Raid on Alexandria

Raid on Alexandria
Part of the War of 1812
Date August 29 – September 2, 1814 Location Alexandria, Virginia Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	United States
Commanders and leaders
James Alexander Gordon	John Rodgers James Monroe
Strength
6 warships	unknown
Casualties and losses
7 killed 38 wounded	11 killed 19 wounded

The Raid on Alexandria was a British victory during the War of 1812, which gained much plunder at little cost but may have contributed to the later British repulse at Baltimore by delaying their main forces.

As part of the British expedition to the Chesapeake Bay in the middle of 1814, a naval force under Commodore James Alexander Gordon was ordered to sail up the Potomac River and attack Fort Washington. The raid was supposed to be a demonstration, to distract American troops from the main British attack on Washington under General Robert Ross.

Fort Washington was located on the Maryland shore, about 8 miles (13 km) below Washington. It was the only fortification on the Potomac River. Although it mounted twelve or fifteen guns (later increased) which commanded the river below its position, the American Brigadier General William H. Winder, commanding the military district around Washington, feared that a determined naval force could nevertheless blast its way past the fort. It would then have Washington at its mercy. A survey the previous year also noted that the fort blockhouse was only able to resist musket fire, and could be destroyed by a cannon as small as a twelve-pounder. Its garrison consisted of 49 men under Captain Samuel T. Dyson of the United States Army's Corps of Artillery and elements of the U.S. 9th and 12th Infantry Regiments.

Gordon's force consisted of the frigates Seahorse of 38 guns, and Euryalus of 36 guns, the bomb vessels Devastation, Aetna and Meteor, each mounting two large mortars and eight or ten smaller guns and carronades, and the rocket vessel Erebus.

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