It would help the reader at this time to introduce a prominent figure of Maryland and a significant person in our story; Commodore Joshua Barney. His navy career began in the American Revolution and had some ups and downs. Barney's life was not dull. He had even been in the French navy for a short time. He was liked and respected as a person and officer. He was given the task of defending the coast of southern Maryland with the force defined years ago by former president Thomas Jefferson, who had decided that many little boats were better than a few big ships. Therefore, Barney had a schooner, a gunboat, and about twenty barges to work with. He had an adequet amount of sailors to man these vessles, and about 100 reliable Marines.
Barney and Cockburn had been indirectly sparing off and on for the past year in the waters off Maryland without any decisive showdown. Now, with land support and more naval power, Cockburn was determined to finally catch and destroy the Barney flotilla. Barney had taken his flotilla up the Patuxent ahead of the invasion force, but now was trapped by Cockburn's large amount of small craft that could follow him into the shallow waters.
