badly wounded, she had one shot in her hull, and her sails &c. were very much cut. The damage on board the schooner, which bore the brunt of the action, was but small, only one man severely wounded, and the rigging a little cut.

5. The hostile squadron continuing to stand up the bay, on the 9th of April they reached Annapolis, and on the 16th appeared off the mouth of the Patapsco, twelve or fourteen miles from Baltimore. Both Annapolis and Baltimore were threatened with an attack, but nothing was attempted, the enemy carefully keeping their vessels at a safe distance from the guns of the forts.

6. But though the fortified towns escaped the vengeance which had so long been threatened, it was not the case with the unprotected villages, which skirt the rivers that fall into the head of the bay. Four of these were laid in ashes by admiral Cock"burn, who gallantly led the barges which ascended the rivers for this purpose. These plundering and burning expeditions will long render his name famous in the neighbourhood of the Chesapeake bay.

Having sufficiently signalized their prowess by the burning of Frenchtown, Havre-de-Grace*, Georgetown, and Fredericktown, and the farm-houses, mills, &c. adjoining, the squadron returned down the bay, destroying the oyster-boats, wood-shallops, and other river craft in their progress, and showing themselves, but at a convenient distance, at every fortification near the bay.

§ 7. The squadron, after returning down the bay, resumed their station in Hampton Roads, with the view of attacking Norfolk. Early on the morning of the 22d of June, they landed a large body of troops, from the accounts of deserters about 2500, on the west side of Elizabeth river, and marched them up towards Craney Island, the passage to which from the main land, is fordable at low water. Forty-five or fifty boats full of men, were then sent to effect a landing on the north side of the island, with whom the force on the main land was directed to co-operate. The whole force on the island at the time of the attack was 487, riflemen, infantry, and artillery, and 150 seamen and marines, forty-three of whom were on the sick list.--With this handful of men was the landing of the enemy successfully opposed, and they were forced to retreat to their ships, with the loss of several boats by the fire of the artillery.

* The burning and plundering of Havre-de-Grace is perhaps the most signal of Cockburn's exploits. The houses being apart, had to be separately set on fire; and the labour bestowed in injuring the church must have been very con siderable, every pane of glass in the building having been broken by stones and brickbats.

§ 8. Foiled in their meditated attack on Norfolk by this repulse at the mouth of the harbour, the British again turned their attention to the easier task of laying waste unprotected villages, and that of Hampton, which lay nearly opposite, naturally presented itself. Here they landed a body of 2500 men, with but little opposition, there being only a small detachment of militia encamped near the town, who were soon forced to retreat under a heavy fire of artillery, musketry, and Congreve rockets. The British now took possession of the village; and here a horrid scene of barbarity ensued, which was characterized by plunder, devastation, murder, and rape. The British troops shortly after retreated to their ships, when a correspondence. took place by means of flags between general Taylor, the commandant at Norfolk, and sir Sidney Beckwith, quarter-mastergeneral of the British forces, on the subjeet of these excesses. Sir Sidney attempted to justify them on the ground of inhumanity in some of the American troops on Craney island, whom he charged with having waded into the river, and shot at their unresisting and yielding foe, who clung to the wreck of a boat which had been sunk by the fire of their guns. This imputation was promptly repelled, and a board of officers was immediately appointed to investigate the charge. From the evidence adduced it appeared, that in the action at Craney island, two of the enemy's boats in front of their line were sunk by the fire of the batteries; the soldiers and sailors who were in those boats were consequently afloat and in danger of drowning, and being in front of the boats that were uninjured, guns were necessarily fired in the direction of the men in the water, but with no intention whatever to do them further harm; but, on the contrary, orders were given to prevent this, by ceasing to fire grape, and only to fire round shot; it also was substantiated that one of the enemy who had apparently surrendered, advanced towards the shore, about one hundred yards, when he suddenly turned to his right and endeavoured to make his escape to a body of the enemy who had landed above the island, and who were then in view; then and not till then was he fired upon to bring him back, which had the desired effect, and he was taken unhurt to the island. It further appeared, that the American troops exerted themselves in acts of hospitality and kindness to the unresisting and yielding foe.

But even if this charge had been founded on fact, it could not have justified the measures adopted by the British. The facts should surely have been first clearly ascertained and redress demanded, before any retaliation was resorted to, especially a retaliation so extravagant in its measure, applying not to the

perpetrators of the alleged offence, nor to their comrades, but to the unresisting, innocent, and helpless.

During the remainder of the summer hostile demonstrations were made by the British squadron in various points on the waters of the Chesapeake, particularly at Washington, Annapolis, and Baltimore, in which, if the aim of the enemy was merely to harass, they were certainly eminently successful. A A part of the Chesapeake squadron, under admiral Cockburn, likewise appeared off Ocracock bar, North Carolina, where their barges destroyed two privateers, and landed a number of men at Portsmouth and Ocracock, who committed a number of wanton depredations.

§ 9. The British squadron off New York confined themselves to keeping up a strict blockade. The American frigates United States and Macedonian, and the sloop of war Hornet, sailed from New York on a cruize in the beginning of May, Finding, however, that a much superior force lay off the Hook, they put back, and on the 25th, passed through Hell-gate, with the intention of putting to sea through the sound. This intention was frustrated by the superior force of the enemy in that quarter, by which they were several times driven back, and on the first of June they were chased into New London by two 74's and a frigate, which immediately anchored off that place, and in a few days were joined by the force that had been blockading off the Hook. As the movements of the British indicated an intention of attacking New London, prompt measures were taken for its defence. Six hundred militia were called out, and to insure the safety of his squadron, commodore Decatur landed a number of his guns, which were mounted in a battery, and the vessels, thus lightened, proceeded up the river, where they were secure from any attempt of the larger vessels of the enemy.

New London is situated on the river Thames, about 7 miles from Long Island sound, and can be approached by ships of any draught of water. The channel, however, is narrow, and completely commanded by the surrounding heights, which were so strongly fortified, as to deter the squadron from any hostile attempt. They contented themselves, therefore, with keeping up a blockade, which still exists, and making a few predatory excursions on Long Island and the neighbouring continent. *An act was passed by congress in the winter of 1812-13, to encourage the destruction of the enemy's blockading vessels, by a bounty of half the value of the vessel destroyed, if effected by any other means then by the armed or commissioned vessels of the United States, in consequence of which several abortive at

tempts were made. The two most remarkable were those against the Ramilies, off New London, and against the Plantagenet, off Cape Henry, at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay.

10. The attempt on the Ramilies was made on the 25th of June. The schooner Eagle was loaded at New York with a number of flour barrels filled with gunpowder, in one of which was fixed a gun-lock, with a string to the trigger made fast to the bottom of the vessel. Over these were placed a few barrels of damaged flour. Thus prepared, she threw herself in the way of the boats of the blockading squadron off New London, and on their coming up to take possession of her, the crew took to their boat, and made their escape. It was expected that the schooner would be taken along-side of the Ramilies to unload; but the wind and tide being against them, and night coming on, it was determined to unload as much of the flour in the boats as could conveniently be done. When they came to the barrel of powder in which the gun-lock was placed, and hooked the tackle to hoist it on deck, it sprung the trigger, and blew up the schooner and all on board and around her, and in a few seconds not a vestige of them was to be seen.

The attempt on the Plantagenet was made in the month of July, by means of a torpedo. On the night of the 18th, Mr. Mix, of the United States navy, accompanied by two persons who volunteered for the purpose, proceeded from Norfolk down to the Plantagenet, in a large open boat, and from previous observations found no difficulty in ascertaining her position. When Mix had got to within 40 fathom of her, he dropped the torpedo over, in the very instant of doing which he was hailed by one of the enemy's guard boats. The machine was speedily taken into the boat again, and he made his way off in safety. On the night of the 19th he made another attempt, and was again discovered ere he could accomplish his purpose. On the night of the 20th he succeeded in getting within 15 yards of the ship's bow, and directly under her jib-boom. There he continued making his preparations for 15 minutes, when a centinel from the forecastle hailed "boat ahoy!" and he had once more to decamp. The centinel not being answered, fired his musket, which was followed by a rapid discharge of small arms. Blue lights were made to find out the boat, but failed; they then threw rockets in different directions, which illuminated the water for a considerable width as far as they were thrown, and succeeded in discovering the position of the nocturnal visitor; when the ship commenced a rapid fire of heavy guns, slipped her cables, and made some sail, while her boats were despatched in pursuit. The daring intruders, however, escaped un

VOL. II.

hurt. The visit was repeated on the nights of the 21st, 22d, and 23d, without success, as the ship, having taken the alarm, changed her position every night. On the night of the 24th, however, Mr. Mix succeeded in finding her out, and having taken his position within 100 yards distance, in a direction with her larboard bow, he dropped the fatal machine into the water just as the centinel was crying all's well. It was swept along with the tide, and would have completely effected its errand, it is said, had it not exploded a few seconds too soon. The scene was awfully sublime. It was like the concussion of an earthquake, attended with a sound louder and more terrific than the heaviest peal of thunder. A pyramid of water 50 feet in circumference was thrown up to the height of 30 or 40 feet; its appearance was a vivid red, tinged at the sides with a beautiful purple. On ascending to its greatest height, it burst at the top with a tremendous explosion, and fell in torrents on the deck of the ship, which rolled into the yawning chasm below, and had nearly upset.-Impervious darkness again prevailed. The light occasioned by the explosion, though fleeting, enabled Mr. Mix and his companions to discover that the forechannel of the ship was blown off, and a boat which lay alongside with several men in her, was thrown up in the dreadful convulsion of the waters. Terrible, indeed, must have been the panic of the ship's crew, from the noise and confusion which appeared to our adventurers to prevail on board; and they are certain that nearly the whole ship's crew hastily betook themselves to the boats.