Death Of Major-General Robert Ross

Reminiscences of My Military Life from 1795 to 1818, By Charles Steevens (in Europe):

D.C. Area (General Ross's Route)

Source

Burning Washington

Psychological Warfare?

Source - View of White House Circa 1799

At 6 o'clock, after a rest of two hours, the British resumed their march and about dark, encamped a short distance east of the Capitol. Up to this time the raid had been conducted as an eminently proper military movement, but suddenly the British began to execute literally the orders given by Cochrane. The two wings of the Capitol were the only parts finished, but these were set afire and in the conflagration the Library of Congress and many valuable public documents were destroyed. Ross and Cockburn with about 200 men marched quietly along Pennsylvania Avenue to the President's house and set it afire...". [Source]

Aquila Randall And General Ross Forever Linked Together

Source

Monument inscribed with both (Aquila Randall and General Ross) at place where Ross fell.....

Aquila Randall Monument

From the State of Maryland's Star-Spangled 200 organization's website:

"On Baltimore County’s historic Patapsco Neck near the intersection of Old North Point and Old Battle Grove roads stands the second oldest known military monument in Maryland, the third in the United States. It is also the least known and visited War of 1812 monument."

The Allen Browne blog also has a post about the monument and the events surrounding it.

An historical marker database also included the marker, and indicated that it was the "Aquila Randall Obelisk, Also Known as the Ross Monument."

Source

Captain Gordon's Potomac Raid

Portrait of Captain Gordon - Source

The Canadian site War of 1812, a biography of naval commander Captain James Alexander Gordon (1782 - 1869), and included the following:

"In 1814, Gordon’s talents helped the British naval effort against the Americans during the War of 1812. He led a daring and successful expedition up the Potomac River from August to September. His raid on Alexandria and attack on Fort Washington were meant to divert American eyes away from General Robert Ross’s attack on Washington."

"Of the many expeditions up the bays and rivers of the United States during the late war, none equaled in brilliancy of execution that up the Potomac to Alexandria. This service was intrusted to Captain James Alexander Gordon, of the 38-gun frigate, Seahorse...". "On the 17th [August] at 9 h l5 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." [Source]

Barney's Spring

Source

The flight of Stansbury's troops left [Commodore] Barney unsupported in that direction, while a heavy column was hurled against Beale and his militia, on the right, with such force as to disperse them. The British light troops soon gained position on each flank, and Barney himself was severely wounded near a living fountain of water on the present estate of Mr. Rives, which is still known as Barney's Spring. [Source]

Commodore Barney was taken as a POW, but was immediately paroled by British General Ross.

A Summary Of The War In 1814

Excerpts from a sign at the Cumberland Island NPS Museum:

CRISIS, CLIMAX, AND PEACE - 1814

As Britain and her allies ended their war against Napoleon, thousands of battle-hardened British regulars boarded ships for America.  In July, they captured 100 miles of coastline in Maine.  In late July they turned back the last American attempt to invade Canada.  In August, British forces marched on Washington, the American capital.

In mid-September, on Lake Champlain, at Plattsburgh Bay, New York, Lieutenant Thomas McDonough's under gunned American squadron defeated a superior British fleet.  The tide of war changed and peace talks began in Ghent, Belgium.

Not knowing the war had ended, the Battle of New Orleans saw troops under General Andrew Jackson first slow then defeat a British advance on January 8th, 1815.

Note: The Battle of the Ice Mound, Battle at Point Peter and the Battle of Bowyer occurred after the Battle of New Orleans.

British General Robert Ross

British General Robert Ross, the man who captured Washington, D.C., was killed at the Battle Of North Point (a part of the larger Battle Of Baltimore).

Part of the poem about the Battle Of North Point depicting the fallen General Ross who was said to have been shot by American soldiers Wells and McComas:

With sunshine streaming face

McComas walk'd the steps through air.

With Wells departed out of sight.

They passed to distant climes afar.

 Unbounded by the shades of night 

The wounded Ross by friendly arms 

Was laid beside the crimson road.

General Ross's body was preserved in a barrel of rum with the intent of being returned to Ireland.  The war interfered with those plans and his body was shipped to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Poem Of The Battle Of North Point

The Battle of North Point: a poem commemorative of September 12th, 1814...

By William Matthew Marine (excerpted below):

THE BATTLE OF NORTH POINT 

The clouds hung o'er the threatened coast,

Above the bluff the shore the strand,

 Where the imperial red-coat host,

 In barges rowed toward the land.

 Upon the beach strewn pebbles lay,

 Smoothed by the water's polishing.

 Where ebbs and flowing tides held sway,

 To dashing breakers murmuring.

 The river rolled great waves of scorn,

 Indignant at the sight beheld;

 Its wrath was roused that early morn,

 And troublous billows dashed and swelled.

 The Briton crossed the deep to siege,

 To storm the heights of Baltimore,

 And wreak his malice and his rage,

 To light the torch upon this shore.

 From decks of oak the soldier proud,

 Marched in the ranks to serve his King.