Existing comment:
It was indeed a Day & Night of horrors, the fleet debarkment from Admiral Cockburn's fleet lay directly before our House. The Capitulation of Alexandria & the result you must have seen in the Public Papers. We left home for Loudoun while the British Vessels were in our River, passing in the ferry Boat close to them without being molested; you know not how it hurt me to think I was so near by Country men, & must look upon them as Enemy, whom I should have rejoiced to have shown every attention to; we found three Rockets on hour Hill evidently pointed at our House but fortunately did not reach it.
As part of the British expedition in the Chesapeake Bay, a naval force under Commodore James Alexander Gordon was ordered to sail up the Potomac River to attack Fort Warburton [located in present-day Fort Washington Park, Maryland], located only a few miles from Mount Welby. On August 27, Captain Dyson, the commander at Fort Warburton, spiked his guns, blew up the fort, and retreated as soon as Gordon's fleet opened fire.
Five hundred and forty-five men were stationed at Mount Welby to protect the rear end of Fort Warburton. Later, these troops joined American forces to defend the White House Gun Battery [located at present-day Fort Belvoir, Virginia] on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River. The battery engaged ships of Gordon's British squadron from September 1 through September 5. Despite an energetic American effort, little damage was done to the British. |