On the Ocean 45 



gunboats were even more unsuccessful, but the 

 Danes certainly did very well with theirs. 



Barney's flotilla in the PatuxenU remained quiet 

 until August 22d, and then was burned when the 

 British advanced on Washington. The history of 

 this advance, as well as of the unsuccessful one on 

 Baltimore, concerns less the American than the Brit 

 ish navy, and will be but briefly alluded to here. On 

 August 2Oth Major-General Ross and Rear- Ad 

 miral Cockburn, with about 5,000 soldiers and ma 

 rines, moved on Washington by land; while a 

 squadron, composed of the Seahorse, 38, Euryalus, 

 36, bombs, Devastation, BLtna, and Meteor, and 

 rocket-ship Erebus, under Captain James Alexander 

 Gordon, moved up the Potomac to attack Fort 

 Washington, near Alexandria; and Sir Peter Park 

 er, in the Menelaus, 38, was sent "to create a diver 

 sion" above Baltimore. Sir Peter's "diversion" 

 turned out most unfortunately for him: for, having 

 landed to attack 120 Maryland militia, under Col 

 onel Reade, he lost his own life, while fifty of his 

 followers were placed hors de combat and the re 

 mainder chased back to the ship by the victors, who 

 had but three wounded. 



The American army, which was to oppose Ross 

 and Cockburn, consisted of some seven thousand 

 militia, who fled so quickly that only about 1,500 

 British had time to become engaged. The fight was 



