HISTORY

Cockburn's Orders

Adm. Cockburn expected Americans to turn over all tobacco and livestock required by the British. He had some specific rules relating to buildings to be torched in America:

• It the owners resist their property being seized, it must be a militia headquarters and must be burned.
• If the occupants are not home, they must have gone off to join the militia and the house must be burned.

One British officer noted that Cockburn found those who chose to defend their homes: "guilty of the unnatural sin of protecting their own country."