but george cockburn pushes ahead. his idea is to make use of several different waterways on an attack on washington. if the british forcibly sailed up the potomac, everybody would know that washington was the ultimate target. that one squadron sailed up the potomac river, and threatened the capital and the city of alexandria. the main force is going to go the other river into southern maryland. the advantage of this was it would shield the ultimate british intention. the room -- the move up that river could mean an attack on washington, or an overland attack on baltimore or an attack on annapolis. or it could be that the british were simply chasing after, or joshua barney, who was the american commander of the chesapeake flotilla, who had a flotilla of shallow draft boats. barney, by the summer of 1814, had been trapped further up river than the british. the british could use his presence in this river to more or less shield their movements towards the capital. and that is exactly what cockburn recommends. and it's ex

the royal navy squadron, under the command of her admiral george cockburn had established domain over the water. george coburn was a very effective officer, who served under nelson in the wars with france. he had been sent over here to pep things up. he was a very capable officer, ruthless without being vicious. he pretty quickly determines that the americans are not capable of providing much in the way of a real defense. from the start, he sees washington as being vulnerable. very quickly, as he spreads his terror up and down the bay, he becomes not only the most feared man in america, but also the most hated. he is compared to attila the hun, and satan among others. he takes anyone who shows resistance, can be expected to taken in chains to halifax. the chesapeake provided access to the richest and most important land in america at this time. certainly, in addition to being the home of the capital of washington dc, some of the most important cities like baltimore in norfolk were on the water, and within easy access of the british. by establishing control of the bay, the british were

this is exactly what george cockburn does.there is a british historian who is in the united states at the time that the war breaks out, and he later says that until george cockburn showed up, people in the chest only knew by hearsay that there was a war going on. that changes very quickly. he goes and what is best described as a reign of terror up and down the bay, burning a number of towns and plantations, any sort of place he might see any resistance whatsoever. under his rule, that was good enough for burning the place. a town at the top of the chesapeake day was burned. half of the townhouses were burned down. the town of hampton in virginia was very brutally burned. some of the inhabitants were killed by army troops, including some french prisoners that were with the british. the effect of all this terrorism was to really paralyze both the militia units, which are supposed to be protecting this area, and the american government. cockburn, no one was really sure where he would strike next. the british make use of a weaknes