Nottingham served as the Chesapeake Flotilla’s base in July and early August 1814. The town was hastily abandoned on August 21 as the British moved in. An enemy rear guard protected this important landing while the main force invaded Washington. As the Washington campaign ended, British vessels there took on wounded soldiers and artillery. British Lt. George Robert Gleig wrote that when he came to Nottingham, not an individual was to be seen in the streets or remained in the house, and the furniture and even bread left in ovens showed that it had been evacuated in great haste. As British troops marched toward Nottingham, they discovered two American militiamen who claimed to be out squirrel hunting, but they balked when officers asked why they were hunting with bayonets.