Robert Ross (British Army officer)
Robert Ross | |
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Major-General | |
Battles/wars |
Ross joined the British Army in 1789. He served as an officer in several battles during the Napoleonic Wars, including the Battles of Maida and Corunna, gaining promotion to colonel. In 1809, he was sent to serve in the Peninsular War, including the Battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, Sorauren, and Orthez. He was wounded in the neck at the Battle of Orthez in France on 27 February 1814.[1]
Upon returning to duty later that year, Ross was made a major general and sent to North America, as commander of "all British forces on the East Coast". In August 1814, he reached
During his command of the Burning of Washington many important U.S. Government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol were damaged, demoralizing and greatly damaging the American war effort. Ross then led a British invasion north up the Chesapeake Bay towards the city of Baltimore which culminated in the Battle of Baltimore that September. On 12 September, he was shot while commanding troops at North Point, and died while being moved to the rear.
Early life
Ross was born in
Napoleonic Wars
Ross fought as a junior officer at the battles of
Peninsular War
He was promoted to lieutenant–colonel at the end of 1808 and fought in the Battle of Corunna in Spain in early 1809 during the Peninsular War. In 1810, Ross was made a full colonel as well as aide-de-camp to the King.
In 1813, Ross was sent to serve under
War of 1812
Ross sailed to North America as a
The capture of Washington
After the victory at Bladensburg, Ross was persuaded by Rear-Admiral George Cockburn that they could take Washington, D.C., and late in the evening of 24 August his army of 4,500 men (including 1,000 Royal Marines from Cockburn's flotilla) captured the capital, in spite of a larger contingent of American defenders. Under Ross' direction, his troops set fire to the city's public buildings, including the White House and the United States Capitol. Extensive damage to the interiors and the contents of both were subsequently reported.[3]
Ross refused to accept Cockburn's recommendation to also damage private property.[7] The attack on the National Intelligencer newspaper was led by Cockburn.[8] Ross ordered the preservation of private property however, threatening his men with punishment if they disobeyed.[9]
A CBC News article described Ross as a "reluctant arsonist" who needed persuasion from Cockburn to cause intentional damage. Although Cockburn had been optimistic about the possibility of capturing the capital city,[10] author John McCavitt asserted that Ross "never dreamt for one minute that an army of 3,500 men with 1,000 marines reinforcement, with no cavalry, hardly any artillery, could march 50 miles inland and capture an enemy capital".[11]
Death
At the urging of Cockburn and army quartermaster-general Lieutenant
Ross's body was preserved in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 L) of
Legacy
In Ross's home village of Rostrevor, County Down in Northern Ireland, he is commemorated by a 99-foot granite obelisk near the shoreline of Carlingford Lough. The Monument, a 100-foot granite obelisk, was restored in 2008.[15] A smaller monument was erected in Kilbroney Parish Church by troops who had served with Ross at the Battle of Maida in 1806.[16] This granite memorial was erected in 1826 "on a hill within view of his heartbroken widow’s home", according to a 2013 report.[17]
Ross is also commemorated by a National Monument in St Paul's Cathedral in London, England.[18] The latter is described by a book about Ross as: "Britannia is represented weeping over the tomb of the departed warrior, over which an, American flag is being deposited by a figure of Valour, while Fame descends with a wreath of laurels to crown the hero’s head".[16]
The inscription on the National Monument reads:
DEDICATED AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE TO THE MEMORY
OF MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT ROSS
WHO HAVING UNDERTOOK AND EXECUTED AN ENTERPRISE AGAINST THE
CITY OF WASHINGTON, THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WHICH WAS CROWNED WITH COMPLETE SUCCESS WAS KILLED SHORTLY
AFTERWARDS WHILE DIRECTING A SUCCESSFUL ATTACK UPON A SUPERIOR FORCE NEAR THE
CITY OF BALTIMORE ON THE 12TH DAY OF SEPTEMPTER 1814
By the beginning of
Neither General Ross nor his immediate descendants were
In honour of the Federal City and national capital's
According to a biographical history of the Major-General by Robert Lacy,[15]
Ross was a soldier who combined caution with courage. He was immensely popular with his men because of his willingness to share their hardships and to fight alongside them in the thick of battle. A colleague said of him that he could not be 'a better man nor a more zealous officer'. Ross also commanded the respect and admiration of his opponents because of his unfailing courtesy and chivalrous conduct. One of the leading physicians then residing in 1814 Washington paid tribute to Ross’s ‘consummate modesty and politeness’.
Local lore indicates that the two snipers/riflemen Daniel Wells and Henry McComas (of the unit of Aisquith's Sharpshooters") were first buried in a local churchyard mourned by their fellow militia soldiers and citizens of the Town, but forty years later in the 1850s were exhumed and reburied after elaborate processions and funerals in a monumental tomb with a stone obelisk in what was known then as Ashland Square. Currently, off of the triangular intersection of Aisquith, East Monument and North Gay Streets in the Jonestown/Old Town neighborhood of East Baltimore. Occasional memorial ceremonies are still held for them by War of 1812 descendents and heritage societies. The Wells-McComas Monument is depicted on the embroidered shoulder patch insignia of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office for deputy sheriffs. City streets were also named for them in South Baltimore, off South Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2).
Notes
- ^ a b "BIOGRAPHY Robert Ross". American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ Mitchell, W (1897). Major-General Robert Ross in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution (Volume 41, Issue 1 ed.). London, England: J. J. keliher & Co. p. 117.
- ^ a b Guide to the Robert Ross Papers, 1813-1873, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University
- ^ Markham, Edwin (1912). The Real America in Romance Valor and Victory: The age of Vindication 1783–1824 Volume X. New York City, Chicago: William H Wise & Company. pp. 370–382.
- ^ "Fort Warburton". U.S. National Park Service. 19 July 2007.
- ^ "Interview With War of 1812 Author Steve Vogel". History Net. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Why Americans Celebrate the Burning of Washington". TIME magazine. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
Cockburn, who accompanied Ross into the capital, reportedly wanted to burn the entire city in retaliation for American depredations in Canada. But it was an army operation and Ross' call, and he would have none of it.
- ^ "In 1814, British forces burned the U.S. Capitol". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "Robert Ross". NPS. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Interview With War of 1812 Author Steve Vogel". History Net. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
we could easily have at our mercy the capital
- ^ "Trump blames Canada for torching White House. Meet the 'reluctant arsonist'". CBC News. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ISBN 9780812981391.
- ^ "Film stirs flap over killing of general in 1814". Baltimore Sun. 17 September 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
Their names do not pop up until the 1850s, when a political movement bent on keeping immigrants in general and Catholics in particular out of positions of power resurrected their memory.
- ^ Laura Rich. Maryland History In Prints 1743-1900. p. 43.
- ^ a b "MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT ROSS". Baganal Castle. 29 April 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ a b "ROSS MONUMENTS". The Man Who Captured Washington. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Man who burned White House in 1814, feted Brilliant Anglo-Irish general now largely forgotten". Washington Post in Japan Times. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- Sinclair, W.pp. 458: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909
- ^ Vogel, Steve (24 October 2013). "The War of 1812 and the capture of Washington, through British eyes". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Robert Ross: The NI man who started the White House fire 200 years ago". BBC News. 24 August 2014.
- ^ Ross Family History[permanent dead link]. Igp-web.com. Retrieved on 4 June 2011.
- ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). "A Complete Guide to Heraldry". pp. 113, 474, 593, 374.
- ^ Smyth, B (1889). History of the XX Regiment: 1688-1888. Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. p. 348.
Further reading
- McCavitt, John, and Christopher T. George. The Man Who Captured Washington: Major General Robert Ross and the War of 1812. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. ISBN 9780806151649 see online review
- Ross is a featured supporting character in Eric Flint's alternate history novels, 1812: The Rivers of War, and 1824: The Arkansas War.
References
- Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
External links
- Ross's Monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London Archived 16 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- Ross's Monument in Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland and discussion of his career Archived 29 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Guide to the Robert Ross Papers, 1813-1873, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University