The U.S. Flotilla Service is probably the least known and largely forgotten military service created by the United States during the War of 1812. This service lasted for only ten months and eleven days but if it wasn’t for the exploits of Captain Joshua Barney and his flotilla men at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, American history would be different today.
Barney and his men, plus a U.S. Marine Corps detachment, held the British army in check with a David vs. Goliath struggle which permitted the militia army of the United States to withdraw from the battlefield on 24 August 1814. The British calls this battle the Bladensburg Races, but the marines and the flotilla men were able to withdraw and continued their fight with the British during the Battle of Baltimore, 12-15 September 1814.
This service was the brainchild of privateer captain Joshua Barney of Baltimore, Maryland, who on 4 July 1813 proposed a ‘flying squadron’ to the Secretary of the Navy William Jones in order to protect Baltimore’s harbor. This ‘flying squadron’ would be made up of fast gunboats and row galleys that would be able to defend the Chesapeake Bay and at the same time attack the British naval ships.
Captain Barney, also known as Commodore Barney, wanted the ‘flying squadron’ to replace the U.S. Navy’s gunboat service with local men who did not want sea duty. Only two squadrons were created. Besides Barney’s Chesapeake Bay Flotilla Squadron, the second squadron was located at New York City, under the command of Captain Jacob Lewis. Less than 2,500 men served in both squadrons, with most of the men having been transferred from idle U.S. naval ships.
Little has been written on the U.S. Flotilla Service and its accomplishments during the War of 1812. The purpose of this work is to give the reader a short history of this forgotten naval service and to identify the men who served within its ranks.
Mr. Johnson is a Fellow of the Ohio Genealogical Society and a Registrar-General Emeritus for the General Society of the War of 1812. He is also a lineal descendant of seven veterans of the War of 1812, and he is currently the District Deputy President General for the Great Lakes Region for the General Society of the War of 1812.
Eric Eugene Johnson
2025, 8.5" x 11", paper, alphabetical, 126 pp.
ISBN: 9780788446443
101-J4644
