Capt. William Bainbridge is asked to move U.S. warships from the Charlestown Navy Yard

(ca.) The town asks Bainbridge, who had been appointed commandant of the yard in 1812, to move the ships to a more remote part of Boston Harbor in order to spare the town in case the British Navy attempts to bombard them. Not only does he refuse, but Bainbridge that if Boston attempts to surrender to the British without a fight, “he should certainly Fire upon the Town.”