In June 1814, Maryland's Commodore Joshua Barney commanded an American flotilla of barges, gunboats, and a sloop in attacks on superior British forces in the Patuxent River and its tributary, St. Leonard Creek. After the flotilla moved up the Patuxent and was blockaded, the British destroyed the town of St. Leonard, then located here at the head of the creek, before proceeding to Washington, which they burned on August 24.