considerable body of troops, and commanding the communication between the upper part of the country and Norfolk. On the 26th June, Sir Sidney Beck with, at the head of the flying corps attached to the fleet under Sir John B. Warren, who had embarked his troops on board Rear-Admiral Cockburn’s squadron, landed to the westward of Hampton, and, whilst the enemy’s attention was engaged by a fire from the vessels upon the batteries, he turned their flank unperceived. A brisk action ensued, which terminated in his gaining possession of their camp and fortified works. The total loss sustained by the British on this occasion was 5 men slain, 33 wounded, and 10 missing. In the following month, Rear-Admiral Cockburn took possession of Ocracoke and Portsmouth islands, on the coast of North Carolina, by which an end was put to the commerce carried on from the port of the former by means of the inland navigation. A brig of war mounting 18, and a schooner of 10 guns, were also captured there.
The hostile operations on the southern coast of the United States, had hitherto been rather of a harassing and predatory kind, than directed to any important purpose; but it was now resolved to strike a blow in this quarter that might exert an influence upon the fate of the war. A large naval force under the command of Sir Alexander Cochrane, having on board a strong body of troops, commanded by Major-General Ross, assembled in the Chesapeake in the beginning of Aug. 1814, waiting the arrival of a reinforcement from Bermuda. Their junction took place on the 11th, when the Commander-in-Chief was informed by Rear-Admiral Cockburn, that the American Commodore Barney, with the Baltimore flotilla, had taken shelter at the head of the Patuxent; of this circumstance advantage was taken as a pretext for ascending that river, with the avowed purpose of an attack upon Barney; but the real and ultimate object was the American capital, not far distant from a port on the Patuxent. A detachment being sent to bombard Fort Washington, situated about ten or twelve miles below the city, and several vessels sent up the Chesapeake, above Baltimore, by way of diversion; the main body of the army, with the marine battalion, a detachment of seamen, and the rocket corps, were landed at Benedict on the 19th and 20th Aug. On the 21st, Major-Ge-
