Robert Ross (general)
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Robert Ross (1766 - September 12, 1814) was a British army officer who participated in the Napoleonic War and the War of 1812.
He led the army which burned the American capital and is thus credited as the first commander to defeat a full United States army in the field.
[edit] Early life
Ross was born in Rostrevor, County Down, (now Northern Ireland) to Maj. David Ross, an officer in the Seven Years' War and his mother, half-sister to the Earl of Charlesmont. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and joined the 25th Regiment of Foot as an ensign in 1789. In 1803 he took command of the 20th Regiment. He fought at the Battle of Krabbendam in the Netherlands, Alexandria, Egypt, the Battle of Maida, Scylla Castle, in the Peninsular War at Corunna and the Battle of Pamplona.
He had been promoted to Lieutenant–Colonel before Corunna. In 1810, Ross was made a colonel as well as aide–de–camp to the king. He fought in Spain under Wellington in 1812, at the battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, and the Battle of Sorauren.
[edit] War of 1812
After the conclusion of the war with Napoleon, Ross sailed to North America as a Major-General to take charge of all British troops off the east coast of the United States. Ross personally led the British troops in the attack on the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814, where the American army of mostly militia quickly collapsed. Moving on from Bladensburg, Ross captured Washington, D.C. with little resistance. Ross insisted on only destroying public property, including the destruction of the U.S. Capitol and the White House.
Ross then organized an attack on Baltimore, Maryland. His troops landed at the southern tip of the Patapsco Neck peninsula at North Point, twelve miles from the city, on the morning of September 12, 1814. During the march, and just prior to the Battle of North Point, the troops encountered American skirmishers and Ross rode forward to personally direct his troops. An American sniper shot him through the right arm into the chest. According to Baltimore tradition, two American riflemen, teenagers Daniel Wells and Henry McComas, aged 18 and 19, respectively, were credited with killing Ross; both were killed in the engagement. Ross died while being transported back to the ships.
After his death, the general's body was stored in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 l) of good Jamaican rum and shipped on the British ship HMS Royal Oak to Halifax, Nova Scotia where his body was buried on September 29, 1814. It is thought that preparations for the Battle of New Orleans prevented his body from being shipped back to Britain.
He is commemorated by a 100 ft granite obelisk near his birthplace alongside Carlingford Lough in Ireland as well as by a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. As an augmentation of honour his armorial bearings were given a second crest in which an arm is seen grasping the stars and stripes on a broken staff; and the family name was changed to Ross-of-Bladensburg.
