Havre de Grace, where he received orders to take command of at Philadelphia, bearing 53 guns. Early in May of that year, he had replaced Commodore Alexander Murray, as commander of the Delaware squadron. Rodgers ordered Lieutenant Charles Morgan to take charge of the squadron to reorganize it, instructing him about outfitting the ships with armament and drilling the crew. On June 20, 1814, Guerriere was launched with a crew of 200 men, while more than 50,000 spectators gathered on the shores of the Delaware River and in small boats to witness this. During that summer Rodgers spent most of his time at Philadelphia's naval yard outfitting this ship. The Delaware squadron comprised some 20 gunboats, sloops and galleys, and was one among several fleets assigned to patrol the chief ports along the upper Atlantic coastline. Burning of Washington Commodore John Rodgers played a major role in the recapture of Washington after it had been burned by the invading British in 1814. As a naval officer he was generally unfamiliar with the tactics and deployments of land battle, yet he restored order after the invasion of Washington and he coordinated orders from Secretary of the Navy William Jones for the employment of marines and sailors as naval infantry. Along with ground forces under his two principal subordinates, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore David Porter, Rodgers' flotilla of ships on the Potomac River forced the retreat of the British. In the summer of 1814, American naval forces in the Chesapeake Bay consisted mainly of a fleet of gunboats under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney, a veteran of the American Revolution. On August 20, a fleet commanded by British Rear Admiral Cockburn sailed up the Patuxent River searching for Barney's flotilla while British troops marched in the same direction along its shore. Secretary of the Navy Jones responded by ordering Commodore Rodgers in Philadelphia and Commodore Porter in New York to proceed towards Washington with several detachments of sailors and marines. The orders were dispatched by mail but did not reach Philadelphia until ten o'clock the morning of the 22nd. As Rodgers was at Reedy Island on the Delaware River inspecting his flotilla he did not receive the Secretary's orders until he returned at eleven o'clock that evening—-thirteen hours later. Upon receiving the dispatch Rodgers immediately made preparations to march towards Baltimore. Secretary Jones, not knowing that his initial orders