The British leaders having succeeded in turning their demonstration up the Patuxent into an attack on Washington, next decided to make “a demonstration upon the city of Baltimore, which might be converted into a real attack should circumstances appear to justify it,”[277] and sailed from the Potomac September 6 for the Patapsco River. They anchored September 11 off its mouth. From that point Ross’s army when landed had only fourteen miles to march, and no water in their way, while Cochrane’s fleet had but twelve miles to sail. Compared with the approaches to Washington, the approach to Baltimore was easy. [Illustration: MILITARY TOPOGRAPHY OF BALTIMORE AND ITS VICINITY AND OF PATAPSCO NECK TO NORTH POINT BY ORDER OF BRIG. GEN. W. H. WINDER 1814.] Ross’s troops were all landed at daylight on the northern point, and were in motion by eight o’clock September 12, without firing a shot. Their numbers were differently given by British authorities,--one reporting them at three thousand two hundred and seventy rank-and-file;[278] the other reckoning them at upward of five thousand.[279] Ross made on the Patapsco no such leisurely movements as on the Patuxent, but began his march at once, and proceeded about five miles without meeting resistance. The light brigade with the Eighty-fifth regiment was in advance; the second brigade, under Colonel Brooke of the Forty-fourth, followed; and the third brigade, under Colonel Patterson of the Twenty-first, formed the rear. At the same time the fleet moved up the channel toward Fort Henry.