On August 22, 1814, British forces under General Robert Ross marched northwest from the Patuxent River toward the nation's capital and camped overnight in Upper Marlboro. Lieutenant George Gleig recalled reaching Marlborough at one o'clock and seeing neat houses, pretty gardens, gentle green hills, magnificent trees, the straggling village, and a lovely stream winding through the valley in what he considered an exquisitely beautiful panorama. When the British troops marched back through Upper Marlboro a few days after invading Washington, D.C., enslaved people came out from nearby plantations to seek their freedom. Historic documents from the time record that John Hodges of Darnall’s Chance had an enslaved person leave on August 26 with the British Marines. Several thousand enslaved people in the Chesapeake region found a pathway to freedom by escaping to the British side during the War of 1812.