hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton and some $5,000 worth of wine, sugar and other items. The Americans had placed two field guns in a battery situated high on a bluff at White House Plantation (modern day Fort Belvoir), and had fired on as she sailed to reach Gordon. On 1 September, Gordon sent Fairy and Meteor to engage the battery to impede its completion, but they were unsuccessful. In all, the Americans had established batteries with a total of 11 guns - five naval long guns and eight artillery field pieces. The British spent most of 2 September mustering their ships and prizes for the run down river while awaiting favourable winds. At the same time they were working to free Devastation, which had run aground. On 3 September the bomb vessel Ætna and Erebus joined in the effort to suppress the American batteries. That same day, Commodore John Rodgers, with four U.S. gunboats and some fireships, made an unsuccessful attempt to destroy Devastation. Sniping and gunfire continued throughout 4 and 5 September, as the Virginia militia arrived to block British landings at the batteries. On 6 September the frigates Seahorse and Euryalus came down the river and joined Fairy. The three vessels shifted their ballast to the port side to enable their combined 63 starboard guns to elevate sufficiently to engage the batteries. They then opened fire and within 45 minutes had silenced the American cannons. All eight British warships and their prizes, 22 merchant vessels, brigs, ships and schooners, moved back to the main fleet. During the run down the river the British had suffered only seven dead and 35 wounded, including Charles Dickson, Fairys second lieutenant. However, Erebus alone lost one man killed and 16 men wounded; two died, eight were severely wounded and Commander Bartholomew, Lieutenant Reuben Paine and four others were slightly wounded. The Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814" to those members of the vessels' crews that had survived to 1847. Baltimore Erebus was one of the ships involved in the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore. Erebus, Meteor, Ætna, Terror, Volcano, and Devastation moved up the Patapsco River on 12 September 1814 in preparation for an attack on Baltimore. They commenced their bombardment on Fort McHenry and the water batteries on 13 September, but were ordered to withdraw the