The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History Volume III 1814–1815 Chesapeake Bay, Northern Lakes, and Pacific Ocean Part 2 of 7 Naval Historical Center Department of the Navy Washington, 2002 Electronically published by American Naval Records Society Bolton Landing, New York 2011 AS A WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THIS PUBLICATION IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Chapter One The Chesapeake Bay Theater: January 1814-May 1815 News from the Elbe River Valley in the autumn of 1813 boded both good and ill for the United States in its war with the United Kingdom. The allied victory at Leipzig in October 1813 meant the end of Napoleon's Continental System and presaged the collapse of the French Empire. Napoleon retreated into France and, on 6 April 1814, abdicated unconditionally. The end of the Continental System removed the principal justification for British interference with the United States' commerce with Europe, and the coming of peace to Europe removed the Royal Navy ~ incentive for pressing seamen from American merchantmen. The way to a peace settlement between the United States and the United Kingdom seemed open. Yet, victory in Europe also seemed to provide the British the means to secure a vic­ tory in America that would exact retribution on the United States for its declara­ tion of war. Up until Napoleon ~ abdication, British policy makers considered America a minor theater of operations. As of August 1813, they maintained 75,000 soldiers in Europe, outside the British Isles and Ireland: 60, 000 on the Iberian Penin­ sula, and 15,700 on Sicily and the Mediterranean and Ionian Islands. As of the same date, the British maintained fewer than 20, 000 soldiers in North America: 732 in Bermuda, 12,935 in Canada, 708 in Newfoundland, and 4,189 in Nova Scotia. The increase over the 7,625 British soldiers in North America before the American declaration of war resulted from reinforcements sent from the Caribbean, not from Europe. The coming of peace to Europe freed British veterans of Wellington ~ Spanish campaigns for service in America. Between the end of 1813 and the end of 1814, the number of British soldiers in North America dou­ bled to nearly 40, 000. Reinforcements sent to the Chesapeake Bay changed the nature of British operations in that theater from one of swift raids to one of cam­ paigns with more substantial objectives. 1 Through the winter of 1813-1814, Captain Robert Barrie, RN., remained in the Chesapeake with a small naval force to keep the capes blockaded. Rear Admi­ ral George Cockburn returned to the bay on 23 February 1814 and resumed the pattern of shore raids he had pursued so assiduously during the previous year~ operations, with the purpose of diverting American military resources from the Canadian theater southward. Cockburn would have to restrict offensive actions to small incursions until the lookedjor arrival of significant reinforcements. Then, he anticipated grander actions under a new, more aggressive commander in chief. 1 2 CHESAPEAKE BAY THEATER JANUARY 1814-MAY 1815 3 Late in 1813, the Admiralty separated the North American Station from the Jamaica and Leeward Islands Stations and relieved Admiral Sir John B. Warren with a fleet of eighteen. vessels; .on 1 June they made contact with a superior enemy of his now reduced responsibilities. In his place, they appointed Vice Admiral Sir fleet and were chased znto ~ trtbutary of the Patuxent River. For weeks, the flotilla Alexander F. 1. Cochrane (1752-1832). A veteran of the American Revolution, ~eld the enemy at bay, untzl, on 26 June, forcing the British to retreat, it escaped Cochrane made post captain in 1782. In the wars against France, he distin­ znt.o. the Patu~ent. There, ~he flotilla remained bottled up, a potential threat to guished himself in expeditions in Quiberon Bay, against EI Ferrol, and to Egypt. Brttz~h operatz?ns, neutralzzed, but at the same time occupying the British forces He was made commander in chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1805 and requzred to mazntain guard over it. was knighted for his share in the Battle of St. Domingue (6 February 1806). At­ . On 25 July a Britis~ squadron:, under Rear Admiral Pulteney Malcolm, sailed taining the rank of vice admiral in 1809, he served as governor of Guadeloupe znto Berm,!,,~a. TM. shzps came dzrectly from the Gironde River in France, carrying from 1810 to 1814. Cochrane arrived at Bermuda in March 1814, and on 1 3,000 Brttzsh soldzers under the command of Major General Robert Ross a vet­ April Warren formally turned over to him command of the North American Sta­ eran of the Peninsu0-r campairpts. Ross:S instructions were to effect a divC:Sion on tion. During his first month in command, Cochrane implemented his instructions th.e coasts .of the Unzted States zn favor of the army in Canada. Just a week before, to pursue the war vigorously. He extended the blockade of the United States to all Vzce ~dmzral Cochrane had received Sir George Prevost:S call for retaliation on the of New England and offered runaway slaves asylum and the opportunity to serve Amerz~ans for depredations against the civilian population of Canada. The day in the British army. followznfI th~ amval of the fleet, Cochrane read Cockburn:S dispatches recommend­ Tangier Island, selected as a Royal Navy supply depot and rendezvous point for zng ~ctzon zn the Potomac and Patuxent. On 29 July, a squadron from the British prizes, soon became a training ground for a corps of Colonial Marines Medzterranean brought several transports carrying additional reinforcements into composed of runaway slaves eager to fight against their former masters and a' l!ermuda. The stage was now set for some of the most dramatic events of the war camp for their families. When word of the Treaty of Ghent reached the Chesapeake, zn the Chesapeake. British officers balked at considering such persons as property and returning them The tex.t~ selected for this chapter document the preparations on both sides as well to their former owners as the treaty required. Some three hundred runaway slaves as the Brttzsh landzng at Benedict, Maryland, the destruction of Barney:S flotilla, enlisted as Colonial Marines. Approximately two thousand left with the departing the. Battle of BlatJen:burf5: t~e. occupation and burning of Washington, the capitu­ British to make new lives in British territory, primarily in the maritime provinces. 2 latzon of Alexandrta, Vzrgznza, and the British withdrawal down the Patuxent The United States government did little to protect the people living along the an~ Potomac. While many element~ ~f this story are familiar, several aspects of the Chesapeake from the Royal Navy's blockade and coastal raids. During its Decem­ a.ctzons. of. naval personnel, both Brttzsh and American, are less so and merit atten­ ber 1813-April 1814 session, Congress increased the authorized strength of the tzon. Szmzlarly, t~e. texts printed here g}ve the immediacy of the eyewitness to the oft­ army to 62,500, and recruitment brought the actual strength to 40,000 by early told tr:~ of the Bn:tzsh ~sault on Baltzmore and that city :s gallant defense. 1814, and to nearly 45,000 a year later. Yet, federal troops continued to march !3rt~zsh operatz?ns zn the Chesapeake during the War of 1812 succeeded in north to the Canadian frontier, leaving communities along the shores and tribu­ brz.ngzng ha~dshzp and. deprivation to the civilian population of the bay, but taries of the bay to look to their own resources for defense. 3 faz~d to achz.eve ~trategzc goals. The M~dison administration remained steadfast US. naval forces were inadequate to break the blockade or challenge the enemy:S zr: zts det~znat~or: .to ~ake the Canadzan .frontier its principal theater of opera­ frigates and ships of the line operating in the bay. The sloop of war Adams, tzons. Brttzsh actzvztzes zn the Chesapeake dzverted no American soldiers or sailors Charles Morris, managed to slip into the Atlantic, but the frigate Constellation, from the north.. British dep.redations failed in the end to strengthen the political Charles Gordon, was able to do no more than help the gunboats of the Gosport han~ of bay regzon Federalzsts, for the burning of Washington and the attack on Navy Yard defend Norfolk. The Baltimore flotilla was severely reduced when the Baltzmore awoke t~ Ffeneral populace to the need to support the administration leased ships that constituted its greatest strength were returned to their owners. The for the sak~ of patrtotzc selfdefense. The ~apture and burning of Washington had most credible threat to British domination of Chesapeake waters was the flotilla no strategzc eff~cts. Was~zngton was nez~her an economic nor a logistical center. service, a new independent command, answerable directly to the secretary of the The .temporary znterruptzon of the operatzons offederal offices in the capital failed navy, under Joshua Barney, who had proposed the unit in the summer of 1813. 4 to dzsrup~ ~he decentralized American war effort. News that the Americans had de­ Barney reasoned that a fleet of armed barges could defend the bayside communi­ feated Brttzsh naval forces at Lake Champlain (11 September 1814) and had suc­ ties by opposing the boats and small vessels that carried British landing parties be­ cessfully rebuffed a British expeditionary force at Baltimore (13-14 September tween Royal Navy warships and land through shallow waters. After the US. 1814) reached Europe by October and spurred the British peace commissioners at Navy purchased the row galley Vigilant in September 1813 for the fledgling Ghent to relax their negotiating terms.