual feeble guard over the stores had just been reinforced. Convinced that their forces were insufficient to seize the prizes, Scott and Chauncey concluded to attack York, from which the British reinforcements had just been sent. The fleet bore the troops across the lake, and entered the harbor of York on July 31. Scott landed his troops without opposition; took possession of the place; burned the barracks, public storehouses and stores, and eleven transports; destroyed five pieces of cannon, and bore away as spoils one heavy gun and a considerable quantity of flour. They found in York (Toronto) the sick and wounded of Boerstler's command captured at the Beaver Dams (q. v.).