ESSEX — Shortly after sundown Tuesday, the sound of drums will be heard along the lower Connecticut River as bonfires will be lit to commemorate a nighttime raid by the British 200 years ago that destroyed the town's privateering fleet.

On April 8, 1814, 136 British Royal Marines rowed up the river to Essex, then a center of shipbuilding and trade called Potopaug, and set fire to 27 ships, most in the harbor but a few in shipyards still on the stocks.

No one was killed, but the loss to American shipping, estimated at $100,000 at the time, was the largest before Pearl Harbor.

Essex is marking the bicentennial of the infamous British Raid of 1814, with a monthlong series of events, including Tuesday's "Light up the Night" commemoration, which aims to rekindle those feelings of fear and anger two centuries ago.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-essex-raid-0407-20140403,0,5172628.story