by Steve Vogel
Dr. William Beanes John Mason to Skinner and Key, Sept. 2, Zack Spratt collection, book manuscript, box 1, part 1, MdHS; Eugene Conner, “William Beanes, M.D. (1749–1829) and the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ ” Journal of the History of Medicine, April 1979; Caleb Clarke Magruder, Jr., “Dr. William Beanes, the Incidental Cause of the Authorship of the Star-Spangled Banner,” RCHS, 1919; Sam Meyer, Paradoxes of Fame: The Francis Scott Key Story, 35–36.
Beanes by nature Anna H. Dorsey, “Origin of the Star-Spangled Banner,” The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, 1861; Weybright, Spangled Banner, 94; Gleig diary, Aug. 23, 137; Gleig, Subaltern, 46.
WASHINGTON, MONDAY AFTERNOON, AUGUST 22
“The enemy are in full” Monroe to Madison, Aug. 22, CCW, 538. This letter was written Monday, and not Tuesday, as Armstrong mistakenly reported, CCW, 539. See Williams, History of the Invasion, 170, and Carole L. Herrick, August 24, 1814: Washington in Flames, 213.
Monroe’s message Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812, 923; Williams, History of the Invasion, 158.
A visiting New York “Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman at Washington,” Spectator, Aug. 27.!
At the President’s House Madison to Monroe, Aug. 22, Writings of James Madison, 292; King, Battle of Bladensburg, 438.
Secretary of Navy Jones Jones, Oct. 3, NW III, 313; Benjamin Homans, Nov. 5, 13th Congress, 3d Sess., Misc., Books, &c, Destroyed by the Conflagration in 1814, 255, ASP; Booth to Tingey, Aug. 22, NW III, 204.
At the Senate, Lewis Machen Machen, Sept. 12, 1836, Papers of William Rives, LOC; Pitch, Burning of Washington, 45–46.
The House of Representatives “Explanation of the Clerk of the House of Representatives,” Dec. 17, 1814, 13th Congress, 3rd Sess., Misc., 245, 258–60, ASP.
One man in Washington Brant, James Madison, 283.
Armstrong “observed to me” Pleasonton to Winder, Aug. 7, 1848, Winder Papers, MdHS; also in Ingraham, Sketch of the Events, 48.
MIDDLEBROOK MILLS, MARYLAND, EVENING, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Accompanied by his wife F. S. Key to Ann Key, Aug. 22, misc. letters, Howard Papers, MdHS.
POTOMAC RIVER, EVENING, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
No ships with heavy guns Shomette, Flotilla, 201; Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 4, NW III, 168.
He had joined Bryan Perrett, The Real Hornblower: The Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Alexander Gordon, GCB, i.
Gordon’s Potomac squadron Gordon to Cochrane, Sept. 9, NW III, 238.
“No one could tell” Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 76; Patrick O’Neill, “The Potomac Squadron,” Fairfax County History Conference, Nov. 7, 2009; CRG, 143.
OLD FIELDS, EVENING, MONDAY, AUGUST 22
Late Monday afternoon Dolley Madison to Lucy Payne Washington Todd, Aug. 23, 1814, DMDE.
“Our chief, thinking” Peter to Quincy, Aug. 26, in Eberlein and Hubbard, Historic Houses, 130; Rush to Williams, July 10, 1855, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 277.
Old Fields, a hamlet CRG, 147. Old Fields today is the site of Forestville, Maryland.
the presidential party Winder narrative, CCW, 555.
The scene at Old Fields McLane, “Col. McLane’s Visit,” 19; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch; Williams, History of the Invasion, 175–76.
“[H]e informed me” Peter to Williams, May 24, 1854, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 360.
Winder offered a variety Winder to Armstrong, Sept. 1, NARA RG 107, Letters Received by the Secretary of War M-221, Roll 67, transcript in NHHC.
Armstrong, for his part Colonel Allen McLane journal, in Armstrong, Notices, 232.
Madison and his entourage CCW, 527; McLane, “Col. McLane’s Visit,” 19; Shomette, Flotilla, 285; Tucker, Poltroons, 732.
“appearance and preparation” Jones, NW III, 314; Ball, Slavery in the United States, 403.
Madison asked Barney Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 7.
Madison spoke briefly Barney, Biographical Memoir, 264.
“I have passed” James Madison to Dolley Madison, Aug. 23, 1814, DMDE.
As the president Thomas L. M’Kenney, Memoirs, Official and Personal, vol. 1, 44–45.
ACADEMY HILL, UPPER MARLBORO, MORNING, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
General Ross Evans memorandum, NLS, 6–7; Evans, Facts, 10–11.
“leaders devoid of talent” Evans memorandum, NLS, 7.
“completely overstepped” Evans, Facts, 11.
The hard-knit and sinewy Irishman Edward M. Spiers, Radical General: Sir George de Lacy Evans 1787–1870, 1–4, 17; Evans, Facts, 15.
As the council of war Evans, Facts, 11.
“Let us now push on” J. S. Skinner, “Incidents of the War of 1812, From the Baltimore Patriot,” [May 23, 1849], in MdHM, December 1937, 341 (hereafter Skinner, “Incidents”).
“would go himself” Davies letter, Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy, 223.
Ross was soon persuaded Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 27, NW III, 220.
“I congratulate you” Cochrane to Cockburn, Aug. 22, CMS, 134.
Cockburn sent a note Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 23, NW III, 197.
The failure of the Americans Ross to Bathurst, Aug. 30, NW III, 223.
One road from Upper Ralph J. Robinson, “New Light on Three Episodes of the British Invasion of Maryland in 1814,” MdHM, 1942, 283; Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 124.
At 2 p.m., bugles Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 107–108.
OLD FIELDS, MORNING, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
General Winder Winder narrative, CCW, 555–56; Beall to Winder, Aug. 23, Winder Papers, MdHS; Christopher T. George, Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay, 92.
Winder wanted to unite Winder to Armstrong, Sept. 1, NARA RG 107, Letters Received by the Secretary of War M-221, Roll 67, transcript in NHHC; Smith, Oct. 6, CCW, 563; Stansbury, Nov. 5, CCW, 560; Williams, History of the Invasion, 177.
After a quick meal Ketcham, James Madison, 576.
GEORGETOWN, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
Arriving at his home Key to Randolph, Aug. 10, with addendum dated Aug. 23, Howard Papers, MdHS.
ROAD TO UPPER MARLBORO, EARLY AFTERNOON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
But the British Gleig diary, Aug. 23, 137; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 107–108.
Major Peter Peter to Williams, May 24, 1854, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 360.
At the American camp Smith, CCW, 564; Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, CCW, 207.
Winder was still Winder narrative, CCW, 556; M’Kenney, Memoirs, 46; Smith, CCW, 564; Winder to Armstrong, Sept. 1, 1814, NARA RG 107.
a night attack was exactly Evans memorandum, Aug. 23, NLS, 6; Winder narrative, CCW, 556. According to Winder, Barney “concurred” in the decision, though the commodore left no record of his opinion. But Major Peter, Winder’s most accomplished officer, considered it another serious error, noting the Americans had “nothing” to fear of an attack on the Eastern Branch Bridge. Peter to Williams, May 24, 1854, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 360.
A half hour before sunset [Thomas L. McKenney], A Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg in a Letter to Henry Banning, esq., 4; Hanson Catlett, CCW, 584.
PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, LATE AFTERNOON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
At the President’s House Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE.
“In the present state of alarm” Jones to Dolley Madison, Aug. 23, DMDE.
Canceling a party Seale, The President’s House, 127–28.
“fat and forty” Ketcham, James Madison, 496; Seaton, William Winston Seaton, 115.
Dolley was bemused A. J. Langguth, Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence, 64–67.
Dolley proved to be J. Madison Cutts, “Dolly Madison,” RCHS, 1900, 53; Thomas Fleming, “Dolley Saves the Day,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 2010, 51; “Dolley Madison,” James Madison’s Montpelier; Calcott, ed., Mistress of Riverdale, 224; Seale, The
President’s House, 130; Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 14.
“Disaffection stalks” Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE.
WASHINGTON, EVENING, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
James Madison arrived Jones, NW III, 314; Ketcham, James Madison, 576; Minor, CCW, 568–69; Minor to McKenney, April 10, 1847, in Ingraham, Sketch of the Events, 57; Walter Smith, Jan. 14, 1847, letter, in appendix to Thomas L. McKenny, Reply to Kosciusko Armstrong’s Assault, 23.
As far as Armstrong Kosciuszko Armstrong, review of T. L. McKenney’s Narrative of the Causes Which, in 1814, led to General Armstrong’s Resignation of the War Office, 20; Campbell, CCW, 598.
Winder, riding ahead Winder narrative, CCW, 557; Winder to Armstrong, Sept. 1, NARA RG 107.
News of the retreat King, “The Battle of Bladensburg,” 438.
“Go, for Gods sake go” Smith, The First Forty Years, 99.
That night Ketcham, James Madison, 577.
BLADENSBURG, TUESDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 23
Six miles northeast Stansbury, CCW, 560; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 146.
Private John Pendleton Tuckerman, John Pendleton Kennedy, 77–78.
Around midnight Stansbury, CCW, 560.
The secretary advised Monroe, CCW 536; McLane, “Col. McLane’s Visit,” 20.
Monroe dashed off Tuckerman, John Pendleton Kennedy, 78.
Stansbury, a prominent Franklin R. Mullaly, “The Battle of Baltimore,” MdHM, 1959; David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the War of 1812; Pinkney, CCW, 572; Stansbury, CCW, 560–61.
“Nothing could keep” Tuckerman, John Pendleton Kennedy, 78.
WASHINGTON, EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 24
The march of General Winder’s John Law, CCW, 585; McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 4; Smith, CCW, 564.
Leaving the President’s House Winder narrative, CCW, 557; Burch testimony, CCW, 574.
Winder arrived at camp Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207; Peter to Williams, May 24, 1854, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 362.
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, MELWOOD PLANTATION, PREDAWN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Lieutenant James Scott Scott, Recollections, 280–84; Evans memorandum, Aug. 23, NLS, 6. Scott’s account describes Ross as saying they must retreat; Evans’s contemporaneous and more reliable account says Ross “did not hesitate to disregard” Cochrane’s recommendation. Evans memorandum, Aug. 25, NLS, 8–9; Walter L. Kraus, “Belle Chance at Andrews Air Force Base: A Piece of Maryland’s Past,” MdHM, Fall 1988.
In contradicting Cochrane Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 14.
“I felt an apprehension” Ross to Elizabeth Ross, Sept. 1, D 2004/1A/3/5, PRONI.
CHAPTER 6: The Enemy in Bladensburg!
AMERICAN HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Early Wednesday morning Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294; Winder to Armstrong, Aug. 24, CCW, 548; Winder narrative, CCW, 557. They met at the home of Griffith Combs.
The war council James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, vol. 1, 774–75.
Winder learned Winder narrative, CCW, 557; Monroe, CCW, 536.
With Monroe gone Winder to Armstrong, Aug. 24, CCW, 548; Rush narrative, CCW, 542.
Then a messenger Winder narrative, CCW, 557; Jones report, NW III, 314.
OLD FIELDS, EARLY MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
The British army Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 27, NW III, 221; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 112.
General Ross took Evans memorandum, Aug. 25, NLS, 9; Rush to Williams, July 10, 1855, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 278.
AMERICAN HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, MID-MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
At 10 a.m. a messenger Williams, History of the Invasion, 202–203; George Campbell, CCW, 598; Winder narrative, CCW, 557.
As Winder prepared Armstrong, CCW, 539; Skeen, John Armstrong, 195; Rush narrative, CCW, 542.
“seemed to be in a high” George Biscoe to Winder, Jr., March 18, 1849, Winder Papers, MdHS.
Barney, livid, confronted Armstrong, CCW, 540; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 173; Barney, Biographical Memoir, 264; Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207; Jones to Creighton, Aug. 24, NW III, 206.
Madison and the cabinet Campbell, CCW, 598–99; Jones memorandum, [Aug. 24], NW III, 214.
Madison was shocked Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294; Armstrong, CCW, 539.
Madison prepared to ride Adams, War of 1812, 229; “An Important Incident in the Last War with Great Britain,” Jan. 31, 1848, New York Herald; [Jacob Barker], Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker of New Orleans, Louisiana, 113, 121.
BLADENSBURG, MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
The town of Bladensburg James Riehl Arnold, “The Battle of Bladensburg,” 1937, RCHS, 145; John Biddle, “Bladensburg: An Early Trade Center,” 1953–54, RCHS.
People come from all Calcott, ed., Mistress of Riverdale, 57.
favor as a dueling ground Milton Adkins, “The Bladensburg Dueling Ground,” Magazine of American History, January 1886.
Just the previous year Shomette, Flotilla, 42.
After abandoning Bladensburg Stansbury, CCW, 561; Pinkney, CCW, 572; Sterett, CCW, 568.
The roads from Washington Stansbury, CCW, 561; Williams, History of the Invasion, 205–207; Pinkney, CCW, 572.
Word spread that Ibid.; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 64–65.
EN ROUTE TO BLADENSBURG, MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Maryland militia Captain Jenifer Jenifer Sprigg to J. Hughes, Aug. 25, LOC Manuscript Division, copy in Spratt Collection, Box 1, Part 2, MdHS; Pinkney, CCW, 572.
Forces were converging McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 4.
Commodore Barney led Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207.
Last of all Minor, CCW, 568; James Ewell, “Unwelcome Visitors to Early Washington,” RCHS, 1895, 4–5.
ADDISON CHAPEL, LATE MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Ross wanted Perrett, The Real Hornblower, 108; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 111; Ross to sister-in-law, D 2004/1A/3/9, PRONI; Codrington, Aug. 31, Letters from Codrington, May 21, 1814–March 26, 1815, COD/7/1, NMM.
Ross halted at Addison Gleig, Subaltern, 65; CRG, 24; Scott, Recollections, 285.
BLADENSBURG, LATE MORNING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Francis Scott Key Winder narrative, CCW, 557.
accompanying his neighbor Irvin Molotsky, The Flag, the Poet and the Song: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner, 56; Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, 137.
Key “informed me” Winder narrative, CCW, 557; Smith, CCW, 567.
Up front, another cloud Law, CCW, 586; Pinkney, CCW, 573; Stansbury, CCW, 561.
The plan belonged Sterett, CCW, 568; Monroe, CCW, 537; Lavall, CCW, 570.
Monroe would later Monroe, CCW, 536–37; Monroe to Charles Everett, Sept. 16, “Letters of James Monroe,” Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, April 1923.
Stansbury rode back Stansbury, CCW, 561; Winder narrative, CCW, 557.
Winder appeared to Williams, History of the Invasion, 215; Albert J. Hadel, “The Battle of Bladensburg,” MdHM, 1906, 163.
Winder made a few Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Law, CCW, 586.
BLADENSBURG, NOON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
A cheer rose Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294; Rush, CCW, 542; George, Terror, 95.
Madison’s party “William Simmons,” July 7, NI.
Not only was Madison Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 175; Borneman, 1812, 227.
Madison found Winder Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294; Rush narrative, CCW, 542.
Winder rode forward Winder narrative, CCW, 557.
Rush, the son Heidler, Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, 455; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 175.
BLADENSBURG, 12:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
The final push King, “Battle of Bladensburg,” 446; Catlet
t, CCW, 585.
“Our poor fellows” Brooke diary, 303; Barker, Incidents, 103; Delaware Gazette, 1 September 1814.
Ross paused outside Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 115–17; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 119; Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 25; Catlett, CCW, 584.
The American forces Ross to Bathurst, Sept. 30, NW III, 223; Muller, Darkest Day, 121–22; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 109; Prince George’s County Star-Spangled 200 Conference, Sept. 24, 2009.
The Irish-born Thornton Barrett, 85th King’s Light Infantry, 531; Heidler, Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, 511; Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 27, NW III, 221.
But some of Ross’s Smith, Autobiography, 198–99.
“What will be said” Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 175; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 120.
Bypassing Bladensburg Adams, War of 1812, 222.
CHAPTER 7: The Battle for Washington
BLADENSBURG, 12:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Two columns of British Pinkney, CCW, 573.
No one could explain Stansbury, CCW, 562.
When the British George Hoffman to John Hoffman, Sept. 9, War of 1812 Collection, MS 1846, MdHS; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 117.
The Americans whooped John Buchan, The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1678–1918, 170; Scott, Recollections, 286.
The sounds Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 173; McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 5.
The District troops Lossing, Pictorial Field-book, 928; Pinkney, CCW, 573.