As Americans celebrated the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in early July 1776, the war for that independence was already spreading across the colonies. While many people think of the Revolution’s largest battles taking place in New York, New Jersey, or Massachusetts, Maryland experienced its own major clash only days after independence was declared. On July 16, 1776, the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge was still more than a year away. Still, Maryland’s largest Revolutionary War battle occurred at the entrance to Baltimore Harbor in what became known as the Battle of the Lower Chesapeake, often called the Battle of the Barges.
The action was fought near the mouth of the Patapsco River, between the Maryland Navy and British warships, as the British attempted to tighten their control over the Chesapeake Bay. Although small by the standards of later Revolutionary battles, it was the largest naval engagement ever fought in Maryland during the war.
By the summer of 1776, British naval vessels had become a constant threat along the Chesapeake. They raided plantations, seized merchant ships, confiscated livestock, and interrupted the trade that many Maryland families depended upon. The colony could not match the Royal Navy’s powerful warships, but Maryland had begun building its own small fleet to defend its rivers and coastline.
The Maryland vessels were not large frigates or ships of the line. Instead, they consisted primarily of swift galleys and barges armed with cannon. Their shallow draft allowed them to operate in waters where larger British ships could not easily follow. These small vessels allowed Maryland’s sailors to challenge a far stronger enemy on more favorable terms…