War of 1812, Part 30: The Battle of Craney Island

The New Nation
Written By Tom Hand

In February 1813, Admiral John Warren led a flotilla into the Chesapeake Bay to enforce the British naval blockade and make the Americans feel the pain of war. The flotilla set fire to warehouses and ships in Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Fredericktown and Georgetown, and destroyed the Principio Ironworks, one of the United States’ most important cannon foundries, before rejoining the fleet at Hampton Roads. In early June, Warren received reinforcements and sailed to the Elizabeth River to destroy the USS Constellation anchored five miles upstream at the Gosport Navy Yard near Norfolk. The entrance to the river was guarded by Craney Island and a contingent of 700 men. A strong artillery battery and a line of gunboats awaited the British.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses what happened during the Battle of Craney Island and why it still matters today. 

 

Images courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command, Library of Congress, Duke University Archives, Norfolk Historical Society, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Internet Archive, Wikimedia, Alamy. 

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War of 1812, Part 30: The Battle of Craney Island
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In the spring of 1813, the British Admiralty initiated a push to wreak havoc in the Chesapeake Bay and gave command of an expedition to Admiral John Warren. Cautious by nature, Warren would prove to be a poor choice, but his second-in-command was a tough sailor named George Cockburn, a Royal Navy Captain who first entered the service at the age of nine and would eventually rise to be the First Sea Lord, the highest-ranking officer in the Royal Navy. More importantly, Cockburn was a man who relished the chance to chastise the Americans.

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War of 1812, Part 10: The Battle of Sackett’s Harbor

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War of 1812, Part 9: An Opportunity Lost for the Americans

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War of 1812, Part 8: Americans Burn a Capital

The man to whom President James Madison and Secretary of War William Eustis gave command of the overall war effort for the War of 1812 was Henry Dearborn from New Hampshire. In addition to the overall command, Dearborn was assigned the right wing of the three-pronged American attack into Canada, up the Lake Champlain corridor to the St. Lawrence River and then onward to Montreal. Arguably, this invasion sector was the most critical, as the St. Lawrence represented the only means of communication between Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

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War of 1812, Part 7: Disaster at Queenston Heights

The center thrust of the three-prong American advance into Canada was along the Niagara River frontier. This thirty-five-mile stretch was the most contested piece of real estate during the War of 1812 and would change hands several times over the course of the war. Secretary of War William Eustis entrusted the command of this sector to Stephen van Rensselaer.

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War of 1812, Part 6: The Battle of the Thames

On September 12, 1813, General William Henry Harrison received word of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry's great victory on Lake Erie two days before. Recognizing that the Navy had done their part and cleared the lake of British warships, Harrison knew the time had finally come for the invasion of Upper Canada, and the General immediately put the wheels in motion to strike the British while he held the advantage.

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War of 1812, Part 5: We Have Met the Enemy

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War of 1812, Part 4: British Invade Ohio

Following the American disaster at Frenchtown, General William Henry Harrison gathered another force to turn the tide in the West. On February 1, 1813, Harrison returned to the rapids of the Maumee with 1,800 Pennsylvania and Virginia militiamen and tasked Major Eleazer D. Wood of the Engineers, an early graduate of West Point, to construct Fort Meigs. Wood finished the fort by the end of the month, but unfortunately the enlistments of most of the men expired at the same time and Harrison was left with a formidable fort but a garrison of less than 500 soldiers.

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War of 1812, Part 3: Debacle on the River Raisin

Following General William Hull’s ignominious surrender of Fort Detroit, the outlook for the United States in Upper Canada was bleak. The western army essentially had been eliminated with Hull’s surrender, and a new army had to be raised. But perhaps more importantly, a new commander had to be found, and that man would be William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory and acclaimed in the West as the hero of Tippecanoe.

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War of 1812, Part 2: The Surrender of Detroit

Early in 1812, when war with Great Britain seemed imminent, President James Madison named William Hull, the Governor of the Michigan Territory and a veteran of the American Revolution, to command the western war effort. Hull was a reluctant warrior who initially declined the post recognizing his best years were behind him, but when President Madison could not find a suitable replacement, Hull agreed to take the command.

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War of 1812, Part 1: A Divided America Goes to War

In June of 1812, President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on Great Britain for refusing to honor American maritime rights. In some ways, Madison’s hand was forced by the young firebrands who made up the Twelfth Congress with its unprecedented seventy new members and dominated by Democratic-Republicans.

Tom Hand
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War of 1812, Part 29: American Prisoners of War