Tag «Chesapeake Bay»

Battle of Cape Henry

HMS Formidable breaks through French line at April 9, 1782 Battle of Satintes. Artwork by Edward Dixon.

The Battle of Cape Henry, March 16, 1781, occurred just outside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay off the Cape of Henry. Though the French fleet of eight ships-of-the-line and one frigate under Admiral Charles Destouches inflicted far greater damage as they bested the seven ships-of-the-line under British Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot,  Destouches did not …

Mount Vernon Saved at Washington’s Embarrassment

Mount Vernon pictured today.

By the spring of 1781, six years of war in America had witnessed thousands of homes and homesteads plundered and torched. British and American punitive raids and foraging parties scoured coastal and inner regions. Politics and hatred morphed into one as a civil war erupted between militia bands of patriots and loyalists. In early April, …