| Captain
Joshua Barney, Flotilla Service, to Louis Barney
flotilla
off Benidick, June 27th. 1814 Dr.
Louis,
Yesterday morning at the point
of day we woke up our enemies, by 2 pices.
(18 pounders) under Capt Geoghegan 1 his officers
& 20 men of the flotilla ,
with red hot shot, 3 pr. under Capt Miller
of the Marines, the Artillery posted on a Hill commanding
the Enemy, the whole under Col. Wadsworth, the
enemy were so alarmed that it was a quarter of an hour
before they returned a shot— I moved
down with the flotilla, and joined in "Chorus," our
shot was terrible, as we were not more than four
hundred yards off, a distance which did not suit us, for
we were within grape shot, but I was obliged to
take that or none, as they lay direct
in the mouth of the Creek, we pushed out and gave it to
them, the moment we appeared they ceased
their fire on the Batteries and poured it into us, seeming
to have just waked, we returned it with
Interest, at 6 they began to move and
made sail down the river leaving us Masters of the field, thus
we have again beat them & their Rockets, which they
did not spare, you see we improve, first,
we beat a few boats which they thought would make an easy
prey of us, then they increased the number, then they
added schooners, and now behold the [two] frigates,2 all, all, have
shared the same fate, I next expect,
ships of the line; no matter we will do our duty— My
loss was 6 Killed & four wounded, young Asquith
who had just joined us was killed—Captn. Sellers, Kiddall,
& Worthingtons3
boats were the sufferers, I had three
men wounded at the fort, for it was my men alone
that fought there, altho there was 600 men of Carbery4 & Littles5 Regmt.
in the rear— I am now waiting orders
from head quarters.
Give
my love to Ann6
& Kiss Misses—Your Afft.
J Barney Wm.7 was not
with us, as I had sent him with Skinner,8
in a flag to the Admiral with dispatches from Government— The
moment the enemy ran off, we moved up the River,
so that, thanks to Hot & cold shot the Blockade has
been raised— ALS,
MdAN. Joshua Barney’s brother, Louis, lived in Baltimore.
1Sailing
Master John Geoghegan’s warrant dated from 16 September
1813. He served with the Chesapeake Bay flotilla from
11 March 1814 until his 15 April 1815 discharge.
2Tape
obliterates the end of the line. The British had two
frigates, Loire and Narcissus, stationed
at the mouth of St. Leonard’s Creek.
3Sailing
Master James Sellers’s warrant dated from 27 January
1814. He was attached to the Chesapeake Bay flotilla
on 9 March 1814. Sailing Master John Kiddall’s warrant
and flotilla service dated from 6 October 1813. Henry
Worthington’s sailing master warrant dated from 15 September
1813. All three served in the flotilla until their discharge
on 15 April 1815.
4Colonel Henry
Carbery, U.S.A.
5Probably
Peter Little, colonel in the Thirty-eighth Infantry,
U.S.A.
7William
Barney, Joshua Barney’s son.
8John S. Skinner,
purser, U.S.N.
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