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.
War in the Chesapeake
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”1composed 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.
Barney Proposes Flying Squadron
On 4 July 1813, 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.
The Enemy have on this Station, 11 ships of the line, 33 frigates, 38 Sloops of war, and a number of Schooners &c.…The Avowed object of the Enemy, is, the distruction of the City & Navy yard, at Washington, the City and Navy yard at Norfolk, and the City of Baltimore.…Frigates, Sloops of War, Schooners with Barges and small craft will be employed against those places;…The question is, how to meet this force with a probability of success. Our ships (two frigates) cannot act, our old gunboats will not answer, they are too heavy to Row, and too clumsy to sail, and are only fit to lay moor’d, to protect a pass, or Assist a Fort. I am therefore of opinion the only defence we have in our power, is a Kind of Barge or Row–galley, so constructed, as to draw a small draft of water, to carry Oars, light sails, and One heavy long gun.2
Barney had garnered numerous laurels for his naval
exploits during the American Revolution that would satisfy most men.
But he 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.3But at age fifty–three he embarked
on his last great adventure to serve his country.
Secretary Jones jumped at the chance to fill the
vacuum caused by the loss of the leased schooners and appointed Barney
to the special command of the Chesapeake
flotilla. Barney spent the summer and fall of 1813 superintending
the construction of eight barges and manning and outfitting vessels
from the former Potomac flotilla that he also inherited. By the spring
of 1814 Barney had formed a motley band of men and boats to challenge
the Royal Navy only to see his flotilla blockaded and destroyed.4
Letterpress to Digital
The goal of this digital history project is to cull material from the Naval Historical Center’s The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History series that pertain to the war in the Chesapeake, and present it online—not in its static, linear format, but with hypertext linking to graphical interfaces and searching capabilities that will enhance its usability and attract a more diversified audience. This digital history project is an experiment to see if a traditional, letterpress documentary editing project can be adapted to the Web. I have limited the scope of this endeavor to one theme within the Chesapeake Bay theater—Joshua Barney’s creation of a flotilla of gunboats and barges to defend the tributaries of the bay against the depredations of the marauding Royal Navy.
Introductory essays will preface each grouping of documents, and annotations will provide explanatory notes, as will links to the “Biographies” and Chronologies” sections. Links to “Maps and Images” will provide a visual perspective, the “Archaeological Site” will attract those interested in material culture, and the “Bibliography” section will serve as a useful reference tool. I hope to show that in using the World Wide Web to present these historical documents, I am not just making them available to a potentially greater audience, but that, through easily accessible hypertext, I have given them contextual meaning.
1William Jones to James Madison, 17 Apr. 1813, Library of Congress (hereafter cited DLC), James Madison Papers, Ser. I, Vol. 51, No. 97.
2Joshua Barney’s Defense Proposal, DLC, James Madison Papers, Ser, I, Vol. 52, No. 73.
3For biographies on Barney see, Hulbert Footner, Sailor of Fortune: The Life and Adventures of Commodore Barney, USN (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940; Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1998) and Louis Arthur Norton, Joshua Barney: Hero of the Revolution and 1812 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2000).
4For the documentary history of the creation, deployment, and demise of the Chesapeake flotilla see, William S. Dudley, et al., eds. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vols. 2 & 3 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1992, 2002).