Treaty talks were already underway in Ghent, Belgium. troops stationed along the northern border would likely return to defend nearby Philadelphia and recapture Baltimore, just as the British were launching their own counter-invasion in the north, Williams said. Baltimore was also the third-largest city in the U.S., and it's capture would have damaged the U.S. Army Center of Military History.īaltimore was a prize, because it had a massive seaport and shipbuilding industry and was home port to many privateers that preyed on British merchant shipping.
The campaign itself was a ploy to divert troops from the Canadian border, known as British North America at the time, according to historian Glenn Williams, U.S.
They sailed up Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore, the real prize of the Chesapeake Campaign.
The British left a smoldering Washington, D.C., at the end of August 1814, and returned to their transports. The Americans needed a victory after the humiliation at Bladensburg, Maryland, and the burning of the Capitol.
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