CHAPTER VIII. THE WAR OF 1812. The affair of the Chesapeake and the Leopard roused the whole country, and preparations for war were made at once. Maryland being called on for six thousand men, double that number volunteered. The spirit of the Marylanders is shown by an incident that occurred early in the year 1812. Three sailors escaped from a British vessel lying near Annapolis, but were seen and fired at before they reached the shore. An armed party was sent after the deserters, who, they declared, should be taken back by force if caught. The citizens of the town, however, surrounded the Englishmen, took away their arms, and sent them back to their ship, not only without the three deserters, but without a fourth man also who refused to go on board again. Annapolis Defies The outrages of great Britain at length became unbearable. She had captured many of our merchant vessels, had insulted our Navy, and had impressed thousands of sailors from American vessels and compelled them to serve on the English warships, where they were treated with great cruelty. The United States could no longer submit to such treatment, and declared war on June 19, 1812. Many persons in the United States, especially in the northern cities, were opposed to the war, but in Maryland the people on the whole favored it. There were, how Riots in Baltimore. ever, a number of prominent men in the State who opposed the war openly. Among these were Jacob Wagner and Alexander C. Hanson, editors of a newspaper, the Federal Republican, published at Baltimore. This paper opposed the war so fiercely that the people became enraged; and on June 20, 1812, a mob destroyed the type, presses, and building belonging to the newspaper. The editors, however, continued to publish the paper, printing it at Georgetown. Trouble soon followed. On the twenty-seventh of July a score of men who supported the Federal Republican and who had fortified themselves in Wagner's house at Baltimore, were attacked by a mob. The Mayor of the city succeeded in persuading the garrison to surrender, under promise that they should receive no hurt, and they were taken to the jail for safety. The following night the mob attacked the jail, captured nine of the prisoners, and cruelly beat and cut them. One of the nine, General James M. Lingan, died from his injuries; and another, Henry Lee, a distinguished general of the Revolutionary War, was crippled for life. Eight of those who were in the jail made their escape. This attack was an outrage against that freedom of thought and speech so dear to all Americans. It had such an effect on the people of the State that in the elections which took place shortly afterwards many of the counties elected Federalist delegates, so that the Federalist party, which was opposed to the war, had a majority in the Legislature. Nevertheless, Maryland continued to support the government in carrying on the war. The Americans proposed to invade Canada; and while preparations were being made to this end, two Marylanders, Lieutenant Jesse Duncan Elliott and Captain Nathan Towson, captured two British armed brigs near Buffalo. With a small force they rowed out to the brigs in two small boats, captured them, and sailed them down the lake. Both vessels ran aground in the Niagara River within gunshot of the Canadian shore, and the British fired on them. The Americans, however, got away with their prisoners and the cargoes of the vessels, but had to destroy one of these, the Detroit. The other, the Caledonia, was saved by the efforts of Captain Towson, and afterward made one of Perry's fleet. Many Privateers The attempted invasion of Canada was a failure, and the result of the war thus far was favorable to the British, except at sea where the United States were quite the equal of the enemy. Maryland alone sent out, within four months after war was declared, fortytwo armed vessels. These with other privateers, swarmed over all the ocean, capturing British vessels and even attacking the enemy's men-of-war. More privateers sailed from Baltimore than from any other city in the United States, and a larger number of officers in the Navy came from Maryland than from any other State: forty-six out of a total of two hundred and forty. It will give some idea of the hurt done by American vessels to English commerce to know that Commodore Barney, in one short cruise in his schooner Rossie, captured ships and cargo to the value of a million and a half dollars, and took two hundred and seventeen prisoners. Five hundred British merchant ships were captured in seven months. At the end of the year 1812 Great Britain declared Chesapeake and Delaware Bays to be in a state of block 250233 . ade; and by the spring of 1813 the blockade was extended to the whole Atlantic coast except Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The effect of the blockade was disastrous to Maryland commerce. In 1812 the net revenue collected in the State, in cus Blockaded, 1812. Chesapeake Bay toms, was $1,780,000; in 1813 this fell to $182,000; and in 1814 the expenditures exceeded the receipts. A British fleet, under Admiral Cockburn, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and harassed the shores, plundering and burning the towns, and capturing and destroying all the small vessels they could find. The fleet sailed up the Bay and lay off the city of Baltimore. No attack was made on the city, but a number of towns at the head of the Bay were pillaged and burned. The only defenders at these places were small bands of militia, as the Federal Government refused to send aid to the State. The militia did its best, and sometimes succeeded in driving off the attacking parties; but they were usually too few to stand against the larger forces of British soldiers. When there were no more vessels, militia, and stores of war material left in the upper waters of the Chesapeake, Cockburn returned to the lower part of the Bay. In spite of all this, the feeling in support of the war gained in strength throughout the State. By the year 1814 the overthrow of Napoleon left England free to give more attention to the war with the United States. More ships and a land force were sent over. By the month of August they had landed at Benedict, and were on the march to Washington. Nothing whatever had been done in the way of building defenses for the capital. The British soldiers, suffering severely from the heat, at first advanced very slowly. Battle of a Pretending to march directly on Washington, they turned and went rapidly on to Bladensburg. They numbered about four thousand five hundred men, while the American army, under the command of General William H. Winder, of Baltimore, numbered about seven thousand. The two armies met on August 24, the Americans in a strong position on a hill, August 24, 1814. and separated from the British by stream over which was a single narrow bridge. This the enemy succeeded in crossing, and after some fighting drove the Americans from the field and captured half of their artillery. The only troops on the American side who fought with any bravery were a party of four hundred sailors under Joshua Barney, of Baltimore. These manned a battery of five guns and stood by their guns. bravely, even when attacked on the flanks and in the rear, until Barney was wounded and taken prisoner. Then they fell back, abandoning their guns. Commodore Barney had been in command of the Chesapeake Bay fleet of gunboats, but had been compelled to destroy his vessels to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. It was thought useless to try to defend Washington with the army scattered in all directions, and therefore General Winder marched towards Baltimore with the few troops he could collect. The British marched on to Washington. The Capitol, the President's house, the Treasury building, the Navy Yard, the State and War Departments, were burned and destroyed. Public property to the value of more than two million dollars, besides private property, perished. The destruction of the Arsenal and naval storehouses at Washington had been one of the chief aims of the |