HMS Albion Stamp from Turks and Caicos

Turks and Caicos are British Islands in the Bahamas Chain, northeast of Cuba.

They have put out a stamp honoring both Admiral Alexander Cochrane and the HMS Albion.

The Albion was stationed  off Chesapeake Bay, part of a force that  harried the coastline of that bay during the War of 1812.

The Albion operated all the way up the Potomac and Patuxent rivers destroying large amounts of American shipping as well as U.S. government property.

This operation ended when peace was declared in 1815.

--Brock-Perry

Bomb Vessel HMS Volcano-- Part 2

After the Battle of Baltimore, the Volcano served on the Potomac River.  On October 31, 1814, while escorting a merchantman to Jamaica, it was nearly captured by the 7-gun privateer Saucy Jack.

It was then sent to the Mississippi River with the bomb vessel HMS Aetna, and the HMS Herald (18 guns), HMS Thistle (12 guns), HMS Pygmy (11 guns).  They participated in the bombardment of Fort St. Philip, downriver from New Orleans.

After the retreat from New Orleans, it sailed the Gulf Coast and in the siege of Fort Bowyer by Molbile.

It was sold at Dortsmouth 28 August 1816.

--Brock-Perry

Southern Maryland's Role in War of 1812-- Part 2

On July 19, 1812, the British occupied St. Clements and St. George islands and landed just north of Point Lookout in St. Mary's County and raided along the shores of the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. They already had a blockade along the Atlantic Coast as well as a major presence in the Chesapeake Bay.

Commodore Joshua Barney, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was the commander of a privateer ship in 1812. He proposed the construction of a small defensive flotilla in 1813 to harass the Royal Navy and protect American property.

His small fleet skirmished with a small British fleet off Cedar Point on June 1, 1814. His fleet was blocked from the Potomac River so entered the Patuxent River whereupon the British blockaded that river's mouth. The British then pursued Barney's ships into St. Leonard Creek and the fleets exchanged gunfire. Outgunned, the Americans retreated into shallower water where the British couldn't follow.

The British then raided along the Patuxent River's shore to draw Barney out. There was a skirmish at Benedict in Charles County on June 21, 1814, between the English sailors and marines and American militia who drove them back to their ships.

It's Not Over Yet. --Brock-Perry