Robert Ross (British Army officer)

{{short description|Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army (1766-1814)}}

{{infobox person|

| name = Robert Ross

| birth_date = 1766

| death_date = 12 {{death year and age|1814|1766|9}}

| image = Major-General Robert Ross.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| alt =

| birth_place = Rostrevor, County Down, Kingdom of Ireland

| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

| restingplace = Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

| module = {{Infobox military person

| embed = yes

| allegiance = Great Britain
United Kingdom

| branch = British Army

| serviceyears = 1789–1814

| battles = {{Tree list}}

| rank = Major-General

| commands =

| awards =

| relations = }}

| education = Trinity College Dublin

}}

Major-General Robert Ross (1766{{spaced ndash}}12 September 1814) was a British Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.

Ross joined the British army in 1789. He served as an officer in several battles during the Napoleonic Wars, including the battles of Maida and Corunna, gaining promotion to colonel. In 1809, he was sent to serve in the Peninsular War, including the Battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, Sorauren, and Orthez. He was wounded in the neck at the Battle of Orthez in France on 27 February 1814.{{cite web |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/robert-ross

|title=BIOGRAPHY Robert Ross |date= |work=American Battlefield Trust|access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}}

Upon returning to duty later that year, Ross was made a major general and sent to North America, as commander of "all British forces on the East Coast". In August 1814, he reached Benedict, Maryland and continued on, leading the professional soldiers who quickly defeated a poorly organized American militia at the Battle of Bladensburg on 24 August; that evening, he led his troops into Washington D.C.

During his command of the Burning of Washington many important U.S. Government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol were damaged, demoralizing and greatly damaging the American war effort. Ross then led a British invasion north up the Chesapeake Bay towards the city of Baltimore which culminated in the Battle of Baltimore that September. On 12 September, he was shot while commanding troops at North Point, and died while being moved to the rear.

Early life

Ross was born in Rostrevor, County Down, Ireland, to Major David Ross, an officer in the Seven Years' War and his wife, Elizabeth Adderley, the maternal half-sister of James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont.{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=W |title=Major-General Robert Ross in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution |date=1897 |publisher=J. J. keliher & Co. |location=London, England |page=117 |edition=Volume 41, Issue 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCQwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA117}} He was educated at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, where he was a treasurer of the College Historical Society and joined the 25th Regiment of Foot as an ensign in 1789.[https://web.archive.org/web/20161118223441/http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2085.xml Guide to the Robert Ross Papers, 1813-1873], Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University

Napoleonic Wars

File:Philip James de Loutherbourg - The Battle of Alexandria, 21 March 1801 - Google Art Project.jpg, which expelled Napoleon's army from Egypt.]]

Ross fought as a junior officer at the battles of Krabbendam in the Netherlands in 1799 and the Battle of Alexandria in Egypt in 1801. In 1803, he was promoted to major and given command of the 20th Regiment of Foot. He next fought at the Battle of Maida in the Kingdom of Naples in 1806.

=Peninsular War=

He was promoted to lieutenant–colonel at the end of 1808 and fought in the Battle of Corunna in Spain in early 1809 during the Peninsular War. In 1810, Ross was made a full colonel as well as aide-de-camp to the King.

In 1813, Ross was sent to serve under Arthur Wellesley and commanded his regiment at the battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles, and Sorauren that year. He was seriously wounded in the left side of his neck at the Battle of Orthez, on 27 February 1814, and had just returned to service when he was given command of an expeditionary force to attack the United States.

War of 1812

File:Nova Scotia DSC07295 - Major General Ross & the White House (35073189944).jpg

Ross sailed to North America as a major general to take charge of all British troops off the east coast of the United States. He personally led the British troops ashore in Benedict, Maryland, and marched through Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to the attack on the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg on 24 August 1814, routing the hastily organised militia units that opposed him.{{cite book

| author =Markham, Edwin

| title =The Real America in Romance Valor and Victory: The age of Vindication 1783–1824 Volume X

| publisher =William H Wise & Company

| year =1912

| location =New York City, Chicago

| pages =370–382

| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=foAQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA370

| authorlink = Edwin Markham }}{{cite web

|url=https://home.nps.gov/fowa/learn/historyculture/warburton.htm

|title=Fort Warburton

|publisher=U.S. National Park Service

|date=19 July 2007}}

Author Steve Vogel credits Ross' strategy for the success at Bladensburg: "He conducted a brilliant campaign of deception, feinting one way or the other, marching and then doubling back, and was able to paralyze the Americans and prevent them from defending Bladensburg".{{cite web |url=https://www.historynet.com/interview-with-war-of-1812-author-steve-vogel.htm |title=Interview With War of 1812 Author Steve Vogel |date=13 June 2013 |work=History Net |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}}

=The capture of Washington=

File:Burning of Washington 1814.jpg, 1814]]

After the victory at Bladensburg, Ross was persuaded by Rear-Admiral George Cockburn that they could take Washington, D.C., and late in the evening of 24 August his army of 4,500 men (including 1,000 Royal Marines from Cockburn's flotilla) captured the capital, in spite of a larger contingent of American defenders. Under Ross' direction, his troops set fire to the city's public buildings, including the White House and the United States Capitol. Extensive damage to the interiors and the contents of both were subsequently reported.

Ross refused to accept Cockburn's recommendation to also damage private property.{{cite web |url=https://time.com/3154591/burning-of-washington-200th-anniversary/ |title=Why Americans Celebrate the Burning of Washington |work=TIME magazine |date=22 August 2014 |access-date=16 January 2021 |quote=Cockburn, who accompanied Ross into the capital, reportedly wanted to burn the entire city in retaliation for American depredations in Canada. But it was an army operation and Ross’ call, and he would have none of it.}} The attack on the National Intelligencer newspaper was led by Cockburn.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/06/british-burned-capitol-1814/ |title=In 1814, British forces burned the U.S. Capitol |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=16 January 2021 |quote=}}

Ross ordered the preservation of private property however, threatening his men with punishment if they disobeyed.{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-ross.htm |title=Robert Ross |work=NPS |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}}

A CBC News article described Ross as a "reluctant arsonist" who needed persuasion from Cockburn to cause intentional damage. Although Cockburn had been optimistic about the possibility of capturing the capital city,{{cite web |url=https://www.historynet.com/interview-with-war-of-1812-author-steve-vogel.htm |title=Interview With War of 1812 Author Steve Vogel |date=13 June 2013 |work=History Net |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote="we could easily have at our mercy the capital"}} author John McCavitt asserted that Ross "never dreamt for one minute that an army of 3,500 men with 1,000 marines reinforcement, with no cavalry, hardly any artillery, could march 50 miles inland and capture an enemy capital".{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/trump-blames-canada-for-torching-white-house-meet-the-reluctant-arsonist-1.4697058 |title=Trump blames Canada for torching White House. Meet the 'reluctant arsonist' |date=18 June 2018 |work=CBC News |access-date=16 January 2021 |quote=}}

=Death=

File:Death of Genl. Ross at Baltimore.jpg

At the urging of Cockburn and army quartermaster-general Lieutenant George de Lacy Evans,{{cite book|title=Through the Perilous Fight: From the Burning of Washington to the Star-Spangled Banner: The Six Weeks That Saved the Nation|author=Steve Vogel|publisher=Random House|year=2014|pages=270–271|isbn=9780812981391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9QBwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA413}} Ross then led his army against Baltimore. His troops subsequently landed at the southern tip of the "Patapsco Neck" peninsula (between the Patapsco River and Baltimore Harbor on the south and Back River on the north) of southeastern Baltimore County at North Point, twelve miles southeast from the city, on the morning of 12 September 1814. En route to what would be the Battle of North Point, a part of the larger Battle of Baltimore, the British advance encountered American skirmishers. General Ross rode forward to personally direct his troops. An American sharpshooter shot him through the right arm into the chest. According to Baltimore folklore, two American riflemen, Daniel Wells, 18, and Henry McComas, 19, fired at him and one of them had fired the fatal shot; both were killed shortly afterward. Ross died while he was being transported back to the fleet after being shot by the American sharpshooter.{{cite web |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2004-09-17-0409170014-story.html |title=Film stirs flap over killing of general in 1814 |work=Baltimore Sun |date=17 September 2004 |access-date=16 January 2021 |quote=Their names do not pop up until the 1850s, when a political movement bent on keeping immigrants in general and Catholics in particular out of positions of power resurrected their memory.}}

Ross's body was preserved in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 L) of Jamaican rum aboard HMS Tonnant.{{cite book|title=Maryland History In Prints 1743-1900|author=Laura Rich|page=43}} When the Tonnant was diverted to New Orleans, his body was shipped on the British ship HMS Royal Oak to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his body was interred on 29 September 1814 in the Old Burying Ground.

Legacy

File:RobertRossMonument.jpg, County Down, Northern Ireland]]

File:Ross tomb4.jpg in Halifax, Nova Scotia]]

In Ross's home village of Rostrevor, County Down in Northern Ireland, he is commemorated by a 99-foot granite obelisk near the shoreline of Carlingford Lough. The Monument, a 100-foot granite obelisk, was restored in 2008.{{cite web |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/04/silver-spoon-spy-how-cambridge-double-agent-donald-maclean-got-away-it-so-long |title=MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT ROSS |date= 29 April 2018|work=Baganal Castle |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}} A smaller monument was erected in Kilbroney Parish Church by troops who had served with Ross at the Battle of Maida in 1806.{{cite web |url=http://themanwhocapturedwashington.com/ross-monuments/ |title=ROSS MONUMENTS |date=22 March 2016 |work=The Man Who Captured Washington |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}} This granite memorial was erected in 1826 "on a hill within view of his heartbroken widow’s home", according to a 2013 report.{{cite web |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/25/world/man-who-burned-white-house-in-1814-feted/ |title=Man who burned White House in 1814, feted Brilliant Anglo-Irish general now largely forgotten |date=25 October 2013 |work=Washington Post in Japan Times |access-date=17 January 2021 |quote=}}

Ross is also commemorated by a National Monument in St Paul's Cathedral in London, England."Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" Sinclair, W. pp. 458: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909 The latter is described by a book about Ross as: "Britannia is represented weeping over the tomb of the departed warrior, over which an, American flag is being deposited by a figure of Valour, while Fame descends with a wreath of laurels to crown the hero’s head".

The inscription on the National Monument reads:

{{quote box

|width = 50%

|align = center

|qalign = center

|text = DEDICATED AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE TO THE MEMORY

OF MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT ROSS

WHO HAVING UNDERTOOK AND EXECUTED AN ENTERPRISE AGAINST THE

CITY OF WASHINGTON, THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

WHICH WAS CROWNED WITH COMPLETE SUCCESS WAS KILLED SHORTLY

AFTERWARDS WHILE DIRECTING A SUCCESSFUL ATTACK UPON A SUPERIOR FORCE NEAR THE

CITY OF BALTIMORE ON THE 12TH DAY OF SEPTEMPTER 1814

}}

File:Arms of Ross-of-Bladensburg.png

By the beginning of the Troubles in the 1960s, the monument in Rostrevor—now located in a predominantly Roman Catholic region—was largely neglected and overgrown by brambles; this may have contributed to its avoiding the same fate as Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, which was reportedly blown up by the IRA in 1966. After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Newry and Mourne District Council, though largely Irish republican, agreed to refurbish the monument as part of Rostrevor's history, and it was reopened in 2008.{{cite news|last=Vogel|first=Steve|title=The War of 1812 and the capture of Washington, through British eyes|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-war-of-1812-and-the-capture-of-washington-through-british-eyes/2013/10/23/ab40d358-3b31-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=24 October 2013}}{{cite news|title=Robert Ross: The NI man who started the White House fire 200 years ago|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-28897646|work=BBC News|date=24 August 2014}}

File:Figure of Major General Robert Ross in 1814.jpg, at the historic Fifth Regiment Armory, (of 1899-1900), at North Howard and 29th Division Streets, in Downtown Baltimore]]

Neither General Ross nor his immediate descendants were knighted while he was living or received a title of nobility. However, his descendants were given an augmentation of honour to the Ross armorial bearings (namely, the addition of a chief to the shield and a second crest, both depicting an arm grasping the old American flag 15 stars and 15 stripes (Star-Spangled Banner (flag) of 1795-1818) on a broken staff, along with the additional motto of "Bladensburg") and the family name was changed to the victory title "Ross-of-Bladensburg", which was granted to his widow.[http://www.igp-web.com/down/RosFamily.htm Ross Family History]{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Igp-web.com. Retrieved on 4 June 2011.{{cite web|title=A Complete Guide to Heraldry|first=Arthur Charles|last= Fox-Davies|authorlink=Arthur Charles Fox-Davies|year= 1909| pages=113, 474, 593, 374|url=https://archive.org/stream/completeguidetoh00foxdrich#page/592/mode/2up}}{{cite book|last=Smyth|first=B|title=History of the XX Regiment: 1688-1888|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.|year=1889|pages=348|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OqFDAAAAIAAJ}}

In honour of the Federal City and national capital's history of Washington, D.C., there is also a portrait of the infamous General Ross in the United States Capitol's central rotunda, along with a small art decorative vignette near a corridor ceiling portraying the Burning of Washington and exhibits in the recently constructed underground visitors' center on the Capitol's east front. Along with several illustrations / exhibits in various War of 1812 historical sites / museums in the Baltimore metropolitan area, including a stone obelisk monument near the site off Old North Point Road in southeastern Baltimore County, erected in memory of Aquila Randall who was also killed here (dedicated in 1817 by fellow soldiers and officers of his Maryland Militia regiment), and where General Ross supposedly was shot. Additional details and exhibits have been preserved in various Baltimore historical institutions, such as the Star Spangled Banner Flag House (also known recently as the Flag House and Star-Spangled Banner Museum), 1793 historic home of flagmaker Mary Young Pickersgill in the Jonestown / Old Town neighborhood of Downtown / East Baltimore) and the National Park Service's landmark site of Fort McHenry's new visitor center extensive exhibits on Whetstone Point, by the Baltimore harbor, and also in the local community's Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society museum in Dundalk, Maryland, near the 1814 North Point battlefield in outlying southeast Baltimore County.

According to a biographical history of the Major-General by Robert Lacy,

Ross was a soldier who combined caution with courage. He was immensely popular with his men because of his willingness to share their hardships and to fight alongside them in the thick of battle. A colleague said of him that

he could not be 'a better man nor a more zealous officer'. Ross also commanded the respect and admiration of his opponents because of his unfailing courtesy and chivalrous conduct. One of the leading physicians then residing in 1814 Washington paid tribute to Ross’s ‘consummate modesty and politeness’.

Local lore indicates that the two snipers/riflemen Daniel Wells and Henry McComas (of the unit of Aisquith's Sharpshooters") were first buried in a local churchyard mourned by their fellow militia soldiers and citizens of the Town, but forty years later in the 1850s were exhumed and reburied after elaborate processions and funerals in a monumental tomb with a stone obelisk in what was known then as Ashland Square. Currently, off of the triangular intersection of Aisquith, East Monument and North Gay Streets in the Jonestown/Old Town neighborhood of East Baltimore. Occasional memorial ceremonies are still held for them by War of 1812 descendents and heritage societies. The Wells-McComas Monument is depicted on the embroidered shoulder patch insignia of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office for deputy sheriffs. City streets were also named for them in South Baltimore, off South Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2).

Notes

References

{{cite DNB|wstitle=Ross, Robert (1766-1814)}}

External links

{{Commons category|Robert Ross (British Army officer)|Robert Ross}}

[http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/ff823138.html Ross's Monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416145048/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/ff823138.html |date=16 April 2021 }}
[http://www.themanwhocapturedwashington.com Ross's Monument in Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland and discussion of his career] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202755/http://www.themanwhocapturedwashington.com/ |date=29 October 2013 }}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20161118223441/http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2085.xml Guide to the Robert Ross Papers, 1813-1873, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University]

Category:1766 births

Category:1814 deaths

Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin

Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people

Category:British Army major generals

Category:British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars

Category:British Army personnel of the War of 1812

Category:British military personnel killed in the War of 1812

Category:Deaths by firearm in Maryland

Category:King's Own Scottish Borderers officers

Category:Lancashire Fusiliers officers

Category:People from Rostrevor