A Small Group of Rare and Important Military General Service Medals


By April 1814, operations of the force of which Robyns was part shifted south, to the Chesapeake Bay area, including the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. The character of the war slightly altered, and he addressed this with an entry on 5 April about Tangier Island where an officer and 20 Marines landed, “as a guard to protect some work intended to be erected thereon; it is intended to apply this place as a depot for the run away Negroes, but I fear it is badly calculated for it being all sand and swamp and covered with myriads of mosquitoes”. Then another initiative occurred, which he noted on 11 May 1814: “Forming a black battalion of colonial Marines from the refugee Negroes, who are in general fine able stout fellows. We now have about 80”. He then also commented on a rarity for the time, a commission from the ranks: “Admiral Cochrane gave my sergeant major Wm Hammond an acting order as Ensign and Adjutant to them”.


Between May and August 1814, the British operated in the vicinity of Washington, and Robyns was constantly employed ashore in various aspects of riverine operations. On 28 May, 100 Marines and 30 colonial Marines embarked in small boats and went up Pingo Teak Creek, their goal to destroy two batteries. The next day, alarm firing along the shore announced their movement and later a field piece opened fire. With men in open boats, there was only one counter: to land and fight the enemy ashore. Robyns then described what followed: “In advancing, they gave us round of grape from their field piece and then abandoned it, maintaining afterwards a sharp fire of musquetry with us in the wood. Their force was treble ours”. The abandoned artillery piece was seized and the battery position later destroyed. British losses were light, several seamen killed and two Marines wounded. Enemy losses were uncertain, but Robyns claimed to have seen three dead on the ground and observed several wounded being removed from the field. He also commented on a new weapon, but with less than an enthusiastic endorsement: “We used some of the Congreve rockets but I think they were of little service”.


On 25 June, in a similar operation at Chesamissock Creek, the boats left at night to attack an enemy position, and grounded 300 yards from it while fire was received from a field piece. The troops waded ashore, drove the foe from their entrenchments, burnt the guard- house and a quantity of provisions, and brought off the field piece, all without any loss. On 9 July Robyns averted a near battle after his men had landed to seize some corn, when 300 militiamen seen the previous day approached them. As Robyns commented, “I had only 30 Marines with which I made a shew of advancing towards them, when they precipitately retired”.


Bladensburg and the capture of Washington


Such small actions continued throughout the summer, but were preliminary to a much larger one - and forces were arriving for it. As he penned on 15 July, reinforcements arrived from Britain, including three battalions of Marines totalling 800 men, plus a company of Royal Marine Artillery. In August, skirmishes occurred on the 3rd and 8th with ensuing slight casualties. By the 17th more troops had arrived, under the command of Major-General Robert Ross. The ground force, now consisting of four regiments of 3,000 troops and 400 artillery, proceeded up the Patuxent River and landed at Benedict, Maryland. On 22 August 1814, a small detachment proceeded upriver and tested former President Thomas Jefferson’s concept of passive national defence, rooted in gunboats and militia, in this instance an important element in the defences of Washington. Robyns described what happened to the defenders, commanded by Commodore Joshua Barney:


“Our force of about 50 boats and 350 Marines from the ships formed into a battalion which as senior officer I commanded. In some places the river is so narrow that it was necessary to land us to scour the country and prevent the Americans firing into the boats from the banks. The landing and reembarking which we were obliged to do several times going up was very difficult from the shallowness of the water, wading up to our backs each time. At 10 AM landed about a mile from the town of Pig Point and dispersed a large body of militia who had assembled there for the protection of the flotilla; on our boats opening the point, the Americans blew them up one after another in number 17, fine vessels carrying two heavy guns each, the Commodore’s was a cutter of 4 guns, the men escaped on shore; one of the boats we captured; some horsemen appeared on the heights, but dispersed, on my spreading my men in the country. Captured a few light schooners and found in town some large stores full of tobacco, remained here for the night with a division of boats.”


This was a prelude of what followed. The next day Robyns was only 18 miles from Washington, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, with orders to ‘retain possession of it’. He described the place as “a small town situated in a pretty country between Washington and Baltimore”. He then quartered his men in the Court House and procured cattle for them. He also noted that, “The Inhabitants were very civil to the officers and offered the accommodation of their homes”.


The next day, 24 August 1814, occurred the finale: the battle of Bladensburg, and the capture and burning of Washington. In this, Robyns participated, but his comments on what occurred are succinct:


“This afternoon our little army came up with the enemy treble their numbers strongly posted and supported by batteries, at Bladensburg, near Washington. Our Light Brigade only, consisting of 1500 men, attacked and totally routed them, marching immediately without opposition into Washington, where they burnt the Capitol, President’s House, Navy Yard, a new frigate ready for launching, Treasury, War Office, Gun Foundry, etc. Our loss was only 200 killed... With so small a force this must be considered a most dashing and daring enterprise, and succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations.”


Following these successful operations, Admiral Cockburn wrote in his despatch to Sir Alexander Cochrane, “Captain Robyns, who has had, during these operations, the marines of the ships united under his orders, has executed, ably and zealously, the several services with which he has been entrusted, and is entitled to my best acknowledgements accordingly.”


Baltimore - severely wounded


Next came the battle for Baltimore on 12 September 1814. Robyns landed at dawn with his battalion of Marines, 10 miles from the city. His Marines were brigaded with the 4th and 44th regiments of foot and formed the right brigade. “It was one of the hottest days I ever remember”, he noted, and it affected the troops of his brigade. In the morning, his troops passed entrenchments abandoned by the enemy and later: “At 2 PM heard some firing in the distance and soon after passed Gen Ross mortally wounded by some riflemen in the woods. Thus fell at an early age an officer who was an ornament to his profession, enjoying the fullest confidence of the Army for his skill... and bravery”.


“At 3 PM discovered the enemy in great force strongly posted in a wood defended by field pieces and a strong palisade in their front, we could only approach them but over three open fields”. Although noting his men “were much exhausted by a hot march of seven miles”, when the bugles sounded they advanced “with the greatest coolness under a tremendous fire of round, grape, and musketry from 8000 men. We never fired a shot until within 40 yards of them, when we gave then a volley and charged”. But Robyns’ participation in the battle now ended: “At this time I received a wound from a musquet ball which passed through the ham of my left leg between the main artery and tendons by which I was completely disabled and obliged to be taken to a barn in the rear where I was soon joined by ten more officers some dangerously wounded. Also a vast number of men”. Robyns proudly noted the enemy broke under the impact of the frontal assault and fled. He estimated friendly losses at about 250 killed and wounded, but that of the Americans “must have been immense, the wood was covered with their dead and wounded”. After 36 hours in the barn, all the wounded there were returned to their ships.


In his subsequent despatch to Sir Alexander Cochrane, Admiral Cockburn enclosed a return of the wounded, including ‘Captain Robyns, R.M. (severely)’ and further mentioned him thus: ‘The marines landed from the ships, and commanded by Captain Robyns, displayed their usual gallantry... Captain Robyns, who commanded the marines of the fleet, I also beg to recommend to your favourable notice and consideration.’


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