All language subtitles for Drain the Oceans S06E05 Invasion USA 720p DSNP WEB-DL DD+5 1 H 264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Donald Shomette] We've been
out on the river for a month

and found nothing.

Then, all of a sudden,
we ran across a target that

sent our charts going crazy.

And my heart went in my throat.

Can you hear me, Wes?

Going down.

One of the divers comes up.

He's joyous.

I think it's a ship timber.

[overlapping chatter]

[Donald Shomette]
Everybody on deck,

they were jumping and screaming.

But was it a War of 1812 ship?

[explosion]

[Ralph Eshelman] The War of 1812

is a poorly understood
war in American history.

[Donald Shomette] This
is the first invasion of

the United States of America.

One of the most humiliating
defeats we ever faced.

[rapid gunfire]

[Susan Langley] And yet it was
the coalescence of the nation.

[Donald Shomette] But nobody
had found anything relating to

the war in our waters,
until some, like me,

started unearthing the
war's most momentous events.

[John Broadwater] There
was a Fort which is now

completely washed into the sea.

[Ralph Eshelman] A lost
flotilla of American ships that

suicidally confronted
the mighty British Navy.

[Tina Dunkley] And the idea
that my ancestors were pivotal

in that war still
remains a revelation.

[Ralph Eshelman] Three
stories hold the key to finally

understanding one
astonishing moment.

[Susan Langley] The
burning of the White House.

[Donald Shomette] This
would have been Pearl Harbor,

would have been the twin towers.

It was all a mystery.

How was a foreign
army able to burn

the capital of
the United States?

[♪ theme music playing]

[♪ eerie music playing]

[Donald Shomette]
When I was a child,

my father got me
reading science fiction.

The story that really affected
me the most was a story about

a cataclysmic event
in the far Pacific.

An earthquake that opened up
a rent in the Earth's surface.

Into that rent,
all of the waters of

the world began to pour.

And what fascinated me
was what the rolling back

of the seas revealed.

There were ancient cities,

sunken civilizations.

There were
shipwrecks by the thousands.

That was the draw that
eventually got me into

exploring the underwater world.

In the mid '60s, I
started looking for shipwrecks.

It was extremely
exciting because

it was a period of discovery.

I was not a
bonafide archaeologist.

There wasn't anybody
doing marine archaeology.

I was living on the
periphery of Washington DC.

And I was visiting a bookstore
and I pulled a book down,

and it changed my life.

The book described
the heroic efforts of

a ragtag American naval force,

known as the
Chesapeake Flotilla,

to confront the British
during the War of 1812.

[explosion]

[rapid gunfire]

Most people don't know
about the War of 1812 or

what it meant to our country.

So, it struck my heart as
something that I had to find

right out there in that river.

A river called the Patuxent,
45 minutes from where I lived.

[Ralph Eshelman]
I love the water.

I love to get
out and explore it.

When you're doing survey work,

looking for boat wrecks,

a kayak, to me,

is an ideal way to get
out and explore the coastline.

Don called me out of the blue.

I was a young
director of a museum,

Calvert Marine Museum.

And he wanted to come
by and talk to me about

an underwater
cultural resource survey.

He said,

"Wouldn't it be cool if we
could find the place where

the Chesapeake Flotilla
had been lost?"

It was just like
an instantaneous, yes.

[Donald Shomette] So, in 1977,

we began a
three-year long survey

of the Patuxent River.

[Ralph Eshelman] The big
question was where to look?

The Patuxent River
is a big place, it's over

115 miles long.

And it is an important
tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

[Donald Shomette] It was
vital that we narrowed down

our search area.

[Ralph Eshelman] So,
we did a lot of research,

looking at maps,
looking at the journals.

Could we work out the final
resting place of the flotilla?

The War of 1812
started when the U.S. invaded

British territory
in modern day Canada.

[Donald Shomette] By 1814,
the British had deployed

a powerful royal naval
force to the Chesapeake Bay.

That vast waterway that
controlled access to Washington.

So, a veteran American seafarer,
Commodore Joshua Barney,

proposed to build a fleet to
defend the nation's capital.

[Ralph Eshelman]
The last sighting

of that flotilla was

in the Patuxent River.

If you look at
the British record,

that says, above Pig Point,

we could see the
American Flotilla.

[Donald Shomette] So
that was where we focused

our remote sensing survey.

[Ralph Eshelman] A
MAG survey is where you have

a piece of equipment that
measures the magnetic anomalies,

that usually indicates
that there's a metal object.

[Donald Shomette] And one day
we ran across the target,

an anomaly that sent
our charts going crazy.

And my heart went in my throat,

and I knew we had a
significant something.

The question mark was,
was this one of the ships,

or was it a false anomaly?

One of our hired divers
goes down and he comes up.

He's joyous.

"Look, I have a turtle shell."

I says, "Yeah,
it's a turtle shell."

"But it's beside a
piece of wood sticking out.

I think it's a ship timber."

I said Ralph, "We
think we got something."

[Ralph Eshelman] We did
some probing to determine

what is the extent of this.

And we were
astounded at what we found.

[rushing water]

[Donald Shomette]
The vessel was under

four to five feet of sediment.

In about six to
eight feet of water.

Not too far from the shore.

We realized it was
at least 90% intact.

50 to 70 feet long.

[Ralph Eshelman] We
knew we had a vessel.

Now, was it a
War of 1812 vessel?

[Donald Shomette] Was it
part of Barney's Flotilla?

[Tina Dunkley] I've been an
artist since childhood because

I was always creating.

The kind of themes
that I have been given

to are lost narratives.

The African diaspora,
where we come from,

has always been
an interest of mine.

I was born in
Brooklyn, New York City.

My mother is from Trinidad
and my father is from Jamaica.

[rapid gunfire]

The idea that any war
would have any meaning to me,

is the furthest
thing from my mind.

[screaming]

And to then later find out
my ancestors were pivotal in

that war, still
remains a revelation.

This journey began for me

when my uncle passed in 2007

and I just had this
overwhelming feeling of that,

you know, that
entire generation,

they're gone.

And that I had to
go to their home.

So, in 2008, I
went back to Trinidad,

to research my family tree.

[car horns honking]

My great grandmother's
maiden name is Loney.

And I discovered that
all the Loneys on that

island descend from one man.

Ezekiel Loney.

I was a DNA
descendant of Ezekiel Loney.

But what really blew my
mind was the revelation that

my ancestor, Ezekiel,
had arrived in Trinidad as

an escaped slave from the USA.

So, upon making this
life-changing discovery,

it was an onrush of emotion.

I just had to go to the place
where Ezekiel had been enslaved

to understand exactly
how he gained his freedom.

Corotoman Plantation
was in Virginia.

Approximately 100 miles
from Washington DC,

on the west side of
the Chesapeake Bay.

In 1812, wheat and
corn were grown here.

Today, the only thing
left standing is the church.

They have an archive of
information on each and

every one of the Africans
that they held in bondage.

And I hoped that the
plantation's historian could

shed light on Ezekiel's story.

[Dr. Patrick Heffernan]
The first document, Tina,

is titled, "A division of
the slaves of the court of

a estate into two lots."

That documentation is a
Rosetta Stone of information

for what happened
here at Corotoman.

This was one of those rare,
wonderful ones where they were

shown in family groups.

[Tina Dunkley] Right.

First mention of Ezekiel,
he was two years old.

We don't know whether he
was born there or acquired.

But the question I
wanted to answer most of all,

was how Ezekiel escaped.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Dr. Patrick Heffernan]
When the British arrived

in the Chesapeake,

they quickly dominated it,
shutting down American shipping.

But they needed additional men.

So, the British issued a
proclamation that any person

who made their way
to his Majesty's ships,

would be free persons.

This document is
dated 2nd of April, 1814.

[Tina Dunkley] You have here the
letter describing his escape,

on April 18th?

[Dr. Patrick Heffernan] Yes.

What an extraordinary
eyewitness account.

Ezekiel Loney was at work,
saw three British barges,

and made a decision
along with two friends.

"I'm going to follow
that boat and go back

to the ship with the British."

[Tina Dunkley] I
remember thinking what

it meant if they got caught,

knowing that death is
right there, waiting for them.

But once they've
reconciled that death is better

than enslavement,
it's not a problem.

Ezekiel and his companions
were immediately freed,

but they had not forgotten
those they had left behind.

[Dr. Patrick Heffernan]
Just a few days after

the three men left, they led
the British back at midnight,

and rounded up
66 more enslaved persons

almost entirely made up of
their wives and their children.

[Tina Dunkley] Wow. Wow.

That must have been
one fate filled night.

I can't imagine.

[Dr. Patrick Heffernan] That
was the largest group of slaves

to flee from any
Virginia estate to

the British
during the War of 1812.

[Tina Dunkley] And my ancestor
was responsible for that.

I was really
interested to see the area

in which he'd escaped from.

It's a really solemn feeling,
and I spent a lot of time

wondering whether Ezekiel
was seeing through my eyes.

I still get
goosebumps from that.

So, what became of
Ezekiel Loney next?

The British ships' logs show
that he was taken to a place

called Fort Albion,
on Tangier Island,

in the middle of
the Chesapeake Bay.

So, my next question was,
what was this place and

why was he taken there?

[Donald Shomette] The
shipwreck is like a crime scene.

It demands that

a forensic approach be
carried out to analyze it.

It's forensics underwater.

We had christened the
vessel the turtle shell wreck,

because that was the first
artifact that came up from it.

Can you hear me, Wes?

Go on down.

I went down and I
found this musket flint and

I was almost ready to
wet myself in my wetsuit.

We found a small
swivel gun shot.

A munitions box.

All these
indications that show, yes,

this is a military vessel.

[overlapping chatter].

[Donald Shomette] It was
clear from their manufacture

that these artifacts were
from the War of 1812 era.

[bystander] All right.

[Donald Shomette] This
got everybody on deck,

they were jumping and screaming,

and everybody was happy.

We knew we had a
vessel from the right period,

but was it one of
Barney's Flotilla?

We discovered there
was a damaged area.

An area that had
been splayed out.

As if the hands of some unseen
giant had come down on it.

As if something had exploded.

[explosions]

[Ralph Eshelman] The
historic record shows that

when Barneys Flotilla met
the powerful British fleet,

he was outgunned
and forced to retreat.

Unfortunately, he gets bottled
up in the Patuxent River.

[Donald Shomette] On August 22,
1814, the flotilla had retreated

to just about this spot.

With the British fleet
in pursuit and the river

becoming shallower,
Barney was trapped.

[Ralph Eshelman] And ultimately,
Barney was ordered to scuttle

the fleet, so the British would

not be able to
use those vessels.

[explosions]

[Donald Shomette] Charges
were left in each of the ships,

and as the
British rounded the bend,

the entire
flotilla went up in smoke.

Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom.

Lined up in a line, about a
mile and half to two miles long.

The United States
Chesapeake Flotilla

ceased to exist.

So, the damaged area of our
wreck was compelling evidence

that this was
one of the Flotilla.

[Ralph Eshelman]
The question was,

if this was one
of Barney's boats,

then which one?

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[John Broadwater] The
Chesapeake Bay is one of

the largest
estuaries in the world.

[Joshua Daniel] It's
littered with shipwrecks.

I mean, hundreds and
hundreds of shipwrecks.

Including some
from the War of 1812.

[John Broadwater] Several
years ago, I got a report from

a colleague on this little
place called Tangier Island

out in the middle
of the Chesapeake Bay.

And he mentioned that
there was a War of 1812 Fort at

the bottom of this
island called Fort Albion,

which is now completely
been washed into the sea.

What caught my imagination
is the age-old story of

sunken cities and
things now lost to sight,

but that were once important.

[Joshua Daniel] John
approached me to do a survey of

the southern tip
of Tangier Island

whether Fort was once.

Fort Albion was built in 1814,
approximately two years after

the beginning of the war.

[John Broadwater] The
British needed a staging area

for their offensive in

the Chesapeake
region to control the bay,

attack our commerce,
and attack our cities.

[Joshua Daniel] The hope was
to find some tangible bit of

the Fort itself,
to understand better

why the British
chose this location.

So, we took some old charts
and Geo-referenced them and

came up with a, a more precise
location of where we could go

and look for the Fort.

[John Broadwater]
Everything look good?

[Joshua Daniel]
Everything looks good.

[John Broadwater] All right.

[Joshua Daniel]
All right, John you ready?

[John Broadwater] Yep.

A side scanning sonar sends
out these signals that bounce

back off anything that
protrudes up above the seabed.

We were looking for anything
that would help pinpoint where

the Fort once stood.

But we realized that it
was going to be difficult.

[Joshua Daniel] Searching
for remains out here is

a race against time.

[John Broadwater] Tangier Island
is dramatically affected by

climate change and
sea level rise and erosion,

to the point now where,

there are only a
few hundred acres left.

There are, are predictions
that as early as 2030,

they may have to abandon
Tangier Island altogether.

[Joshua Daniel] We knew that it
was possible that we wouldn't be

to find any true remnants
of the Fort due to erosion.

[John Broadwater] One of
the dramatic things in, in

our survey, as we moved around
to the east of the island,

the bathometer showed
deeper and deeper water.

[Joshua Daniel]
Man, John, look at this,

where the, uh,
bottom drops away.

- Yeah.
- That is amazing.

[Joshua Daniel] Our
sonar revealed a channel

with depths reaching 90 feet,

which was extraordinary
because the Chesapeake is

generally a shallow bay.

[John Broadwater] Eventually you
realize we were in the general

area where the British
must've anchored their warships.

Some of these ships were
huge and so Tangier having this

deep-water area to
the east of the island

was an ideal location.

[Joshua Daniel] Historic British
accounts showed the anchorage

laid just to the
east of the base.

[John Broadwater] So now
we can pinpoint exactly where

the Fort should have been.

But our initial scans
found no physical remains.

And it became fairly
clear the scouring effect of

the daily tidal flow would
have eroded the Fort bit by bit,

until there, there
just wasn't anything left.

But then we came across
something we never expected.

[Joshua Daniel] John, it's
kind of interesting, that, uh,

that area of
harder, uh, sediment.

[John Broadwater] It
looks like we are right over

this area where the pond was.

[Joshua Daniel] Our scans showed
a distinct pattern of sediment

in the seafloor, which seemed to
match where a pond was on some

of the old British maps.

The sediments that settled
at the bottom of the pond could

have been more compacted than
the sandy terrain that the Fort

was built on, which could
explain what we were seeing.

[John Broadwater] And so, by
looking at the map of the Fort

and looking at the sonar record,

we could align them,

to pinpoint the location of the
Fort's buildings and earthworks.

[rumbling]

If Fort Albion
were still there today,

the first thing you would
see would be a large rise in

the land where they had built
earthworks and gun emplacements.

[Joshua Daniel] Bastions which
would have had cannons that

would have protected the
Fort from the seaward side.

There were
six barracks for privates,

three buildings
for the officers.

A house for the commander.

A parade ground.

The hospital for the sick.

[John Broadwater] Accounts said
that the defensive walls were

around 250 yards
long on each side.

It was massive.

[Joshua Daniel] When you
look at the scale of the Fort,

you ask yourself,
what were they doing?

[John Broadwater] And why
would it need to be that big?

[♪ eerie music playing]

[Donald Shomette] We
knew the identity of

the turtle shell wreck would

likely only be
revealed through interpreting

the tiniest of detail.

And that is the charm of it.

It's a puzzle.

The first key piece
of evidence we found was

the surgeon's kit with
the surgical equipment there.

[Ralph Eshelman] There
were scalpels, there was a,

a tooth key.

[Donald Shomette] And at
the end of it is a little hook,

which the dentist or
the surgeon would put in,

behind the tooth
that has to be extracted.

Grab it and yank.

Very painful.

[Ralph Eshelman]
And we both thought,

you know, what vessel
would have a surgeon's kit?

We knew that the
flotilla consisted of

several different
types of vessels.

The most prominent
of them were gunboats.

[Donald Shomette] The
gunboats are shallow vessels,

a very low, narrow vessel,
that was rowed and sailed.

[Ralph Eshelman] And what
that meant is that there's

not a whole room
on those vessels.

They did not have a
lot of compartments.

So that's how we
began to think, you know,

based on this medical kit,

it's probably not
one of the, the gunboats.

It's, it's got to be
one of these other vessels.

And then we also
had the flagship,

known as the Scorpion.

Which some people
referred to as a block sloop.

And the difference
between a block sloop and

the gunboats is
deeper draft, larger, broader,

was able to carry more.

So, wouldn't you want your
surgeon to maybe be there?

Wouldn't you want your
medical kit to be there?

So, we thought
maybe for the first time,

this could
possibly be the Scorpion.

[Donald Shomette] Could
this be the flagship of

the Chesapeake Flotilla?

[Ralph Eshelman] It
was a tantalizing thought,

but the medical kit
alone didn't prove anything.

[Donald Shomette] But then we
made an extraordinary discovery.

[bystander] Everybody
clean their ears out.

[Donald Shomette] I was
mapping the bottom when

I came across this.

We brought it up and
it was a moment that,

everybody was excited.

[Ralph Eshelman] This was
something that every sailor

of the era carried, a
tin cup for drinking grog.

[Donald Shomette] On
one side were initials, C.W.

[Ralph Eshelman] So, this was a
personal cup, and whoever C.W.

was had carved
their initials in.

[Donald Shomette] Who is C.W.?

My colleague had
found the muster roll in

the National Archives of the
Chesapeake Flotilla, 1,000 men.

There was only one C.W.

His name was Caesar Wentworth.

And he was a cook.

[Ralph Eshelman] And if you look
down through the roster list,

he was the cook on
board the flagship.

[Donald Shomette]
Was this the Scorpion?

[Ralph Eshelman] At
the end of the project,

we knew we had a
War of 1812 vessel,

and we knew it was
part of the flotilla.

[Donald Shomette] We believed
it could be the flagship,

but despite all of our evidence
there was something major that

did not fit with this theory.

The big question was,
where is the flotilla?

[Ralph Eshelman] If you
read the British account,

it says that they were
bow to stern, up the river.

[Donald Shomette] And
were all scuttled together,

with the Scorpion at their head.

[Ralph Eshelman] But it's
almost like this vessel seems

to be isolated, it
seems to be by itself.

Where are the
rest of the vessels?

Where are they?

If this wreck was alone,

then how could it
possibly be the Scorpion?

[Tina Dunkley] I knew now that
my ancestor Ezekiel, had been

taken by the British to
Fort Albion on Tangier Island.

So, when it was first brought to
my attention that there would be

marine archaeologists
looking at this site,

it was very exciting.

[Joshua Daniel] This is a side
scan sonar mosaic of the bottom.

One of the bright spots may
correlate to the pond area that

we see in the British chart.

So, the officers'
barracks would have been

located in this area here.

It was actually a huge Fort.

[Tina Dunkley] So why
do you think that the, uh,

Fort was built, um, so large?

[Joshua Daniel] Well, not
only did you have to house

the Marines and the
British Navy personnel,

but you also had to house all

the formerly enslaved
African Americans that were

coming from both
Virginia and from Maryland.

And the report
say somewhere around

2,000 civilians
were transported.

[Tina Dunkley] Wow.
That's important.

Absolutely.

[John Broadwater] The numbers
started increasing at the Fort

so they would have had
to expand the facilities.

Also, as, as far as where
Ezekiel might have, uh,

played into the picture, uh,

we know that he was
one of the volunteers

for the Colonial Marines.

The Colonial Marines was devised
by the British as a way to offer

African Americans the
opportunity to become

a fighting unit of
the British war machine.

[Joshua Daniel] We know from
the historical sources that

there were around
300 Colonial Marines.

[John Broadwater] So, they
would have had their quarters

somewhere here in
the barracks area.

We know there was
a parade field out here,

so he, he would
have drilled regularly.

[Tina Dunkley] So,
what role do you think that

the Colonial Marines, um,
played in this, uh, campaign?

[Joshua Daniel] These
are people that knew the,

the waters in this area, uh.

So, they could pilot
ships but in addition to that,

they were, uh,
front-line people and

fought with, with
great distinction.

[Tina Dunkley] In
the British musters for

the Colonial Marines,

I could see that Ezekiel
was promoted several times.

He's a private.

Then a few months
to that, he is a corporal.

And then by the time
he leaves, he's a sergeant.

So told me that he was
really part of the actions

and the campaigns in this war.

[John Broadwater]
For the British and

the Colonial Marines,

Fort Albion was just
a springboard to attack

our cities, and ultimately
the capital of Washington.

And the only American naval
force that stood in their way,

was Commodore Barney's
outgunned flotilla.

[explosions]

[Tina Dunkley] My question was,
exactly how far was Ezekiel

drawn into the momentous
battles that followed?

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Susan Langley]
I started to dive,

because I grew up
on the Great Lakes.

This year I mark my
47th year in diving,

so I've been underwater
a good portion of my life.

What I really like about it
is when you can feel you've got

your buoyancy just right and
you actually do feel weightless.

It's as close as
you can be to hovering.

With 2012 being the
200th anniversary of

the War of 1812,

the U.S. Navy's Naval
History and Heritage Command

and the state of Maryland
became very interested in

the idea of returning
to the turtle shell wreck.

[Dr. Bob Neyland] One of
the most important questions is

to try to confirm the
identity of the vessel.

Another one was to
determine if there were

any other vessels associated,
because historical records said

that they were
strung out in a line,

all behind the
flagship Scorpion.

So, we went out there, and
we did hydro-probing, which,

basically we took out
a water hose powered by a pump,

and we just use
that water jet to probe

the general areas in the river.

Let's just dig this
out really quickly,

and let's see if
we can find a wreck.

In this stern, we
found artifacts similar to

what Don Shomette and
Ralph Eshelman recovered.

Two medical items, a
pharmaceutical vial and

a pair of surgical scissors.

[Susan Langley] The artifacts
matched things that we knew

Barney should have
had on his vessel.

[Dr. Bob Neyland] So, all that
was really exciting, and it,

and it confirmed that
it wasn't just a gunboat.

[Susan Langley] But then,
on one particular dive,

the Navy team
recovered something remarkable.

[Dr. Bob Neyland] We found
still intact a ceramic bottle.

As I excavated this bottle,
it still had a cork in it.

And I was just going to expose
it enough to film it underwater.

It still had air in it.

And so, it popped up and I
luckily caught it in my hand

before it floated away.

Finding an inkwell, it was
certainly indicative that there

were activities on this
vessel that required literacy,

whether it was the
officer in charge,

or it was Joshua Barney himself,
writing missives and reports.

It confirmed
that it was probably

a major high-status
vessel in the flotilla.

I'd say it's a good
chance it's the Scorpion.

The only other
possible candidate would

be a merchant vessel.

We know a number of
merchant vessels were being

protected by the flotilla.

A vessel called the Islet
was taken into service to

carry supplies including
some of the medical supplies.

So, I think it's
still not 100% conclusive.

I'm hopeful it's the
Scorpion but not 100%,

not without more archaeology.

[Ralph Eshelman] We
still don't know for sure,

but I still firmly in my mind,

I think it's very
likely the Scorpion.

[Susan Langley]
Credit where credit's due,

we owe an enormous
debt to Don Shomette.

I felt that there
was sufficient evidence,

I really have no doubt that
it is in fact the Scorpion.

But it still
begs the question of,

where are the
rest of the vessels?

[Donald Shomette]
Where is the flotilla?

Why didn't we find them?

These questions really
stayed in my mind for years.

Then, one of my team
became intrigued by something.

The Patuxent is a
meandering river.

The sediment flow in the river
has increased over time because

of run-off from
poor farming practices.

And what we discovered
was that we had overlooked

the evolution of the
geology of this river.

We discovered that the
river had changed course,

not once, but several times.

There were a number of major
storms that literally changed

the course of
the Patuxent River.

When I compared
historic maps of the river,

suddenly everything clicked.

Today, the west side
of where the Scorpion is,

it's all wetland.

But in 1814, this
wetland was where

the main river channel flowed.

So, the fleet is in the marsh.

It's in the wetland.

[Dr. Bob Neyland] It's
highly possible the flotilla

is in the marshy area.

The problem is that
in the marshy areas,

the sediment is so deep,
that it's too dry for a boat

and too muddy for
people to walk over.

So, we have continued
to do survey in this area.

Technology has advanced.

So, we've been able
to use drones that carry

a magnetometer, and
we've had some success in

finding magnetic anomalies.

Hopefully we will
eventually solve this mystery

and determine where the other
vessels in the flotilla are.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Tina Dunkley] I finally knew
my ancestor Ezekiel was aboard

the British flagship HMS Albion
when the Royal Navy departed

Tangier Island in July 1814.

He was one of nearly
200 Colonial Marines

supplementing around
4,000 British troops.

[Donald Shomette] Their plan was
to destroy Barney's flotilla,

and capture Washington.

As the British
advanced up the bay,

Barney engaged them.

They fight a running battle,
but he's outgunned.

And Barney is forced to
retreat into the Patuxent River.

The British pursued him,

and in August began

landing a huge invasion force.

[Tina Dunkley] I wanted to know
how far Ezekiel was involved

in this campaign.

So, when I learned that I was
going to have an opportunity to

chat with Don, I was excited.

He took me to where
the Colonial Marines,

with my ancestor Ezekiel,
would have been disembarked.

[Donald Shomette] August 19,
1814, when the British landed,

is the first invasion of
the United States of America.

[Tina Dunkley] Okay.

[Donald Shomette]
Everybody knows 9/11 and

everybody knows December 7th.

[Tina Dunkley] Right.

[Donald Shomette] But not
many Americans know August 19.

[rapid gunfire]

The British had decided to
attack the city of Washington.

Their route to the capital ran
through the town of Bladensburg.

It's here that the
Americans made their stand.

On August 22, Commodore Barney
is told to destroy the flotilla

to prevent it being captured.

And the flotilla men are
ordered to go to Bladensburg

and join the army and
help defend the capital.

The battle of Bladensburg
begins on August 24th,

just two days after
the flotilla was scuttled.

Commodore Barney is in the
center of the American line.

On the other side, Ezekiel
is with British marines.

It's bloody.

The British have too many men.

They envelop on either side and

they're shooting
down from heights.

Barney is wounded,
it turns out mortally.

The American line folds.

The whole
American army has fled.

What happened next sent shock
waves across the continent.

Once the British had won
the battle of Bladensburg,

the army marched
into Washington.

The White House has
literally just been an hour

or two before evacuated.

When they get to
the White House,

the matches were set,
and the building was burned.

The fire raged
through the night,

completely gutting the interior.

[Tina Dunkley] How
sure can we be that

Ezekiel was a part of that?

[Donald Shomette]
He was on the Albion.

Ezekiel would have
marched with the army...

- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- Almost...

[Donald Shomette] I mean,
almost unquestionably.

[Tina Dunkley] I can only
imagine he wanted to execute

those orders to the
best of his ability,

because his eyes were on
the prize of becoming free.

I'm extraordinarily proud!

[screaming]

[Donald Shomette] By
the time the flames died

the following day, only the
great sandstone walls survived.

The burning of
the White House was

as symbolic as you
could possibly imagine.

[Dr. Bob Neyland] Having an
outside enemy threatening you,

makes people unite
against a common enemy and

forget some of
their own differences.

It galvanized the nation.

[Ralph Eshelman]
For the first time,

people instead of
referring to themselves of,

"I'm a Pennsylvanian,
I'm a Virginian,"

people began to say,
"I'm an American."

That's a big turnaround.

[Tina Dunkley] 2009, my
family met at Tangier Island to

celebrate Ezekiel,
acknowledging his efforts,

his success, his challenges.

It makes me immensely proud that
my ancestor had it within him to

step off a plantation
in the middle of a war.

His number was 44, which
appears on the musters from

the HMS Albion.

This was a way of, uh,
acknowledging that,

we feel you, we know
that you were successful.

We're here.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.