War vessels passed by here in 1814 as the Chesapeake Flotilla, consisting of 50- and 75-foot gun barges, sought safety in shallow waters upstream while British ships hotly pursued it, and the Americans eventually scuttled the flotilla to keep it from enemy hands. The British conducted raids June 15-17 upriver at Lower Marlboro and magruders Landing, and downriver at Hollands Cliffs. On the heights just downriver at Hollands Cliffs, local militia prepared to ambush a British raiding party, but warned by runaway slaves, the raiders landed Royal Marines to flank the Americans. In retaliation for a few shots fired at them, the British burned a nearby barn full of tobacco. Calvert County citizen Thomas B. King wrote on July 14, 1814, "When I tell you the mischief the British have done it will be enough to make you and every man abuse [President] Jim Madison and old [Commodore Joshua] Barney in Hell…"