Captain Joshua Barney, having served with distinction during the Revolutionary War, came out of retirement with a dramatic proposition for William Jones, Secretary of the Navy. Barney recommended the construction of a number of lightly armed, shallow draft barges or galleys that could be both sailed or rowed. These would be faster and more maneuverable than the larger and more heavily laden British vessels. He received approval to begin construction in August, 1813 and on May 24, 1814, promoted to Commodore, Barney led the Chesapeake Flotilla against a British force vastly superior in both numbers and weapons.

Barney left Baltimore with a fleet of 18 vessels and a convoy of merchant ships he planned to escort to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. A brief engagement with the British on June 1 became known as the Battle of Cedar Point and forced Barney to withdraw into the Patuxent River with the merchant convoy. Within a week, the British received reinforcements and Barney retreated to the shallows of St. Leonard's Creek. Attempts to draw Barney out resulted in skirmishes over June 8-10, which became known collectively as the First Battle of St. Leonard's. In an attempt to breakout, Barney launched a pre-dawn attack from two directions—from the bluffs above the mouth of the creek as well as by water—and succeeded in slipping between the British vessels and the bluff, thereby moving the Flotilla further up the Patuxent River. Preparatory to the escape effort, he scuttled two gunboats in a cove of the creek. Boats 137 and 138 were slow, awkward, and difficult to sail; they could not hold both men and cargo, and kept neither dry. In short, they were liabilities that Barney could ill afford. He also left several merchantmen behind, scuttled to avoid capture.

A plan to sail the Flotilla to the port of Queen Anne, dismantle it, carry it overland to the South River, and return to the Bay was considered briefly. Ultimately, Barney received orders to retreat upriver above Pig Point, as far as Nottingham, and to scuttle the entire fleet of both military and merchant craft if the British were sighted, then march overland to the aid of threatened Washington. On the morning of August 22, 1814, the British rounded Pig Point and saw the Flotilla stretching for three miles upriver. In rapid succession, 16 of the 17 vessels exploded and sank; one was captured when the fire failed to take hold.

Barney and his flotillamen joined the American forces in time for the Battle of Bladensburg. However, as history reports, the battle was a rout; the American troops except for Barney and his men turned and fled, earning the battle the nickname, "The Bladensburg Races." Barney was wounded and captured. When the British officers met him they commented that they knew it had to have been his men who held their ground, since they were the only ones who had given them any fight at all. The British pardoned and returned Barney to his men.

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Some contemporary salvage attempts were made, and 22 of 32 cannon were recovered as well as anchors, rope, cable, shot, and small arms, but most of the vessels and their stores remained buried in the silts of the Patuxent River. In 1978, with a grant from the Maryland Historical Trust, the Calvert Marine Museum and Nautical Archaeological Associates, Inc. undertook a limited magnetometer survey of the area as part of the Patuxent River Submerged Cultural Resources Survey. Of the numerous targets documented, one was examined in 1979 and partially excavated in 1980. It was determined to be the USS Scorpion, and the portion excavated was 90% intact beneath a protective cover of five feet of silt. Because of the paucity of funds for conservation, fewer than 200 artifacts were recovered. These items were conserved in a temporary laboratory established in the Lore Oyster House in Solomons. [All military vessels and their contents remain the property of the U.S. Navy, while the merchant ships are the property of the State of Maryland. The Scorpion is a Navy ship, but the artifacts remain on loan to the Calvert Marine Museum.]

In March 1995, maritime historian and noted author Donald Shomette was awarded a Maryland Historical Trust grant to design a phased project to study, test, selectively excavate, conserve, and design a management plan for the remains of the Chesapeake Flotilla. Phase I remote sensing investigations were initiated in May 1996 by Shomette and the Trust's Maryland Maritime Archaeological Program with assistance from the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society. Two targets were located in St. Leonard's Creek which appear to meet the appropriate geographic and physical criteria to be the scuttled gunboats Nos. 137 and 138. Other targets were located over the relevant stretch of the upper Patuxent via magnetometer and limited side scan sonar survey.

Another Maryland Historical Trust grant will permit further investigation of targets in the Fall of 1996 and the Spring of 1997. Future phases involve testing of all targets and limited excavation and conservation of remains from two sites. Artifacts and possibly structural elements will receive conservation treatment in the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. This facility, currently under construction at the Maryland Historical Trust's Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, stands on property abutting St. Leonard's Creek, and includes the site of the gun batteries which aided Barney's escape upstream.

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The 1997 field season proved productive on many fronts. The Chesapeake Flotilla Project (CFP) benefited greatly from the participation of Mr. William Clark (Manager of the Calvert Soil Conservation District and Captain of the Prince Frederick Rescue Squad), who obtained Board approval to participate and permit his staff to assist with the project, as well as making the Rescue Squad motor vessel available during training periods. This generosity was invaluable to the research endeavors.

Fieldwork was initiated in May when a cursory magnetometer survey was conducted at the mouth of St. Leonard's Creek, the site of the land-water engagement that had allowed Commodore Joshua Barney and his Chesapeake Flotilla to escape up the Patuxent. This area warrants further investigation.

The season began in earnest in late June with the arrival of project staff, including the staff and students from East Carolina University's (ECU) underwater archeology program. Preparatory work was undertaken in advance by CFP and Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) archeology staff. With the able assistance of the ECU crew, Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society (MAHS) members, and the Calvert Marine Museum, flotation booms and silt curtains, as well as soil containment tanks, were ferried to the St. Leonard's Creek site and installed in Grover's Cove. These environmental protective booms were mandated by the terms of the Wetlands Permit and were generously loaned to the CFP by the Southern Maryland Dredging Company.

Participants were divided into three groups. Mr. Clark's staff installed survey markers over both the St. Leonard's Creek and Hills Bridge Transects, and undertook all surveying of buoys and site markers as well as recording cross-sections and longitudinal elevations on individual vessel remains. These data, logged electronically, were then plotted onto both locational and site specific maps. Combined with differential global positioning system (DGPS) data, all cultural remains can be precisely relocated.

The other two groups were divided between the two transects with team composition varying from week to week to round out the participants' experiences. The larger group worked within the confines of the floating booms on the vessel in Grover's Cove. These individuals, under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Babits, mapped, tested and recorded the site. With the recovery of wire rigging it became apparent that despite having comparable dimensions to Barney's gunboats, the vessel dated to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The schooner, as it was identified, still provided an opportunity to test polysulfide resin casting experiments and was a profitable learning experience.

The second group worked in the Hills Bridge Transect probing the river bottom with both a hydroprobe and metal rods. When localized probing in areas targeted by remote sensing signals proved fruitless, this back-breaking work was undertaken across the breadth of the river at ten foot intervals for three miles of its length. This process permitted the elimination of large sections of the river from consideration in future survey efforts. When the only remains encountered were those of the Turtle Shell Wreck, located and studied the previous decade, renewed research indicated that, due to the shifting of the river's channels, any extant vessel remains may be in the wetlands adjacent to the Patuxent.

The second group also began systematic probing at the head of St. Leonard's Creek. Shortly before the close of the field school, Project Director Mr. Donald Shomette located the remains of a vessel buried waist deep in mud just off the point once occupied by the town of St. Leonard's. Again, this vessel meets the dimensional criteria for a gunboat and there were scattered remains of other boats in the surrounding area. Fragments of timbers examined exhibit hexagonal trunnels and evidence of sheathing which indicate the appropriate period, but there was insufficient time to conduct further study so it would be premature to make a definitive identification as a gunboat at this time.

On September 23, Mr. James Doolittle of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the good offices of Mr. William Clark, undertook additional ground penetrating radar testing (GPR) in the wetlands adjacent to the Hills Bridge Transect. The results, though cursory, are encouraging and indicate that there is merit in the hypothesis of shifting river channels covering the cultural remains with wetlands.

At present, funding for upcoming fieldwork remains unconfirmed, but several avenues are being explored. Further GPR studies will be undertaken cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Calvert Soil Conservation District, and the DHCD's Office of Archeology in winter when movement over wet ground should be facilitated and danger to plant life precluded. Targets will undergo limited testing, pending issuance of permits and availability of funding. Further survey over the battle site at the mouth of the Creek is also anticipated in the future.

East Carolina University has been invited to hold their field school at the head of St. Leonard's Creek to document and possibly confirm whether a gunboat is present and to identify the other remains. Generously, the Calvert Soil Conservation District, the Prince Frederick Rescue Squad, and the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society have again agreed to participate.

As always, public education and outreach will play significant roles. The ongoing fieldwork will be chronicled in Sails & Oars and activities will be coordinated with the Interpretive Partners. Mr. Shomette's resignation from the CFP has left a difficult gap to fill, and his energy and dynamic personality are sorely missed.

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1998 Chesapeake Flotilla Fieldwork
Funding through the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program enabled the Department of Housing and Community Development's Office of Archeology to renew study of the site belived to contain the remains of Commodore Joshua Barney's gunboats 137 and 138. Dr. Lawrence Babits and four graduate students of East Carolina University's Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology were again invited to undertake test excavations at the site in St. Leonard's Creek.

The goal of the 1998 field season was to document the remains at the site and determine whether they could represent the elusive gunboats. The field crew identified two vessels, one in a more fragmentary condition than the other, and recorded a variety of wooden boat components apparently unrelated to these vessels but of comparable age. Since the adjacent town of St. Leonard's virtually ceased to exist after the British predations of 1814, and since it was a port town, structural elements of scrapped vessels from this period and earlier are not unexpected.

Investigations undertaken during the first three weeks of June focused on the more intact of the two boats. As previously, the site was surrounded by a floating boom and silt curtain to contain disturbed sediments. Approximately 35% of the hull was exposed and recorded before being backfilled at the end of the field season. It was heavily built for its small size (50' x 14') and had two mast steps relatively close together.

Few artifacts were recovered, but few were encountered which fits the scenario of the gunboats being stripped, scuttled, stripped again and finally burned. In addition to some wooden treenails and highly graphitized iron fasteners, including a fishplate, copper sheathing nails were located inside the hull, as were fragments of heavy, sewn leather, a belaying pin handle, tool handle and two partial blocks. A possible imprint of a third block appears in a metal concretion. Fragments of lead sheathing and pieces of melted lead were also recovered. Significantly, three .63 inch musket balls were raised with two other lead pieces thought to be impacted musket balls of 69 caliber and 75 caliber. Finally, an undecorated brass cuff button of the type used on vests and jackets from 1790 to 1820 was found. Presently undergoing conservation treatment, more information may be garnered if a manufacturer's marks exists on its back.

How does the archeological data compare to the historical record? The vessels are smaller than published accounts of the gunboats of series 135-140; being 50 feet long and 14 feet wide versus 60 feet by 16 feet. However, Babits points out that there are no contemporary plans and the records were published 200 years afterward and may be in error. The extremely heavy construction techniques for such a small craft may indicate it was intended to carry armament. The gunboats were notoriously poor sailors and the second mast step may have been an attempt to improve its handling. The men hated them claiming they could hold men or supplies but not both and kept neither dry. Barney felt the slowness and poor handling made gunboats 137 and 138 liabilities. This was demonstrated when No. 137 lagged behind the Flotilla at the Battle of Cedar Point (1 June 1814) forcing Barney to undertake a risky rescue. Why did he bother? No. 137 was carrying the Flotilla's foodstuffs; hence the need to retrieve it. Babits hypothesizes that the copper sheathing nails inside the hull indicate that they were used, not for hull sheathing, but for the lining of a breadroom or magazine. The gunboat's involvement in this encounter with the British would explain the presence of the impacted musket balls, especially considering the Americans used .69 caliber weapons and the British used .75 caliber.

When Barney determined to break out of St. Leonard's Creek he decided to sink the two slow gunboats and recorded that they were drawn up abreast in the shallows and scuttled. They were subsequently burned. The remains in the creek indicate two vessels of comparable size, side by side, bows toward shore, with at least one showing signs of burning (both wood and the melted lead). The second has not yet been studied sufficiently to note evidence for burning.

While none of the evidence demonstrates definitively that the vessels are the gunboats, their disposition and the nature of the associated artifacts provide a strong, if circumstantial, argument in their favor. Future study of the site is dependent on the completion of analyses of this season's field work, study of the artifacts being conserved at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory and the recommendations of the final reports. These factors will be considered by the US Navy in deciding whether further investigations are necessary, since the Navy owns the gunboats. The Chesapeake Flotilla Project will continue to search for the bulk of the fleet via remote sensing techniques, on the upper Patuxent.

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War of 1812 Statewide Initiative
In 1999 the State of Maryland received $75,000 toward the study of terrestrial and underwater War of 1812 battle sites. This is the largest grant yet awarded by the National Park Service's American Battlefields Protection Program (10% of its grant budget) under its latest mandate focusing on Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields. The proposal was crafted by Barbara Stewart, head of MHT's Exhibit Services Program, and MHT Board member Dr. Ralph Eshelman, who is serving as the Project Coordinator, with the intent of bringing together War of 1812 battle-related history, archeology, interpretation, and heritage tourism. To this end, the proposal was made to the NPS jointly with the Department of Business and Economic Development's Office of Tourism Development and includes the more than 20 Interpretive Partner agencies and organizations that have been involved in the 1812 initiative over the past few years.

The grant will permit study of 21 battle sites, both terrestrial and underwater, of the more than 260 sites in Maryland that are related to the War of 1812. The underwater component was undertaken first since work on the significant sites of the two Battles of St. Leonard's Creek had already been initiated over the past three years with State and Federal funding provided by MHT and the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program (Legacy), respectively. Legacy funds were also made available for this season's fieldwork.

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1999 Chesapeake Flotilla Fieldwork
The 1999 field season involved the investigation of the second vessel at the head of St. Leonard's Creek, believed to be either Gunboat No. 137 or 138. Fieldwork was undertaken by 7 graduate students from East Carolina University (ECU), one of whom, Jenna Watts, acted as assistant to Principal Investigator Jeffrey Enright and as the project's conservator. Enright recently completed his Master's degree (ECU) using the data from the first gunboat as subject. Kathy Concannon, a former MHT intern and Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society (MAHS) member, also joined the field crew and assisted at the MAC Laboratory in conserving the recovered artifacts. Additional participants included MAHS volunteers and MHT staff. Dr. Larry Babits (ECU), last season's Principal Investigator, visited for a few days and once again Bill Clark, District Manager of the Calvert County Soil Conservation District, contributed his survey skills.

Excavations were undertaken during the month of July, and while the structure of the second gunboat was discovered to be in a more fragmentary condition than the first vessel studied, it produced considerably more artifacts (293 in all). These included a gunflint, musket balls, several buttons, a single canister of grapeshot (or possibly a swivel gun shot), a buckle for a neck stock or knee breeches, two pieces of glazed redware, and large numbers of copper sheathing nails. Once again it is significant to note that these nails came from within the hull. Hull sheathing is normally on the outside of the hull to protect it from worms and doubtless these vessels were indeed copper sheathed. However, interior compartments used to store ammunition or foodstuffs were also sheathed, generally with lead, to keep the powder dry and the food both dry and protected from rats and mice. If only a few such sheathing nails had been found within the hulls, it might be attributable to the local inhabitants of the town of St. Leonard's accidentally dropping a few while salvaging valuable wartime commodities from the scuttled vessels (the British actually record this occurring when they reached the town). However, the large numbers of these nails point to internal sheathing and scraps of lead sheathing have been recovered from both vessels.

The final site report and structural illustrations are still in preparation but the vessels are virtually identical to each other, as might be expected since Nos. 137 and 138 were both products of the same Baltimore shipyard. The artifacts also are still undergoing conservation treatment at the MAC Laboratory.

Additional work being undertaken as part of the statewide initiative has included the completion of side scan sonar remote sensing survey over the remainder of St. Leonard's Creek, with divers checking any promising targets. The purpose was to seek remnants of the Second Battle at the mouth of the creek and any vestiges of a boom and piles Commodore Barney placed across the middle reaches of the creek. No further evidence has been recovered.

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For more information on the Chesapeake Flotilla Project,
contact the Maryland State Underwater Archeologist, Dr. Susan Langley at (410) 514-7662.

Last updated: September 15, 2005