In 1813
Havre de Grace was a small village 2 miles above the head of
Chesapeake Bay, and near the mouth of the
Susquehanna River, containing about sixty houses, mostly built of wood.
It was on the postroad between
Philadelphia and
Baltimore, as it now is upon the railway between the two cities.
On the night of May 2, 1813,
Sir George Cockburn, commander of a British squadron, engaged in marauding on the shores of
Chesapeake Bay, approached the village, and at dawn on the morning of the 3d the inhabitants were awakened by the sound of arms.
Fifteen
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or twenty barges, filled with armed men, were seen approaching, when a few lingering militia opened heavy guns upon them from a battery on an eminence called
Point Comfort.
These were answered by grape-shot from the
British.
The drums in the village beat to arms.
The affrighted inhabitants, half-dressed, rushed to the streets, the non-combatants flying in terror to places of safety.
Very soon hissing
Congreve rockets set buildings on fire in the town, and these were followed by more destructive bomb-shells.
While panic and fire were raging, the
British landed.
All but eight or ten of the militia had fled from the village, and only two men (
John O'Neil and
Philip Albert) remained at the battery.
These were captured, with the battery, when the guns of the latter were turned upon the town.
The invaders were 400 strong.
They were divided into squads, and began the work of plundering and destroying systematically, officers and men equally interested in the business.
When half the village had been destroyed,
Cockburn went on shore, and was met on the common by several ladies who had taken refuge in a brick dwelling known as the “
Pringle mansion.”
They entreated him to spare the rest of the village, and especially the roof that sheltered them.
He yielded, and called off the plunderers.
Meanwhile a large British detachment had gone up the
Susquehanna about 6 miles, to the head of tide-water, and destroyed an extensive
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Havre De Grace. |
iron and cannon foundry.
A number of vessels there, which had escaped from the bay, were saved by being scuttled and sunk.
After the lapse of four hours, when
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The Pringle House. |
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forty of the sixty houses in the village were destroyed, and nearly every other edifice injured, the marauders assembled in their vessels in the stream, and at sunset sailed out into the bay to pay a similar visit to villages on
Sassafras River.
Havre de Grace was at least $60,000 poorer when the invaders left than when they came.
Hawaii 
