Chesapeake Bay Flotilla

The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay, during the War of 1812. The Flotilla engaged the Royal Navy in several inconclusive battles before Barney was forced to scuttle the vessels themselves on 22 August 1814. The men of the Flotilla then served onshore in the defense of Washington, DC and Baltimore. It was disbanded on 15 February 1815, after the end of the war.