MARYLAND - Revolutionary War Cannon on display in St. Mary's Square - St. Michaels, MD

This Cannon mounted in St Mary's Square is said to have been used to repel the British attack on St. Michaels, Maryland
10 August 1813 

Halfway down the "DelMarVa" peninsula which is so called because the Peninsula on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay is made up of the State of Delaware, part of Maryland and Virginia in the southern tip, is the tiny town of St. Michaels, Maryland. Back in 1813, 10 August to be exact, a British fleet and hundreds of British Marines attacked St. Michaels in order to destroy some ships that were being built here for the U.S. Navy. Legend has it that the local towns folk hung lanterns high in the trees and up high on buildings so that when the British ships fired on their targets, their shots would go high and hopefully miss the buildings. Legends like this one are interesting but in my research I have discovered that when the main attack was made, it probable that sunrise was coming on and it was already getting light, there by making the Lantern story improbable. Its hard to say exactly what happened in many circumstances in the past because we were simply not there. All you really have to go on is old journals and eyewitness statements or official military documents prepared by those who were present. Stories such as this one on the citizens and fledgling U.S. Military's defense of St. Michaels are interesting to contemplate 202 years after the fact. The town of St. Michaels today is a charming place set next to the water on the Chesapeake Bay. It is also the home of the amazing Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. If make your way over to charming St. Mary's Square in the center of this small town, you will notice an old cannon mounted on a concrete pedestal. A sign there gives a brief retelling of the battle of St. Michaels and a green weathered copper plate on the cannon states that it was used to repel the British from this town  on 10 August 1813. It is a difficult thing for us as Americans to consider foreign soldiers boots on American soil but during the war of 1812, a largely forgotten war in the American Psyche. However, it was a common occurrence for towns to mobilize and prepare all hands to defend against British Invasion up and down the Chesapeake, along the Great Lakes and in the northern states adjacent to Canada.