Swamp Ambush

St. Augustine

11 September 1812

Twelve-Mile Swamp, named for its approximate distance from St. Augustine, Florida, is even now a forbidding area of cypress bogs and palmetto thickets. Through

this heavily wooded wilderness on the evening of 11

September 1812, passed a ragged column of 20 Marines

and Georgia militiamen, led by Marine Captain John

Williams, a sensitive, 47-year-old Virginian. His mission

was to escort a pair of supply wagons from the main camp

of the Patriot Army near St. Augustine to the blockhouse

on Davis Creek, about 22 miles to the northwest.

Williams and his detachment had come to East Florida to

join an expedition intent on annexing the Spanish province, out of fears that the British would use Florida as an

advance base for an invasion, and that escaped slaves

would inspire insurrection in the southern states.

The Marines, half-starved, ill with fever, their dress

uniforms tattered from months of frustrating shore duty

with the Army, were more than a little uneasy as they

eyed the surrounding thickets. They were well aware that

bands of armed Seminole Indians and runaway slaves were

active in the area. Anxious to reach the safety of Davis

Creek before sunset, they hurried the blue military supply

wagons through the gloomy swamp as twilight deepened.

Suddenly, the woods along the trail erupt with a blaze

of musket fire as a large band of Indians and blacks fires a

pointblank volley into the column. Williams, his sergeant, and the lead team of horses are downed by the first

shots. The wounded captain is quickly assisted off the trail

by one of his men. His uniform is that prescribed in the

1810 regulations—navy blue coat faced with red, buttoned and laced in front with a gold epaulet on the right

shoulder and counterstrap on the left; white vest and pantaloons with a scarlet sash; black knee-high boots; and, at

his side, a sword and cocked hat with cockade and plume.

Distinguishable in, their blue coats, white pantaloons,

and high crowned hats, Williams' Marines took up defensive positions along the trail and returned fire with their

standard-issue 1808 smoothbore, muzzle-loading flintlock

muskets. The badly wounded Captain Williams watched

as Captain Tomlinson Fort, his militia counterpart from

Milledgeville, Georgia, took over command, exhorting

the troops to continue the fight until the last cartridge. At

length, he too was wounded and ordered a retreat further

into the swamp. As the fighting ended, the enemy band

destroyed one wagon and drove the other off with their

own wounded inside.

During the night, part of the detachment made its way

to the blockhouse, while Williams, too severely wounded

to be moved, hid himself among the palmetto thickets.

The next morning, a rescue force found the Marine captain—his left arm and right leg broken, and his right arm,

left leg, and abdomen pierced by musket fire. Searching

further, they found six more wounded in the brush, in addition to Williams' sergeant, stripped and scalped.

"You may expect," Williams wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Franklin Wharton four days later,

"that I am in a dreadful situation, tho' I yet hope I shall

recover in a few months." Despite being moved to the

relative comfort of a nearby plantation house, Williams

died on 29 September. The ambush in Twelve-Mile

Swamp and Marine Captain John Williams' subsequent

death proved to be the catalyst which brought an end to

an ill-conceived and diplomatically embarrassing American

scheme to annex Spanish East Florida by force.

Among the source materials used in the preparation of the painting

and plate description were: sketches and photographs made by the artist on a visit to Twelve-Mile Swamp; Captain John Williams ltr to

Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Franklin Wharton, dtd 15Sep1812

(Commandant's Letters Received, RG 127, National Archives,

Washington, D.C.); J. H. Alexander, "The Ambush of Captain John

Williams, U.S.M.C.: Failure of the East Florida Invasion, 1812-

1813," The Florida Historical Quarterly 56 (Jan1978), pp. 280-296.

Parley at Nukuhiva

Marquesas Islands

8 January 1814

In early December 1813, the American frigate Essex,

commanded by Captain David Porter, and a prize ship,

renamed the Essex Junior, sailed eastward from the island

of Nukuhiva toward the South American coast. Seven

weeks before, Porter and five prizes had come to the Marquesas Islands to make repairs and to find "some relaxation and amusement" after five long months of raiding the

British whale fishery in the Pacific. He and his crew, in

addition to enjoying themselves, found time to erect a

small hilltop fort and to put an end to an ongoing civil

war between the coastal natives and hill people. Despite

the pleasures the island afforded and the crew's desire to

remain, Porter finally decided it was time to leave and on

13 December the two ships weighed anchor. He left

behind four prize ships with Marine Lieutenant John M.

Gamble, 22 sailors and Marines, and six British prisoners,

under orders to remain until May the following year. If no

word had come they were to abandon the island.

'With Porter gone, Lieutenant Gamble, an energetic

New Yorker, endeavored to carry on the policy, laid

down by his commander, of maintaining peace on the

island. On 8 January 1814, after several days of torrential

rains, Gamble and a few of his men gather on the shore of

Taiohae Bay to hear a courier from a nearby coastal

village. Wearing comfortable, but non-regulation dress—

summer service Navy trousers, shirt, unbuttoned summer

enlisted coat with captain's rank attached, sword belt,

sash, and chapeau—Gamble listens as a young tattooed

Nukuhivan tells him that a tribe in the next bay is again at

war. Behind the lieutenant stands a Marine in a tattered

uniform, a sailor, and an assortment of natives. Three

drunk and surly British prisoners watch from a distance.

Eager to keep the peace, not only for his own safety,

but for "the harmony and advantage of the natives

themselves," Gamble later set out for the village with two

boats and 12 armed men. On landing, the Marine lieutenant demanded to know the reason for the conflict. He

reminded the villagers of the promise they had made to

Captain Porter to live in peace, and endeavored again to

convince them of the disadvantages of war. The village

chiefs answered that while they were averse to war, the

life of an innocent man had been taken. Gamble quickly

put an end to the quarrel by demanding that the man's

killer be brought to him within two days, or the villages

would be faced with an attack by his whole force.

While his peacemaking efforts succeeded among the natives, Gamble's efforts at maintaining a semblance of

discipline among his men began to fail. Sparked by petty

jealousies, a desire to return home, and numerous provocations by the English prisoners, desertions increased

and the garrison became mutinous. On 7 May, rebellion

flared as English-led mutineers took one of the prize ships

and put to sea. With his position on the island precarious,

Gamble and the few loyal men remaining decided to make

a run for it. Raising sail in the Sir Andrew Hammond, he

and six crewman drifted northeastward without charts or

navigational instruments. Fifteen days later they reached

Oahu, where they were received warmly by the

Hawaiians and American traders. To repay the Hawaiians'

kindness, Gamble agreed to take several chiefs to a nearby

island, but while enroute they were captured by HMS

Cherub and subsequently taken to Rio de Janeiro. Paroled

in November 1814, Gamble, broken in health, finally

reached the United States in August 1815.

Among the source materials used in the preparation of the painting

and plate description were: David Porter,Journal of a Cruise made to the

Pacjfic Ocean, by Captain David Porter, in the United States Frigate Essex,

in the Years 1812, 1813, and 1814, 2d ed. (New York: J. & J. Harper,

1822); George H. Von Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels in Various

Parts of the World, during the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807

(London: Henry Colburn, 1813); Edwin H. Simmons, "The First

Island Commander," Marine Corps Gazette, Mar48, pp. iv cover.

Shipbuilding at

Sackets Harbor

New York

11 January 1814

Ten days before leaving Sackets Harbor, New York, for

Washington in late December 1813, Commodore Isaac

Chauncey wrote to the Secretary of the Navy that deaths

among his men and those of the Army were rising at an

alarming rate. "It is really disheartening," he sadly

reported, "to see so many fine fellows sinking under

disease with scarcely a possibility for saving them." The

cold wintry weather was taking a toll. Of the 215 Marines

under Captain Richard Smith stationed at Sackets Harbor,

32 were in the hospital, suffering from various illnesses

ranging from frostbite to pneumonia. Despite all that the

place could afford to make them comfortable, and the best

medical assistance available, most would be dead within

two to three days. Yet work on three vessels continued.

With the small squadron laid up and Lake Ontario

frozen for the winter, the keels of two brigs and a frigate

were laid in late December in an effort to maintain control

of the lake and halt an expected British advance. Working

feverishly despite the cold wind off the lake, civilian shipwrights, under the leadership of Henry Eckford, had nearly finished planking one of the two smaller vessels and

were beginning to caulk by mid-January. At the same

time, the inexperienced seamen and Marines from the fleet

altered the blockhouse and increased its armament, while

constructing bastions, platforms, messrooms, pickets, and

a magazine for Fort Tompkins, should the British again

attempt to attack and destroy the garrison as they had

done in the spring of 1813.

On 11 January, following his return from New York

with a load of supplies, Henry Eckford, with naval Master

Commandant William Crane and Marine Captain

Richard Smith, survey the final planking of the brig Jefferson; on either side stand the keels of the brig Jones and

frigate Superior. As teams of oxen bring in the last loads of

timber, under the shadow of the yet to be completed Fort

Tompkins blockhouse, the three men discuss the progress

of construction and news received earlier in the morning

from an American spy. The British at Kingston were

preparing to attack, having requisitioned all sleighs in the

Canadian province of Ontario for the purpose. The decision is made to continue work on the three vessels and

build yet another fort at the main crossroads, a short

distance inland. "You may rest assured," Crane writes

Chauncey later in the day, "that we will not yield up the

ships whilst men are left to mann the guns."

The British attack never materialized, and upon the

Commodore's return in late February, the three ships, as

he reported to the Secretary of the Navy, were "in a great

state of forwardness," and were expected to be launched

about the first of May. This success was tempered,

however, by the continued state of his men. "They

suffer," he reported, "much beyond what anyone can

form an idea of, unless they witness it . . . . we have

buried seven Marines out of a Corps of 180 and have this

day on the sick report of the same corps 40 and our

seamen in nearly the same proportion."

With the spring thaw and warmer weather, the winter

illnesses slowly disappeared and work on the three vessels

quickened. During the first week of April, the Jefferson

and then the Jones were launched. Within a month the

frigate Superior was also launched, and by late summer all

three vessels joined the lake squadron in blockading

British bases at Kingston and Niagara.

The following were among the sources used in the preparation of the

painting and plate description: on-site sketches and photographs made

by the artist; Commodore Isaac Chauncey ltrs to the Secretary of the

Navy, dtd 19Dec1813, 20Dec1813, 24Feb1814, and 6Mar1814, (Captain's Letters, RG 45, National Archives, Washington, D.C.);

Master Commandant William Crane ltrs to Commodore Isaac

Chauncey, dtd 11Jan1814 and lFebl8l4 (Master Commandant's Letters, RG 45, National Archives, Washington, D.C.).

The Final Stand

at Bladensburg

Maryland

24 August 1814

The battle had already been lost on the afternoon of 24

August: the "Bladensburg Races" were being run.

Brigadier General William H. Winder's 6,000 militiamen,

facing British Major General Robert Ross' regulars, had

melted away, making retreat towards the capital as had

President James Madison and his cabinet; only Commodore Joshua Barney's stranded flotillamen and Captain

Samuel Miller's 103 Marines remained. Dust and smoke

covered much of the action on the right flank where the

Marines manned two of the three 12-pound "Gribeauval"

field guns, hauled five miles from the Washington barracks to the little Maryland town that morning. The

civilian drivers, in panic, had also departed with the ammunition wagons, leaving the guns with only enough

charge and shot for two or three more rounds.

With the red jackets of the attacking 85th Foot barely

visible through the smoke, Captain Miller, in uniform little changed since 1810, stands between two of the guns,

guarded by Marine Sergeant Hilliday. A sore-footed sailor

and a wounded Marine lay amid uniform coats, equipment, and weapons discarded in the heat of action. To the

captain's left, a bareheaded Marine rams a shot home, as

another, still wearing his knapsack and priming horn,

readies the vent; and two others, their shakos covered

with soot, shift the gun with a handspike. The Marine

crew of the other field gun, whose load of grape shot has

just ripped through Ross' lines, let out a cheer. Young

T. P. Andrews, an adventuresome Washington schoolboy, bending over an ammunition box, readies another

charge. On the crest of the hill and beyond, the row of

Marine sharpshooters and flotillamen, including Commodore Barney's black cook, Charles Ball, lay down a

blanket of fire with their standard 1808 muskets.

A short time later, as Captain Miller's 12-pounders

again roared into action, Commodore Barney ordered a

charge. In a hesitant surge, the line swept forward, forcing the British light infantry to falter momentarily. But

the Americans did not press the advantage; instead they

returned to the guns. Eventually, the 85th gained the high

ground on the right and poured musket fire on Miller's

gun crews as their marksmen crept closer. All at once,

Captain Miller found himself locked in a duel with a

British infantryman. Each fired and missed. Both reloaded, but while Miller was setting his flint, the Englishman

fired again, shattering the captain's left arm.

Deserted by their militia compatriots, flanked on the

right, and with no ammunition, Commodore Barney,

wounded in the thigh, ordered the guns spiked and his

men to retreat. As they scattered, Barney, supported by

his own lieutenants and accompanied by Miller and two

other Marines — Captain Alexander Sevier, slightly

wounded in the neck, and Lieutenant Benjamin Richardson—staggered a few yards and collapsed. Ordering his

friends make their escape, Barney waited as the British

overran the last American defense before Washington.

General Ross, with a force of 2,600 crack Peninsular

veterans, had routed a raw American army of 6,000. Yet

the triumph had its price. The British general lost over

250 killed and wounded, including 18 junior officers,

most of whom had faced the defiant Marines and

flotillamen under Commodore Joshua Barney and Marine

Captain Samuel Miller.

Among the sources used in the preparation of the painting and plate

description were: Major Edwin N. McClellan, History of the United

States Marine Corps, 2 vols (Washington: HQMC Historical Section,

1925-1932); U.S. Congress, House, Special Committee, Documents

Accompanying the Report of the Committee Appointed on the Twenty.

Third of September last, to Inquire into the Causes and Particulars of the Invasion of the City of Washington by the British Forces in the Month of August, 1814. 13th Cong., 3d sess., Doc. No. 24, 1814; Walter Lord,

The Dawn's Early Light (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1972);

H. L. Peterson, Encyclopaedia of Firearms (New York: Dutton, 1964).

Repulse of the

Highianders

New Orleans

8 January 1815

Major General Andrew Jackson and his 4,000 troops

were ready. There was no hope of a British surprise on

that cold, drizzly Sunday morning, five miles downriver

from New Orleans. The Americans had Lieutenant

General Sir Edward Pakenham's British camp, with its

5,000 troops, under observation. Jackson, outmatched in

numbers by Pakenham, chose a position which left his

enemy no choice but to advance some 2,000 yards across

open ground under fire, while his own troops were

sheltered by a mud rampart between 14 and 20 feet thick.

As light streamed across the fog-shrouded battlefield,

the 56-man Marine detachment under the command of

Lieutenants Francis de Bellevue and Philip de Grandpre

scrambled into position next to Captain Thomas Beale's

New Orleans Rifles. They were within the lines of the

7th U.S. Infantry, not far from the Mississippi. Their

wait was short, as Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert

Rennie's three light infantry companies of the 21st (Royal

North British Fusiliers) Regiment, 43d (Monmouth)

Regiment, and the 93d (Sutherland Highland) Regiment,

in an effort to draw fire away from the main attack,

stormed the artillery redoubt in front of their position.

Pressing his advantage, Rennie and the 93d Highlanders

leap into the ditch separating the redoubt from the main

breastwork and attempt to claw their way to the top

without the aid of fascines and scaling ladders. Atop the

breastwork, the Marines, dressed in the prescribed

uniform for 1810, fire into the advancing attackers,

bringing down two of every three.

Below, the Highlanders continued to push forward.

Their dress for the campaign was unusual for a Scottish

regiment. The headgear was not the typical Kilmarnock

bonnet, but the Highland regiment's fatigue cap, the

"hummell" bonnet. It had a high band of red and white

dicing, and a small dark-blue crown with a small

"tourie"—green for the light infantry. At the back were

two black ribbons tied in a "beau" knot.

The jacket was the regular infantry style of scarlet for

the officers and brick red for the rank and file. The facing

color for the ranks was lemon yellow, with the regimental

braid of white with yellow worm, turnbacks of white,

and flat pewter buttons, with a crowned "93." The

trousers were tartan, but it is assumed that large numbers

wore blue-gray pantaloons, with a red side-seam for the

officers, as they were a part of the uniform from the

winter of 1806 until the regiment's departure for

America. Field officers of the flank companies normally

wore buff or white britches and Hessian boots, and carried

a regular infantry saber when not wearing a kilt.

Despite their attempt, the Highianders failed to breech

the breastwork; Lieutenant Colonel Rennie was killed by

one of Beale's riflemen. In the end, their numbers became

too few without the reinforcement, and the Scots retired

from the ditch and redoubt. The light companies had lost

two-thirds of their officers and men; Lieutenants de

Bellevue and de Grandpre's Marines lost not a single man.

The main charge against the center of Jackson's line was

met with tremendous, incessant musket fire, compelling

the two British columns to retreat after an action of less

than an hour. Jackson's casualties were negligible, yet the

battlefield was heaped with British dead and wounded.

With the retreat and acceptance of defeat, the British in

the days following began withdrawing their forces.

Among the sources used in the preparation of the painting and plate

description were: Wilburt S. Brown, The Amphibious Campaign for

West Florida and Louisiana, 1814-1815: A Critical Review of Strategy and

Tactics at New Orleans (University of Alabama Press, 1969); R. J.

Marrion, "93rd Highland Regiment, 1814-1815" (Plate no. 332),

Military Collector & Historian, Winter 1969, pp. 126-128; Brigadier

General A. E. J. Cavendish, C. M. G., An Reisimeid Chataich: The

93rd Sutherland Highlanders Now 2nd. Bn. The Argyll and Sutherland

Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 1799-1 927 (Privately Printed, 1928).