Battle of Buffalo The Battle of Buffalo ( also known as the Battle of Black Rock ) took place during the War of 1812 between British Empire and the United States on December 30 , 1813 in the State of New York , near the Niagara River . The British forces drove off the hastily - organized defenders and engaged in considerable plundering and destruction . The operation was conceived as an act of retaliation for the burning by American troops of the Canadian village of Newark ( present day Niagara - on - the - Lake ) . Background . When Brigadier General George McClure of the New York State Militia , commander of the garrison of Fort George , decided to abandon the post on December 10 , 1813 , he ordered the neighboring village of Newark to be destroyed . Giving the inhabitants only a few hours ' notice , he turned them out into the cold winter night and burned all but one of the hundred and fifty or so buildings to the ground . Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond , the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada , was planning an offensive against the American positions on Niagara frontier . In the early hours of December 18 , a force under Colonel John Murray captured Fort Niagara by surprise . Another force under Major General Phineas Riall raided the American side of the lower Niagara River , destroying the villages of Lewiston , Youngstown , Manchester , Tuscarora and the small military post and surrounding settlement of Fort Schlosser . Riall ' s raid was eventually halted when the Americans set fire to a bridge over the Tonawanda Creek . Drummond and Riall intended further devastation , and Riall ' s troops returned to the Canadian side of the Niagara and marched south around Niagara Falls , carrying their boats , to launch an attack on the villages of Buffalo and Black Rock . Opposing Forces . Major General Riall commanded 370 of the 1st Battalion , 1st Regiment ( Royal Scots ) , 240 of the 1st Battalion , 8th ( King ' s ) Regiment , 250 of the 41st Regiment , 55 of the light infantry company of the 2nd Battalion , 89th Regiment , 50 of the grenadier company of the 100th ( Prince Regent ' s County of Dublin ) Regiment , 50 Canadian militia and 400 Native Americans allied to the British . In total , the force numbered 1 , 415 officers and men . Available to the American area commander , Major General Amos Hall of the New York Militia , were 2 , 011 men , all of them volunteers or militia . Stationed at Buffalo were 129 cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Seymour Boughton , 433 Ontario County volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Blakeslee , 136 Buffalo Militia under Lieutenant Colonel Cyrenius Chapin , 97 of the Corps of Canadian Volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Benajah Mallory , 382 of the Genesse Militia Regiment under Major Adams and 307 Chautauqua Militia under Lieutenant Colonel John McMahon . At Black Rock were 382 of Lieutenant Colonel Warren ' s and Lieutenant Colonel Churchill ' s Regiments under Brigadier General Timothy Hopkins , 37 mounted infantry under Captain Ransom , 83 Native Americans under Lieutenant Colonel Erastus Granger and 25 militia artillerymen with a six - pounder gun under Lieutenant Seeley . Battle . Riall crossed the Niagara around midnight on December 29 and landed with most of his men some downstream of Black Rock in the early hours of December 30 . He delegated Lieutenant Colonel John Gordon and the Royal Scots to land at Black Rock itself in order to attack the Americans from a different direction . Major General Amos Hall was first alerted to the British presence when Riall ' s advance guard , the light infantry company of the 89th Regiment , drove off the American piquet at Conjunckaty Creek ( now known as Scajaquada Creek ) and captured the bridge and the battery there . Hall sent the militia under Warren and Churchill to reconnoitre . When they ran off at the first enemy fire , Hall dispatched a second force under Adams and Chapin but exactly the same thing happened . Hall now took personal command of the remainder of his force . He ordered a detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Blakeslee to attack the British left and advanced toward Black Rock with the rest of his men . As dawn broke , Hall directed " a very heavy fire of cannon and musketry " at Gordon ' s Royal Scots as they tried to land at Black Rock . Gordon was supported by the fire of a five - gun battery but several of his boats grounded and his regiment took substantial casualties before they could force their way ashore . Riall now advanced with his main body against Hall ' s center , sending a detachment from his left wing to hit the American right flank . Although the Americans fought with considerable obstinacy , according to Riall , after half an hour of fighting the American right wing broke into a rout . In order to avoid being outflanked , Hall ordered a general retreat . The British pursued all the way to Buffalo , two miles away . Once in Buffalo , the British and Indians sacked it , burning down all but four of its buildings . The British troops also destroyed the navy yard and three armed schooners ( the " Chippewa " , " Ariel " , " Little Belt " ) and one sloop ( the " Trippe " ) . Riall ' s force then moved on to Black Rock , where once again , all but one building was razed to the ground , before going back over the Niagara to Canada . Casualties . The British casualty return gave 25 British regulars , 3 militiamen and 3 Native Americans killed ; 63 regulars , 6 militiamen and 3 Native Americans wounded ; and 9 regulars missing : a total of 31 killed , 72 wounded and 9 missing . Of these , 13 killed , 32 wounded and 6 missing were from the Royal Scots , who had endured a heavy cannonade while grounded in their boats . The Americans took 5 prisoners . The official American casualty figures were reported as 50 killed and 52 wounded . The dead included Lieutenant Colonel Boughton . The " Ontario Messenger " of January 25 , 1814 , published a list of 67 Americans captured on December 30 , 11 of whom were wounded . Lieutenant Colonel Chapin was among the prisoners . Eight pieces of American artillery were captured . Aftermath . On January 22 , 1814 , Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost , British Commander - in - Chief in North America , issued a proclamation in which he expressed his regret that " the miseries inflicted upon the inhabitants of Newark " had necessitated such retaliation .