Barney’s Flotilla and St. Leonard’s Creek

The Chesapeake Flotilla under Commodore Joshua Barney represented the only sustained American attempt to contest British control of the Chesapeake Bay during 1813-1814. Barney, a Revolutionary War veteran and former privateer, proposed and then commanded a force of shallow-draft barges and gunboats designed to operate in the rivers and creeks where the Royal Navy’s deep-draft frigates could not follow. It was an innovative concept that achieved local successes but could not alter the fundamental reality of British naval supremacy in the bay.

Barney’s flotilla was assembled in the spring of 1814 and consisted of approximately fifteen barges and gunboats, manned by some 500 experienced sailors and marines — the ‘flotillamen’ who would later distinguish themselves at Bladensburg. The vessels were armed with long guns and carronades and could operate in water too shallow for British warships.

The flotilla’s most significant engagement occurred at St. Leonard’s Creek on the Patuxent River in June 1814. British forces under Captain Robert Barrie trapped Barney’s flotilla in the creek and attempted to destroy it. Two actions were fought — on 10 June and 26 June — in which Barney’s gunboats traded fire with British barges and supporting frigates. The second action, supported by artillery fire from militia positioned on the creek’s banks, allowed Barney to break out and proceed up the Patuxent.

The strategic situation, however, was unresolvable. The flotilla could survive in the rivers but could not challenge British control of the open bay. When Ross’s expeditionary force landed at Benedict in August 1814, Barney’s flotilla was trapped in the upper Patuxent. Rather than allow his vessels to be captured, Barney ordered them burned at Pig Point on 22 August — a painful decision that destroyed months of effort but denied the British their prize.

Barney then marched his flotillamen overland to Bladensburg, where they provided the only effective American resistance of the day. The flotillamen — experienced, disciplined, and accustomed to combat — held their position long after the militia had fled, manning naval guns against the advancing British infantry until their ammunition was exhausted and Barney himself was wounded and captured.

The story of Barney’s flotilla illustrates both the possibilities and the limitations of asymmetric warfare against a dominant naval power. In the creeks and rivers, the flotilla was effective. But it could not be everywhere, could not protect the capital, and could not prevent the British from projecting power wherever they chose along the coast. Local defence could slow the British; it could not stop them.