ABSTRACT
On the morning of August 16, 1814, a British fleet of twenty-two vessels entered Chesapeake Bay. By the evening of that day they would rendezvous with about a dozen other British ships at the mouth of the Potomac River. Over the next day, reports from American observers along the shoreline increased the size of this invasion to fifty-one vessels and about 4,000 men. The British split this force, with a small group going up the Potomac, while the remainder continued up the bay toward the Patuxent River, which they entered shortly after dawn on the 18th. The next day, they landed at Benedict, Maryland, and began their campaign to attack and capture the American capital.
