The fires set by the British burned all night, and the glow could be seen forty miles away. “The sky was brilliantly illuminated by the different conflagrations,” reported a British officer.134 A pair of storms followed the next day, one of which was so violent that it blew down several buildings, killing some British soldiers inside.135 More British soldiers, perhaps fifty to sevety-five in all, were killed or injured when a dry well containing powder exploded. “The effect was terrific,” said the National Intelligencer. “Every one of [the] soldiers near was blown into eternity, many at a greater distance wounded, and the excavation remains an evidence of the great force of this explosion.”136 The British departed from the city on August 25, re-embarking at Benedict five days later. They left their wounded behind. Barney, who had earned the respect of British officers for his skill and bravery afloat and ashore, had been treated kindly by his captors and promised to look after their wounded.137
Surrender of Alexandria
Meanwhile, a sizeable British naval force under Captain James Gordon had sailed up the Potomac River on August 17 to support the assault on the capital. The ships fought contrary winds and currents and repeatedly ran aground. Hence they did not reach Fort Washington—ten miles below the capital—until August 27, two days after Ross had begun his withdrawal. The commander of the fort, Captain Samuel T. Dyson, ordered the fort abandoned and blown up when the first British shells struck. For this he was later cashiered from the army. The abandonment of Fort Washington exposed Alexandria, an affluent Federalist city six miles upriver.138
The residents of Alexandria formally capitulated to the British, turning over all their public stores, shipping, and maritime wealth. Captain Gordon sailed off with a huge cache of goods: twenty-one prize ships filled with 16,000 barrels of flour, 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton, and $5,000 worth of sugar, wine, and other commodities. The withdrawal was harrowing. The squadron had to fend off fire ships and contend with artillery and small arms fire from the banks. Gordon’s larger ships ran aground, forcing him to unload and then reload his heavy naval guns. In spite of all this, he reached the Chesapeake Bay—three weeks after entering the Potomac—having suffered forty-two casualties but with his squadron and booty intact.139 British naval officials applauded the feat, one calling it “as brilliant an achievement . . . as grace the annals of our naval history.”140
Apportioning Blame
Madison and his cabinet returned to Washington on August 27. Some people blamed the destruction of the capital on the president, and rumors were afloat that his life was in danger.141 Graffiti appeared on the walls of the Capitol that read: “George Washington founded this city after a seven years’ war with England—James Madison lost it after a two years’ war.”142 Most people in the capital, however, blamed Armstrong, a northerner who many thought had intentionally sacrificed the city. “Universal execration follows Armstrong,” said one resident. “The Cittizens sware,” said another, that if he returns to the city “they will hang him on the Walls of the Capitol.”143 Local militia refused to take further orders from Armstrong, and after meeting with the president, he retired to Baltimore and subsequently submitted his resignation.144 Blaming his fall on Monroe, Armstrong said: “I was supposed to be in some body’s way [for the presidency] and it became a system to load me with all the faults and misfortunes which occurred.”145 As if to prove him right, Madison named Monroe acting secretary of war for the second time during the conflict.
The burning of Washington was denounced on both sides of the Atlantic. The destruction of the capital, said the Annual Register, “brought a heavy censure on the British character, not only in America, but on the continent of Europe.”146 Some members of Parliament joined in the criticism, and so too did opposition newspapers. “The Cossacks spared Paris,” said the London Statesman, “but we spared not the capitol of America.”147 Most of the British, however, rejoiced at the obvious embarrassment of their enemy and considered the destruction of Washington just retaliation for American depredations in Canada. The Prince Regent called the Chesapeake campaign “brilliant and successful,” and Ross was officially commended.148 The park and tower guns in London were fired at noon three days in succession to celebrate the victory, and the Times and Courier were reportedly “nettled that [British] commanders did not date their despatches from the Capitol.”149
The Contest for Baltimore
In early September the British decided to follow up on their success at Washington by attacking Baltimore. This city was an attractive target, not only because it was a large commercial center and an important base for privateers but also because it was such a hotbed of anglophobia. “I do not like to contemplate scenes of blood and destruction,” said a British naval officer; “but my heart is deeply interested in the coercion of these Baltimore heroes, who are perhaps the most inveterate against us of all the Yankees.”150 Ever since early 1813 Samuel Smith, a United States senator and major general in the militia, had been working with other volunteers to prepare the city for defense. By the middle of 1814, Smith had gathered 10,000 to 15,000 troops (mostly militia) and had every available man building earthworks.151
Before attacking Baltimore, Vice Admiral Cochrane dispatched twenty-nine-year-old Captain Sir Peter Parker to the Eastern Shore to effect a diversion. Parker was a promising and well-liked young naval officer, scion of a distinguished family and cousin of Lord Byron. When Parker learned from a slave that there was a militia camp on the Eastern Shore near Georgetown, he decided to attack it. On August 31 he landed 250 seamen and marines from his frigate and marched to the American camp. Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed, a veteran of the War of Independence and a member of the U.S. Senate, was in charge of the camp. When he learned that Sir Peter’s men were on the way, Reed prepared to meet them.
Reed headed a detachment of riflemen that harassed the British from a grove of trees before falling back to the main American line, which was anchored by several fieldpieces. The militia fought surprising well and took a heavy toll on the advancing British, who were silhouetted by a full moon. The Americans were running low on ammunition and were on the verge of retreat, when Parker went down with a deep thigh wound, and the British broke off the attack. Parker bled to death before he could be carried to his ship for medical attention. In the Battle of Caulk’s Field, the British suffered forty casualties, the Americans only three.152 Although of little strategic importance, the engagement was a rare victory of American militia acting alone against British veterans. It boosted American morale and deprived the Royal Navy of one of its rising stars, who was memorialized in a poem by Byron.153
The Battle of North Point
Ross landed his army—about 4,000 regulars and 500 seamen—at North Point at 3:00 a.m. on September 12. Five hours later the troops began their march to Baltimore fourteen miles away. About half way to the city they met a force of 3,200 militia under the command of Brigadier General John Stricker. When Ross raced ahead to investigate, he was mortally wounded. Colonel Arthur Brooke assumed command, and under his direction the British softened the American lines with artillery and then launched a frontal assault that forced the Americans to give way. In the Battle of North Point, the Americans lost 215 men, the British 340.154 Although the British held the field after the battle, they had sustained heavy casualties and had lost an accomplished and popular general. “It is impossible to conceive the effect which this melancholy spectacle produced throughout the army,” recalled a British officer.155 As a general officer Ross had earned the right to burial in the mother country, and his remains were shipped home in a cask of rum.
After the Battle of North Point, the British resumed their march to Baltimore. On September 13 they came within sight of the city’s defenses. Unable to secure any naval support or to lure the Americans out from behind their defensive works, Brooke wisely decided not to attack. The British departed at 3:00 a.m. the next morning.156 The Americans were delighted to see the British leave and made no attempt to pursue th
em. “When you fight our citizens against British regulars,” said Smith, “you are staking dollars against cents.”157
Bombardment of Fort McHenry
Meanwhile, Cochrane had sailed up the Patapsco River with a squadron of bomb and rocket ships to provide the naval support that Brooke needed. Cochrane’s aim was to slip into the harbor and thus get close enough to soften up the American lines. But first he had to silence the guns of Fort McHenry, a star-shaped fort that protected the entrance to the harbor. The fort was defended by 1,000 men under the command of Major George Armistead. The British fired more than 1,500 rounds at the fort over a twenty-five-hour period on September 13 and 14. About 400 of these rounds found their mark. The Americans could not respond because their guns lacked the range of the larger British guns. The damage to the fort, however, was minimal. Only four Americans were killed and twenty-four wounded. The British also failed to silence the guns on nearby Lazaretto Point. Cochrane put 1,200 men in barges to slip by the fort, evidently in the hope of attacking the fort from the rear, but these troops were driven back by heavy fire from the shore. With the harbor blocked by sunken ships, Cochrane realized that he might not be able to get close enough to offer the British army much support anyway. Hence, he ordered his bomb and rocket ships to withdraw.158
“The Star-Spangled Banner”
Before the attack on Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, a Georgetown Federalist who had come to Baltimore with a volunteer artillery company, had visited the main British squadron at the mouth of the Patapsco River to secure the release of a civilian prisoner, Dr. William Beanes. The British high command had already decided to release Beanes, but the Americans were not permitted to leave until the assault on Fort McHenry was over. Key paced the deck of his truce ship all night, watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry some eight miles away. The next morning, Key noticed that the British squadron was headed his way. He also saw that the huge garrison flag (measuring 30 by 42 feet) had been run up above the fort. With this he realized that the bombardment had been a failure and that McHenry was still in American hands.
Key was so moved that he wrote a poem entitled “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” The poem was distributed as a broadside, which suggested that it could be sung to a British drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The new song, which was later renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” appeared in newspapers up and down the coast and ultimately became the national anthem. (“The bombs bursting in air” were the British mortar shells that exploded above the fort, and “the rockets’ red glare” referred to Congreve rockets.)159 The Armistead family preserved the large garrison flag before turning it over to the Smithsonian in the twentieth century.160 Hence, the successful defense of Fort McHenry produced not only the national anthem but also the nation’s best-known flag.
Francis Scott Key’s famous song celebrating the successful defense of Fort McHenry was initially published in a broadside under the title of “Defence of Ft. M’Henry.” The broadside told how the song had come to be written and suggested that it be sung to the tune of “Anacreon in Heaven.” (Oscar Sonneck, “The Star-Spangled Banner”)
British Depradations
The Battle of Baltimore ended the Chesapeake campaign. Local reports indicated that during the campaign British troops had looted private property, destroyed church property, and even opened coffins in their search for booty. “Their conduct,” said Congressman Robert Wright, “would have disgraced cannibals.”161 The entire campaign served to enhance the legacy of bitterness left from the previous summer. Niles’ Register called Cockburn a “Great Bandit” and proposed that Ross’s death be commemorated with a monument dedicated to “THE LEADER OF A HOST OF BARBARIANS, who destroyed the capitol . . . and devoted . . . Baltimore, to rape, robbery and conflagration.”162
The British were also accused of fomenting a slave rebellion. Although this was untrue, Cochrane did issue a proclamation on April 2 that promised all interested Americans a “choice of either entering into His Majesty’s Sea or Land Forces, or of being sent as FREE Settlers, to the British Possessions in North America or the West Indies.”163 Many slaves responded to this call. Some 3,600 found refuge with the British during the war, and of these 550 enlisted in a special Corps of Colonial Marines.164 The runaways made excellent scouts and guides because they knew the land, and those who served in the Colonial Marines impressed the British in combat. Cockburn claimed they made “the best skirmishers possible for the thick Woods of this Country” and that they showed “extraordinary steadiness and good conduct when in action with the Enemy.”165
Attack on Cumberland Island
Although most of the British operations on the Atlantic coast targeted New England or the Chesapeake, a campaign against Cumberland Island at the mouth of St. Marys River in Georgia was undertaken as a diversion in favor of Britain’s campaign on the Gulf Coast. On January 10–11, 1815, Rear Admiral Cockburn landed upwards of 1,500 men on the island and two days later overran the American battery at Point Peter (or Point Petre). With only 120 regulars at his disposal, Captain Abraham Massias resisted the British invasion as long as he could and then fled upriver.
Several days later Cockburn sent a force in pursuit, but the British boats had to turn back when they received galling fire from both banks at a point where the river narrowed. American casualties in the two engagements were about fifteen, the British twice this number. The operation failed to divert any troops from the Gulf Coast and actually took place after the Battle of New Orleans. But like Prairie du Chien, Mackinac, Fort Niagara, and coastal Maine, Cumberland Island remained in British hands until the war ended.166
The Gulf Coast Campaign
Although the British did not realize it at the time, their campaign on the Atlantic coast, and particularly in the Chesapeake, was the high-water mark of their counteroffensive in 1814. Their final campaign in the war—against the Gulf Coast—ended in disaster.167 This region attracted the British because it was sparsely populated and lightly defended. There were many potential allies here, including Indians, particularly the Seminoles and Creeks, and black people, both slave and free. In addition, there were Spanish and French people living in West Florida and Louisiana who had never reconciled to American rule. Finally, there were the Baratarian pirates, a lawless band of thieves and smugglers—800 to 1,000 in all—who lived on Grand Terre Island in southern Louisiana.168
New Orleans, located 100 miles up the Mississippi River, was a particularly tempting target. With a population of almost 25,000, it was the largest city west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was also the principal outlet for western commodities, and millions of dollars in produce was blockaded in the port. Scottish naval officers like Cochrane were known to have a keen eye for booty, and the British brought cargo ships with them to carry off prize goods.169 Although British prisoners of war and deserters later claimed that the watchword and countersign on the morning of the Battle of New Orleans was “beauty and booty,” this was almost surely untrue. British officers invariably kept their men on a tight leash whenever they occupied an enemy city.170
When the campaign was first conceived in 1812, it was seen as a means of taking pressure off Canada. But by the time it actually got under way, another objective had emerged. The British government instructed General Ross, who prior to his death was supposed to lead the expedition, “to obtain a Command of the Embouchure [mouth] of the Mississippi, so as to deprive the back Settlements of America of their Communication with the sea” and “to occupy some important & valuable possession, by the restoration of which we may improve the Conditions of Peace, or which may entitle us to exact its Cession as the price of Peace.” Ross was to encourage the free inhabitants to revolt but was to make no binding promises about the future. “You must give them clearly to understand that Great Britain cannot pledge herself to make the Independence of Louisiana, or its restoration to the Spanish Crown, a sine qua non of Peace with the United States.”171
As a preliminary to the main expediti
on, in May 1814 Cochrane dispatched a shipload of arms to Indians on the Apalachicola River in Spanish Florida. George Woodbine, an Indian trader, was given a brevet commission as captain of the Royal Marines and appointed agent to the Indians. He distributed the arms and trained the Indians in the use of the bayonet.172
Pensacola and Mobile
The next step was the occupation of Pensacola, a Spanish port city that had the best harbor on the Gulf Coast and enjoyed excellent access to the interior. With the tacit approval of Spanish officials, Major Edward Nicolls led 100 British troops into the city on August 14. He subsequently expanded his occupation force by recruiting Indians and (much to the dismay of the Spanish) local slaves.173 On August 29, Nicolls issued a proclamation calling on the “Natives of Louisiana . . . to assist in liberating from a faithless and imbecile government, your paternal soil.”174
The following month Nicolls led an expedition to Mobile, a port city in West Florida that the United States had seized from Spain in 1813. This city was protected from seaborne attack by Fort Bowyer, which was located on a peninsula in Mobile Bay and defended by 160 regulars under the command of Major William Lawrence. On September 12 a British force of 225 marines and Indians was put on shore, and three days later a naval squadron under Captain William H. Percy bombarded the fort. The British land force, however, was too small to assault the post, and the waters of Mobile Bay were too shallow for the British ships. Hence the attack was abandoned. The British lost their flagship, the Hermes (22 guns), which ran aground within range of the American guns and had to be destroyed. The British sustained about seventy casualties compared to only about ten for the United States.175
The War of 1812 Page 31
