Robert Ross | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1766 |
| Died | 12 September 1814 (aged 47–48) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Resting place | Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Education | Trinity College Dublin |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Great Britain United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Service years | 1789–1814 |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Conflicts | |
Major-GeneralRobert Ross (1766 – 12 September 1814) was aBritish Army officer who served in theFrench Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and theWar of 1812.
Ross joined the British army in 1789. He served as an officer in several battles during the Napoleonic Wars, including the battles of Maida and Corunna, gaining promotion to colonel. In 1809, he was sent to serve in thePeninsular War, including the Battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, Sorauren, and Orthez. He was wounded in the neck at theBattle of Orthez in France on 27 February 1814.[1]
Upon returning to duty later that year, Ross was made a major general and sent to North America, as commander of "all British forces on the East Coast". In August 1814, he reachedBenedict, Maryland and continued on, leading the professional soldiers who quickly defeated a poorly organized American militia at theBattle of Bladensburg on 24 August; that evening, he led his troops intoWashington D.C.[1]
During his command of theBurning of Washington many important U.S. Government buildings, including theWhite House and theCapitol were damaged, demoralizing and greatly damaging the American war effort. Ross then led a British invasion north up theChesapeake Bay towards the city ofBaltimore which culminated in theBattle of Baltimore that September. On 12 September, he was shot while commanding troops atNorth Point, and died while being moved to the rear.
Ross was born inRostrevor, County Down, Ireland, to Major David Ross, an officer in theSeven Years' War and his wife, Elizabeth Adderley, the maternal half-sister ofJames Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont.[2] He was educated atTrinity College Dublin in Ireland, where he was a treasurer of theCollege Historical Society and joined the25th Regiment of Foot as an ensign in 1789.[3]
Ross fought as a junior officer at the battles ofKrabbendam in theNetherlands in 1799 and theBattle of Alexandria inEgypt in 1801. In 1803, he was promoted to major and given command of the20th Regiment of Foot. He next fought at theBattle of Maida in theKingdom of Naples in 1806.
He was promoted tolieutenant–colonel at the end of 1808 and fought in theBattle of Corunna in Spain in early 1809 during thePeninsular War. In 1810, Ross was made a fullcolonel as well asaide-de-camp to the King.
In 1813, Ross was sent to serve underArthur Wellesley and commanded his regiment at thebattles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, andSorauren that year. He was seriously wounded in the left side of his neck at theBattle of Orthez, on 27 February 1814, and had just returned to service when he was given command of an expeditionary force to attack the United States.
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Ross sailed to North America as amajor general to take charge of all British troops off the east coast of the United States. He personally led the British troops ashore inBenedict,Maryland, and marched throughUpper Marlboro, Maryland, to the attack on the Americans at theBattle of Bladensburg on 24 August 1814, routing the hastily organised militia units that opposed him.[4][5] Author Steve Vogel credits Ross' strategy for the success at Bladensburg: "He conducted a brilliant campaign of deception, feinting one way or the other, marching and then doubling back, and was able to paralyze the Americans and prevent them from defending Bladensburg".[6]
After the victory at Bladensburg, Ross was persuaded by Rear-AdmiralGeorge Cockburn that they could takeWashington, D.C., and late in the evening of 24 August his army of 4,500 men (including 1,000Royal Marines from Cockburn's flotilla) captured the capital, in spite of a larger contingent of American defenders. Under Ross' direction, his troopsset fire to the city's public buildings, including theWhite House and theUnited States Capitol. Extensive damage to the interiors and the contents of both were subsequently reported.[3]
Ross refused to accept Cockburn's recommendation to also damage private property.[7] The attack on theNational Intelligencer newspaper was led by Cockburn.[8]Ross ordered the preservation of private property however, threatening his men with punishment if they disobeyed.[9]
ACBC News article described Ross as a "reluctant arsonist" who needed persuasion from Cockburn to cause intentional damage. Although Cockburn had been optimistic about the possibility of capturing the capital city,[10] author John McCavitt asserted that Ross "never dreamt for one minute that an army of 3,500 men with 1,000 marines reinforcement, with no cavalry, hardly any artillery, could march 50 miles inland and capture an enemy capital".[11]
At the urging of Cockburn and army quartermaster-general LieutenantGeorge de Lacy Evans,[12] Ross then led his army againstBaltimore. His troops subsequently landed at the southern tip of the "Patapsco Neck" peninsula (between thePatapsco River andBaltimore Harbor on the south andBack River on the north) of southeasternBaltimore County at North Point, twelve miles southeast from the city, on the morning of 12 September 1814. En route to what would be theBattle of North Point, a part of the largerBattle of Baltimore, the British advance encountered Americanskirmishers. General Ross rode forward to personally direct his troops. An Americansharpshooter shot him through the right arm into the chest. According to Baltimore folklore, two American riflemen, Daniel Wells, 18, and Henry McComas, 19, fired at him and one of them had fired the fatal shot; both were killed shortly afterward. Ross died while he was being transported back to the fleet after being shot by the American sharpshooter.[13]
Ross's body was preserved in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 L) ofJamaican rum aboardHMSTonnant.[14] When theTonnant was diverted toNew Orleans, his body was shipped on the British shipHMSRoyal Oak toHalifax,Nova Scotia, where his body was interred on 29 September 1814 in theOld Burying Ground.
In Ross's home village ofRostrevor,County Down inNorthern Ireland, he is commemorated by a 99-foot granite obelisk near the shoreline ofCarlingford Lough. The Monument, a 100-foot granite obelisk, was restored in 2008.[15] A smaller monument was erected in Kilbroney Parish Church by troops who had served with Ross at the Battle of Maida in 1806.[16] This granite memorial was erected in 1826 "on a hill within view of his heartbroken widow’s home", according to a 2013 report.[17]
Ross is also commemorated by a National Monument inSt Paul's Cathedral in London, England.[18] The latter is described by a book about Ross as: "Britannia is represented weeping over the tomb of the departed warrior, over which an, American flag is being deposited by a figure of Valour, while Fame descends with a wreath of laurels to crown the hero’s head".[16]
The inscription on the National Monument reads:
DEDICATED AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE TO THE MEMORY
OF MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT ROSS
WHO HAVING UNDERTOOK AND EXECUTED AN ENTERPRISE AGAINST THE
CITY OF WASHINGTON, THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WHICH WAS CROWNED WITH COMPLETE SUCCESS WAS KILLED SHORTLY
AFTERWARDS WHILE DIRECTING A SUCCESSFUL ATTACK UPON A SUPERIOR FORCE NEAR THE
CITY OF BALTIMORE ON THE 12TH DAY OF SEPTEMPTER 1814
By the beginning ofthe Troubles in the 1960s, the monument in Rostrevor—now located in a predominantly Roman Catholic region—was largely neglected and overgrown by brambles; this may have contributed to its avoiding the same fate asNelson's Pillar inDublin, which was reportedly blown up by theIRA in 1966. After theGood Friday Agreement in 1998, theNewry and Mourne District Council, though largelyIrish republican, agreed to refurbish the monument as part of Rostrevor's history, and it was reopened in 2008.[19][20]
Neither General Ross nor his immediate descendants wereknighted while he was living or received a title of nobility. However, his descendants were given anaugmentation of honour to the Rossarmorial bearings (namely, the addition of achief to the shield and a secondcrest, both depicting an arm grasping the old American flag15 stars and 15 stripes (Star-Spangled Banner (flag) of 1795-1818) on a broken staff, along with the additional motto of "Bladensburg") and the family name was changed to thevictory title"Ross-of-Bladensburg", which was granted to his widow.[21][22][23]
In honour of the Federal City and national capital'shistory of Washington, D.C., there is also a portrait of the infamous General Ross in theUnited States Capitol's central rotunda, along with a small art decorative vignette near a corridor ceiling portraying the Burning of Washington and exhibits in the recently-constructed[when?] underground visitors' center on the Capitol's east front. Along with several illustrations / exhibits in variousWar of 1812 historical sites / museums in theBaltimore metropolitan area, including a stone obelisk monument near the site off Old North Point Road in southeasternBaltimore County, erected in memory of Aquila Randall who was also killed here (dedicated in 1817 by fellow soldiers and officers of hisMaryland Militia regiment), and where General Ross supposedly was shot. Additional details and exhibits have been preserved in various Baltimore historical institutions, such as theStar Spangled Banner Flag House (also known recently as the Flag House and Star-Spangled Banner Museum), 1793 historic home of flagmakerMary Young Pickersgill in theJonestown /Old Town neighborhood ofDowntown / East Baltimore) and theNational Park Service's landmark site ofFort McHenry's new visitor center extensive exhibits on Whetstone Point, by the Baltimore harbor, and also in the local community's Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society museum inDundalk, Maryland, near the 1814 North Point battlefield in outlying southeast Baltimore County.
According to a biographical history of the Major-General by Robert Lacy,[15]
Ross was a soldier who combined caution with courage. He was immensely popular with his men because of his willingness to share their hardships and to fight alongside them in the thick of battle. A colleague said of him thathe could not be 'a better man nor a more zealous officer'. Ross also commanded the respect and admiration of his opponents because of his unfailing courtesy and chivalrous conduct. One of the leading physicians then residing in 1814 Washington paid tribute to Ross’s ‘consummate modesty and politeness’.
Local lore indicates that the two snipers/riflemen Daniel Wells and Henry McComas (of the unit of Aisquith's Sharpshooters") were first buried in a local churchyard mourned by their fellow militia soldiers and citizens of the Town, but forty years later in the1850s were exhumed and reburied after elaborate processions and funerals in a monumental tomb with a stone obelisk in what was known then as Ashland Square. Currently, off of the triangular intersection of Aisquith, East Monument and North Gay Streets in theJonestown/Old Town neighborhood of East Baltimore. Occasional memorial ceremonies are still held for them by War of 1812 descendents and heritage societies. The Wells-McComas Monument is depicted on the embroidered shoulder patch insignia of theBaltimore County Sheriff's Office for deputy sheriffs. City streets were also named for them in South Baltimore, off South Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2).
Cockburn, who accompanied Ross into the capital, reportedly wanted to burn the entire city in retaliation for American depredations in Canada. But it was an army operation and Ross' call, and he would have none of it.
we could easily have at our mercy the capital
Their names do not pop up until the 1850s, when a political movement bent on keeping immigrants in general and Catholics in particular out of positions of power resurrected their memory.
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