nned by a hundred sailors from the
_Constellation_ and fifty marines. Seven hundred British seamen tried to
land in barges, but the battery shattered three of the boats with heavy
loss of life. Somewhat ruffled, Admiral Warren decided to go elsewhere
and made a foray upon the defenseless village of Hampton during which he
permitted his men to indulge in wanton pillage and destruction. Part of
his fleet then sailed up to the Potomac and created a most distressing
hysteria in Washington. The movement was a feint, however, and after
frightening Baltimore and Annapolis, the ships cruised and blockaded the
bay for several months.

In September of the following year another British division harassed the
coast of Maine, first capturing Eastport and then landing at Belfast,
Bangor, and Castine, and extorting large ransoms in money and supplies.
New England was wildly alarmed. In a few weeks all of Maine east of the
Penobscot had been invaded, conquered, and formally annexed to New
Brunswick, although two counties alone might easily have furnished
twelve thousand fighting men to resist the small parties of British
sailors who operated in leisurely security. The people of the coastwise
towns gave up their sheep and bullocks to these rude trespassers, cut
the corn and dug the potatoes for them, handed over all their powder and
firearms, and agreed to finish and deliver schooners that were on the
stocks.

Cape Cod was next to suffer, for two men-of-war levied contributions of
thousands of dollars from Wellfleet, Brewster, and Eastham, and robbed
and destroyed other towns. Farther south another fleet entered Long
Island Sound, bombarded Stonington, and laid it in ruins. The pretext
for all this havoc was a raid made by a few American troops who had
crossed to Long Point on Lake Erie, May 15, 1814, and had burned some
Canadian mills and a few dwellings. The expedition was promptly disowned
by the American Government as unauthorized, but in retaliation the
British navy was ordered to lay waste all towns on the Atlantic coast
which were assailable, sparing only the lives of the unarmed citizens.

Included in the British plan of campaign for 1814 was a coastal attack
important enough to divert American efforts from the Canadian frontier.
This was why an army under General Ross was loaded into transports at
Bermuda and escorted by a fleet to Chesapeake Bay. The raids against
small coastwise ports, though lucrative, had no military valu