Ross was born in Rostrevor,
County Down, Kingdom of Ireland to Major David Ross, an officer in the
Seven Years' War and his mother, half-sister to the Earl of Charlemont.
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and joined the 25th Regiment
of Foot as an ensign in 1789. In 1803 he took command of the 20th
Regiment. He fought at the Battle of Krabbendam in the Netherlands,
Alexandria, Egypt, the Battle of Maida, Scylla Castle, in the Peninsular
War at Corunna and the Battle of Pamplona.
He had been promoted to Lieutenant–Colonel before Corunna. In 1810, Ross
was made a colonel as well as aide–de–camp to the king. He fought in
Spain under Wellington in 1812, at the battles of Vittoria, Roncesvalles,
and the Battle of Sorauren.
After the conclusion of the war with Napoleon, Ross sailed to North
America as a Major General to take charge of all British troops off the
east coast of the United States. Ross personally led the British troops
ashore in Benedict, Maryland and marched through Upper Marlboro,
Maryland to the attack on the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg on
August 24, 1814, where the American army of mostly militia quickly
collapsed.[1][2] Moving on from Bladensburg, Ross captured Washington,
D.C. with little resistance. Ross insisted on only destroying public
property, including the destruction of the U.S. Capitol and the White
House.
Ross then organized an attack on Baltimore, Maryland. His troops landed
at the southern tip of the Patapsco Neck peninsula at North Point,
twelve miles from the city, on the morning of September 12, 1814. During
the march, and just prior to the Battle of North Point, the troops
encountered American skirmishers and Ross rode forward to personally
direct his troops. An American sniper shot him through the right arm
into the chest. According to Baltimore tradition, two American riflemen,
teenagers Daniel Wells and Henry McComas, aged 18 and 19, respectively,
were credited with killing Ross; both were killed in the engagement.
Ross died while being transported back to the ships.
Ross-of-Bladensburg's tombAfter his death, the general's body was stored
in a barrel of 129 gallons (586 l) of Jamaican rum and shipped on the
British ship HMS Royal Oak to Halifax, Nova Scotia where his body was
buried on September 29, 1814. It is thought that preparations for the
Battle of New Orleans prevented his body from being shipped back to
Britain.
He is commemorated by a 100 ft granite obelisk near his birthplace
alongside Carlingford Lough in Northern Ireland as well as by a monument
in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. As an augmentation of honour his
armorial bearings were given a second crest in which an arm is seen
grasping the stars and stripes on a broken staff; and the family name
was changed to Ross-of-Bladensburg.
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