Things Looking Bad in the Chesapeake Bay Area July 4, 1813-- Part 1

From the July 4, 2013, Blog of 1812 "Joshua Barney's Defense Proposal."

A great source of primary souce material for the War of 1812.

These are Navy commander Joshua Barney' s assessment of the situation of the Chesapeake Bay to which he was charged to defend.

'DEFENCE OF CHESAPEAKE BAY

The Enemy have on Station (in the Chesapeake Bay), 11 ships of the line, 33 frigates, 38 sloops of war and a number of Schooners &c."

Now just these numbers would be daunting considering the lack of ships Barney had to fight them, but this was not the main thing he was trying to point out in his report.  He had serious worries other than ship numbers.  He had no ships of the line and just one frigate, the USS Constellation, that I know about.  Then, of course, he probably had a whole bunch of Mr. Jefferson's gunboats which didn't amount to much.

But, of interest, I was trying to see what was going on this date back 200 years ago.

I'll Do These Tomorrow. --Brock-Perry