HISTORY

Every Hamlet Annihilated

On April 4, 1813 . . . several weeks before the burning of York . . . Royal Marines Capt. Thomas Wybourn wrote that he had been at a meeting of British officers where Adm. Cockburn had given orders that "Every town, village and hamlet throughout these rivers are to be annihilated and plundered."

The first victim was Frenchtown, burned on April 29 . . . well before information could have reached the fleet about the burning of York on April 28. This would seem to confirm the plan as stated by Capt. Wybourn.

The real tragedy came at Havre De Grace on May 1. Originally the British had no interest in it, but it had the audacity of building a defensive battery and raising the national flag over it. Cockburn wrote of the event as follows: "This of course immediately gave to the place an importance which I had not before attached to it, and I therefore determined on attacking it."

Havre De Grace was attacked and burned on May 3. It had no military value.