by Steve Vogel
In the morning Madison to Jones, Aug. 27, UVa; Madison to Dolley Madison, Aug. 27, DMDE; Smith, First Forty Years, 108; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 193.
UPPER MARLBORO, AFTERNOON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 27
The departure of the British Gleig diary, Aug. 27, 153; Report of the Trial of John Hodges, Esq. on a Charge of High Treason. Tried in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Maryland District, at the May Term, 1815, 13, 17 (hereafter Hodges trial).
more than a hundred stragglers Anna Thornton diary, Sept. 3, 180; John Godrey affidavit, [Sept. 3], RG 45, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library; Shomette, Flotilla, 332; Hodges trial, 11, 14–15.
The guests soon realized Ibid., 15, 18; Shomette, Flotilla, 332.
“[S]everal gentlemen” “From the Baltimore Federal Gazette of August 30,” Sept. 1, Delaware Gazette.
Nonetheless, Beanes, Bowie Hodges trial, 5, 9–10, 15–16.
POTOMAC RIVER, EVENING, SATURDAY, AUGUST 27
At 5 p.m., Captain Gordon’s Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 79–80; Gordon to Cochrane, Sept. 9, NW III, 238; Perrett, The Real Hornblower, 112.
Fort Washington James Morgan, “Historic Fort Washington on the Potomac,” RCHS, 1904, 1, 4, 9; CRG, 122; Kyle Jillson, “Fort Washington, Maryland,” On Point, Summer 2009; Scott Berg, Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C., 122.
Spotting the British sails Dyson to Armstrong, Aug. 29, CCW, 588; Ingraham, Sketch of the Events, 53.
“my miserable post” Pitch, Burning of Washington, 156–57.
orders from Winder CCW, 530.
Dyson gave orders Pitch, Burning of Washington, 157; Gordon to Cochrane, Sept. 9, NW III, 238; Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 80.
CHAPTER 11: The Arrogant Foe
WASHINGTON, EVENING, SATURDAY, AUGUST 27
President Madison rode Monroe to Winder, Aug. 28, in John C. Hildt, “Letters Relating to the Capture of Washington,” South Atlantic Quarterly, 1907, 62; Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 27, 177; McKenney to Winder, Aug. 27, Winder Papers, MdHS; Brant, James Madison, 310.
“Such was the state” “J.M’s Notes Respecting the Burning City in 1814,” Writings of James Monroe, 373–74; Ketcham, James Madison, 581.
UPPER MARLBORO, 1 A.M., SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
During the night Roger B. Taney letter, 1856, in [Francis Scott Key], Poems of the Late Francis Scott Key, Esq., Author of “The Star Spangled Banner.” With an Introductory Letter by Chief Justice Taney (hereafter Taney narrative), 18–19, 22; Anna Thornton diary, Sept. 3, 180.
He ordered Lieutenant Evans Hodges trial, 17; Gleig diary, Aug. 28, 154.
“taken from his bed” John Mason to Ross, Sept. 2, NARA RG 45; “From the Baltimore Federal Gazette of August 30,” Sept. 1, Delaware Gazette.
“[U]nless they were returned” Hodges trial, 22.
The party rode back Gleig diary, Aug. 28, 154.
Beanes had “acted hostilely” Ross to Mason, Sept. 7, NARA RG 45.
Ross, recalled Hill William Hill letter to General Heath, Aug. 27, in “Visit of the British in 1812,” Baltimore Sun, July 25, 1890.
QUEEN ANNE, MARYLAND, EARLY MORNING, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
Upper Marlboro Hodges trial, 5, 11, 17.
“Never [were] people” Bowie, in ibid., 16.
The Hodges arrived in Queen Ibid., 10–11, 16.
“if he surrendered” Caton, in ibid., 10.
But the governor insisted Ibid., 12, 16–17.
The governor’s son noted “they had” Ibid., 12, 15; Shomette, Flotilla, 334–35.
FORT WASHINGTON, DAWN, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
Captain Gordon waited Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 80.
During the night, Captain Dyson Pitch, Burning of Washington, 158; CCW, 589. The army disagreed; nine weeks later, a court-martial found that Dyson did “shamefully abandon the fort” and convicted him of conduct unbecoming an officer, but acquitted him on a charge of being drunk on duty. He was dismissed from service.
No one was more dismayed Report of Alexandria Council, Sept. 7, CCW, 590; letter from the citizens of Alexandria, CCW, 593; Williams, History of the Invasion, 284. The city claimed as its own George Washington, who by tradition was said to have helped lay out the town as a seventeen-year-old surveyor, and who had worshipped, socialized, and joined the volunteer fire department in Alexandria. Alexandria was also home to seven-year-old Robert E. Lee, who lived with his mother and siblings in a modest brick house on Oronoco Street. His father, the Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, crippled by the pro-war mob in the 1812 Baltimore riot, sailed to the West Indies in 1813 in a futile attempt to recover his health and never saw his son again.
With the enemy squadron Report of Alexandria Council, Sept. 7, CCW, 591; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 198.
WASHINGTON, MORNING, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
“You may be again” Madison to Dolley, Aug. 28, DMDE; Brant, James Madison, 310.
“Who would have” Smith, First Forty Years, 109–10.
The presidential party Jones to Rodgers, Aug. 28, Series 3B, Vol. 8, Rodgers Family Papers, LOC,, copy in NHHC; Monroe to Winder, Aug. 28, in Hildt, “Letters Relating to the Capture of Washington.”
“A general alarm” Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 28, 177.
Mayor John Peter Peter to Winder, ca. Aug. 27, Winder Papers, MdHS; Smith, First Forty Years, 114.
Dr. Thornton, acting Thornton, “To the Public”; “J.M’s Notes,” Writings of James Monroe, 373–74.
“Dr. T. came home” Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 28, 178.
Monroe swung Monroe to Jefferson, Dec. 21; Writings of James Monroe, 304; “J.M’s Notes,” Writings of James Monroe, 375.
Meanwhile, the District Stansbury to Winder, Aug. 26, Winder Papers, MdHS; M’Kenney, Memoirs, Official and Personal, 46; Stansbury, CCW, 562; Peter Hansell, “Francis Scott Key,” Maryland Online Encyclopedia.
Anna Thornton, for one Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 28, 178.
Dolley Madison returned Madison to Mrs. Latrobe, Dec. 3, in Allen C. Clark, ed., Life and Letters of Dolley Madison, 16; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 204.
“She could scarcely speak” Smith, First Forty Years, 110; Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 28, 178.
Dragoons camped outside Ibid.,179; Madison memorandum about Armstrong, [Aug. 29], Writings of James Madison, 300 (hereafter Madison memo on Armstrong).
That evening, back Rush to Madison, Aug. 28, HSP, copy at UVa.
To this point, Madison’s wartime Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 138; Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815, 698.
“the vicious nature” Brant, James Madison, 329; Garry Wills, James Madison, 139.
BRITISH LINES, SOUTHERN MARYLAND, MIDDAY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
The American party Hodges trial, 13–15.
“By God, gentlemen” Ibid., 14.
“Gentlemen, do you” Ibid., 14.
“Where are the other two?” Ibid., 13.
Inside the house Ibid., 14, 16; Shomette, Flotilla, 335.
ALEXANDRIA, 10 A.M., MONDAY, AUGUST 29
Alexandria faced Report of Alexandria Council, Sept. 7, CCW, 591–92.
“One hardly knows” James, Naval History of Great Britain, 182.
“pretty hard terms” Perrett, The Real Hornblower, 115.
“the arrogant foe” Jones to Rodgers, Aug. 29, NW III, 243.
There was as much Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 1.
Dolley Madison derided Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 29, 178; letter from the citizens of Alexandria, CCW, 593.
The Alexandria warehouses Jones to Rodgers, Aug. 29, NW III, 243.
WASHINGTON, 1 P.M., MONDAY, AUGUST 29
At the bustling American Madison memo on Armstrong, 301; Smith letter, Jan. 14, 1847, Stull letter, Jan. 16, 1847, and Daniel Mallory letter, Jan. 25, 1847, in appendix to McKenney, Reply to Kosciusko Armstrong’s Assault, 24–26.
“All confidence” Monroe t
o Jefferson, Dec. 21, Writings of James Monroe, 304; Herrick, August 24, 1814, 160.
One rumor Smith, First Forty Years, 115; Barker, Incidents, 117.
“that the city would make” McKenney letter, Jan. 15, 1847, in appendix to McKenney, Reply to Kosciusko Armstrong’s Assault, 28.
Upon Armstrong’s appearance M’Kenney, Memoirs, Official and Personal, 46–47; Williams, History of the Invasion, 105; Madison memo on Armstrong, 301; Barker, Incidents, 115; Smith, appendix to McKenney, Reply to Kosciusko Armstrong’s Assault, 24.
Early in the evening, Madison Madison memo on Armstrong, 301–302; Armstrong letter to Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 3, in Williams, History of the Invasion, 96–98.
Even now, Madison Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 421.
But as Armstrong defended Madison memo on Armstrong, 303; Barker, Incidents, 114.
BENEDICT, MORNING, TUESDAY, AUGUST 30
The shore of the Patuxent Gleig diary, Aug. 30, 155; [Barrett], “Naval Recollections of the Late American War,” part 1, 461; Codrington, Aug. 28, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington, 316.
“Ross and Cockburn” Rowley, “Captain Robert Rowley,” 249.
Ross reported that Malcolm to Nancy Malcolm, Sept. 1, Pulteny Malcolm Papers, UM, transcript at NHHC.
“It was never expected” Ross to Maria Ross, Sept. 2, D 2004/1A/3/1/6, PRONI.
Madison “must be rather” Codrington, Aug. 28, in Bourchier, ed., Codrington, 316.
“We are all well” Malcolm to Nancy Malcolm, Sept. 1, NHHC.
Vice Admiral Cochrane Cochrane to Bathurst, Aug. 28, WO 1/141, NAUK; “British Embassy Gives Library Letter on Washington Capture,” Washington Evening Star, Nov. 14, 1934.
Ross had no compunctions Ross to Bathurst, Aug. 30, NW III, 225.
Cockburn, however CMS 137–38; Scott, Recollections, 326–27; Cochrane to Bathurst, Aug. 28, WO 1/141, NAUK; Cochrane to Melville, NW III, 269.
BALTIMORE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 30
As the British rested Woehrmann, “National Response to the Sack of Washington,” 240.
“Every American heart” Sheads, Rockets’ Red Glare, 60.
Across the region Whitehorne, Battle for Baltimore, 142; Marine, British Invasion, 147; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 233.
“[I]t is a perfect military” Taylor to Abby, Aug. 30, NHHC.
Those not in arms Swanson, Perilous Fight, 235; William D. Hoyt, Jr., “Civilian Defense in Baltimore, 1814–1815: Minutes of the Committee of Vigilance and Safety,” MdHM, September 1944.
“at least a mile” Sheads, Rockets’ Red Glare, 60.
The general had arrived Winder to Secretary of War, Aug. 28, Winder Papers, MdHS; Swanson, Perilous Fight, 205; Governor Winder to General Winder, Aug. 27, Winder Papers, MdHS.
Captain John Rodgers Rodgers General Orders, Aug. 28, NW III, 260; John H. Schroeder, Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy, 138–40.
The twenty-eight-year-old Perry Charles Brodine, “Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie,” lecture at National War of 1812 Symposium, Baltimore, Oct. 2, 2010.
Perry’s performance Swanson, Perilous Fight, 208; Sheads, Rockets’ Red Glare, 40.
“tranquil as an unruffled” Lewis P. Balch, “Reminisces of the War of 1812,” Historical Magazine, September 1863, 284.
The thirty-four-year-old Porter Linda M. Maloney, “Porter, David” American National Biography Online, http://www.anb.org/articles/03/03–00394.html; Brodine et al., Against All Odds, 1, 24. Porter ranged as far west as the Marquesas Islands, some four thousand miles off the coast of South America, laying claim to Nuku Hiva, which he renamed Madison’s Island. The president declined to recognize the annexation.
Despite the fame Charles Oscar Paullin, “Services of Commodore John Rodgers in the War of 1812,” Proceedings, 1909, 474; Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 104; Schroeder, Commodore John Rodgers, 130.
Rodgers had been awaiting Ibid., 128.
“If you were to see” Paullin, “Services of Commodore John Rodgers,” 502.
“To charge” Ibid., 505–506.
The key redoubt George, Terror, 128; Sheads, Fort McHenry, 34; John Rodgers to Minerva Rodgers, [Aug. 29], John Rodgers Papers, UM, transcript at NHHC.
EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND, 11 P.M., TUESDAY, AUGUST 30
“one more frolic” Marine, British Invasion, 126; Chamier, Life, 184.
Dashing and reckless Ibid., 178; [Sir George Dallas], A Biographical Memoir of the Late Sir Peter Parker, Baronet, 57; Parker to Cochrane, Aug. 30, NW III, 233.
“My head will follow” Chamier, Life, 183.
“If any thing befalls” Dallas, Sir Peter Parker, 69.
Parker recovered Marine, British Invasion, 118–20.
“It was the height” Chamier, Life, 185.
The British believed Marine, British Invasion, 117–19, 125; George, Terror, 118, 122; Beynon journal, Aug. 28, NHHC.
“[H]is Turkish sabre” Chamier, Life, 188.
“We guess that your captain Ibid., 193.
Byron would write Dallas, Sir Peter Parker, 70.
CHAPTER 12: The Mission of Francis Scott Key
TONNANT, CHESAPEAKE BAY, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
The British fleet Rowley, “Captain Robert Rowley,” 250; Chesterton, Peace, War and Adventure, 135.
But aboard Tonnant Ross to Elizabeth Ross, Sept. 1, D 2004/1A/3/6, PRONI.
That wish was doubtless Evans memorandum, 18, NLS; Cochrane to Bathurst, Sept. 2, WO 1/141, NAUK; Codrington, Aug. 31, Letters from Codrington, May 21, 1814–March 26, 1815, COD/7/1, NMM.
On Wednesday, before the fleet Lev Winder to Ross, Aug. 31, in Marine, British Invasion, 189–90.
Ross not only refused Taney narrative, 17, 22.
“I thought you and Doctor Beanes” Hill, “Visit of the British in 1812,”; Captain George Graham to Monroe, Aug. 31, Series 3B, vol. 8, Rodgers Family Papers, LOC, copy in NHHC.
ALEXANDRIA, MORNING, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
After four days Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 80; CCW, 533; James, Naval History of Great Britain, 184.
“They dismissed him” Muller, Darkest Day, 162.
“It is impossible” Charles Simms to Nancy Simms, Sept. 3, NW III, 246.
U.S. Navy Captain David Porter Jones to Porter, Aug. 31, NW III, 245; Porter to Jones, Sept. 7, NW III 251.
Reaching Alexandria Admiral David Porter, Memoir of Commodore David Porter of the United States Navy, 256; James, Naval History of Great Britain, 182.
The powerful Creighton Porter, Memoir of Commodore David Porter, 257.
“The youngster, quite” Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 83.
A distressed Mayor Simms to Nancy Simms, Sept. 3, NW III, 246; Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 83–84; Codrington to Adm. Durham, Sept. 4, Tonnant Letter Book, Codrington papers, 6/3, NMM.
WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
Even while seething Jones to Rodgers, Aug. 28, NW III, 242.
“Poor, contemptible pitiful” Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 215.
“Is it possible” Tucker, Poltroons, 595.
“The President and the whole” Taylor to Abby, Aug. 30, NHHC.
“How much has Mr. Madison” Lev Saltonstall to Nathaniel Saltonstall, Sept. 9, Leverett Saltonstall, The Saltonstall Papers, 1602–1815, vol. 2.
Fly, Monroe, fly! Lossing, Pictorial Field-book, 935.
“The effect will not” Jones to Madison, Sept. 1, William Jones Papers, Reel 2, HSP, copy at NHHC.
The previous day, Monroe John Mason, CCW, 595; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 424.
On September 1, Madison Sept. 1, Madison proclamation, in Hunt, ed., Writings of James Madison, 304.
GEORGETOWN, EVENING, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
Roger Brooke Taney Taney narrative, 14–16. Taney wrote in his narrative that the Key children were still in Georgetown, but Key’s letter to his mother makes it clear they had already been sent to Terra Rubra. Mullaly, “A Forgotten Letter of Francis Scott Key.”
&n
bsp; Key and West, each Weybright, Spangled Banner, 66; Rebecca Lloyd Shippen, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1901, 321.
Reports of Beanes’s seizure Anna Thornton diary, Aug. 30, 179.
That evening, Key Taney narrative, 19; Mason to Skinner and Key, Sept. 2, NARA RG 45.
ALEXANDRIA, 5 A.M., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
It was still dark Simms to Nancy Simms, Sept. 3, NW III, 246; letter from the citizens of Alexandria, CCW, 593; Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 207; Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 82.
Once again, the weather Ibid., 84.
The American battery Porter to Jones, Sept. 7, NW III, 251; A. G. Monroe to Jones, Sept. 5, RG 45, Letters Received by the Secretary of Navy, vol. 6, copy at NHHC.
A large flag Napier, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, 85.
Porter’s fellow commodores Monroe to Rodgers, Sept. 2, NW III, 245.
At daylight Friday Porter to Jones, Sept. 7, NW III, 253; A. G. Monroe to Jones, Sept. 5, NHHC; Perrett, The Real Hornblower, 117.
WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
For the Madison administration Mason to Skinner and Key, Sept. 2, NARA RG 45.
The forty-eight-year-old Mason Frederick P Todd, “The Militia and Volunteers of the District of Columbia,” RCHS, 1948, 387–88, 398.
Mason wrote a letter Mason to Skinner, Sept. 2, NARA RG 45.
“a citizen of the highest respectability” Mason to Ross, Sept. 2, NARA RG 45.
Mason took time to scribble Mason to Charles Worthington, Aug. 28, copy in Spratt Collection, Box 1, Part 2, MdHS; Mason to Colonel Thornton, Sept. 2, Ibid.