Editing Congreve rocket (section)

===War of 1812===
[[File:Firing Congreve Rockets PAH7444.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|1814 depiction of rockets being fired]]

The Royal Marine Artillery used Congreve rockets in several engagements during this conflict.<ref name="congreve">{{cite web|url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOf1812/message/10450 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130412050650/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOf1812/message/10450 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 April 2013 |title=Congreve Rockets |last=Hobbs|first=Ray |date= 19 March 2001 |access-date=30 March 2013 |quote=Ray Hobbs, quoting from Donald Graves' book, lists the engagements where Congreve rockets were used during the War of 1812}}</ref> [[Royal Marines Battalions (Napoleonic Wars)|Two battalions of Royal Marines]] were sent to North America in 1813. Attached to each battalion was a rocket detachment, each with an establishment of 25 men, commanded by lieutenants Balchild and [[John Harvey Stevens]].<ref>Heidler, p. 23</ref> Both rocket detachments were embarked aboard the transport vessel ''Mariner''<ref name="War of 1812 :: The Battle of Big Sandy Creek">{{cite web|url=http://www.wcny.org/warof1812/the-battle-of-big-sandy-creek-the-great-rope-carry#_edn2 |title=Rocket men, by Gary M. Gibson |publisher=wcny.org |access-date=2013-01-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213012556/http://www.wcny.org/warof1812/the-battle-of-big-sandy-creek-the-great-rope-carry |archive-date=2013-02-13 }}</ref><ref name="Microform Digitization - Library and Archives Canada">{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.02-e.php?PHPSESSID=vmlr30ulr4gj1ouhseh9lsia83&sqn=172&q2=25&q3=1559&tt=1559 |title=George Glasgow to George Prevost, 22 October 1813, NAC, RG8, C.731 pp. 54–59, roll C-3244 |publisher=collectionscanada.gc.ca |access-date=2013-01-25}}</ref>  Rockets were used in the engagements at [[Battle of Fort Oswego (1814)|Fort Oswego]] and [[Battle of Lundy's Lane|Lundy's Lane]].<ref>Tucker, p. 30</ref>

The British used the Congreve rocket on U.S. soil for the first time in an attack on Lewes, Delaware, on 6 and 7 April 1813.  The town was bombarded for 22 hours.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.memorialdayfoundation.org/delaware/the-bombardment-of-lewis-memorial-marker.html|title = The Bombardment of Lewes Memorial Marker | publisher=The Memorial Day Foundation | accessdate=6 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SX8Y71-dQHkC&q=%22congreve+rocket%22+%2B+lewes&pg=PT548|title=Searching for the Forgotten War – 1812: United States of America|isbn=9781456867553|last1=Carstens|first1=Patrick Richard|date=2011|publisher=Xlibris Corporation }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=19308|title = The Bombardment of Lewes Historical Marker | publisher=The Historical Marker Database | accessdate=6 October 2022}}</ref>

A third battalion of Royal Marines arrived in North America in 1814, with an attached rocket detachment commanded by Lieutenant John Lawrence, which subsequently participated in the [[War of 1812#Chesapeake campaign|Chesapeake campaign]]. During this campaign, the British used rockets at the [[Battle of Bladensburg]] to rout the American forces (which led to the capture and [[Burning of Washington|burning]] of [[Washington, D.C.]]), and at the [[Battle of North Point]].<ref>Malcolmson, p. 479</ref>

It was the use of ship-launched Congreve rockets by the British in the bombardment of [[Fort McHenry]] in the US in 1814 that inspired a phrase in the fifth line of the first verse of the United States' [[national anthem]], "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]": "the rockets’ red glare". {{HMS|Erebus|1807|6}} fired the rockets from a 32-pound rocket battery installed below the main deck, which fired through portholes or scuttles pierced in the ship's side.

In Canada, rockets were used by the British at the [[Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814)|Second Battle of Lacolle Mills]], 30 March 1814. Rockets fired by a detachment of the [[Royal Marine Artillery]], though inaccurate, unnerved the attacking American forces, and contributed to the defense of the [[blockhouse]] and mill.<ref name="Elting176">John R. Elting, ''Amateurs to Arms'', p. 176</ref><ref>Nicolas, Paul Harris: ''Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces'', Volume 2, p. 253</ref>  Rockets were used again at the [[Battle of Cook's Mills]], 19 October 1814.  An American force, sent to destroy General [[Gordon Drummond]]'s source of flour, was challenged by a contingent of infantry which was supported by a light field cannon and a frame of Congreve rockets.  The rockets succeeded in discouraging the Americans from forming lines on the battlefield.

Captain Henry Lane's 1st Rocket Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery embarked at the end of 1814 in the transport vessel ''Mary'' with 40 artillerymen and 500 rockets and disembarked near [[Battle of New Orleans|New Orleans]].<ref>Heidler, p. 121</ref> Lieutenant Lawrence's rocket detachment took part in the final land engagement of the War of 1812 at [[Fort Bowyer]] in February 1815.<ref>Tucker, p. 249</ref>