On April 7-8, 1814, a British raiding force of 136 sailors and marines rowed six miles up the Connecticut River from warships anchored in Long Island Sound to attack American shipping in Essex, then known as Pettipaug. By the time the raid ended, 27 vessels had been burned, including six newly built privateers. More than 500 American militia, soldiers, sailors, and marines tried to prevent the British escape, and by late afternoon on April 8 hundreds of additional defenders from New London had joined them. American forces prepared breastworks with cannons on high ground on both sides of the river, while the British, delayed after one of two captured ships went aground, waited for darkness. At 7:00 p.m. the British burned both captured ships and began their final run downriver in their boats. They were hit by an American cannon on the adjacent shore and then passed through heavy cannon fire and musketry from positions there and across the river on Ferry Point. Protected by darkness, they reached their warships with only two men killed and two injured, after inflicting the largest single loss of American shipping in the War of 1812.

Photo: Conrad Ward