To James Madison from Ebenezer Ford, 4 July 1814
From Ebenezer Ford
Fort Washington July 4th 1814
Sir,
On the anniversary of our Independance while Crowds approach you in person to participate in celebrating the National birth day, permit me also to congratulate you on the occasion. And since our political horizon is encircled by a stormy aspect, suffer me to importune you upon the subject of my plans; which cost me much time, involving therewith considerable expense, in maturing—and which more than four months since, would have been carried into effect against the enemy; if a pasport such as Mr Mix had; could have been furnished me1—why have I been restrained from chastizeing an insulting foe; whose cannon has recently echoed through the Metropolis.2 Is it a want of confidence in the mode. I am prepared to obviate dificulties on that score. If Administration does not wish to countenance the measure under existing circumstances—order my discharge or give me a furlough as Mix has and your city shall not again resound with hostile cannon, nor its vicinity be pillaged by an imperious foe. Should things be continued in their present state—an inconsiderable force, if in possession of the Island at the mouth of the Potomac, might surprize & perhaps destroy the Capitol—if informed of the situation of Places. I speake now from the circumstance of last Summer when Admiral Warren came into the river had his fleet been composed of such vessels as the highflyer, or could they have passed, as easy up, as they did to Blackstones Island—the entire Squadron would have reached the City, twelve hours at least before the express. As to this fort, an enemy knowing the situation of things would be wretched planers if it was not taken without firing a cannon, if the wind was as favourable as it was last year. Excuse this intrusion it being my last effort.3 I Remain Respectfully yr most obt. & hbl. Servt.
E. Ford
P.S. Since writing the foregoing, I have seen a Statement, of the engagement on the Patuxent in which it is represented that two frigates Lay within six hundred yards of the shore4—on this occasion permit me to remark that I have been prepared, ever since the 15th. of Febr. last, with a stern Torpedo to do infalible execution at a miles distance—do not infer from this that I mean the entire destruction of a ves⟨sel⟩ on that score experiment must test the result.
E.F.5
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, F-21:8). Docketed as received in the War Department in July 1814. Damaged by removal of seal.
1. For the administration’s support of Elijah Mix’s efforts to destroy British warships with torpedoes, see 6:183 n. 1, 202 n.
2. In June 1814 the British conducted a raiding expedition up the Patuxent River as far as the village of Nottingham, less than eighteen miles from Washington. Ford may have referred here to their “heavy cannonading” a few miles downriver at Benedict, where they engaged in a skirmish with U.S. forces on 21 June (James Tongue to JM, 17 June 1814, ibid., 7:567–68 and n. 1; Daily National Intelligencer, 24 June 1814).
3. For Ford’s previous attempt to gain support for his torpedo project, see his 25 Jan. 1814 letter to JM, 7:230–31.
4. Ford evidently referred to an account of the 26 June 1814 battle at St. Leonard’s Creek, published in the Daily National Intelligencer on 2 July 1814. The writer noted that two British ships, the Narcissus and Loire, “must have suffered considerable injury” in the engagement “as they were not more than six hundred yards distant from the battery.” The frigates had been blockading Capt. Joshua Barney’s flotilla in the creek, and their retreat following the battle allowed Barney to proceed up the river to Benedict (Daily National Intelligencer, 28 June 1814).
5. Filed with the RC is a copy of commissary general of ordnance Col. Decius Wadsworth’s 29 Jan. 1814 letter to Capt. Elijah Boardman of the Light Dragoons, stating his suspicions that Ford was trying to “get clear of the Service” and might be “subject to fits of insanity.” Wadsworth requested that Boardman investigate Ford’s “Schemes” and write back only if he considered them worthwhile. The copy is docketed: “Relative to E. Fords Communications about Torpedoes, to which no Answer has been received.”