War in the Chesapeake-- Part 2: Battle of St. Leonard Creek

From the Maryland Department of Planning, Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.

During the war, the British controlled the Chesapeake Bay. Commodore Joshua Barney assembled a rag-tag fleet of 18 small gunboats, barges and sloops and on June 8-10 and again on June 26th, met the British fleet at the Battle of St. Leonard Creek where the Patuxentt River meets the mouth of St. Leonard Creek, right on the shore of the Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum (JPPM).

Barney's fleet were supported on the shore by American Army, Marines and militia.

Cannonballs, musket shot and other military objects have been found on the grounds.

Barney's heavily outguned fleet was able to escape.

Local figures from the battle are tied to the JPPM property: John Stuart Skinner, a a farmer, journalist and owner of the Point Farm during the war; Joshua Barney, commander of the American fleet and Charles Ball, one of at least three blacks in the American flotilla, were all Calvert County natives.

--Brock-Perry