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The War of 1812 against Great Britain had been going for two years. The British Fleet was marauding up and the down the Bay. Joshua Barney, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War, assembled a motley collection barges and gunboats to stall the British attacks. With eighteen ships - seven 75' barges, six 50' barges, two gunboats, one row galley, one lookout boat and the 49' sloop-rigged flagship Scorpion, he set sail in April 1814. While trying to attack a British reconnaissance force, he was trapped in the St. Leonard's Creek just above the mouth of the Patuxent River by three British warships - the HMS Dragon under Commander Barrie, the eighteen gun Jaseur and the thirty-eight gun HMS Loire - in June 1814. The narrow creek providing an ideal defensive position, Barney was able to fend off the British in a fierce three day battle. The War of 1812 (in Britain, the American War of 1812), was fought between the United States and British Empire from 1812 to 1815, on land in North America and at sea around the world. ...
Joshua Barney (6 July 1759 - 1 December 1818) was a commodore in the United States Navy who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. ...
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen of her North American colonies. ...
The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. ...
In August, a British invasion fleet of forty-eight ships arrived in the Chesapeake intent on sailing up the Patuxent River to attack Washington. Barney’s small flotilla managed to escape up river ahead of advancing fleet. The main British force of about 5400 troops landed at Benedict on August 21, as that was as far as the largest British ships could proceed up river. The invasion force then marched up river to Nottingham with the smaller ships of the fleet proceeding up river in support, with Barney being pushed up river by the superior force.
Admiral Cockburn, commanding the British ships proceeded right up to Charlestown – now Mt Calvert – with the intent of vanquishing Barney’s ships. American snipers harassed the British from the bluffs but the British landed marines and quickly dispersed the Americans. By this August 22, Barney had abandoned and set afire his ships to avoid there capture. His 500 sailors proceeded to Bladensburg as artillerymen to participate in the last ditch defense of Washington on August 24. While most of the American defenders broke and ran at the Battle of Bladensburg, Barney’s force made a gallant stand but was ultimately overrun, Barney himself was wounded and captured. Washington was burned to the ground on August 24th and 25th. The Battle of Bladensburg was a battle fought during the War of 1812. ...
Combatants Britain United States Commanders Robert Ross George Cockburn Unknown Strength 4,250 Unknown The Burning of Washington is the name given to the razing of Washington, D.C., by British forces during the War of 1812. ...
The British retraced their steps, re-embarked their ships on the Patuxent and proceeded to Baltimore and their unsuccessful attack on Fort McHenry that was immortalized in the Star Spangled Banner. Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a star fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay. ...
Nicholson took the copy Key gave him to a printer, where it was published as a broadside on September 17 under the title The Defence of Fort McHenry, with an explanatory note explaining the circumstances of its writing. ...
When the new Route 4/Hills Bridge was built in 1990, remnants of Barney's ships were found buried more than five feet below the river bed.
A replica of one of his gunboats today sits in a waterside park in Bladensburg.
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