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Rear Admiral George Cockburn Before 1813, George Cockburn distinguished himself in the wars against France, eventually rising to the rank of rear admiral. He arrived in Chesapeake Bay in February of 1813, and immediately began a series of raids on coastal towns. Under his command, the British Navy seized Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Fredericktown. They confiscated the merchandise in the warehouses and stores before burning them. Following a similar attack on Hampton, Virginia, Cockburn was accused by some American journalists of turning a blind eye while some of his sailors looted and destroyed private property. In August of 1814, Cockburn cornered Commodore Joshua Barney's fleet of gunboats up the Patuxent River with the intention of destroying them, a task Barney spared him by blowing up his own boats. Cockburn then accompanied General Ross on the Washington attack. During the subsequent burning of Washington, Cockburn personally oversaw the destruction of the virulently anti-British newspaper, the National Intelligencer's offices. "Make sure that all the C's are destroyed," Cockburn reputedly told the soldiers, "so that the rascals can have no further means of abusing my name." Following the British failure to take Baltimore, Cockburn continued raiding in the Chesapeake area until the end of the war.
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