Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/210

 boats and a detachment of marines were then sent away under Lieutenant Westphal, who drove the enemy out of French Town, destroyed its depots of flour, military stores, &c. disabled six heavy guns, burnt five merchant vessels, and returned to the advanced squadron without the loss of a man killed or missing, and with only one wounded. The value of the property destroyed on this occasion was estimated at no less a sum than £500,000. In his official letter to Sir John B. Warren, the Rear-Admiral says:–

Rear-Admiral Cockburn afterwards anchored off Spesuçie Island, from whence a supply of cattle was obtained for the fleet in Chesapeake Bay. Whilst in the act of anchoring, he observed guns fired, and American colours hoisted at a battery lately erected at Havre-de-Grace, at the entrance of the Susquehanna river. This immediately gave to the place an importance which he had not before attached to it; and he therefore determined on attacking it. On the 2d May, the boats of the advanced squadron were placed under the command of Lieutenant Westphal, and ordered to assemble, at midnight, alongside the Fantome; a detachment of marines, consisting of about 150 men, embarked in them; and the whole proceeded towards Havre, under the direction of Captain John Lawrence, of the above sloop. Lieutenant Westphal led the van, in a rocket-boat, and took his station close to the battery, whilst those in the rear occupied the necessary positions for commencing the attack at dawn of day. Before that time arrived, however, he was discovered and fired upon; to which the advanced launches and rocket-boats gave so warm a return that the enemy soon fled to the furthest extremity of the town. Lieutenant Westphal then landed with his boat’s crew, turned their own runs on the fugitives, and, having dismounted and seized an American officer, set out on the captured horse in pursuit of them, forgetting, in the ardour of the moment, that his friends on foot could not