by Steve Vogel
As usual, Skinner Skinner letter, Essex Register [Salem, Mass.], June 20, 1821; James Scott, Recollections of a Naval Life, vol. 3, 239.
At 2 a.m Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 8, NW III, 169.
Pemberton Claughton Myron (Mike) E. Lyman and William W. Hankins, Encounters with the British in Virginia During the War of 1812, 29.
“What! Englishmen” Scott, Recollections, 261.
village was burned Peter Rowley, ed., “Captain Robert Rowley Helps to Burn Washington, D.C., Part 1,” MdHM, Fall 1987; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 53; Journal of John Robyns, RMLI, 1796–1834, 143, RMM (hereafter Robyns journal).
“I suppose some” Rowley, “Captain Robert Rowley,” 246.
“Within forty-eight” Cockburn to Cochrane, secret letter, July 17, NW III, 137.
“It is quite impossible” Cockburn to Cochrane, July 17, NW III, 136.
For many Americans J. C. A. Stagg, The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent, 2.
“not an independent” Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography, 533.
competing visions Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels and Indian Allies, 5–6.
Walking the deck New York Evening Post, Aug. 15; Skinner to Graham, July 17, Misc. Letters of the Department of State, NARA RG 59, M179, Roll 30.
“severe” fighting Beynon journal, 127.
“I believe, Mr. Skinner” Skinner to Madison, Aug. 13, UVa.
CHAPTER 1: How Do You Like the War Now?
TERRA RUBRA, MARYLAND, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1814
“The government seem” Key to Randolph, Aug. 10, Francis Scott Key papers in Howard Papers, MS 469, MdHS.
Slender and of medium Harold R. Manakee, “Anthem Born in Battle,” in P. W. Filby and Edward G. Howard, comps., Star-Spangled Books, 29.
“almost bordering on sadness” Henry S. Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, 12.
“like lightning” Edward S. Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key: Life and Times, 44–45.
Key was a child Victor Weybright, Spangled Banner: The Story of Francis Scott Key, 1, 4, 8, 11.
Terra Rubra, named Ibid., 4–7; Carroll County Historical Society.
He and his younger Weybright, Spangled Banner, 25.
Most unforgettable: Ibid., 15; John T. Silkett, Francis Scott Key and the History of the Star-Spangled Banner, 4.
Philip Barton Key Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 9–23.
“Polly Lloyd is” Margaret L. Calcott, ed., Mistress of Riverdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795–1821, 31.
Key established a law Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 33–36; Weybright, Spangled Banner, 47.
After two years Weybright, Spangled Banner, 42–44; Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 43–46.
The Keys made Anna Key Bartow, “Recollections of Francis Scott Key, by his Granddaughter,” Modern Culture, Nov. 12, 1900, 7; Francis Scott Key-Smith, Francis Scott Key, Author of the Star-Spangled Banner, What Else He Was and Who, 89.
He was an indulgent Weybright, Spangled Banner, 65, 227.
The home served Ibid., 45, 64; Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 79.
Randolph’s small head Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 77–78; Walter Edgar McCann, “Francis Scott Key,” Popular Monthly, 1888.
Key, a devout Weybright, Spangled Banner, 61, 66.
Some seven thousand American citizens Donald R. Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship! Myths of the War of 1812, 21.
Kentucky’s militia alone Walter Borneman, 1812: The War That Forged a Nation, 57.
Randolph led the opposition Ketcham, James Madison, 525, 554; Paul Woehrmann, “National Response to the Sack of Washington,” MdHM, 1971, 231.
Clay even ordered Ketcham, James Madison, 509.
With a measure Ibid., 529–33.
“[T]housands of American” President’s Message, June 1, 1812, in Brannan, Official Letters, 10.
“a state of war” President’s Message, June 1, 1812, in John Brannan, ed., Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States During the War with Great Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14, & 15, 14.
Nonetheless, on June 16 Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 44.
Congress’s vote Ibid., 42.
“Gentlemen, you have” Federal Republican, Sept. 9.
No less than Randolph Weybright, Spangled Banner 77; Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 83.
Randolph considered Ibid., 86–87.
“The state of society” Weybright, Spangled Banner 79, 213, 59. Key was echoing Randolph’s own words to him.
“I begin to fancy” Key to Randolph, May 14, 1813, Howard Papers, MdHS.
“I did feel” Weybright, Spangled Banner, 71.
He was given Key to Randolph, Feb. 26, 1814, Howard Papers, MdHS; Clarence Wroth, “Francis Scott Key as a Churchman,” MdHM, 1909, 156–58; Weybright, Spangled Banner, 65, 74.
“[D]oes it not appear” Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 94–95.
“The people of Montreal” Ibid., 100.
Most of the U.S. Army J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War: Politics, Diplomacy and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830, 388.
“We see what” Key to Randolph, Aug. 10, Howard Papers, MdHS.
HMS ALBION, POTOMAC RIVER, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1814
So much loot Cockburn to Edward Griffiths, Aug. 10, NHHC.
“Cockburn’s confidence” William Napier, The Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier, G.C.B., vol. 1, 229.
The Cockburn family James Pack, The Man Who Burned the White House: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772–1853, 21–25; Roger Morriss, Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn 1772–1853, 7–9.
“zeal, ability” Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 45.
“we so exactly” Morriss, Cockburn and the British Navy, 28.
Nelson and Hood Ibid., 54–61; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 115, 123.
In 1812, at Ibid., 137, 140.
“would scarcely have known” William James, The Naval History of Great Britain from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV, 32.
“I have no hesitation” Cockburn to Warren, March 13, 1813, NW II, 320.
Cockburn believed Warren too passive Morriss, Cockburn and the British Navy, 89; J. Ralfe, The Naval Biography of Great Britain: Consisting of Those Officers of the British Navy Who Distinguished Themselves During the Reign of His Majesty George III, vol. 3, 285.
Chesapeake Bay Charles G. Muller, The Darkest Day: The Washington-Baltimore Campaign During the War of 1812; Donald G. Shomette, Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812, ix.
Cockburn’s instructions Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 145.
“I am sorry to say” Wybourn to Joseph Shipton, April 4, 1813, in Anne Petrides and Jonathan Downs, eds., Sea Soldier: An Officer of Marines with Duncan, Nelson, Collingwood and Cockburn: The Letters and Journals of T. Marmaduke Wybourn RM, 1797–1813, 175–76.
“This of course” NW II, 341–42.
“Exhausted with” Marine, British Invasion, 38.
“leaving not a single” Wybourn journal, May 5, 1813, in Petrides and Downs, eds., Sea Soldier, 183.
“He was unmoved” Marine, British Invasion, 38.
“what they were liable” NW II, 242.
“what had happened” CMS, 109.
“a droll character” Wybourn journal, May 7, 1813, in Petrides and Downs, eds., Sea Soldier, 185.
“Had you not fired” James J. Wilmer, A Narrative Respecting the Conduct of the British from Their First Landing on Spesutia Island Till Their Progress to Havre de Grace, 28; CRG, 126.
This will do Wilmer, Narrative Respecting the Conduct of the British, 28.
“On my way from” Charles J. Ingersoll, Historical Sketch of the Second War Between the United States of America and Great Britain, vol. 1, 198.
“terror and reproach” Dolley Madison to Edward Coles, May 13, 1813, DMDE.
“guilty of the unnatural” Captain Frederick Chamier, R.N., The Life of a Sailor, 176, 181.
“the price of” CMS, 128.
“my ideas” Cockburn to Cochrane May 10, NW III, 63.
Cockburn had a firm CMS, 103.
“Apparently affected” William H. Love, “Two Maryland Heroines,” MdHM, 1908, 134–35.
In mid-June, Vice Admiral Warren NW II, 310, 361–64; CRG, 237.
“When our boats” The Naval Chronicle, 1813, 182–83.
“for which England” Napier, Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier, 371.
“no mischief” Cockburn to Warren, July 12, 1813, NW II, 185; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 159.
Around the country Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 1, 202.
“The affair of Hampton” Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society, 90.
The panic grew NW II, 369.
“Alarm guns” Claude G. Bowers, ed., The Diary of Elbridge Gerry, Jr., 188.
Major George Peter Grace Dunlop Ecker, A Portrait of Old Georgetown, 150; Weybright, Spangled Banner, 69.
“Each new-made” Martha Peter to Mrs. Josiah Quincy, July 13, 1813, in Harold Donaldson Eberlein and Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard, Historic Houses of George-town and Washington City, 128.
The militia marched Joseph A. Whitehorne, The Battle of Baltimore 1814, 77.
Aboard his flagship Warren to Croker, NW II, 369.
Cockburn and most Donald G. Shomette, Flotilla, 19.
CHAPTER 2: Laid in Ashes
“You are at perfect” Cochrane to Cockburn, April 28, NW III, 51.
Moreover, eight months before Robert Malcolmson, Capital in Flames, 289.
Cochrane was eager Cochrane to Prevost, March 11, NW III, 38.
“The Rear-admiral” Scott, Recollections, 239.
Parson Joshua Thomas Adam Wallace, The Parson of the Islands. A Biography of Rev. Joshua Thomas, 129–30.
By late spring Tangier Museum visit, July 10, 2010; CMS, 124; “The British fortifying an Island in Chesapeake Bay,” Essex Register [Salem, Mass.], July 16; Lieutenant Colonel Thos. Bayly to Gov. James Barbour, June 23, in H. W. Flournoy, ed., Calendar of Virginia State Papers and other Manuscripts, vol. 10, 348.
“myriads of mosquitoes” Robyns journal, RMM, 132; CRG, 262.
Cockburn distributed NW III, 60.
The Union Jack Shomette, Flotilla, 72; Frank Cassell, “Slaves of the Chesapeake Bay Area and the War of 1812,” Journal of Negro History, April 1972, 150.
Ezekiel Loney Transcription of notice, John Richeson to W. Tucker, April 20, 1814, Tangier History Museum, from the archives of the University of Virginia Library.
Fort Albion witnessed Christopher T. George, “Mirage of Freedom: African Americans in the War of 1812,” MdHM, Winter 1996; 435–36; Cassell, “Slaves of the Chesapeake,” 151; Robyns journal, RMM, 134.
“are really very fine” Cockburn to Cochrane, May 10; NW III, 65.
At their first test Cockburn to Cochrane, June 25, NW III, 115; Robyns Journal, RMM, 135–36.
The only time Cockburn Cockburn to Barrie, July 8, George Cockburn Papers, Manuscript Division, LOC.
While freeing the slaves Scott, Recollections, 118–20.
“[T]he country is” Cockburn to Cochrane, June 25, NW III, 115.
“Not a militia man” Cockburn to Barrie, July 16, NW III, 152.
Red-nosed Mary Barney, ed., Biographical Memoir of the Late Commodore Joshua Barney: From Autobiographical Notes and Journals in Possession of His Family, and Other Authentic Sources, 299.
The Maryland native Shomette, Flotilla, 34.
Raised on a farm Ibid., 23; Charles E. Brodine, Jr., Michael J. Crawford, and Christine F. Hughes, Against All Odds: U.S. Sailors in the War of 1812, 27; Glenn Tucker, Poltroons and Patriots: A Popular Account of the War of 1812, vol. 2, 512; M. I. Weller, “The Life of Commodore Joshua Barney,” RCHS, 1911, 98, 160.
“To content himself” Barney, Biographical Memoir, 250–51.
Barney packed Brodine et al., Against All Odds, 31.
On Independence Day Shomette, Flotilla, 33–35; 39, 43.
“[Y]our force” Jones to Barney, Feb. 18, NW III, 33.
Barney sailed Cockburn to Barrie, May 30, NW III, 76; Brodine et al., Against All Odds, 41–42.
“[H]ere we passed” Barrie to Cockburn, June 19, NW III, 111.
Early on June 18 Richmond Enquirer, June 22; Key to Randolph, Aug. 10, Howard Papers, MdHS; Weybright, Spangled Banner, 84.
Peter marched Frederick Todd, “The Militia and Volunteers of the District of Columbia, 1783–1820,” RCHS, 1948, 429; Josephine Seaton, William Winston Seaton of the “National Intelligencer”: A Biographical Sketch, 115; Shomette, Flotilla, 129–32; Hartford Courant, July 5.
By the time Key Key to Randolph, July 3, Howard Papers, MdHS.
Key wrote a reassuring Delaplaine, Life and Times, 130.
I fear that Key to Randolph, July 3, Howard Papers, MdHS.
Cockburn was certainly Cockburn to Barrie, July 3, NHHC.
On the night of June Ralph E. Eshelman, Maryland’s Largest Naval Engagement: The Battles of St. Leonard Creek, 1814; Shomette, Flotilla, 154–55.
“How sharply” Cockburn to Cochrane, June 25, NW III, 115.
“I had the mortification” Brown to Cockburn, June 27, NW III, 127.
“two heroes on horseback” Cockburn to Barrie, July 11, NW III, 151; Shomette, Flotilla, 171.
Cockburn did not want to linger Cockburn to Barrie, July 16, NW III, 152; Shomette, Flotilla, 177.
“Jonathan I believe” Nourse to Cockburn, July 23, NW III, 159.
“Mr. Maddison must” Cockburn to Barrie, July 16, NW III, 152.
BERMUDA, AUGUST 1, 1814
“[W]ith them properly” Cochrane to Cockburn, July 1, NW III, 130.
Certainly Washington Cochrane to Bathurst, July 14, NW III, 131; NW III, 189.
A discouraged Cochrane Cochrane to Melville, July 17, NW III, 132, 135.
Then on July 25 NW III, 189; Ross to Elizabeth, July 30, 1814, PRONI, D 2004/A/3/4; Lady Bourchier, ed., Memoir of the Life of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, with Selections from His Public and Private Correspondence, vol. 1, 312; Shomette, Flotilla, 234.
BALTIMORE, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11
On the morning of August New York Evening Post, Aug. 15; Scott, Recollections, 239; Skinner to Madison, Aug. 13, UVa.
WASHINGTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13
The war had kept Madison to mother, Aug. 8, UVa; Ketcham, James Madison, 573.
Certainly, conditions were better William Seale, The White House: The History of an American Idea, 34; William Seale, The President’s House: A History, vol. 1, 88.
Jefferson, a widower “Dolley Madison,” n.d., James Madison’s Montpelier; William Seale, “The White House Before the Fire,” White House History, Fall 1998, 21–23.
Though the roof Author tour with White House curator Bill Allman, Feb. 23, 2010; Anthony S. Pitch, The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814, 28; CRG, 291.
“I can not yet say” Madison to mother, Aug. 8, UVa.
It was becoming increasingly J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 407.
“At Sea, July 27” July 27, Winder Papers, MdHS.
At least as worrisome Irving Brant, James Madison, Commander in Chief, 1812–1836, 288; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 396.
Even with the British Ibid., 397, 407.
Dressed head to toe Paul Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison, 17.
“the air of a country schoolmaster” Pitch, Burning of Washington, 28; Ketcham, James Madison, 476.
Madison’s selection in 1776 “James Madison,” n.d., James Madison’s Montpelier; Gordon S. Wood, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, 170.
When war had been declared Richard Stewart, ed., American Military History, vol. 1, The United States Army and the Forging of a Nat
ion, 1775–1917, 132.
“swaggerers, dependents, decayed” Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 22.
“so Lilliputian” Mark Collins Jenkins and David A. Taylor, The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy, 25.
With this feeble force Stewart, American Military History, vol. 1, 134.
Madison put out peace Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 43.
“[T]he acquisition of Canada” Ibid., 37; Borneman, 1812, 57–58.
19. “in a manner worthy” Ketcham, James Madison, 534.
in the northwest Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 8–10.
Almost every ship John Williams, History of the Invasion and Capture of Washington, and of the Events which Preceded and Followed, 27; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 1, 162; Edward D. Ingraham, A Sketch of the Events Which Preceded the Capture of the City of Washington by the British, 6.
Wellington was ordered Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 36–37.
The Madison administration Monroe to American delegation, June 27, in James Monroe, The Writings of James Monroe, vol. 5, 371; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 395.
Madison warned “unequivocally” Rush narrative, Oct. 15, CCW, 541.
Yet no one else Jones, NW III, 311.
Still, the cabinet CCW, 524.
“The administration are beginning” Key to Randolph, July 3, Howard Papers, MdHS.
“In the discharge” C. Edward Skeen, John Armstrong, Jr., 1758–1843: A Biography, 205.
Madison had chosen Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity, 316–17.
Armstrong, a former senator Skeen, John Armstrong, ix. Armstrong had shown a dubious allegiance to democratic principles during the Revolutionary War as the anonymous author of the infamous Newburgh Addresses, which raised the specter of mutiny during a pay dispute near the end of the war.
“presumptuous, obstinate” Jefferson to John Eppes, Sept. 9, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 9, 484.
In one area John C. Fredriksen, The United States Army in the War of 1812, 19–20; Ketcham, James Madison, 574; Borneman, 1812, 223.