by Steve Vogel
“[T]his man if continued” Monroe to Madison, December 1813, Monroe, Writings, 275; Ammon, James Monroe, 324.
Most disastrous John Van Ness, Nov. 23, 1814, CCW 580; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 411.
Armstrong considered Madison John Armstrong, Notices of the War of 1812, vol. 2, 140; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 397; Williams, History of the Invasion, 72.
“the spur of the occasion” Winder narrative, CCW, 552.
“disorderly crowd,” Winder to Armstrong, July 9, CCW, 542.
Preoccupied by events Ketcham, James Madison, 585; Wood, Revolutionary Characters, 171.
“the defenseless state” Mayor Blake to Captain Caldwell, July 19, Winder Papers, MdHS; Pontius Stelle to Jonathan Rhea, July 22, Ross Papers, Gelman Library, GWU.
“For some weeks” Peter to Quincy, Aug. 26, in Eberlein and Hubbard, Historic Houses, 128.
“[O]ur preparations for defence” Dolley Madison to Hannah Gallatin, July 28, DMDE.
CHAPTER 3: The British Invasion
CHESAPEAKE BAY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1814
The British squadron Beynon journal, Aug. 14; Diary kept by Midshipman J. C. Bluett, 1995.48, RNM Manuscript Collection, 27; Shomette, Flotilla, 214.
Cochrane’s hatred Alfred Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812, 330.
“They are a whining” Shomette, Flotilla, 232; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 198; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 52.
Cochrane’s grudge Alexander Cochrane, The Fighting Cochranes, 162.
“all mad, money-getting” Ibid., 267.
“[H]is first resolves” Malcolm to Clementina, Oct. 3, Pulteny Malcolm Papers, UM, transcript at NHHC.
While in Bermuda Cochrane to Melville, July 17, NW III, 132.
“I have it much” Cochrane to Bathurst, July 14, NW III, 131.
Before departing Prevost to Cochrane, June 2, Records of the Admiralty, Letters from Commanders-in-Chief, North America: 1814, ADM 1/506, NAUK.
“You are hereby required” Cochrane, July 18, NW III, 140.
“I cannot at present” Cochrane to Croker, Aug. 11, NW III, 190.
(Tonnant,) a magnificent Tucker, Poltroons, 506; Shomette, Flotilla, 236.
“appeared rather inclined” CMS, 132.
Cockburn had served Morriss, Cockburn and the British Navy, 60–61.
Cockburn emphasized [Sir George De Lacy Evans], Facts Relating to the Capture of Washington, in Reply to Some Statements Contained in the Memoirs of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, G.C.B., 5–6.
Retaliation for Canada Robin F. A. Fabel, “The Laws of War in the 1812 Conflict,” Journal of American Studies, August 1980, 211.
Beyond the strategic goals Taylor Peck, Roundshots to Rockets: A History of the Washington Navy Yard and U.S. Naval Gun Factory, 48; Edward J. Marolda, The Washington Navy Yard: An Illustrated History, 9.
The reports of disease Ross had seen his regiment decimated by fever during the disastrous 1809 Walcheren expedition in the Netherlands, where two-thirds of his regiment’s strength was lost to disease. W. A. Maguire, “Major General Ross and the Burning of Washington,” Irish Sword, Winter 1980, 118.
Ross’s instructions from London Bathurst to Barnes, May 20, NW III, 72; Bathurst to Ross, Aug. 10, WO 6/2, 5156–5220, NAUK.
Based on his instructions Evans, Facts, 6, 14; George De Lacy Evans, “Memorandum of Operations on the Shores of the Chesapeake in 1814,” NLS, Adv.MS.46.6.6 ff 1–28 (hereafter Evans memorandum; I am grateful to Ross scholar John McCavitt for providing me a transcript).
sea general Chamier, Life, 176.
Cockburn proposed Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 15, NW III, 190.
Major General Robert Ross Description based on Robert Ross portrait owned by descendant Stephen Campbell, Rostrevor, Northern Ireland; “Memoir of Maj.-Gen. Robert Ross,” USJ, Part 1, 1829, 412; MaGuire, “Major General Ross and the Burning of Washington,” 117–19; Christopher T. George, “The Family Papers of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross, the Diary of Col. Arthur Brooke, and the British Attacks of Washington and Baltimore of 1814,” MdHM, Fall 1993, 307. London had asked Wellington to select the officer he thought “best calculated” to lead an independent command against the coast of America. Wellington considered sending Major General Edward Barnes, an able officer on his staff, but instead chose Ross.
Wellington was fond “Ross of Bladensburg,” National Review, 1929, 443–44; research by John McCavitt.
“the hit I got in the chops” Benjamin Smyth, comp., History of the XX Regiment, 1688–1888, 323.
“Be therefore my Ly” Ross to Elizabeth, n.d., D 2004/1A/3/1, PRONI.
POTOMAC RIVER, MONDAY, AUGUST 15
At 2 a.m. Beynon journal, Aug. 15, NHHC; Robyns Journal, Aug. 15, 145, RMM; Chamier, Life, 176; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 180.
That evening Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 15, NW III, 190; Codrington, Aug. 15, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington.
CHESAPEAKE BAY, TUESDAY, AUGUST 16
Early Tuesday morning Jones, Oct. 31, CCW, 540; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 19.
Rear Admiral Pulteney Malcolm Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 181; “Recollections of the Expedition to the Chesapeake, and Against New Orleans, in the Years 1814–15. By an old Sub,” Part 2, USJ, May 1840.
“The sight is glorious” Diary of George Gleig, Aug. 15, 131, in C. R. B. Barrett, ed., The 85th King’s Light Infantry, (hereafter Gleig diary).
Aboard the ships John R. Grodzinski, “The Duke of Wellington, the Peninsular War and the War of 1812. Part II: Reinforcements, Views of the War and Command in North America,” War of 1812 Magazine, April 2007.
“I could have done” Tucker, Poltroons, 503.
The 44th Howard Green, The Kings Own Royal Regiment, i; Neil H. Swanson, The Perilous Fight, 405; Tucker, Poltroons, 503.
Crammed aboard Gleig diary, July 2, 124; Green, Kings Own, 61; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 20; Shomette, Flotilla, 215.
POINT LOOKOUT, MARYLAND, DAWN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17
The morning light CCW, 527; Shomette, Flotilla, 239; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 181.
CHESAPEAKE BAY, 8 A.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17
The paneled great cabin Harry Smith, The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, 197; Evans, Facts, 7–8.
The briefing was Diary of Col Arthur Brooke, D 3004/D/2, PRONI; see also Christopher T. George, “The Family Papers of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross, the Diary of. Col. Arthur Brooke, and the British Attacks on Washington and Baltimore of 1814,” MdHM, Fall 1993 (hereafter Brooke diary); Edward H. D. E. Napier, The Life and Correspondence of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 41; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 55; [George R. Gleig,] A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans in the years 1814–15, 86.
WASHINGTON, 8 A.M., THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
“a solitude” John Clagett Proctor, ed., Washington Past and Present, 86; H. Paul Caemmerer, A Manual on the Origin and Development of Washington, 40; Stilson Hutchins and Joseph West Moore, The National Capital Past and Present, 51.
Washington’s population Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: A History of the Capital, 1800–1950, 21.
The capital’s elite Gibb Myers, “Pioneers in the Federal Area,” RCHS, 1942–43, 137, 147, 151–53.
Washington was a curious Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 136; Scott Berg, “The Beginning of the Road,” WP Magazine, Aug. 31, 2008, 22.
“It was no trophy” Rush to Williams, July 10, 1855, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 277.
The village awoke CCW, 527.
Secretary of State Monroe Monroe letter, Nov. 13, CCW 536.
Working from his makeshift CCW 527; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 29.
Nothing close Winder narrative, CCW 554.
“The Creator has not thought” Albert Ellery Bergh, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vols. 13–14, 216.
Any marks of greatness William Frick to William Winder, Jr., May 1847, Winder Papers, MdHS; Fredriksen, The United States Army in the Wa
r of 1812, 149; Winder, American National Biography; Ralph J. Robinson, “Controversy over the Command at Baltimore in the War of 1812,” MdHM, 1944.
“Be careful of” Ralph J. Robinson, “Retaliation for the Treatment of Prisoners in the War of 1812,” American Historical Review, vol. 49, October 1943.
“It is a misfortune” Tucker, Poltroons, 496.
Madison and Monroe Ibid., 497–98, 724.
Winder’s inexperience Winder narrative, CCW, 553; Rush to Williams, July 10, 1855, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 277.
Moreover, no states Winder correspondence, CCW, 543–46; CCW, 526, 550.
As for the District Van Ness, Washington, Nov. 23, CCW, 580; Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 117.
PATUXENT RIVER, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
The mighty British fleet George Laval Chesterton, Peace, War, and Adventure: An Autobiographical Memoir of George Laval Chesterton, vol. 1, 113–15; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 86–87; Shomette, Flotilla, 245.
The big ships Codrington, Aug. 15, 1814, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington, 314.
Finally, in late afternoon “War of 1812—Logs of British Ships in the Patuxent—1814,” Chronicle’s of St. Mary’s, August 1966.
“The air literally resounded” Chesterton, Peace, War, and Adventure,114–15.
“comparatively extraordinary” Codrington, Aug. 15, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington, 315.
CHAPTER 4: What the Devil Will They Do Here?
BENEDICT, FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST 19
The first landing boats Gleig diary, Aug. 19, 131.
At Benedict, the gun Benedict, Maryland, Cultural Resources Survey and Context Study, Charles County Department of Planning and Growth Management, July 2009, David Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 1805–1827, 23–24; Evans memorandum, NLS, 3.
As waves of troops Gleig diary, Aug. 19, 1814, 132–33; Shomette, Flotilla, 250–51; Eshelman and Kummerow, Full Glory Reflected, 40.
NOTTINGHAM, MIDDAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
Ten miles upriver Barney to Jones, Aug. 19, 1814, Winder Papers, MdHS.
“[W]e have again beat” Shomette, Flotilla, 156; Hulbert Footner, Sailor of Fortune: The Life and Adventures of Commodore Barney, USN, 277.
WASHINGTON, 2 P.M., FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
“Appearances indicate” Jones to Barney, Aug. 19, NW III, 187.
Nevertheless, Jones ordered NW III, 198–200.
Another report arrived Winder to Stricker and Stansbury, Aug. 19, Winder Papers. MdHS.
Winder hurried to Winder to Armstrong, Aug. 19, CCW, 547; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 59–61.
“By God, they would” Van Ness, Nov. 23, CCW, 581.
Secretary of State Monroe Monroe letter, Nov. 13, CCW; Winder narrative, CCW, 554.
Tall and slim Seale, The President’s House, 145; Bryan Hockensmith, “James Monroe,” Army History, Summer 2008.
Monroe had gone on Author visit, Ash Lawn-Highland, April 27, 2010.
But Monroe’s three-decade-old Ammon, James Monroe, 273.
But from the day Ketcham, James Madison, 584.
“I had a horror” Skeen, John Armstrong, 203.
GHENT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
At 3 p.m. Fred L. Engelman, “The Peace of Christmas Eve,” American Heritage, December 1960.
The very makeup Borneman, 1812, 264–66; Ketcham, James Madison, 557.
As soon as the Americans John Quincy Adams, Aug. 19, in Charles Francis Adams, ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848, vol. 3, 20; Engelman, “The Peace of Christmas Eve”; Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union, 111–12.
“We need hardly say” “From Our Ministers at Ghent,” Niles Weekly Register, Oct. 15.
WASHINGTON, 9 A.M., SATURDAY, AUGUST 20
The ragtag troops Walter Smith, Oct. 6, CCW, 563; [Colonel Allen McLane], Nov. 14, 1853, Winder Papers, MdHS.
Captain John J. Stull’s Stull letter, Jan. 16, 1847, in appendix to Thomas L. McKenney, Reply to Kosciusko Armstrong’s Assault Upon Col. McKenney’s Narrative, 24–26; Muller, The Darkest Day, 74.
Adding to the chaos Van Ness, CCW, 581–82; Van Ness to Armstrong, Aug. 20, CCW 583.
As the forces mustered Allen McLane, “Col. McLane’s Visit to Washington, 1814,” Bulletin of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 17.
But at 11:30 a.m. Barney to Jones, Aug. 20, NW III, 187; Jones to Johnson, Oct. 3, NW III, 312.
A landing at Benedict Williams, History of the Invasion, 128.
While the men milled McLane, “Col. McLane’s Visit,” 17.
“teach our haughty” NI, Aug. 22, 1814.
At 2 p.m. CCW, 527; Tucker, Poltroons, 521; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 62.
AQUASCO, MARYLAND, MIDDAY SATURDAY, AUGUST 20
From his hilltop position Monroe to Madison, Aug. 20, CCW, 537; Winder narrative, CCW, 554; Henry Adams, The War of 1812, 228.
BENEDICT, LATE AFTERNOON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 20
With the sounding [George R. Gleig], A Subaltern in America: Comprising His Narratives of the Campaigns of the British Army at Baltimore, Washington, &c. &c. During the Late War, 22.
On the river below Robyns journal, Aug. 22, RMM, 145.
Ross was obliged Shomette, Flotilla, 251; Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 24; Smith, Autobiography, 198.
A party of twenty skirmishers L. I. Cowper, The King’s Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment, 4.
Even by late afternoon Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 99.
Cockburn’s fleet Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 22, NW III, 195; author tour of British path of invasion, with Ralph Eshelman, Sept. 5, 2009; Robyns Journal, Aug. 22, RMM, 146.
After six miles Royal Oak log, Aug. 20, copy in NHHC; Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 24; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 100.
Four miles outside Smith, CCW 563; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 62.
BALTIMORE, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 21
The 5th Maryland Militia Joseph Sterett, Nov. 22, CCW, 568; Henry T. Tuckerman, The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy, 65; Glenn Williams, “The Rock of North Point,” in The Todd House, Friends of Todd’s Inheritance, 2001.
Spectators crowded Tuckerman, Life of John Pendleton Kennedy, 65, 74.
The column left Tobias Stansbury, Nov. 5, CCW, 560; Sterett, Nov. 22, CCW, 568; Winder to Stansbury and Sterett, Aug. 21, Winder Papers, MdHS.
His fear was “they” Van Ness, CCW, 582.
THE ROAD TO NOTTINGHAM, SUNDAY, AUGUST 21
At daylight Samuel Davies letter, Aug. 31, in T. A. J. Burnett, The Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy: The Life and Times of Scrope Berdmore Davies, 223; Pitch, Burning of Washington, 34.
The open fields Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 102.
Cockburn’s naval force Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 22, NW III, 195; Codrington, Aug. 21, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington, 315.
NOTTINGHAM, EARLY EVENING, SUNDAY, AUGUST 21
Colonel Monroe Monroe to Winder, Aug. 21, CCW 537; Barney to Jones, Aug. 21, NW III, 195; Thomas Carter, Historical Record of the Forty-Fourth, or the East Essex Regiment, 44; Shomette, Flotilla, 267.
Monroe’s dragoons Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 24; Horatio King, “The Battle of Bladensburg,” Magazine of American History, July–December 1885, 440.
Ross and Cockburn Evans memorandum, Aug. 22, NLS, 4; Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 22, NW III, 195–96.
THE WOODYARD, SUNDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 21
Colonel Monroe raced Monroe, Nov. 13, CCW; Smith, Oct. 6, CCW; Winder narrative, CCW, 555; Shomette, Flotilla, 270.
WASHINGTON, PREDAWN, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
At the President’s House Monroe to Madison, [Aug. 21], UVa; Madison to Monroe, Aug. 22, James Madison, The Writings of James Madison, vol. 8, 291.
NOTTINGHAM, DAWN, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Admiral Cockburn’s barges Scott, Recollections, 276.
The little army marched Gleig diary, Aug. 22, 137; Shomette, Flotilla, 275.
ODEN’S FARM, 8:30 A.M., MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Peering out
Winder narrative, CCW, 555; Shomette, Flotilla, 27; Williams, History of the Invasion, 170.
PIG POINT, MARYLAND, 11 A.M., MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Cockburn pushed upriver Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 22, NW III, 196.
high-quality pig iron Prince George’s County Star-Spangled 200 Conference, Sept. 24, 2009; Robyns journal, Aug. 22, RMM, 146.
Approaching Pig Point Scott, Recollections, 277–78.
“[A] look of blank dismay” [Robert J. Barrett], “Naval Recollections of the Late American War,” USJ, part 1, April 1841, 459; Codrington, Aug. 22, 1814, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington; Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 22, NW III, 196.
CHAPTER 5: Be It So, We Will Proceed
THE WOODYARD, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
By noon Monday Charles Ball, Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, 403; Barney, Biographical Memoir, 323; Barney to Jones, Aug. 21, NW III, 194; Smith, Oct. 6, CCW, 563.
At the American camp Jones, Oct. 3, NW III, 313.
But Barney was astonished Barney, Biographical Memoir, 263; Williams, History of the Invasion, 359–60.
“Our officers said” “Battle at Bladensburg,” Aug. 29, Baltimore Patriot; Monroe to Madison, [Aug. 22], CCW, 538.
UPPER MARLBORO, MARYLAND, 2 P.M., MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Ross, too, had turned Evans memorandum, NLS, 5; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 107; CCW, 527.
The homesick soldiers Chesterton, Peace, War, and Adventure, 122; Evans memorandum, NLS, 6.