I had the great pleasure this past Saturday of enjoying a crab cake lunch with Burt Kummerow, the affable president of the Maryland Historical Society, and Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin, a lover of history who has been creating a very engaging web site.Burt is the co-author, with historian Ralph Eshelman, of In Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake. I got a peek at Burt's advance proof of the book, which will be published this summer, and I'm looking forward to reading the entire text.
The Chesapeake campaign waged by the Royal Navy and British Army is generally remembered for the burning of Washington and for the attack on Baltimore's Fort McHenry, which, of course, led to the writing of the "Star-Spangled Banner." But a series of raids and invasions up and down the Chesapeake Bay deserve a closer look which the new book will provide.
Mary Margaret's charmingly informative web site puts a focus on War of 1812 action on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. When the British sailed into Kent Island they seized provisions and livestock and liberated about 80 slaves.
In often overlooked episodes, British officers would guarantee freedom to slaves they liberated in Maryland. Mary Margaret told me the story of how some officers of the Royal Navy were good to their word after the war, making sure former slaves received land in British colonies such as Jamaica, Trinidad, or Canada.
The State of Maryland has big plans to commemorate the War of 1812 Bicentennial, and it was a pleasure to spend time with Burt and Mary Margaret and hear some of what they have in the works.
Savoring their stories, along with fresh crab cakes and draft beer at a traditional crab house on Maryland's Eastern Shore, I could not have asked for a more pleasant Saturday afternoon.
Illustration: Commodore Joshua Barney of the U.S. Navy, a Baltimore native who bravely defended the Chesapeake Bay in 1814/Library of Congress
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