Background
For the first two years of the War of 1812, the British had been preoccupied with the war against Napoleon Bonaparte on the continent of Europe. Although the Royal Navy controlled Chesapeake Bay from early 1813 onwards, lack of troops restricted them to mounting comparatively small-scale raids, the largest of which was the Battle of Craney Island, which involved 2,000 troops from the British Army and Royal Marines.
By April 1814, Napoleon had been defeated and was exiled to the island of Elba. Large numbers of British troops were free to be sent to North America. Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada and commander in chief in North America, planned for a dual invasion of the United States. He personally led one invasion into the state of New York from Canada, headed for Lake Champlain. Meanwhile, a brigade under Major General Robert Ross, consisting entirely of veterans from the army of the Duke of Wellington, was transported to Chesapeake Bay to "effect a diversion on the coasts of the United States of America in favor of the army employed in the defence of Upper and Lower Canada."
Although Ross commanded the troops, the point of attack was to be decided by Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, the commander in chief of the Royal Navy's North American Station. Cochrane concentrated four ships of the line, twenty frigates and sloops of war and twenty transports carrying Ross's troops at Tangier Island. Cochrane's energetic second in command, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, was in favour of a quick attack on Washington, although Ross was not so eager. His troops had been confined aboard their transports for nearly three months, he lacked cavalry, artillery and transport, and he was wary of the American Chesapeake Bay Flotilla lurking in the Patuxent River. The first objective was to capture or destroy the American flotilla, and Ross's orders were to stay near the shipping and not to risk an attack on the American capital.
In Washington, the United States Secretary of War, John Armstrong, did not believe the British would attack the strategically unimportant city of Washington. He believed that the likely target would be the militarily more important city of Baltimore. Armstrong was only half right; the British would eventually launch attacks against both Baltimore and Washington.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Bladensburg
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