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Since 1813 the Royal Navy had carried out a campaign in Chesapeake Bay, raiding the shorelines of Virginia and Maryland. The raids targeted public buildings and supplies in a hope of diverting American troops from the Canada front and persuading US civilians to advocate for peace at a time when British forces were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars .
The Chesapeake campaign was a strategic offensive of the Royal Navy designed to destroy American naval resources, vessels, forts, dockyards and arsenals; and impose a full naval blockade of the Atlantic Coast in order to seize ships and powder magazines from Charleston to New York. [1] The Chesapeake campaign battles: [NB 1] Rappahannock (3 ...
The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a motley collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay which came to be known as the "Chesapeake campaign" during the War of 1812.
Map of the Chesapeake Campaign. The strategic location of the Chesapeake Bay near the Potomac River made it a prime target for the British. Rear Admiral George Cockburn arrived there in March 1813 and was joined by Admiral Warren who took command of operations ten days later. [135]
Sir Peter Parker. In 1814, as part of the War of 1812, Major General Robert Ross of the British Army moved a force into the Chesapeake Bay.Ross' subordinates, Vice Admirals Sir Alexander Cochrane and Sir George Cockburn of the Royal Navy, were in charge of naval actions in the Chesapeake Bay.
British and American movements during the Chesapeake campaign 1814. The Raid on Alexandria was a British victory during the War of 1812, which gained much plunder at little cost but may have contributed to the later British repulse at Baltimore by delaying their main forces.
Cockburn sailed for the upper Chesapeake Bay from near Baltimore and occupied Spesutie Island on 23 April 1813. [2]: 25–27 After a successful raid on Frenchtown on the Elk River on 29 April, Cockburn attempted to venture further upriver until forces at Fort Defiance stopped him. [2]: 27–29 [3]
That year in 1814, during the Chesapeake campaign, they proceeded up the Chesapeake Bay, as there were no forts guarding the mouth of the bay at the time (this led to the building of Fort Monroe beginning in the 1820s, to close the bay to enemy vessels), routing Admiral Barney's flotilla of gunboats, carrying out the Raid on Alexandria, landing ...