Back to the Drawing Board

Had a great brainstorm with Bill yesterday. Couple thoughts:

1. He encouraged the slavery aspect of the Rev.gen. He mentioned when Charleston was captured by the British, the Brits threatened to set free all the slaves unless the Americans signed oaths of loyalty to the crown. The Americans signed.

Did anything like that happen around here? How did the war impact slavery?

2. The Battle of Baltimore - slaves were sent from far and wide (often with their masters) to help fortify the city before the bombardment. How many people were involved? Where did the come from? Were women and children sent away like the Armisteads?

Why Baltimore?

or more like,

3. why Baltimore in 1814, but not in 1776?

According to my talk with Dad#2 the other night, the Patriots were extremely active in MD. In Boston they dumped tea over board, in Maryland we burned the whole darn ship.

Tangent:
And who was in that rowboat forcing Capt'n Stewart to torch his Peggy? good ol' Capt'n Chuck the Builder. Too bad no one seems to care about that! I'm kind of interested in changing that. Chucky deserves some credit.

The Continental Congress also met in Annapolis in Novemeber 1776-1777. The Washington resigned his commission as Commander-In-Chief, Dec 23, 1783.

Then there's the "Old Line" stuff, the supply of men, arms and ships to the war.

But that wasn't enough to make it a military target. Or were there other causes?


By 1812 it was on the top of the hit list.



Interesting