A Subaltern in America: Comprising his Narrative of
the Campaigns of the British Army at Baltimore, Washington, &c..., 1833.
Notes:
General gist: the British army was perfect, the US sucked, we stomped the Americans whenever we wanted to, and we would have taken Baltimore if somehow we'd figured out a way
to get past McHenry (well, yeah...). Also, this guy got paid by the comma.
p. 46: rumors in the ranks that DC's going to get burned in revenge.
p. 78: DC gets it.
p. 103: as the army sails up the Bay: "Baltimore, Annapolis, and other towns, were all within our reach; we confidently anticipated that each would, in its turn, receive a visit."
p. 106-108: description of sailing past AN: "Besides its two great cities of Annapolis and Baltimore, it [MD] can boast of several towns and villages of different sizes;...very many...have been planted along the water's edge...Numerous watch-towers, forts, signal stations, and places of arms, occupied the high grounds; whilst nearer the beach, guard rooms for the accommodation of cavalry patrols, open batteries for the cover of guns, with all the other edifices which a people invaded are apt to throw up, extended in a regular chain, from one extremity of the State to the other. Of these we were enabled, by keeping close in shore, to obtain a distinct view. We saw horsemen mount at every station, as we approached it, and
gallop with all haste towards the interior. Beacon after beacon burst into a blaze; guns were fired from every tower; and telegraphic communication carried on without intermission [in 1814? probably not]. Then, again, as we drew near to a town, or village, every house was seen to pour forth its inhabitants; while carts, waggons, and carriages of all descriptions hastened off, loaded...with people and effects. In Annapolis, in particular, confusion and alarm appeared to prevail to an extraordinary excess. Being the capital of the State, and exposed, in a remarkable degree, to insult, its inmates doubtless anticipated nothing else than a hostile visitation; and truly, if to destroy a neat, clean town, surrounded on all sides by elegant villas, had been our object, no task could have been more easily performed. We passed it by, however, unharmed; not, perhaps, quite satisfied that so fine a prize should be permitted to escape, but hugging ourselves in the idea that another, and no less valuable one, was before us.
p. 166-167: Sailing back down the Bay from Baltimore: "In the course of to-day's passage we passed, as we have done before, within gunshot of Annapolis, and of the villages, and hamlets in its vicinity. Almost the same spectacle which had previously arrested our attention rose to attract it now. Again the beacons were set on fire--again signal-guns were fired, horsemen mounted, and telegraphic communications were carried on at every station; whilst the provincial capital, with all the inhabited places near it, again sent forth crowds of men,
women, an children, flying in manifest confusion into the interior...though I am sure that the peaceful inhabitants would have suffered no wrong at our hands, I am equally sure, that there was nothing in the shape of public property, or public works, which we did not regard as furnishing a legitimate source of plunder and outrage."
