Hello John,
John Weiss wrote:

>DATES
>As far as dates are concerned, it's clear to me that those authors who quote
>1812 are unaware that the first British entry into the Chesapeake during the
>War of 1812 was in February 1813,
>
I think the 1812 reference Florence Turner makes in her book is about
when Gen. Taylor was in command of the local military forces, not to the
British attack which is in 1813. The way it flows from the statement
about Taylor to the damage to Pleasure House makes it sound like she's
still talking about 1812.

>
>LYNNHAVEN BAY
>The name 'Lynnhaven Bay' certainly appears inland on the TerraServer map
>where 'Linkhorn Bay' appears in older maps, which all show Lynnhaven Bay to
>be the stretch of water in the Chesapeake that includes Lynnhaven Roads,
>
I grew up boating on the waters of both Lynnhaven and Linkhorn Bays.
Linkhorn lies to the east of the Lynnhaven Bay/River and the heads of
them are connected by Long Creek. Many older maps do not show Linkhorn
Bay. But for clarity I've put up two versions of a portion from an 1826
map of the area.
http://www.tuckahoetradingco.com/files3/pa-county3.jpg
Another version where I've added arrows and the label for Linkhorn Bay
for clarify their locations
http://www.tuckahoetradingco.com/files3/pa-county4.jpg

The current shorelines and situations of the bodies of water are
essentially the same as shown in the 1826 map.Sometimes Lynnhaven Bay is
referred to as the area immediately north of Lynnhaven Inlet, and
sometimes the expanse of water at the head of the Lynnhaven River  and
south of the inlet is called Lynnhaven Bay.

The Benedict Arnold Map (pa-county1) shows a western finger of Lynnhaven
Bay connected to an eastern finger of Little Creek giving the impression
that there is a long island there. That is incorrect and doesn't match
other period maps. The correct position should show Pleasure House on
what is being depicted as an island. The 1826 map clarifies the location
of the house with a dot at the end of the road to Pleasure House Point.

During 1813, the British forces made several landing sorties  from Cape
Henry to Little Creek. One watering party landed  on Cape Henry and was
attacked by the local militia and ended up leaving a longboat with
swivel gun. Vestiges of the action remain as a place name of Seatack,
which is short for "sea attack."

I have exerpts of 1812 war reporting from the local newspapers. I'll
pull the references to landing parties along the Chesapeake in 1813 and
post them.

1813 was a hotbed of military activity in the Hampton Roads area with
skirmishes along the bay, the unsussessful attack in-force of Craney
Island and the attack and burning of Hampton. The British were using all
kinds of irregular soldiers here like Botany Bay Rangers and French
expat. soldiers. Supposedly it was these irregulars who put Hampton to
the torch.

Regards,

Tom A.

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