On July 19, 1814, British raiders marched at night from their ships on the Patuxent to Prince Frederick, where frightened residents fled after news spread of the approach and after earlier raids had already struck Lower Marlboro, St. Leonard, and Huntingtown. The attackers burned the jail, a tobacco warehouse, the county courthouse, its naval stores and munitions, and a nearby plantation, spreading terror through Southern Maryland during the War of 1812, when the strategically important Chesapeake region suffered blockades and raids as the United States fought Great Britain from 1812 to 1815 to protect its rights and economic independence.