After encountering superior British naval forces, Commodore Barney retreated into the relative safety of St. Leonard Creek, whose narrow entrance and high banks made it easily defendable. On June 8, 9, and 10, British gunboats, schooners, and barges attacked in repeated waves to destroy the Flotilla during the First Battle of St. Leonard Creek, but they were soundly repulsed. The British then pillaged plantations along the Patuxent River in an attempt to draw Barney out. In Barney’s account of the fighting, the enemy advanced with barges, a rocket barge, and schooners, but his force drove them back, pursued them down the creek, and fired so severely on an 18-gun schooner that it ran ashore at the entrance and was abandoned. Barney believed his force had done considerable damage, reporting that the large schooner was nearly destroyed, with shots through her at the water’s edge, her deck torn up, a gun dismounted, and her mainmast nearly cut off, while other boats also suffered heavily.