Aug, struc the destroyed the two bridges crossing the eastern 1814. branch. A party, under captain Wainwright, destroyed the few stores and buildings in the navyyard, which had escaped the flames of the preceding night. As the British were in haste to be gone, and Deas the vessels, even could they have been floated in tion of safety down the Potomac, were not wanted, it was ships very considerate in the american government to on the order the destruction of the frigate, of 1600 tons, stocks, which was nearly ready to be launched, and of the fine sloop of war, Argus, ready for sea; and whose 20 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long 18pounders, would have assisted so powerfully in defending the entrance to the city by the lower bridge. &c. of ty de-i According to the official estimate of the public Value property destroyed, the value has been much over- public rated. It appears not to have exceeded 1624280 properdollars, or £365463 sterling. With respect to stroyed private property, we have only to quote passages &c. from american prints, to show how that was treated. One newspaper says: "The british officers pay inviolable respect to private property, and no peaceable citizen is molested." A writer from Baltimore, under the date of August 27th, says: "The enemy, I learn, treated the inhabitants of Washington well." That the british officers did all they could to secure the 'inhabitants from injury, both in their persons and properties, may also be gathered from the acknowledgment of Mr. Thompson, another american writer, that "the plunder of individual property was prohibited, and soldiers, transgressing the order, were severely punished." on their reem On the 25th, at 8 P. M., the British left Washing- British ton, by the way of Bladensburg. Here such of the march wounded as could ride, or be transported in car- return riages, were provided with 30 or 40 horses, 12 carts and and waggons, one coachee, and several gigs. With bark at these, preceded by a drove of 60 or 70 cattle, the dict. troops moved leisurely along. On the 29th, in the evening, they reached Benedict, 50 miles from Bene 1814. Washington, without a single musket having been Aug. fired; and, on the following day, reembarked in the vessels of the fleet. No complaints, that we can discover, have been made against the British, during their retreat across the country; although, as an american writer has been pleased to say, "general Ross scarcely kept up his order, sufficiently to identify the body of his army." Capt. with a dron mac. Of the many expeditions up the bays and rivers Gordon of the United States during the late war, none squa- equalled in brilliancy of execution that up the ascends Potomac to Alexandria. This service was intrusted to captain James Alexander Gordon, of the 38gun frigate Seahorse, having under his orders the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Euryalus, captain Charles Napier, bomb-ships Devastation, Etna, and Meteor, captains Thomas Alexander, Richard Kenah, and Samuel Roberts, rocket-ship Erebus, captain David Ewen Bartholomew, and a small tender, or despatch-boat. On the 17th, at 9 h. 15 m. A. M., the squadron got under way from the anchorage at the entrance of the Potomac, and, without the aid of pilots, began ascending the intricate channel of the river leading to the capital of the United States. On the 18th the Seahorse grounded, and could only get afloat again by shifting her guns to the tenders in company. That done, and the guns returned to their places, the squadron again stood up the river. On the 25th, Acci- while passing the flats of Maryland point, a squall dent struck the squadron: the Seahorse had her mizenEury- mast sprung; and the Euryalus, just as she had to the alus. clewed up her sails to be in a state to receive it, had her bowsprit and the head of her foremast badly sprung, and the heads of all three topmasts fairly wrung off. Such, however, was the state of discipline on board the ship, that, in 12 hours, the Euryalus had refitted herself, and was again under way ascending the river. On the 27th, in the evening, after each of the ships dron Fort ington, and re of truce andria. had been aground not less than 20 times, and each 1814. time obliged to haul themselves off by main strength, and after having, for five successive days, with the squaexception of a few hours, been employed in warping arrives a distance of not more than 50 miles, the squadron off and arrived abreast of Fort Washington. The bomb- attacks ships immediately began throwing their shells into Washthe fort, preparatory to an attack the next morning takes by the two frigates. On the bursting of the first shell, it, the garrison was observed to retreat; but, supposing ceives some concealed design, captain Gordon directed a flag the fire to be continued. At 8 P. M., however, all from doubts were removed by the explosion of the Alexpowder magazine, which destroyed the inner buildings. On the 28th, at daylight, the British took possession of the fort, and of three minor batteries, mounting altogether 27 guns, chiefly of heavy caliber. The guns had already been spiked; and their complete destruction, with the carriages, was effected by the seamen and marines of the squadron. These forts were intended for the defence of Alexandria, the channel to which the British began immediately to buoy. A flag of truce now came off with a proposal to capitulate; and one hardly knows which to admire most, the prudence of captain Gordon, in postponing his answer to the common council of Alexandria, capituuntil, says he, "I was enabled to place the shipping in such a position, as would ensure assent to the terms I had decided to enforce," or the peremptory and humiliating conditions which he did enforce. It was in vain that the Americans had sunk their vessels; they must get them up again, and put them in the state in which they were, when the squadron passed the Kettle Bottoms; the owners of véssels must send on board their furniture without delay; merchandise removed must be brought back; and the merchants load their own vessels, which will be towed off by the captors! The last article of the capitulation provides, that british officers are to see the terms "strictly com Terms lation. 1814. plied with." One of the officers sent on this service Aug. was midshipman John Went Fraser of the Euryalus, à Shame- mere stripling. Having strayed alone to some dis ful treat of a tance from his boat, two american naval officers rode ment at, as if to run over him; one, a very powerful man, caught the youth by the shirt-collar and dragged ship- him, almost suffocating, across the pummel of the man of saddle, galloping off with him. Fortunately the ryalus shirt-collar gave way, and the lad fell to the ground. mid by сар Porter and ton. He was quickly upon his legs again, and ran towards tains a landing-place, where his boat was waiting; the American pursuing him. The boat and the men in Creigh- it were hid under a steep bank or wall, and, on that account, could not level their carronade at the honourable gentleman as he approached. The instant he saw the boat's crew, he turned pale with fright; and rode off in a contrary direction, as fast as his horse could carry him. The american editors thought this a good joke; and very readily informed us, that one of these worthies was the famed captain David Porter, the other, and he that committed the atrocious and dastardly assault, master-commandant John Orde Creighton, an American by adoption only, and, we rather think, an Irishman. The first of these officers, for his "brilliant deeds at Valparaiso," had recently been appointed to the new frigate at Washington, whose name, to commemorate the exploits of captain Porter's favourite ship, had been changed from the Columbia to the Essex, and his gallant brother-horseman had been appointed to the new corvette Argus; both of which ships, it will be recollected, were burnt, and their intended commanders thrown out of employment, by the entry of the British into Washington, a few days previous. This is what infuriated the two heroes, and determined them to sacrifice the first straggling Briton they could find. At the time this outrage was committed, a flag of truce was flying before Alexandria; whose inhabitants, in a body, disavowed the act, reprobating it as became them. Such conduct on their part alone prevented captain Gordon from 1814. enforcing the last article of the treaty. Aug. taken captain return. After the British had retired from Washington, Means the Americans recovered a little from their panic; to and took strong measures to oppose captain Gordon's oppose return down the Potomac. Commodore Rodgers, Gordon with a chosen body of seamen from the Guerrière at on his Philadelphia, captains Perry, Porter, and other "distinguished officers," a party of officers and men from the Constellation at Norfolk, the men that had belonged to commodore Barney's flotilla, regular troops, riflemen, artillerists, and militia, all flocked to the shores of the Potomac, to "punish the base incendiaries." The american newspaper-editors, for some days, feasted their readers with the anticipated destruction of the british squadron. "It is impossible the ships can pass such formidable batteries, commanded by our naval heroes, and manned by our invincible seamen. We'll teach them how to draw up terms of capitulation." joins des captain from On the 31st, early in the morning, the british Fairy 18-gun brig-sloop Fairy, captain Henry Loraine with Baker, after having fought her way up the river past patches a battery of five guns and a large military force, and joined captain Gordon with vice-admiral Cochrane's Gordon orders for him to return. On the same day, without sails waiting to destroy those remaining stores which he exhad not the means of bringing away, captain Gordon andria. weighed on his return, accompanied by 21 sail of prizes, many of which, having been sunk by the enemy, had been weighed, masted, hove down, calked, rigged, and loaded, all within three days. Contrary winds again compelled the British to resort to the laborious task of warping the ships down the channel of the river, and a day's delay occurred by the grounding of the Devastation. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the Americans attempted the destruction of the bomb-ship, by means of three fire-vessels and five row-boats, directed in person by commodore Rodgers; but their object was defeated |