Caulk's Field

Kent County, Maryland became the setting for this War of 1812 clash, pitting a modest British contingent under Captain Sir Peter Parker of the Royal Navy against American militia led by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed. As part of the broader British push toward Baltimore, Parker's men came ashore on the Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore, aiming to strike at Reed's militia camp. Advancing British troops ran into American skirmishers, who fell back while fighting, luring the attackers toward the militia's main line. During the engagement Parker suffered a mortal wound, and his men pulled back once he had fallen. Subsequent British defeats at North Point and Fort McHenry ultimately forced the abandonment of the Baltimore campaign altogether. Archaeologists surveyed the site of the battlefield in 2012.

Background

During the War of 1812, in 1814, British Major General Robert Ross led an army into the Chesapeake Bay region. Two Royal Navy vice admirals, Sir Alexander Cochrane and Sir George Cockburn, answered to Ross and directed naval operations within the bay. As August drew to a close, Captain Sir Peter Parker, commanding the frigate HMS Menelaus, received orders to sail toward Baltimore, Maryland, his mission being a feint designed to pull American forces away from Washington, D.C. His instructions further called for strikes against the countryside lining the bay's coast. On August 24, American defenders fell to British troops at Bladensburg, clearing the way toward Washington. British forces subsequently set fire to the capital. With Washington in ruins, British attention turned toward striking Baltimore. Meanwhile, Parker continued his operations in the bay's northern reaches, where he discovered that American militia had set up camp near Georgetown, Maryland, on the bay's eastern shore.

Battle

Late on the night of August 30, Parker's men came ashore, their column filled out with Royal Navy sailors alongside Royal Marines. On the American side stood the 21st Regiment of Maryland Militia, roughly 200 strong, under Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed, a veteran of the Revolution. As the British pushed inland, their guides, possibly pressed into service against their will, steered the column astray, buying the defenders extra time to brace for what was coming. When Parker's men finally made contact, they ran into American skirmishers who fell back almost immediately toward the main defensive line, drawing the British after them and straight into range of the American artillery positioned there. Fighting unfolded under a full moon, its glow illuminating the advancing redcoats and giving the Americans clear targets, which translated into a number of British casualties. Holding elevated terrain gave the defenders a further edge. According to British Lieutenant Henry Crease, one wing of the attackers briefly broke through and seized a foothold atop the high ground, even capturing one American gun in the process, only to be pushed back off that position under mounting American pressure. American powder and shot were beginning to run low when Parker himself took a wound to the thigh, a injury from which he bled out and died. His death prompted the British to withdraw. When the fighting ended, the Americans counted three wounded, while British losses stood at 41.

Archaeological survey

A team of archaeologists drawn from the Maryland State Highway Administration and the University of Maryland set out in March 2012 to examine the battlefield, a site regarded as among the best-preserved War of 1812 locations in Maryland. Sweeping the grounds with metal detectors, the researchers turned up 721 objects scattered across the site, though a considerable portion of these dated from long after the engagement itself. Among the finds tied directly to the fight were musket balls, cannon ammunition, and pieces of firearms. Because the two armies carried small arms of differing calibers, investigators could distinguish which side had fired a given musket ball, attributing each to either British or American origin.

The distribution of artifacts lent support to several details found in historical accounts of the clash. The pattern in which items were scattered indicated that American forces held the elevated ground, matching descriptions of American skirmishers falling back under fire toward their main line. Near the presumed location of the American artillery, researchers recovered an unfired British musket ball, a detail that may lend weight to Crease's account describing the brief seizure of an American cannon. Beyond confirming these particulars, the archaeological survey also indicated that the fighting had spread across a wider stretch of ground than historians had previously assumed.

Aftermath

The engagement lifted spirits on the American side, yet it hardly persuaded the British to abandon their designs on Baltimore. On September 12, Ross' foot soldiers came out ahead tactically against American defenders at North Point. Ross himself fell mortally wounded amid the clash, and this slowed the momentum of the British advance. Meanwhile, the seaborne portion of the assault lost its edge as well: the shelling of Fort McHenry on September 13 and 14 produced no meaningful gains for the attackers. Colonel Arthur Brooke, who had taken over command of the British infantry, pulled his troops back in the early hours of the 14th. The fleet likewise withdrew once the bombardment of the fort proved fruitless and an attempted landing by sea failed to succeed, bringing the campaign against Baltimore to a close.

A marker commemorating the site, put up in 1902, identifies where the battlefield's southern boundary once lay.