Bladensburg

Battle

Winder commanded a force that included at least 1,000 regular soldiers drawn from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, supplemented by roughly 7,000 militiamen and volunteers of uncertain reliability from Washington, Maryland, and Virginia. Official estimates of his total strength varied widely, ranging from 5,000 up to 9,000. In his own account to the Secretary of War, Winder claimed that through constant and exhausting troop movements he managed to place about 5,000 men in position to meet the enemy at Bladensburg. Ross, commanding the British, judged the American numbers at somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000, including 300 to 400 horsemen. Other sources from the period suggest the true figure available to defend Washington was closer to 7,170, with 6,370 of those actually present at Bladensburg.

Stansbury commanded a mix of units: the 1st Maryland Militia under Ragan, the 2nd under Schutz, and the 5th under Sterrett, along with three companies of volunteer sharpshooters led by Major William Pinkney, once the nation's Attorney General, plus two Baltimore artillery companies equipped with six 6-pounder cannon. Ragan's and Schutz's regiments had been thrown together hurriedly from various companies and lacked any uniforms, while Sterrett's 5th Maryland stood out as a smartly dressed volunteer unit.

For his position, Stansbury selected ground on the western side of the Eastern Branch across from Bladensburg town, a defensible spot though not the strongest one on offer. Colonel Decius Wadsworth, serving as the Army's Commissary General of Ordnance, had rushed to build an earthen battery north of the bridge to hold the guns. Unfortunately, this fortification had been built with heavier armament in mind, so the 6-pounders inside found their firing angles through the embrasures badly limited, unable to rake the b

African Americans

At Bladensburg, black sailors stood among the American ranks, many serving under Commodore Joshua Barney within his naval flotilla. Their unit delivered artillery support throughout the engagement, and even their enemies acknowledged their courage. Charles Ball, born in 1785, left one of the fullest firsthand accounts of this service; he fought alongside Barney at Bladensburg and afterward assisted in defending Baltimore. According to anecdotal evidence from the era, African-descended sailors could account for as little as 15 percent or as much as half of a given ship's crew.

Pinning down precisely how many black men served in the navy during the War of 1812 remains a challenge, largely because naval muster rolls seldom noted race or ethnic background. Historians today place the figure at somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of the navy's overall manpower during that conflict.

Shortly before the fighting began, Madison reportedly asked Barney whether his "negroes" might flee once the British advanced. Barney's answer was blunt: he said they had no idea how to run, and would rather die beside their guns. Events proved him right, since none broke ranks. Among these men was Harry Jones, listed as No. 35, a young sailor believed to have been free before the war. Jones suffered wounds during the closing moments of the battle and spent close to two months recovering at the Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.

On the opposing side, black troops also took part in the assaults on Bladensburg and Washington, serving with the Corps of Colonial Marines under British command. Vice Admiral Cochrane had revived this corps in 1814 after its disbandment in 1810, specifically seeking enslaved African Americans by offering freedom to them and their families in exchange for enlistment. Those who joined received the same bounty, uniforms, and pay given to regular Royal Marines. True to their word, the British honored this arrangement after the Treaty of Ghent, evacuating the Colonial Marines along with their relatives in 1815 to new lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Bermuda.