Raid on Chesconessex Creek

A British naval landing force came ashore at Chesconessex Creek, Virginia, on June 25, 1814, with orders to strike an American fort. This force, made up of several hundred Royal Marines, Colonial Marines, and sailors, disembarked from the Royal Navy ships Albion, Dragon, and Endymion, under the overall command of Lieutenant George Urmston of the Albion. The officer leading the first landing boat, Lieutenant James Scott, had sought approval for the assault himself, since Captain John G. Joynes, who commanded the Virginia militia holding the fort, had earlier vowed to "blow [him] to hell" should he ever try it.

Guiding the British to their target was an escaped slave who had once belonged to Joynes. Once the landing party drew near the fort, its defenders managed only a single shot from their six-pounder cannon before abandoning the position. Scott, for his part, seized pieces of Joynes' uniform along with his sword as souvenirs of the raid. The British then hauled away the captured cannon, razed the fort itself, and burned nearby guardhouses before returning to their vessels offshore.

Raid

Before launching the assault, Scott had already surveyed the terrain surrounding the fort, and on the morning of 25 June he took charge of the foremost British boat, guided by a local man who had once been enslaved by Joynes before making his escape. Alongside him in this venture were additional escaped slaves who had since joined the Corps of Colonial Marines, and these men proved indispensable to the operation. Their familiarity with the American defenses and the surrounding countryside gave the British the means to push their raid deeper inland than would otherwise have been feasible. Command over the entire British force rested with Lieutenant George Urmston, who served as first lieutenant aboard the Albion. The attacking party numbered several hundred men altogether, drawing sailors, Royal Marines, and Colonial Marines from the Albion, the Dragon, and the Endymion. On the American side, Joynes' battery was staffed by men of the Accomac Shire militia.

Darkness and cooperative winds and waves let the British slip toward the fort without being spotted. Scott's boat touched shore at half past one in the morning, roughly a quarter mile from the fort itself. The defenders answered with their six-pounder cannon at nearly point-blank range, yet the fire achieved nothing. Sword in hand, Scott then led his marines scrambling over the ramparts, taking the Americans completely off guard, while additional British units maneuvered to strike from behind. The American defenders scattered almost at once, and Scott himself watched Joynes flee the scene unarmed, dressed in nothing but his nightshirt and boots. Scott managed to organize some of his marines into a firing line at the entrance to the fort, though he only got off a single substantial volley before the fleeing Americans vanished among the trees.

Afterward, the British dismantled the American cannon and hauled it back to their ships before razing the fort entirely. From Joynes' own office, Scott claimed the man's hat, coat, and sword as spoils of the encounter. Several nearby American guard houses were put to the torch as well.