page_title: Congreve rocket
section_title: War of 1812
hierarchical_section_title: Congreve rocket / Use of Congreve rockets / War of 1812
caption_attribution_description: English: Fireships firing rockets and details of storage and launch (Misc 34) Plate to The Details of the Rocket System, back and watercolour pen &amp; ink by Colonel Congreve, 1814. Русский: Брандеры, запускающие ракеты, и детали хранения и пуска; собственноручная работа полковника Конгрева; акварель, тушь, перо; 1814 Українська: Брандери запускають ракети, і деталі, як зберігаються і запускаються ракети; власноручно намальовано полковником Конгрівом; акварель, туш, перо; 1814
context_page_description: The Congreve rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.
  The Kingdom of Mysore in India used Mysorean rockets as a weapon against the British in the wars that they fought against the British East India Company. Lieutenant General Thomas Desaguliers, Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery in Woolwich, was influenced by the reports about their effectiveness, and he undertook several unsuccessful experiments. Several Mysore rockets were sent to Woolwich for studying and reverse-engineering following the Second, Third, and Fourth Mysore wars. Even so, Congreve had to start his project in 1804 with his own funds. The first demonstration of his solid fuel rockets was in September 1805. The rockets were used effectively during the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, and the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–1826.
context_section_description: The Royal Marine Artillery used Congreve rockets in several engagements during this conflict. Two battalions of Royal Marines were sent to North America in 1813. Attached to each battalion was a rocket detachment, each with an establishment of 25 men, commanded by lieutenants Balchild and John Harvey Stevens. Both rocket detachments were embarked aboard the transport vessel Mariner  Rockets were used in the engagements at Fort Oswego and Lundy's Lane.
  A third battalion of Royal Marines arrived in North America in 1814, with an attached rocket detachment commanded by Lieutenant John Lawrence, which subsequently participated in the Chesapeake campaign. During this campaign, the British used rockets at the Battle of Bladensburg to rout the militia (which led to the burning and surrender of Washington, D.C.), and at the Battle of North Point.
  It was the use of ship-launched Congreve rockets by the British in the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the US in 1814 that inspired the fifth line of the first verse of the United States' National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner": "and the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air". HMS Erebus fired the rockets from a 32-pound rocket battery installed below the main deck, which fired through portholes or scuttles pierced in the ship's side.
  In Canada, rockets were used by the British at the Second Battle of Lacolle Mills, March 30, 1814. Rockets fired by a detachment of the Royal Marine Artillery, though inaccurate, unnerved the attacking American forces, and contributed to the defense of the blockhouse and mill.  Rockets were used again at the Battle of Cook's Mills, October 19, 1814.  An American force, sent to destroy General Gordon Drummond's source of flour, was challenged by a contingent of infantry which was supported by a light field cannon and a frame of Congreve rockets.  The rockets succeeded in discouraging the Americans from forming lines on the battlefield.
  Captain Henry Lane's 1st Rocket Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery embarked at the end of 1814 in the transport vessel Mary with 40 artillerymen and 500 rockets and disembarked near New Orleans. Lieutenant Lawrence's rocket detachment took part in the final land engagement of the War of 1812 at Fort Bowyer in February 1815.
caption: 1814 depiction of rockets being fired
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