by Steve Vogel
Francis Scott Key rode Peter to Williams, May 24, 1854, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 363.
The 1st District Regiment CCW, 529; Smith, CCW, 565; Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207.
President Madison, accompanied Barker, Incidents, 113; Catlett, CCW, 584.
The rockets were a portable Brodine et al., Against All Odds, 46–47; Ralph Robinson, “The Use of Rockets by the British in the War of 1812,” MdHM, March 1945.
The first rockets flew high Rush to Williams, July 10, 1855, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 279; Barker, Incidents, 113.
“The enemy had saluted” Monroe, CCW, 537.
“a more respectful distance” Winder narrative, CCW, 584; Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294.
Armstrong fumed Armstrong, CCW, 539.
BLADENSBURG BRIDGE, EARLY AFTERNOON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
The British in the village Gleig, Subaltern, 70–71; Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 25.
Galloping ahead, Thornton Federal Republican, Sept. 2; Gleig to Horatio King, Nov. 11, 1885, Magazine of American History, January 1886; Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 118–19.
The Washington Artillery gun Burch, CCW, 574; Gleig diary, Aug. 24, 138; Buchan, History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 170.
Thornton emerged unharmed Scott, Recollections, 286.
“Come on my boys” Smith, Autobiography, 199.
A stream of troops Winder narrative, CCW, 558.
“The fire I think” Marine, British Invasion, 114.
The numbers of British Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 118; Scott, Recollections, 286; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 192–93.
To Major Pinkney’s right Pinkney, CCW, 573–74; McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 8; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 101; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 176.
Winder, on the hill Winder to Armstrong, Sept. 1, 1814, NARA RG 107; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 127; Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Glenn F. Williams, “The Bladensburg Races,” MHQ, Autumn 1999, 64; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 111; Gleig diary, Aug. 24, 138.
But a new barrage Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 127; Hoffman, Sept. 9, War of 1812 Collection, MdHS; Ewell, “Unwelcome Visitors,” 10; Winder narrative, CCW, 558.
Ragan, a cool-headed Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 26.
By now, though, more Ibid., 132; Ross to Bathurst, Aug. 30, NW III, 224; Brooke diary, 303.
For the militiamen Winder to Armstrong, Aug. 27, CCW, 548.
“cut down those” Stansbury, CCW, 562; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 126–28; Shomette, Flotilla, 317–19; Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Burch, CCW, 574; Williams, “The Bladensburg Races,” 65.
“I shaped my course” Marine, British Invasion, 114.
“All of a sudden” Laval, CCW, 570–71.
“We made a fine” Tuckerman, John Pendleton Kennedy, 79–80.
The collapse Swanson, Perilous Fight, 105–106; Stansbury, CCW, 562; Williams, History of the Invasion, 232.
20. “Each individual” Law, CCW, 586.
Madison sent his servant Barker, Incidents, 113; Writings of James Madison, 297 fn.; Monroe, CCW, 537; Rush, CCW, 543.
THIRD AMERICAN LINE, MID-AFTERNOON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Barney saw the American militia Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207; Peter to Williams, History of the Invasion, 364; Barney, Biographical Memoir, 265; Ockerbloom, “The Discovery of a U.S. Marine Officer’s Account of Life, Honor, and the Battle of Bladensburg, Washington and Maryland, 1814,” 260.
Thornton had no taste McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 9.
Barney saw his opening Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207; Shomette, Flotilla, 322–23.
“Board them!” Barney letter to NI in Barney, Biographical Memoir, appendix, 321.
Thornton lay Barney, Biographical Memoir, 266.
The British tried Gleig, Subaltern, 73; Peter to Williams, History of the Invasion, 364.
But General Winder Winder narrative, CCW, 558.
Ross and Cockburn Brooke diary, 303; Codrington, Aug. 31, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington;
one hundred feet “Sight Lines From Lowndes Hill,” Ralph Eshelman monograph, 27 Sept. 2012.
The tall Irish general Ball, Slavery in the United States, 404; Federal Republican, Sept. 2; Barney 1815 letter to NI in Barney, Biographical Memoir, appendix, 321; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 179–80; Shomette, Flotilla, 323.
As Ross directed Torrens to Vansittart, Nov. 11, WO 3/608, NAUK; Smith, Autobiography, 199–200.
Cockburn directed rocket Scott, Recollections, 288–89; Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 27, NW III, 221.
Ross had no interest Barney letter to NI in Barney, Biographical Memoir, appendix, 321; Sprigg, Aug. 25, Spratt Collection, MdHS.
“Does General Winder order” Williams, History of the Invasion, 244; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 193; Scott, Recollections, 287; Beall, CCW, 571.
“[T]he militia ran” Ball, Slavery in the United States, 404.
On Barney’s left, the District Smith, CCW, 565; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 136.
“Victory was doubtful” “Extract of a letter to the Editors of the American, dated Washington, Aug, 29,” Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 1.
The U.S. regulars Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 194; Williams, History of the Invasion, 242–43.
With the British Ibid.; Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Smith, CCW, 565; Williams, “The Bladensburg Races,” 65.
The commodore was infuriated Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 207.
Loss of blood Ibid.; Barney, Biographical Memoir, 266.
The British swarmed Davies letter, Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy, 223.
Bullets flew Marine, British Invasion, 178.
A British corporal Barney, Biographical Memoir, 267. Scott, Recollections, 290–92; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 138.
“Those officers behaved” Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 208.
“Well, Admiral” Scott, Recollections, 291.
“I told you it was” Barney, Biographical Memoir, 267.
As the surgeon dressed Barney to Jones, Aug. 29, NW III, 208; Tucker, Poltroons, 548.
Barney winced Barney, Biographical Memoir, 267; Weller, “The Life of Commodore Joshua Barney,” 148.
“Well, damn my eyes!” Barney, Biographical Memoir, 268.
PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, 3 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Dolley Madison Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 187.
“She was so confident” Smith, Aug. 30, First Forty Years, 110.
In the dining room, Paul Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 8; Beth Taylor, “Paul Jennings: Enamoured with Freedom,” James Madison’s Montpelier, 2009.
In the kitchen below Seale, The President’s House, 122, 134; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 206.
“To the last proposition” Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE.
Shortly before 3 p.m. Anna Thornton, “Diary of Mrs. William Thornton. Capture of Washington by the British,” in W. B. Bryan, ed., RCHS, 1916 (hereafter Anna Thornton diary); Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 8–10; Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE.
The president wanted “his lady” Herrick, August 24, 1814, 80.
The wagon was hastily loaded Dolley Madison to Mrs. Latrobe, Dec. 3, in Allen C. Clark, ed., Life and Letters of Dolley Madison, 166; Conover Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 48.
A small crowd Dolley Madison to Lucy Todd, Aug. 23, DMDE; Anna Payne Cutts to Dolley Madison, [ca. Aug. 23], DMDE.
Passing through the dining Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 10.
Barker and others Lucia B. Cutts, ed., Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, 106–107; Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 46–47.
Dolley ordered the servants Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 206; Seale, The President’s House, 133–34; Dolley Madison to Lucy
Todd, Aug. 23, 1814, DMDE.
Finally, Dolley ordered the frame Barker, Incidents, 118.
“I directed my servants” Dolley Madison to New York Express, Feb. 11, 1848, in Barker, Incidents, 110–11; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 206.
“It has often been stated” Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 12–13.
at nearly eight feet Pitch, Burning of Washington, 87.
Dolley agreed to depart Cutts, ed., Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, 58–59; Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 46.
By 3:30, Dolley Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 9–10.
“I lived a lifetime” Cutts, ed., Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, 107; Catherine Allgor, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, 314.
“I confess” Madison to Mary Latrobe, Dec. 3, in Allen C. Clark, ed., Life and Letters of Dolley Madison, 166.
U.S. CAPITOL, LATE AFTERNOON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
“[L]ooking round” McKenney, Narrative of the Battle of Bladensburg, 9.
Winder ordered a further Winder narrative, CCW, 558; Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 134.
Winder was conferring Winder narrative, CCW, 559; Peter to Williams, History of the Invasion, 364.
“[W]e united” Armstrong letter to Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 3, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 96; Monroe, CCW, 237.
For the District militia Smith, CCW, 565.
“in pursuit of refreshments,” CCW, 530.
“Some shed tears” Williams, History of the Invasion, 238.
From the third Ewell, “Unwelcome Visitors,” 6–7.
Francis Scott Key Weybright, Spangled Banner, 101–102.
“memorable flight” Key to Randolph, Oct. 5, Howard Papers, MdHS.
PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, WASHINGTON, 4 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Weary after sixteen miles Herrick, August 24, 1814, 84; Writings of James Madison, 297 fn.; Hadel, “The Battle of Bladensburg”; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 207.
Barker and De Peyster Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 13; Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 46; Herrick, August 24, 1814, 81.
Madison took a seat Seale, The President’s House, 134.
“I could never” Barker, Incidents, 121; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 151.
Outside, exhausted troops Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 207.
Madison lingered Herrick, August 24, 1814, 84–85; Ketcham, James Madison, 578; Brant, James Madison, 303–304.
After the president’s departure Barker, Incidents, 114; Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 24, 175.
“[A] rabble” Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 10; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, vol. 2, 207; Seale, The President’s House, 134; George E. Pettengill, “The Octagon and the War of 1812,” AIA Journal, February 1965.
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Around 4 p.m., smoke Booth to Tingey, NW III, 210; Tingey to Jones, Aug. 27, NW III, 215; Armstrong letter to Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 3, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 100; Jones, [Aug. 24], NW III, 214.
Short, stout, and temperamental, Tingey Marolda, The Washington Navy Yard, 1–2.
“any farther importunities” Tingey to Jones, Aug. 27, NW III, 217.
BLADENSBURG, 5 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
“owing to the swiftness” Cockburn to Cochrane, Aug. 27, NW III, 221; Brooke diary, 302; Barrett, 85th King’s Light Infantry, 156.
Ross decided Ross to Bathurst, Aug. 30, NW III, 224; Scott, Recollections, 297; Cowper, The King’s Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment, 8.
The Americans, by and large Winder to Armstrong, Aug. 27, CCW, 548; Shomette, Flotilla, 323.
As the British rested CMS, 135; George, Terror, 105.
GHENT, MIDNIGHT (6 P.M., WASHINGTON), WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
For five days, the American delegation Adams, ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, 22–23; Fred L. Engelman, The Peace of Christmas Eve, 156.
WASHINGTON, EVENING, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
The sun was setting Madison memorandum, Aug. 24, Writings of James Madison, 294; Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences, 10; Brant, James Madison, 306; Herrick, August 24, 1814, 103.
Meanwhile, Dolley Madison Jones, [Aug. 24], NW III, 214; Jones, NW III, 314; Robert Ames Alden, “Madison’s Desperate Ride,” May 2, 1972, WP.
Those left in the city “Destruction of the American Capital,” Sept. 6, Hartford Courant.
“[T]he poor creatures” Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 26, 177.
“saw no army” Laval, CCW, 571.
“But all was silent” Booth to Tingey, NW III, 212.
CHAPTER 8: A Spectacle Terrible and Magnificent
Moving at a fast clip Scott, Recollections, 297–98; Evans memorandum, Aug. 25, NLS, 12; Norman Pringle, Letters by Major Norman Pringle, Late of the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers, 2; Tucker, Poltroons, 552.
On Capitol Hill, Michael Shiner John G. Sharp, ed., The Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard 1813–1869 (hereafter Shiner diary), 6–7.
Approaching the Capitol J. S. Skinner, “To the Editors of the National Intelligencer,” Essex Register [Salem, Mass.], June 20, 1821; James, Naval History of Great Britain, 178.
An officer sent forward 28th Congress, 1st Sess., Report No. 254, Feb. 28, 1844, in “The Sewall-Belmont House Historic Structure Report,” 2001, courtesy of Sewall-Belmont Home.
drums for a parley Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 125; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 160.
The general’s instructions Bathurst, May 20, NW III, 72.
“Such of the inhabitants” Brooke diary, 303; A. P. W. Malcolmson, Introduction to Ross of Bladensburg Papers, D. 2004, PRONI; Ingraham, Sketch of the Events, 36.
President Madison later said Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book, 932.
“intention to enter the city” 28th Congress, 1st Sess., Report No. 254, Feb. 28, 1844, in “The Sewall-Belmont House Historic Structure Report.”
a volley of musket fire Memoir of Major Mortimer Timpson, RMM, 32 (hereafter Timpson memoir).
“the English buggers” Davies letter, Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy, 223; William Thornton to Benjamin Russell, April 30, 1817, American Antiquarian Society Records, Correspondence 1812–1899, box 2, posted on “Past Is Present,” AAS online forum, Oct. 2, 2009; Rene Chartrand, “An Account of the Capture of Washington, 1814,” Military Collector & Historian, Winter 1985; Buchan, History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 171; Brown, Diary of a Soldier, 26.
Ross ordered the house James, Naval History of Great Britain, 178.
“in a twinkle” Shiner diary, 7.
Over the years Tucker, Poltroons, 553; Eberlein and Hubbard, Historic Houses, 428.
Yet the evidence S. Rep. to accompany bill S. 115, S. Doc No. 89, 29th Congress, 2nd Sess. (1847), in “The Sewall-Belmont House Historic Structure Report.”
“the only brave Yankees” Thornton to Russell, April 30, 1817, AAS.
The captured flotillamen S. Rep. to accompany bill S. 115, S. Doc No. 89, 29th Congress, 2nd Sess. (1847).
“I was informed” Ewell, “Unwelcome Visitors,” 8.
Ross ordered the Sewall H. Rep. No. 254, 28th Cong., 1st Sess. (1844), in “The Sewall-Belmont House Historic Structure Report.”
“they made the rafters fly” Shiner diary, 7.
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD, 8:20 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
Captain Tingey was beside Tingey to Jones, Aug. 27, NW III, 217; “Officers in the Battle of Lake Erie,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1863, 18; William Taylor to Abby Taylor, Aug. 30, transcript in NHHC.
“incontestable proof” Tingey to Jones, Aug. 27, NW III, 217; Booth to Tingey, NW III, 213.
Almost everything else Ibid.; Thomas Beall account book, Aug. 24, MS 112, MdHS; William Taylor to Abby, Aug. 30, NHHC.
U.S. CAPITOL, 9 P.M., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24
That sight lit the night Ewell, “Unwelcome
Visitors,” 8; Charles O. Paullin, “Washington City and the Old Navy,” RCHS, 1932, 169; Mary Hunter, “The Burning of Washington, D.C,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, 1924, 81.
The Capitol—or the “palace” Caemmerer, A Manual on the Origin and Development of Washington, 40; “History of the U.S. Capitol Building,” AOC, http://www.aoc.gov/history/us-capitol-building; William C. Allen, History of the United States Capitol, 97.
to immediately “burn” Gleig, Narrative of the Campaigns, 125–26.
“the conduct adopted” Scott, Recollections, 301.
But in the report Ross to Bathurst, Aug. 30, NW III, 224.
Captain Harry Smith Smith, Autobiography, 200.
Wary of another ambush King, “Battle of Bladensburg,” 446; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 185; Tucker, Poltroons, 554; Spiers, Radical General, 9.
grandeur of the building Scott, Recollections, 301.
Cockburn poked into “The Library of Congress Recovers a Book Lost for 126 Years,” Library of Congress press release, Jan. 13, 1940, LOC Rare Book and Special Collections Division; Pack, Man Who Burned the White House, 17; author tour with Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, LOC, Oct. 19, 2009.
The British considered blowing it Hunter, “The Burning of Washington, D.C.,” 82; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 185.
The British started Seale, “The White House Before the Fire,” 18; Allen, History of the United States Capitol, 98; Muller, Darkest Day, 140; Latrobe to Jefferson, July 12, 1815, in Van Horn, Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, vol. 3, 670.
Driven from the south Tour of Capitol with William Allen, chief historian, AOC, Oct. 19, 2009; Allen, History of the United States Capitol, 98.
“The flames floated away” Scott, Recollections, 302; CRG, 295.
As the inferno blazed Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 185; Glenn Brown and William Bushong, Glenn Brown’s History of the U.S. Capitol, 119.