The Elizabeth River is a 6-mile-long (10 km) tidal estuary forming an arm of Hampton Roads harbor at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States. It is located along the southern side of the mouth of the James River, between the cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. Forming the core of the Hampton Roads harbor, it is heavily supported by its tributaries which depend upon it.
The Battle of Baltimore took place between British and American forces in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading British forces.
The Battle of Bladensburg, also known as the Bladensburg Races, took place during the Chesapeake Campaign, part of the War of 1812, on 24 August 1814, at Bladensburg, Maryland, 8.6 miles (13.8 km) northeast of Washington, D.C.
Craney Island is a point of land in the independent city of Portsmouth in the South Hampton Roads region of eastern Virginia in the United States. The location, formerly in Norfolk County, is near the mouth of the Elizabeth River opposite Lambert's Point on Hampton Roads. It is home to the Craney Island US Naval Supply Center, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Corps of Colonial Marines were two different British Marine units raised from former black slaves for service in the Americas, at the behest of Alexander Cochrane. The units were created at two separate periods: 1808-1810 during the Napoleonic Wars; and then again during the War of 1812; both units being disbanded once the military threat had passed. Apart from being created in each case by Cochrane, they had no connection with each other.
The Battle of St. Michaels was an engagement contested on August 10, 1813, during the War of 1812. British soldiers attacked the American militia at St. Michaels, Maryland, which is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore with access to Chesapeake Bay. At the time, this small town was on the main shipping route to important cities such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Sydney Beckwith was an English officer of the British Army who served as quartermaster general of the British forces in Canada during the War of 1812, and a commander-in-chief of the Bombay Army during the British Raj. He is most notable for his distinguished service during the Peninsular War and for his contributions to the development and command of the 95th Rifles.
Timeline of the War of 1812 is a chronology of the War of 1812, including a list of battles.
The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a motley collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay which came to be known as the "Chesapeake campaign" during the War of 1812. The Flotilla engaged the Royal Navy in several inconclusive battles before Barney was forced to scuttle the vessels themselves on August 22, 1814. The men of the Flotilla then served onshore in the defense of Washington, DC and Baltimore. It was disbanded on February 15, 1815, after the end of the war.
The Chesapeake campaign, also known as the Chesapeake Bay campaign, of the War of 1812 was a British naval campaign that took place from 23 April 1813 to 14 September 1814 on and around the Delaware and Chesapeake bays of the United States.
The Raid on Alexandria was a British victory during the War of 1812, which gained much plunder at little cost but may have contributed to the later British repulse at Baltimore by delaying their main forces.
The history of Hampton Roads dates to 1607, when Jamestown was founded. Two wars have taken place in addition to many other historical events.
The Raid on Havre de Grace was a seaborne raid that took place on 3 May 1813 during the broader War of 1812. A squadron of the British Royal Navy under Rear Admiral George Cockburn attacked the town of Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Cockburn's forces routed the town's defenders and sacked and burnt several buildings before withdrawing.
Twenty-four current units of the Army National Guard perpetuate the lineages of militia units mustered into federal service during the War of 1812. Militia units from nine states that were part of the Union by the end of the War of 1812, plus the District of Columbia, are the predecessors of eighteen units that currently exist in the Army National Guard. Two of the four units derived from Virginia militias are in the West Virginia National Guard; at the time of the War of 1812, West Virginia was still part of Virginia. Only two current units, the 155th Infantry, a component of the Mississippi National Guard derived from militia units organized in the Mississippi Territory and the 130th Infantry, a component of the Illinois National Guard derived from militia units formed in the Illinois Territory, are from states or territories west of the Appalachians. Unfortunately, no militia units from the states of Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio or Tennessee, or from the Indiana, Michigan, Missouri or Louisiana Territories, where militia units played a major role in the fighting, have survived as units in the modern Army National Guard.
Fort Norfolk is a historic fort and national historic district located at Norfolk, Virginia. With the original buildings having been built between 1795 and 1809, the fort encloses 11 buildings: main gate, guardhouse, officers' quarters, powder magazine, and carpenter's shop. Fort Norfolk is the last remaining fortification of President George Washington's 18th century harbor defenses, later termed the first system of US fortifications. It has served as the district office for the U.S. Army Engineer District, Norfolk since 1923.
Fort Nelson was a fort located on Hospital Point in Portsmouth, Virginia, which is currently the site of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. The fort was named for Thomas Nelson Jr., governor of Virginia in 1781. It and Fort Norfolk were built to guard the Elizabeth River, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth and the Gosport Navy Yard. The fort was originally built by patriot forces with funding from the Virginia government in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, but destroyed when the British occupied the area in 1779. A British map shows that they rebuilt the fort by 1781. Following the Revolution, the fort was again rebuilt in 1794 under the first system of US fortifications, was garrisoned in the War of 1812, but was demolished in 1827 to make room for the naval hospital. The fort was again rebuilt by Confederate forces in 1861, but the Confederates evacuated the area in May 1862 and the fort was eventually demolished.
The Battle of Gwynn's Island saw Andrew Lewis lead patriot soldiers from Virginia against John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore's small naval squadron and British loyalist troops. In this American Revolutionary War action, accurate cannon fire from the nearby Virginia mainland persuaded Dunmore to abandon his base at Gwynn's Island. While camping on the island, the loyalists suffered heavy mortality from smallpox and an unknown fever, particularly among the escaped slaves that Dunmore recruited to fight against the American rebels. Gwynn's Island is located on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Mathews County, Virginia.
The Second Battle of St. Michaels was a raid conducted on Maryland's Eastern Shore by British soldiers during the War of 1812. The raid occurred on August 26, 1813, at points between Tilghman Island and the town of St. Michaels, Maryland. Local militia defended against the raiders.
Gawin Lane Corbin was a Virginia planter, officer and politician who thrice represented York County in the Virginia House of Delegates and was severely wounded defending Hampton in the War of 1812.
The Ocracoke raid, also known as the Attack on the Port of Ocracoke, was a successful British amphibious attack conducted by Rear-Admiral George Cockburn between July 11 and 16, 1813, during Admiral Sir John Warren's Chesapeake campaign. The raid was undertaken to support the British blockade of the Chesapeake Bay in the War of 1812 and targeted Ocracoke, North Carolina.
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