| Raid on Havre de Grace | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWar of 1812 | |||||||
 An illustration of a British raid in the Chesapeake Bay during the war | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |  United States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| George Cockburn John Lawrence George Augustus Westphal | John O'Neill | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 150Royal Marines Royal Regiment of Artillery Seamen | Fewer than 40Maryland Militiamen | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 wounded[1] | 1 dead | ||||||
  Havre de Grace Location within Maryland | |||||||
TheRaid on Havre de Grace was aseaborne raid that took place on 3 May 1813 during the broaderWar of 1812. A squadron of theBritishRoyal Navy underRear AdmiralGeorge Cockburn attacked the town ofHavre de Grace,Maryland, at the mouth of theSusquehanna River. Cockburn's forces routed the town's defenders and sacked and burnt several buildings before withdrawing.
Cockburn sailed for the upperChesapeake Bay from nearBaltimore and occupiedSpesutie Island on 23 April 1813.[2]: 25–27 After a successful raid onFrenchtown on theElk River on 29 April, Cockburn attempted to venture further upriver until forces atFort Defiance stopped him.[2]: 27–29 [3]
Cockburn had vowed to destroy any American town that decided to violently resist him. He had not initially planned to attack Havre de Grace but when he saw anAmerican flag flying over the town and a local American battery firing shots at his forces, he decided to attack.[1][2]: 27, 29
Cockburn's fleet was anchored off Turkey Point, separated from Havre de Grace by an area ofshoal water too shallow for large ships to navigate.[2]: 29 Cockburn therefore sentCommander John Lawrence at the head of aflotilla of sixteen[2]: 29 or nineteen[3] boats to row across the shoals, beginning at midnight on 3 May.[1]
Despite or because of intelligence warning of an impending attack, most of themilitia that had been in Havre de Grace had departed before the raid.[2]: 30 Fewer than forty[3] troops remained at the Concord Point battery when the flotilla attacked at dawn. These troops briefly returned fire untilCongreve rockets were fired at the town, which killed a resident of Havre de Grace.[2]: 30 LieutenantGeorge Augustus Westphal then stormed and captured the battery.[3]
Second LieutenantJohn O'Neill single-handedly manned another battery—the so-called "Potato Battery"—until his cannon'srecoil struck him.[2]: 30 O'Neill retreated to fire on the British with amusket while he unsuccessfully signaled the militia to return.[2]: 30–31
The townspeople and remaining militia retreated as the British drove them further from town.[2]: 32 Westphal and his troops entered the town and burnt 40 of its 60 houses. They spared theEpiscopal church from being burned, although they did vandalize it.[2]: 32
Cockburn removed six cannons from the town and took O'Neill and two other Americans back to his flagship,HMS Maidstone. However, Cockburn released O'Neill upon appeal from local magistrates.[2]: 34 Cockburn reported only one injury: Westphal was shot in the hand.[1]
After the raid on Havre de Grace, Cockburn sent troops up the Susquehanna River to destroy a depot and vessels there. British forces also navigated to nearbyPrincipio Furnace, a largeironworks and cannon foundry, and destroyed the facilities there.[1][2]: 34
Cockburn's account of the raid appeared in theLondon Gazette on 6 July 1813.[1]
Jared Sparks—an educator, historian, and laterpresident of Harvard University—who was tutoring the children of a local family also saw the attack. Sparks wrote an account of the attack that was published in 1817 in theNorth American Review and Miscellaneous Journal.[4][5]
James Jones Wilmer was living in Havre de Grace at the time and published an account of the incident soon after it happened.[6]
Benjamin Henry Latrobe did not witness the event but is known to have written toRobert Fulton about it.[2]: 32
The raid was depicted in a near-contemporaryetching byWilliam Charles, aScottish-bornengraver who immigrated to theUnited States. The etching,Admiral Cockburn Burning & Plundering Havre de Grace, is now held by theMaryland Historical Society.[7][8]
