Battle of North Point, 12 Sep 1814
Did Pvt. Aquila Randall fire the shot that mortally wounded Gen. Ross?
History records, with caveat, that Major General Robert Ross, the commander of the British invasion force that landed at North Point in Baltimore County on 12 Sept 1814, was killed by a “musket ball” fired from the rifle of either Pvts. Henry McComas or Daniel Wells. Both Wells and McComas, members of Captain Edward Asquith’s 1st Rifle Battalion of Riflemen (Sharpshooters) were part of an advance detachment of infantry (Chew’s 5th, Levering’s 6th , and several rifleman from Asquith’s 1st Rifle Battalion) and cavalry under command of Major Richard Heath, 5th MD Regiment, ordered by Gen George Sticker to “flush out” Gen. Ross from the Edward Gorsuch Farm along what was then known as “Long Log Lane,” now Old North Point Rd., where he had stopped earlier in the morning with Rear Admiral George Cockburn for breakfast.
During their breakfast, an American prisoner by the name of Angus Nesbitt, one of three presented to the general was asked about the defenses in and around Baltimore, he reported that there were upwards of 20,000 militia positioned in, and in front of the city. Knowing that many of these same militia units were among those that ran from the Bladensburg Battlefield he felt confident that the road to Baltimore and its subsequent fall would be a quick operation. When asked by Edward Gorsuch if he should prepare the evening meal for the General and his staff that day, Gen. Ross replied, “No, I shall sup in Baltimore tonight, or in hell.”
Upon heading up the Old Long Log Lane, it wasn’t long before Gen. Ross, Adm. Cockburn and their party encountered the advance line of American defenders. It is at this point that the true story of Gen. Ross’ wounding and subsequent death remains clouded in mystery. Conventional history records that Pvt.’s McComas and Wells, two young apprentice workers in Baltimore’s leather industry fired the fateful shot(s) that mortally wounded Gen. Ross; the general would subsequently die along the roadside while being transported back to his ship.
According to the official British reports of the encounter, General Ross was hit on his right side, a musket ball traversing his bridle arm and puncturing his chest. This presents a problem with the long held and celebrated belief that it was Wells and/or McComas who fired the fatal shot that killed Gen. Ross. Both men were “rifleman,” and as such most likely carried Model 1803 Harper’s Ferry rifles, smaller and lighter than the conventional musket, and would have used a somewhat smaller caliber “rifle-ball” (0.54) versus the standard smoothbore musket ball (0.64-0.69) in their rifles. It is important to note also that militia musket loads at the time most often consisted of the larger musket ball and/or a buckshot load (2 or more shot at 0.31cal), known as “Buck & Ball.”
Author and Baltimore Attorney, William M. Marine relates in his book[i], an account reported by a Thomas J. Wilson to Gen. James M. Anderson of Baltimore about a chance meeting his brother Henry had at a dinner in 1846 with an aide-de-camp to General Ross. Wilson reported that this aide, presumably Col. McNamara, stated that the General “fell into my arms” upon being shot. When asked the nature of the General’s wound, Col. McNamara responded that, “it was caused by a musket ball and a buckshot.” From Sgt. William Sannford, of the Enniskillen Dragoons and chief of couriers under Gen. Ross, the following account of the skirmish appears in his book.[ii]
“Four hundred yards in their front were discovered three men, one of whom was in a tree. The others had guns and canteens, having the appearance of a detail sent for water. It was afterwards explained that the man in the tree was gathering peaches. By the aid of a glass it was ascertained that the men belonged to separate organizations, one of them being an artillerymen. As soon as the British were discovered, the man jumped down from the tree, and all three fired simultaneously. Ross fell into McNamara’s arms; and Hamilton, though prostrated to the ground, was up immediately. McNamara’s coat was shot through in three places, and it was found on examination that the guns were loaded with buck-shot and ball cartridges. One of the horses received no less than five buck-shot in his breast. One of the Americans had on a high hat, such as is worn by citizens, and known in London as a castor hat. The skirmish line of the British fired and killed the three men beneath the tree where they were first discovered.”
Sgt. Sannford’s account would suggest that Wells and McComas were using standard muskets, or the loads generally used in them, but that is an unlikely scenario. It also supports the theory that there may have been other militia in the immediate vicinity that fired upon Gen. Ross and his men, including one Private Aquila Randall of Capt. Chew’s Mechanical Volunteers. Was Pvt. Randall the (Militia) man in the “high hat?” There are some field accounts from participants who claimed that Aquila Randall’s body was found directly behind those of Wells and McComas, his musket fired. If the accounts of the mortal wound to Gen Ross are accurate, then the theory that Pvt. Aquila Randall being the one who fired “The Fatal Shot” is all-the-more plausible. And, if the accounts of Sgt. Sannford, Col. McNamara, and numerous American participants are true, what became of the “rifled” shots fired by McComas and Wells?
Short of an exhumation of Gen. Robert Ross’ remains, an unlikely scenario, history may never accurately record who fired the fatal shot that killed the British commander. In the grand scheme of things, and in the context of the war, its objectives and eventual outcome, does it even matter?
Author: Lyle Garitty
Sources:
- [i] The British invasion of Maryland, 1812-1815; by William Matthew Marine, 1913
- [ii] Sannford, ” The experiences of a Sergeant in the King’s service in America,” London, 1817
