While visiting neighbors on Wonton Creek in Kent County, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed, 21st Regiment, saw four British landing barges from the frigate HMS Loire and schooner HMS St. Lawrence. Reed quickly borrowed a musket and gathered twenty-nine neighbors armed with duck guns and muskets to ambush the British barges as they passed.
Learn more from Maryland in the War of 1812 by historian Scott Sheads.
On April 26, 1814, Secretary of the Navy William Jones promoted Acting Master Commandant Joshua Barney to the rank of Captain, writing:
“…Herewith you will receive a commission from the president as Captain in the Flotilla Service of the United States. You will be entitled to seventy five dollars per month and six rations per day, being the pay and subsistence of a Captain in the Navy commanding a ship of 20 and under 32 guns, and governed by the rules and regulations provided for the government of the Navy…”
Cross-posted from the Blog of 1812 courtesy the Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum.
On March 19, 1814, Captain Thomas Boyle and the Comet arrived at Beaufort, North Carolina where he ended his third and final cruise as the ship’s commander.
Excerpts from Boyle’s log were published in the Baltimore Patriot where he gave an account detailing their voyage from their escape from the Chesapeake Bay in October to the ship’s battle with the Hibernia in January to the “large man of war brig” that gave chase on March 5 before his ship “out sailed her with ease.” Boyle concluded the with satisfaction, writing:
On the 19th, arrived at this place after a cruize of 5 months, and being chased during that time thirty four times, by frigates and men-of war brigs, but always out sailed them.
On February 23, 1814, Rear Admiral George Cockburn sailed his flagship the HMS Albion into Lynnhaven Bay marking the return of the British military campaign to the Chesapeake.
The British attacks on coastal Maryland and Virginia towns that earned Cockburn a reputation for brutality in 1813 paused when most of the fleet sailed for Bermuda in September. Returned from the Caribbean after a tour of the Atlantic blockading squadrons, Rear Admiral Cockburn soon resumed the aggressive raids and anticipated grander actions under his new, more aggressive commander in chief Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane.
On February 2, 1814, President James Madison appointed Christopher Hughes, Jr. to serve as the “secretary of the joint mission for negotiating a treaty of peace and of commerce with Great Britian” at Ghent, Belguim. Born and raised in Baltimore, Hughes’ father was a well-known local silversmith.
Learn more about Christopher Hughes, Jr. (1786-1849) from Maryland in the War of 1812.
Source: U.S. Secretary of State James Monroe to Hughes, February 2, 1814. Christopher Hughes Papers, Clements Library, University of Michigan.
On January 25, 1814, mechanic John Owings received two patents for the design of a new water mill and an impressed roller for the production of “knives, spoons, etc.” Born in Baltimore around 1780, Owings lived in the city’s Western Precincts at Paca and Franklin Streets. He later served as a Captain under Colonel Jessop in the 36th Regiment of the Maryland Militia.
On January 6, 1814, the United States Congress awarded Captain Oliver Hazard Perry and Captain Jesse D. Elliott the Congressional Gold Medal for their service at the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813.
On the same day, Lieutenant William Ward Burrows II and Lieutenant Edward McCall received a Congressional Gold Medals for their service in the capture of the HMS Boxer on September 5, 1813.
On December 30, 1813, the HMS Bramble sailed into the Annapolis harbor under a flag of truce. The ship brought first news of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in October and a proposal from Foreign Minister Lord Castlereagh to open peace negotiations between the United States and Britain. President James Madison accepted the offer ten days later.