National Republican., 1883-09-13

THE BATTLES THEY FOUGHT.
The struggle which eliminated in the cap
5uro and sack of Washington has long been
known rs the battle of Bladensburg As q
matter of fact IL consisted of an armed fight |
all tho way from Benedict, on the PatuXent |
river, where tho British landed, to the Long |
Old Giolds, on the Piscataway road, few
miles east of Washington, whore q pitched
battle was fought; tho Bladensburg races"
where despite ali the disparagement that has
been uttered about it, the BRUSH
were roughly handled and narrowly
escaped defeat; and tho disgracetul
sack of Washington. Tho British heet
which comprised the 1otilla that year pre-
vious under the infamous Cockburn, had for
over disgraced tho British name by its savage
warfare in the Chesapeake landed the troops,
under Gen. Ross, in two columns at Benedict;
This place, once q flourishing commercial
town on the PatuNent, in Charles county,
about thirty-two miles from Washington, Is
now almost completely abandoned. In lSi4
it was already decayod, but still considerable
business was done there. number of vcs-
sells lying Off the wharves, coasting brigs,
barks and schooners, engaged III
tho wheat and tobacco trade, were
seized by the enemy. Great stores of tobacco
in the warehouses were captured and
destroyed. The troops who landed, number
campaigns under Sir John Moore, Beresford,
and Wellington. They were especially picked
for their diabolical character. They were
the hardest and most abandoned ruilians of
that whole army, which, while Kidding Spain
and Portugal of the French troops, was
largely composed of the most villatnous
scoundrels that ever left tho British Islands,
the very ordure of Dublin, Waterford, Lon
don, Bristol, Edinburg and Glasgow. These
men could be hardly kept under discipline
by even Wellington himself who frequently
had to order tho defamation of whole rogi-
ments in order to prevent tho army from be-
ing turned into an organized gang of cut
throats, thieves and ravishers. These men
were assured that in America they would
have the freest rein. They were promised
the fullest license, and that promise was
kept by their commanders. And nothing but
the CALLING and continuous fire under
which they were placed from the time they
landed until they entered the capital pre-
vented their leaving a houseless, peopleless,
blackened waste of the entire lower counties
of the western shore.
There were some decent men among the
invaders who were there by accident, not
design, and some ignorant, simple minded
follows from tho Scottish Highlands. Those
last were told that the Americans were canni-
balls, who would cat them after killing them.
The same story was told the Hessians and
Brunswickers Of the revolution, the object
| being to incte q merciless warfare. The
population of this section was known to be
sparse to the square mile, and war of exter-
mnation was resolved upon, the better to de-
| tGch the southern part of the country from
New England aud New York, which were far
moro densely peopled. While such policy
was in the minds of the British statesmen,
| the details of its execution were very agree
able to the brutal and beastly rutlians who so
largely composed tho British staff in this ex-
| pedition.
Landing at Benedict, the invading force
| divided in two columns, one of which went
| up the Patuxent by way of Magruder's Ferry
| and Nottingham, while the other marched
northwestwardly through the Long Old
Fields toward Washington. Tho country
through which they passed was an agricul-
| tural region, thinly peopled, and hence no Or
| ganized body of troops ut all equal in num-
bers could be raised from that section to con-
| front them. But clouds of skirmish-
| ers pursued them every inch of the way,
hung on their fanks, gathered in
their front, menaced their rear, picked Off
stragglers, and stung them like hornets at
every step. Gunby's famous regiment of the
| Maryland line of tho revolution had been
largely recruited from the lower counties of
| the western shore, and many of these old
veterans still survived. This regiment had
done what up to that time had been done only
twice before-at Fontenoy by the Irish brig
| Hue, una dU AlHlHuIa ny UHe oCOJCu IllBH-
landers-driven superior numbers of Brit
ish infantry of the field at the point
of the bayonet by dint of sheer fighting
alone. Those who survived the revolution,
therefore, ill brooked the presence and the
| outrages of the refuse ruftians of the British
soldiery, and they inspired their children
| and neighbors with tho same spirit. With
| them were gathered the mature men of the
section, and even the boys turned out t.
| harass the foe with as much alacrity as they
would have gone to squirrel hunt or coon
chase
Compelled therefore, to keep in order the
British, while they perpetrated hundreds OF
wanton and diabolical outrages under the
very eyes of their commanding officers, were
| kept from the systematic destruction and pill
| lage they contemplated.
| At Long Old Fields something of an organ
| lied stand was made by the Americans, who
struck the southern column of the invaders
with tremendous force. giving them q fore
| taste of what they would have received in full
at Bladensburg had there been any concert OF
action among tho American leaders. The
small numbers of the Americans, however
and the fact that the two columns of the in
vaders were on the point of uniting, COM
| pelled the Americans to fall back. The mem
orable conflict at Bladensburg then occurred,
the result of which opened the road
to the capital to the British Never
theless tho enemy was so roughly
handled that they did not dare to utterly de-
stroy tho city rs they had intended. AT
the Long Old Fields the few Americans who
| fought stood TO their work until they were
literally overwhelmed by numbers. Rcd
coats were killed within yard of Barneys
guns and the raw militia of the lower coun-
ties fought off the bayOnets of the trained
veterans of Badajos and Vimiera with their
dubbed shotguns. Among the men who
thus literally wrestled with the enemy were
members of Maj. George Peters battery, of
whom Mr.. Clark was one.
The general details of the battle and of the
subsequent sack of Washington and the final
repulse of tho British army and fleet at
North Point and Fort McHenry have gone
into history. The local details are tho usands
in number and are traditions among the de,
scendants of the men who fought tho invader.
They constitute precious legacy for the fu-
ture poet and novelist who shall select the
fruitful region of the lower Potomac as field
for his cleaning.
Among the incidents of the invasion,
though occurring some distance from the
capital, may be mentioned tho following
Tho British fleet cruised up and down the
PatuXent for some time after the debarkation
of the troops. The Patuxent is broad, deep
stream, seven miles wide at its mouth and
at forty miles from the bay is a
mile broad. A wealthy planter named
| Perry, q rather eccentric humorist, pro-
cured u hornets nest full of those
energetic insects, and, plugging up the holes
| so as to prevent their exit, had himself rowed
to one of the vessels lying in the river AS