Captain James Gordon's Raid

"In 1812 Gordon, now with a wooden leg, was again afloat, captain of the Sea Horse; and in 1814 was under Cochrane on the American station."

"In August, Cochrane and Ross resolved on the raid on Washington; and Gordon, with a small squadron, was ordered to sail up the Potomac, in support of the land forces.  He started on the 17th, and struggled up to Fort Washington in ten days.  "We were without pilots," he writes, "to assist us through that difficult part of the river called Kettles Bottoms, consequently each of the ships was aground twenty times, and the crews were employed in warping five whole days."

"On the 27th he took Fort Washington, and on the next day appeared off Alexandria, and offered terms of capitulation to the town which our cousins found hard of digestion. Washington city had been abandoned by Ross on the 25th, after the public buildings were burnt.  The whole country was rising and here was this impudent one-legged captain insisting that the merchant ships which had been sunk on his approach should be delivered to him, "with all merchandise on board or---."  The army was already back at the coast, there was not the slightest chance of support, and his difficulties were increasing every hour; but the Alexandrians soon found that nothing but his own terms would get rid of this one-legged man." 

"No stranger feat of daring was ever performed than this, now nearly forgotten." [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]