Two hundred years ago the United States was at war, and the Chesapeake was at the heart of the action. Since February of 1813, the British had blockaded the 200-mile-long Chesapeake Bay, disrupting trade, devastating the region’s economy, and raiding farms and towns. British ships prowled the waters of the Bay to the extent that a local resident noted “the enemy nearly all ‘round us.”
During the summer of 1814, the action heated up. Marylander Joshua Barney was the commodore of the U.S. Chesapeake Flotilla with the mission to harass the British fleet and defend waterfront towns from the largest naval power in the world. Commodore Barney’s fleet was a collection of 18 small, hastily-built, quick-moving barges, carrying cannons forged at the Curtis Creek Iron Furnace in northern Anne Arundel County. The fleet was dubbed the “Mosquito Fleet” and was manned by veteran mariners who could expertly row and sail the barges and pester the much larger enemy ships by luring them into the shallow waters of the Chesapeake, running them aground, enabling land forces to finish the job.
Barney knew the odds were stacked against his American fleet, but something had to be done. At the end of May 1814, Barney and the Mosquito Fleet headed down the Bay from Baltimore intent on the British base on Tangier Island. On the way, however, they ran into the British at the mouth of the Patuxent River and were forced to flee up the river. Trapped on St. Leonard Creek, Barney would not give up. The two battles that ensued are collectively the largest naval engagements in Maryland history.
Although the Americans were successful in outmaneuvering the British, the enemy began a campaign of raiding and burning homes and towns along the Patuxent River. It was a campaign of terror that local residents would remember for generations. But, it was only a hint of what was to come in the late summer of 1814.
Many War of 1812 sites and towns along the Chesapeake Bay are hosting bicentennial events and commemorations this summer. For event details, a map, and information about the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake, check out the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail at starspangledtrail.net. For information about the larger commemorations associated with the Chesapeake Campaign and the bicentennial of the Star-Spangled Banner, check out starspangled200.com.
The author Heather Ersts is the partnership and outreach coordinator of the MD War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.
