Bound Volumes

May 18, 2023

210 YEARS AGO
Havre de Grace – This morning, a little after the break of day, a British armed force, under cover of armed vessels which anchored in front of this town in eleven large barges, landed below a small breast work which had been roughly thrown up, and in which were one nine and two four pounders, manned by 50 militia. The vessels in front of the town threw 8 Congreve rockets, one of which passed through a frame house without further damage; another struck a Mr. Webster on the left side of the head, and killed him on the spot. The attack was a surprise, and there was neither an organized resistance nor defence. About six o’clock, a few of the militia, who had occupied the small redoubt, evacuated it and abandoned the town; the enemy possessed themselves of the nine pounder and two four pounders, and afterwards proceeded with torches and other combustibles prepared for the purpose to conflagrate several of the houses. Two taverns and thirteen other houses were burnt to the ground; two stables and several stacks of hay were also burnt. They plundered all of the inhabitants whom they found, ripping open feather beds and throwing the feathers to the wind and taking with them the ticking. They burnt every vessel here except one which lay sunk on the east side of the Susquehanna.

May 15, 1813