Existing comment:
The Chesapeake Bay Blockade:
As a result of the effectiveness of the Maryland privateers, the Lords Commissioners of the British Admiralty issued a directive on December 26, 1812 for a blockade of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. To enforce the blockade, fifty-six year old Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren was appointed to the command of the North American Station.
"I do hereby certify to all of whom it may concern, that the ports and harbors of the Bay of the Chesapeake are this day put in a state of strict of rigorous blockade
Given under my hand, on board the San Domingo, in Lynnhaven Bay in the Chesapeake, this 5th day of February, 1813. Captain George Thompson, Royal Navy."
-- The London Times, October 1812
The "Campaign of Terror":
On February 4, 1813, the British fleet entered the Chesapeake Bay bringing with it Rear Admiral George Cockburn [co - burn] on board the 74 gun Marlborough. He had entered the British Navy as a boy of nine. Now forty-one, energetic and ruthless, he would soon become the most hated of the British leaders who campaigned on the Chesapeake. He commanded a fleet which included four ships of the line, six frigates, several sloops and a landing force of 1,800 men. Cockburn's frigates attacked towns of the Upper Chesapeake including Elkton, Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Fredericktown.
In the spring of 1813, the British ships moved slowly up up the Chesapeake. Cockburn sent his barges into most navigable inlets, burning houses and barns and plundering the livestock. The citizens around the bay were terrorized. The Prince George's County militia was repeatedly called to action but they could provide little protection against the British. They were usually disbanded as soon as the immediate danger was past.
Before now, the people of Prince George's County had not really felt the effects of the war, though business had slowed and the compulsory militia service had brought hardship on some. After the blockade was effectually established, conditions became much worse. Merchant vessels could no longer come into the Chesapeake and the price of food increased enormously. Many businesses came to a standstill as they no longer could receive shipments of goods to sell.
"The American navy must be annihilated -- her arsenals and dockyards must be consumed: and the turbulent inhabitants of Baltimore must be tamed with the weapons [bombs and rockets] which shook the wooden turrets of Copenhagen.... All the praying about maritime rights, with which the Americans have recently nauseated the ears of every cabinet minister in Europe must be silenced by the strong and manly voice of reason -- America must be BEATEN INTO SUBMISSION!"
-- The London Times, October 1812 |