Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
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For two years the United States had been fighting with Great Britain during War of 1812. The British fleet was marauding the Chesapeake Bay when Joshua Barney, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War, assembled a motley collection of barges and gunboats known generally as the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla to stall the British attacks. He set sail in April 1814 with these eighteen ships: seven 75-foot barges, six 50-foot barges, two gunboats, one row-galley, one lookout boat and the 49' sloop-rigged flagship Scorpion.
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[edit] Engagement
On June 1, 1814, Barney's flotilla encountered a force led by the H.M.S. Dragon, 74, and St. Lawrence near St. Jerome Creek near Cedar Point. The American force retreated into the Patuxent River where it was quickly blockaded. Barney's force was outnumbered 7:1, but after retreating into St. Leonard's Creek which was too shallow for the British warships to enter, Barney's troops were able to fend off the attack. Continuous battles continued through June 10. The British, frustrated by their inability to flush Barney out of his safe retreat, instituted a "campaign of terror," laying waste to "town and farm alike." Calverton, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick, Benedict and Lower Marlboro were plundered and burned.[1]
On June 26, with the arrival of troops commanded by U.S. Army Colonel Decius Wadsworth, and U.S. Marine Captain Samuel Miller, Barney attempted a breakout. A simultaneous attack from land and sea on the blockading frigates at the mouth of St. Leonard's creek allowed the flotilla to move out of the creek and up-river to Benedict. Two of Barney's flotilla, Gunboats 137 and 138 were scuttled in the creek. The British entered the then-abandoned creek and burned the town of St. Leonard's, Maryland.[1]
As the British, under the command of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane moved up the Patuxent, preparing for a landing at Benedict. Concerned that Barney's remarkable flotilla could fall into British hands, Secretary of the Navy, Jones ordered Barney to take his squadron as far up the Patuxent as possible, to Queen Anne and scuttle the squadron if the British appeared. Leaving his barges with a skeleton crew commanded by Lieutenant Solomon Frazier to handle any destruction of the craft, Barney took the majority of his men to join the American Army commanded by General William Henry Winder where they were to join the Battle of Bladensburg.[1]
On August 22, 1814, the British attempted to capture Barney's squadron at Queen Anne. As noted in his report of the affair the tactical commander, Admiral Sir George Cockburn wrote:
"as we opened the reach above Pig Point, I plainly discovered Commodore Barney's broad pendant in the headmost vessel, a large sloop and the remainder of the flotilla extending in a long line astern of her. Our boats now advanced towards them as rapidly as possible, but on nearing them, we observed the sloop bearing the broad pendant to be on fire, and she very soon afterwards blew up. I now saw clearly that they were all abandoned and on fire with trains to their magazines, and out of the seventeen vessels which composed this formidable and so much vaunted flotilla sixteen were in quick succession blown to atoms, and the seventeenth, in which the fire had not taken, were captured. The commodore's sloop was a large armed vessel , the others were gun boats all having a long gun in the bow and a carronade in the stern, but the cailbre of the guns and the number of the crew of each differed in proportion to the size of the boat, varying from 32 pdrs. and 60 men, to 18 pdrs. and 40 men. I found here laying above the flotilla under its protection, thirteen merchant schooners, some of which not being worth bringing away I caused to be burnt, such as were in good condition, I directed to be moved to Pig Point. Whilst employed taking these vessels a few shots were fired at us by some of the men of the flotilla from the bushes on the shore near us, but Lieutenant Scott whom I had landed for that purpose, soon got hold of them and made them prisoners. Some horsemen likewise shewed themselves on the neighbouring heights, but a rocket or two depended them without resistance. Now spreading his men across the country the enemy retreated to a distance and left us in quiet possession of the town, the neighbourhood and our prizes."[2]
Thus ended the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla.
[edit] Archeology
In 1978, a survey of the upper Patuxent River was taken using a proton procession magnetometer, and the fleet was located. Further study of the wrecks, including on vessel dubbed the Turtle Shell Wreck followed in 1979. The Turtle Shell, was lying in the main river channel near Wayson's corner, and covered by five feet of mud, the ship was well preserved, although it appeared the bow was torn off in an explosion.[1]
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 riverbed.
A replica of one of his gunboats today sits in a waterside park in Bladensburg, Maryland.
