enough force, we could easily have at our mercy the capital". The 4,500 troops, commanded by Major General Robert Ross, successfully captured the capital city on 24 August 1814; Ross then directed the Burning of Washington but refused suggestions by both Cochrane and Cockburn to raze the city. Ross ordered his troops to cause no damage to private property. It was aboard Cochrane’s flagship, HMS Tonnant, near the mouth of the Potomac on September 7, 1814 that Francis Scott Key and Colonel John Skinner pleaded for and got the release of Doctor William Beanes, a civilian who had been taken prisoner in Upper Marlboro after withdrawing from the assault on Washington. The next day Key, Skinner and Beanes were transferred to the frigate HMS Surprise, with their truce vessel in tow, as the fleet slowly moved up the Chesapeake toward Baltimore. They would not be released until the assault on Baltimore was completed. On September 11 Skinner insisted they be put back on their own truce vessel which they were allowed to do, under guard. The morning of the 12th, 4500 British troops landed on the North Point peninsula and started marching toward Baltimore. Major General Robert Ross was killed by sniper fire in a skirmish that afternoon before the Battle of North Point. Cochrane transferred his flag to HMS Surprise to facilitate moving up the Patapsco River to direct the 25 hour bombardment of Fort McHenry outside Baltimore (September 13 and 14), which proved ineffectual. He resisted calls by his junior officers to attack the fort more aggressively with frigates at close range. He ordered a diversionary raid by boats, around 1am on the 14th, to assist the army encamped near Baltimore in their proposed attack on Hampstead Hill (which they cancelled and withdrew), but this diversion had no success. In the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Cochrane's fleet used bomb vessels and a rocket ship for a long-range bombardment to minimize casualties and damage to the fleet from the fort's return fire, which inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner", the US national anthem. Cochrane led the British force that won the Battle of Lake Borgne, in Louisiana, in December 1814 and also controlled the soldiers and marines on ships during the Battle of New Orleans. His forces built a hard short road to New Orleans for use by British armed forces. The British army was