THE ASTONISHING "FOUR GENERATION" L' ESTRANGE FAMILY GROUPING, COMPRISING:

(a) N.G.S. (Midshipman, F. L'Estrange)
HMS MAIDSTONE
(Earned his medal age 15. Shown here actually wearing his medal in about 1869 at age 71)
*New Photos courtesy of the L'Estrange family.
(b) I.G.S. (Surgeon, A.H. L'Estrange) PERAK, 8th & 18th Foot.
(c) Q.S.A. (Capt, T.J. L'Estrange) Rifle Brigade.
(d) WW1 Pair, (Lieut, A.C.T. L'Estrange) R.A.S.C. (East Africa)


AS THIS IS A MAJOR LISTING WE HAVE DISPLAYED THE DETAILS OF THE N.G.S. ON TWO PAGES, so, when you've completed this read about the first clasp
[Ap & May] BOAT SERVICE [1813]
go back to the main N.G.S. menu tab and go one box down to the second part of this listing.

AN IMPORTANT "THREE GENERATION" FAMILY GROUP
CONTAINING AN HISTORIC
NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL (WITH TWO CLASPS)
For
"THE AMERICAN WAR of 1812"




[Ap & May] BOAT SERVICE [1813]
&
[8th APRIL] BOAT SERVICE [1814]

To: Midshipman, later Lieut, Frederick L'Estrange. (1798-1871)
HMS MAIDSTONE
And Mrs Frances Amelia L'Estrange (nee Matthews) Died 1878.

[INTRODUCTION]
In medal collecting one sees some exciting and exceptional items. But just once in a while along comes something really exquisite. This two clasp N.G.S. is a uniquely surviving piece of sheer undiluted Anglo-American history.

It's importance to both our nations just can't be overstated.

With massive appeal in both the American & British markets this incredible medal sits in the very highest ranks of the few surviving examples of it's genre. Seldom in a whole lifetime is one privileged to be able to offer such an exceptional medal.

((CLASP ONE)) "The Attack on Havre de Grace".

[Ap & May] BOAT SERVICE [1813]

The raid on Havre de Grace was a seaborne military operation that took place on 3 May 1813. A squadron of the British Royal Navy under Rear Admiral George Cockburn attacked the town of Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Although the raid resulted in just one American casualty, it catalyzed widespread hatred of Cockburn by the Americans.
(( *Cockburn famously later went on to burn the President's mansion in Washington during the British raid on the city. This is why it's called "The White House" as the building was whitewashed to cover up the burn marks inflicted on the surviving structure))

[Background]
Cockburn sailed for the upper Chesapeake Bay from near Baltimore and occupied Spesutie Island on 23 April 1813. After a successful raid on Frenchtown on the Elk River on 29 April, Cockburn attempted to venture further upriver until forces at Fort Defiance stopped him.

Cockburn had vowed to destroy any town that showed resistance. The admiral had not initially planned to attack Havre de Grace but when he saw an American flag flying over the town and the local battery fired shots, he decided to attack.

[The Attack]
Cockburn's fleet was anchored off Turkey Point, separated from Havre de Grace by an area of shoal water too shallow for large ships to navigate. Cockburn therefore sent Commander John Lawrence at the head of a flotilla of sixteen or nineteen boats to row across the shoals, beginning at midnight on 3 May.

A memorial to John O'Neill featuring a War of 1812 cannon marks the site of the Concord Point battery in Havre de Grace. Despite or because of intelligence warning of an impending attack, most of the militia that had been in Havre de Grace had departed before the raid. Fewer than forty troops remained at the Concord Point battery when the flotilla attacked at dawn. These troops briefly returned fire until a Congreve rocket killed a civilian. Lieutenant George Augustus Westphal then stormed and captured the battery.

Second Lieutenant John O'Neill single-handedly manned another battery—the so-called "Potato Battery"—until his cannon's recoil struck him. O'Neill retreated to fire on the British with a musket while he unsuccessfully signaled the militia to return.

The townspeople and remaining militia retreated as Westphal and his troops drove them further from town. The British looted the town and burned 40 of its 60 houses. They spared the Episcopal church from being burned but they did vandalize it. Cockburn removed six cannons from the town and took O'Neill and two other Americans back to his flagship, HMS Maidstone. However, Cockburn released O'Neill upon appeal from local magistrates. Cockburn reported only one injury: Westphal was shot in the hand.

After the raid on Havre de Grace, Cockburn sent troops up the Susquehanna River to destroy a depot and vessels there. Forces also navigated to nearby Principio Furnace, a large ironworks and cannon foundry, and destroyed the facilities there.

[Accounts of the action]

Cockburn's own account of the raid appeared in the London Gazette on 6 July 1813.

*Jared Sparks—an educator, historian, and later president of Harvard University—who was tutoring the children of a local family also saw the attack. Sparks wrote an account of the attack that was published in 1817 in the North American Review and Miscellaneous Journal.

*James Jones Wilmer was living in Havre de Grace at the time and published an account of the incident soon after it happened.

*Benjamin Henry Latrobe did not witness the event but is known to have written to Robert Fulton about it.

*The raid was depicted in a near-contemporary etching by William Charles, a Scottish-born engraver who immigrated to the United States. The etching, Admiral Cockburn Burning & Plundering Havre de Grace, is now held by the Maryland Historical Society.









((CONTINUED ON THE NEXT BROWSER BUTTON DOWN , THE SECOND CLASP
[8th APRIL] BOAT SERVICE [1814]

AND THE MEDALS TO THE NEXT TWO GENERATIONS OF THE L'ESTRANGE FAMILY.