The Chesapeake Campaign

Peninsular Veterans in the Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Campaign of August–September 1814 was the most dramatic and consequential British offensive of the war. In the space of three weeks, a force of Peninsular War veterans captured the American capital, burned its public buildings, and then was turned back at Baltimore — producing, in the process, the American national anthem. The campaign laid bare the contradictions at the heart of the American war effort: a nation that had invaded its neighbour found itself unable to defend its own seat of government.

The campaign was made possible by Napoleon’s defeat. The troops who landed in the Chesapeake were not colonial garrison soldiers — they were hardened veterans who had fought at Salamanca, Vitoria, and Toulouse under the Duke of Wellington. Major General Robert Ross commanded the land force. Rear Admiral George Cockburn, who had been raiding the Chesapeake Bay since 1813, provided unmatched knowledge of the region.

“The objective was not permanent occupation. It was demonstration — proof that the United States, having invaded Canada and burned its capital at York, could not protect its own government. The British sought to inflict the kind of humiliation that would force the Americans to negotiate seriously at Ghent.”— Andrew Lambert, The Challenge

The Bladensburg Races

The Battle of Bladensburg on 24 August was the decisive moment. An American force of approximately 6,500 men — holding prepared positions with numerical superiority — was routed by 4,500 British veterans. President Madison, Secretary of State Monroe, and other senior officials had ridden out from Washington to observe the battle. They fled with everyone else. The engagement earned the derisive nickname “the Bladensburg Races” for the speed of the American retreat.

Only Commodore Joshua Barney’s flotillamen and Captain Samuel Miller’s marines offered serious resistance. These experienced fighters held their ground until their ammunition was exhausted and the militia on both flanks had disintegrated. Barney was wounded and captured. His stand was the sole moment of American distinction in an otherwise catastrophic performance.

“Bladensburg was not lost because American soldiers lacked courage. Barney’s flotillamen proved that. It was lost because the American government had failed to prepare adequate defences for its own capital, had relied on militia to oppose professional soldiers, and had placed the defence in the hands of a general who was manifestly unequal to the task.”— Donald R. Hickey, A Forgotten Conflict

The Burning of Washington

The burning that followed was conducted with a discipline that American popular memory has been reluctant to acknowledge. Ross and Cockburn directed the destruction specifically at government and military property: the Capitol, the President’s House (as the White House was then known), the Treasury, the departments of War and State, and a dockyard. Private dwellings were left standing. The Patent Office was spared after its superintendent argued that its contents constituted private intellectual property. When looting was discovered, it was punished.

“The burning of Washington was not an act of wanton destruction. It was a calculated act of retaliation for American conduct in Canada. At Newark, American forces had burned a civilian town in midwinter, leaving hundreds of families homeless in freezing temperatures. At York, they had burned the parliament buildings of Upper Canada. The memory of both was fresh in the minds of every British officer who entered Washington.”— Jon Latimer, 1812: War with America

Dolley Madison’s rescue of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from the President’s House has become one of the war’s most famous episodes. The British found the table laid for dinner in the abandoned mansion — a detail noted with some amusement by Cockburn, who reportedly dined before ordering the building’s destruction.

Baltimore: The Campaign’s Second Act

The advance on Baltimore ended very differently. The city was better defended, better led, and better prepared. Major General Samuel Smith had been organising fortifications for weeks. The militia, fighting to defend their own city rather than invading foreign territory, showed a determination the Washington militia had lacked.

Ross was killed at North Point on 12 September by a sharpshooter’s bullet while reconnoitring ahead of his column. The loss of the aggressive, experienced commander who had driven the campaign fundamentally altered its trajectory. Colonel Arthur Brooke, who assumed command, lacked Ross’s temperament for calculated risk.

The bombardment of Fort McHenry — twenty-five hours of sustained fire from bomb vessels, an estimated 1,500 to 1,800 shells — produced the war’s most enduring cultural legacy. Francis Scott Key, watching from a British truce vessel, saw the enormous flag still flying at dawn and wrote the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“The Chesapeake Campaign demonstrated two things simultaneously: that Britain could strike at the heart of the United States whenever it chose, and that well-prepared American defences could resist even Peninsular veterans. The first point is generally forgotten in American accounts; the second is generally forgotten in British ones. Both are essential to an honest assessment.”— Jeremy Black, The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon