Commodore Joshua Barney

Joshua Barney was born 6 July 1759 in Baltimore, Md. He served with distinction in Hornet and Wasp during the Revolutionary War and at the outbreak of the War of 1812 reentered the Navy as a captain, and commanded a fleet of gunboats defending Chesapeake Bay. At the Battle of Bladensburg, Barney and his sailors, acting as artillerymen, made a heroic defense of the National Capitol. Commodore Barney died 1 December 1818 at Pittsburgh, Pa.