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Joshua
Barney and the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
A Documentary History
Maritime
issues of neutral shipping rights and the impressment of American seamen
divided Britain and the United States during the first decade of the nineteenth
century and eventually led to war. In the spring of 1812, President James
Madison, emboldened by Britain’s embroilment in a European war with
Napoleon, asked Congress to declare war against the British, which it
did on 18 June.
While the scope of
the War of 1812 ranged from Canada to New Orleans and from the Atlantic
to the Indian Oceans, this web site focuses on the small flotilla force
conceived and organized by the citizen-sailor Joshua Barney to defend
the Chesapeake Bay from the marauding depredations of the Royal Navy.
The Chesapeake Bay’s
trade and commerce and its proximity to the United States capital attracted
the interest of British war planners. Their strategy was to blockade the
mouth of the bay and to raid the coastal ports and towns. By hurting the
livelihood of ordinary people, the British hoped to sour American public
opinion against the war.
Early in the war,
the British lacked the naval resources to take the offensive in the bay.
By March 1813, however, Rear Admiral George Cockburn arrived off Lynnhaven
Bay to command a squadron of ships of the line, frigates, and smaller
vessels. The invasion force was impressive, as the Americans depended
on the Virginia and Maryland militias--not army troops; three poorly manned
naval gunboat squadrons; the blockaded frigate Constellation;
the frigate Adams in the Potomac; and a gunboat and four leased
schooners at Baltimore.
From April to September
1813, the Royal Navy had free reign throughout the bay from Havre de Grace
in the north to Norfolk in the south. Except for the successful defense
of Craney Island in Hampton Roads, the Americans experienced hit and run
raiding by British seamen and marines who formed amphibious landing parties
to steal and destroy tobacco, grain, and livestock along the shoreline
of the bay. Respite came only in September when the bulk of the squadron
left to refit and replenish in Bermuda. Admiral Cockburn left behind a
small force to maintain the blockade of the mouth of the bay.
Secretary of the
Navy William Jones’s solution to defending the bay in April 1813
was “a cheap prompt and efficient temporary force” composed
of a gunboat and four leased schooners. This Baltimore flotilla could
only be temporary because the owners of the schooners would soon claim
their vessels for more profitable privateering duty. The Navy Department
had no concrete plan how to defend the bay.
On 4 July 1814, Joshua
Barney proposed a plan to the Navy Department to build, purchase, outfit,
man, and command a flying squadron of twenty barges to defend the Chesapeake
Bay from further British incursions. He had garnered numerous laurels
for his naval exploits during the American Revolution that would satisfy
most men.
But Barney was no
ordinary person. He strove to excel in every venture and adventure he
undertook. When the War of 1812 began, he did not offer his services to
his country at first. An alleged snub over rank in 1794, when the War
Department was assigning command to the new frigates, hurt his honor and
pride. Perhaps the slight still rankled in 1812. In any event, Barney
chose privateering during the first year of the war and was typically
a success at it. But at age fifty-three he embarked on his last great
adventure to serve his country.
The essays and
documents that follow will unfold the story of how Joshua Barney formed
a motley band of men and boats to challenge a vastly superior force of
the Royal Navy and the latter’s response.
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