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The American Defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg

When a scout arrives on August 24, with the news that the British have entered Bladensburg, President Madison and the cabinet retire to Washington. The battle starts at about noon, as the British begin to stream across the bridge over the Potomac. The American militiamen are amazed that the British troops seem to have taken no notice of the hail of bullets being poured on them.

Dolley Madison

Without the support of the regiment which Monroe has moved back, the forward guns and riflemen are quickly overrun by the British advance. The Baltimore 5th Regiment counter-attacks and holds back the British attack for a while. When the British fire Congreve rockets at the raw American militia, they panic and flee.

The American rear line, made up partly with Commodore Joshua Barney’s naval veterans, is still forming up when the panicked militia comes dashing through. The British troops are in close pursuit. Barney and his men hold, but they are soon overwhelmed by the redcoats.

It has never occurred to Winder to designate a rallying point in the case of defeat. The commander now gives up hope of defending the capital. He collects whatever retreating militia he can find and marches them off to Montgomery Court House, eighteen miles beyond Washington.

The rout at Bladensburg turns into perhaps the most humiliating episode in the entire history of the United States of America. The British troops reach Washington by evening. They burn public buildings and scatter government officials and documents over the surrounding countryside.

The British Sail Up the Potomac

During the attack on Washington, Captain James Gordon is ordered to sail up the Potomac with two frigates, three bomb ships, a rocket ship and several small tenders. His mission is to attack Fort Warburton and stand by in case General Robert Ross’s land force has to be evacuated by water. Gordon anchors off Fort Warburton on the evening of August 27, and has his bomb ships fire off a few rounds. These shots miss their target, but to the utter amazement of Gordon and his men, the Americans evacuate the fort and blow it up.

Wood engraving featured in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Dec. 1872.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Now that the way is clear, Gordon moves on to Alexandria. The defenseless town capitulates immediately and Gordon seizes all the ships in the harbour. His men then empty the town’s warehouses and the cram the booty onto the captured ships.

On August 31, a messenger from Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane tells Gordon to withdraw downriver. The messenger also warns him about a trap the Americans have laid on the Potomac: makeshift shore batteries have been hastily erected by three U.S. naval captains. One of these captains is the hero of the Battle of Lake Erie, Oliver Hazard Perry, who just happens to be in the area.

Perry and his naval colleagues do their best, but Gordon’s cannons quickly destroy two of the batteries. Although Perry’s battery is unscathed, it runs out of ammunition before it can inflict serious damage on the British ships. Gordon and his vessels sail away with their loot.

Washington Burns

The British 3rd Brigade, with General Ross and Rear Admiral Cockburn at its head, is the first to enter Washington. Snipers fire on them from a house and kill a British soldier and Ross’ horse. A group of soldiers smash down the house’s door. They discover the snipers have fled, so they burn down the house with Congreve rockets in retaliation. The retreating Americans blow up the navy yard at almost the same instant. The British soldiers now turn their attention to the Capitol. The government building is made almost entirely of stone and will not be easy to burn. The soldiers do their best, however, they chop up shutters and doors and add rocket powder, eventually managing to start a fire in every room.

The House of Representatives contains better fuel; it burns so intensely that glass melts, stone shatters, and marble is burned into lime. The Treasury is next, followed by the President’s mansion, where the soldiers discover a table set for forty people. The meal is apparently intended as a victory dinner, and Ross and Cockburn decide to sit down to the feast. They toast the Prince Regent and then set the mansion on fire.

The pillaging goes on for two days. A number of private homes also go up in smoke. On the second day, Cockburn goes to the offices of the anti-British National Intelligencer with the intention of putting it to the torch, but a number of neighborhood women beg him not to because they fear the flames will spread to their own homes.

Cockburn agrees not to burn the building. Instead he orders the contents moved out onto the street and burned. “Make sure that all the C’s are destroyed,” on the presses, he tells his soldiers, “so that the rascals can have no further means of abusing my name.”

The burning of the Capitol. Mural by Allyn Cox.

After the second day of the occupation, the inhabitants of Washington are ordered to remain inside to avoid the risk of death. New fuel is added to the fires to ensure they will burn all night. The British troops surreptitiously make their way by twos and threes to the edge of town where they form up and withdraw. Four days later they are back aboard ship.

The British succeed to a certain degree, in diverting American leaders’ attention away from other theaters of war. The American government is in shambles and will be thoroughly incapable of efficiently directing the war effort for the next several weeks.

The British Attack on Baltimore

On September 12, General Robert Ross and his troops land at North Point and begin the 12-mile trek to Baltimore. At the same time, Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane sails up the Patapsco River to try and reduce Fort McHenry, an important part of Baltimore’s defense.

The British soldiers soon encounter a small force of Americans sent out to delay their advance. When Ross rides forward to see what’s happening, a sniper’s bullet kills him.

Colonel Arthur Brooke takes over command of the British troops and meets the enemy forces again at Boulden’s Farm. After a short but intense engagement, the Americans are beaten back. This is a costly victory for the British, who have 46 killed and 300 wounded.

Meanwhile, Cochrane has been busy getting his lighter ships over the Patapsco River shoals. His larger ships simply cannot make it, so he will have to make do with five bomb ships, a rocket ship, four light frigates, and six brigs and sloops of war. Shortly after dawn on September 13, he’s in position to bomb Fort McHenry. He opens fire from two miles away. By 2 pm, thinking that the fort must have been considerably damaged, Cochrane moves closer to the target. His vessels are immediately hit with such intense fire that he has to call them back and resume the long-range attack.

Shortly before midday, Brooke emerges into open country outside of Baltimore and finds himself confronted by the Loudenslager Hill fortifications. To attack, the British will have to cross two miles of open ground and ford a steep-banked creek under enemy fire. After a few probing attacks, Brooke decides he cannot carry off a frontal advance. But he has already formed another plan: Cochrane’s marines will make a night time diversionary attack on “Roger’s Bastion” at the southern end of Loudenslager Hill. While this is taking place, Brooke’s troops will silently form up on the Philadelphia Road opposite the northeast angle of the Loudenslager line. If the marines’ attack is successful, then Brooke’s men will launch a silent bayonet attack on the unsuspecting Americans.

It is a bold plan. Unfortunately for the British, Cochrane’s marines are spotted by the Americans and don’t even get a chance to land. Shortly after 2 am, when Brooke realizes Cochrane has failed, he orders a retreat. The British have lost General Robert Ross and failed to neutralize Fort McHenry. Outnumbered and facing the daunting defenses of the Loudenslager Hill fortifications, the decision to call off the Chesapeake campaign is a prudent one.

This failure to take Baltimore will ultimately have repercussions at the Ghent peace negotiations taking place in Belgium. The British negotiators are counting on military successes to improve their bargaining position. Without these victories the British give up their territorial demands at the talks.

The American Defense of Baltimore

It is now obvious that Baltimore will be the next British target. The citizens of Baltimore decide to take defense of their city into their own hands and form a, “Committee of Vigilance and Safety.” This committee decides that every able-bodied man will contribute to the defense effort in one way or another: if they can’t fight they will be put to work wielding shovels. Revolutionary war veteran and militia officer Samuel Smith is invited to command the army. The Baltimore volunteers are soon building a long earthen wall along the top of Loudenslager Hill on the outskirts of town. These defensive works are fortified with artillery and will effectively protect the eastern and northeastern approaches to the city.

Smith guesses the British will choose the quickest and simplest route to Baltimore: a march overland from North Point. Alexander Cochrane, meanwhile, is likely to sail his naval force up the Patapsco River and try to silence Fort McHenry’s batteries. Smith reinforces Fort McHenry and sends out his best troops to delay the land advance. The 3rd Brigade, under Brigadier General John Stricker, takes up position near Bread and Butter Creek, about half way between North Point and Baltimore. On September 12, Robert Ross’s British troops land at North Point as Smith had guessed they would.

Stricker sends a small force ahead to harass the redcoats with a bit of hit-and- run firing. This stalls the British advance long enough that Ross rides forward to see what’s happening. A sniper’s bullet kills him.

Stricker’s detachment delays the advancing British for the best part of the afternoon before retreating to the Baltimore side of Bread and Butter Creek. When the British decide to make camp rather than pursue the withdrawing Americans, Stricker’s force retreats all the way back to Baltimore.

The following day, the defenders of Baltimore repel several minor British attacks on the city’s defenses. During the night of September 13, people in Baltimore watch the terrible fireworks as the British Navy bombs Fort McHenry.

Unable to bomb Fort McHenry into submission and facing a superior force protected by well-built defenses, the British decide to retreat.

After the humiliating sack of the nation’s capital, the successful defense of Baltimore becomes an important source of pride for the United States.

Additional Sources:

www.nationalcenter.org
www.ngb.army.mil
teachpol.tcnj.edu
www.senate.gov
www.americaslibrary.gov
lcweb.loc.gov
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.150.si.edu
rims.k12.ca.us
www.jmu.edu

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on August 24:
1113 Geoffrey Plantagenet France, conquered Normandy
1591 Robert Herrick England, poet (Gather ye rosebuds) (baptized)
1759 Wilbur Wilberforce England, crusaded against slavery
1787 James Weddell Ostend England, Antarctic explorer (Weddell Sea)
1816 Sir Daniel Gooch laid 1st successful transatlantic cables
1872 Sir Max Beerbohm England, caricaturist/writer/wit (Saturday Review)
1886 William Francis Gibbs naval architect, designed Liberty ships
1890 Duke Kahanamoku Hawaii, 100m swimmer (Olympic-gold-1912, 20)
1894 Jean Rhys West Indies, writer (Voyage in the Dark)
1896 Phil Baker Phila, comedian (Who's Whose)
1898 Albert Claude Belgium, physician (Nobel 1974)
1898 Malcolm Cowley Belsano Penn, author (Flowering of New England)
1899 Jorge Luis Borges Argentina, writer of fiction, essays (Labyrinths)
1900 Preston Foster Ocean City NJ, actor (Waterfront, Gunslinger)
1902 Fernand Braudel French historian (Civililization & Capitalism)
1905 Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, blues singer, a major influence on Elvis Presley.
1912 Durward Kirby Indianapolis Ind, TV announcer (Garry Moore Show){inventer of the Kirward Derby}
1917 Dennis James Jersey City NJ, wrestling announcer/TV host (PDQ)
1922 Rene Levesque Quebec premier (1976-85)
1924 Louis Teicher pianist (Ferrante & Teicher-Exodus)
1929 Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement.
1927 William V Shannon journalist/ambassador to Ireland (1977-81)
1938 Mason Williams Abilene Tx, writer (Smother Brothers Hour)
1944 Gregory B Jarvis Detroit Mich, astronaut (STS 25)
1946 Richard "Dick" N Richards Key West Fl, USN/astr (STS-28, 41, sk:50)
1949 Anna L Fisher St Albans NY, MD/astronaut (STS 51-A)
1949 Joe Regalbuto Bkln NY, actor (Knots Landing, Frank-Murphy Brown)
1956 Gerry Cooney heavyweight boxer (Olympics-1980)
1958 Steve Guttenberg Bkln NY, actor (Police Academy, Short Circuit)
1961 Cal Ripken Jr all-star shortstop (Balt Orioles)
1963 John Bush heavy metal rocker (Armoured Saint-Can U Deliver)
1964 Pebbles rocker (Girlfriend)
1965 Marlee Matlin Ill, deaf actress (Children of Lesser God-Acad Award)
1962 Mary E Weber Cleveland Ohio, PhD/astronaut

Deaths which occurred on August 24:
1103 Magnus III Berbein, [blootbeen], king of Norway (1093-1103)
1313 Henry VII, Roman Catholic German king/emperor (1308/12-13)
1967 Amanda Randolph actress (Danny Thomas, Amos n Andy), dies at 65
1973 Billy Greene actor (Burton-One Man's Family), dies at 76
1983 Jack Somack actor (Ball Four, Stockard Channing Show), dies at 64
1988 Max Shulman author (Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap), dies at 69
1991 Abel Kivlat US 1500m runner (Olympic-silver-1912), dies at 99
1991 Bernard Castro patented convertible couch, dies at 87
1998 E.G. Marshall actor - "The Defenders", "Nixon", "Absolute Power", dies at 88

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 BRUNHAVER RICHARD M. YAKIMA WA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV,ALIVE IN 1998]
1965 DOREMUS ROBERT H. MONTCLAIR NJ.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 FRANKE FRED A. BROOKLYN NY.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98"]
1967 ALLARD RICHARD M. CHESANING MI.
1967 GOFF KENNETH B. JR. WARWICK RI.
1967 HESS JAY C. FARMINGTON UT.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1967 HOLTZMAN RONALD L. WHITEPOINT VA.
1967 SCHELL RICHARD J. MINNEISKA MN.
1968 HEEP WILLIAM ARTHUR SAN PEDRO CA.
1968 LADEWIG MELVIN E. ENGLEWOOD CO.
1968 READ CHARLES H. JR. MIAMI FL.
1969 HATCH PAUL G.
[08/25/69 ESCAPED]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
79 Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Pompeii & Herculaneum
410 Rome overrun by Visigoths, symbolized fall of Western Roman Empire
1215 Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid
1349 6,000 Jews are blamed for the plagued are killed in Mainz
1349 Jews of Cologne Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism
1542 In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro returns to the mouth of the Amazon River after having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.
1572 King Charles IX orders massacre of thousands of French Protestants
1662 Act of Uniformity requires English to accept book of Common Prayer
1682 DE awarded to William Penn
1751 Thomas Colley executed in England for drowning supposed witch
1780 King Louis XVI abolishes torture as a means to get suspects to confess
1814 British sack Washington, DC, White House burned
1853 1st potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum (Saratoga Springs, NY)
1854 National emigration convention meets in Cleveland
1858 Richmond "Daily Dispatch" reports 90 blacks arrested for learning
1862 C.S.S. Alabama was commissioned at sea off Portugal's Azore Islands
1869 Cornelius Swarthout patents waffle iron
1891 Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera
1894 Congress passes the first graduated income tax law, which is declared unconstitutional the next year.
1896 Thomas Brooks is shot and killed by an unknown assailant, begining a six year feud with the McFarland family.
1905 Chicago Cubs beat the Phillies 2-1 in 20 innings
1906 Cincinatti Red John Weimer no-hits Dodgers, 1-0 in 7 inning game
1909 Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
1912 NYC ticker tape parade for Jim Thorpe & victorious US olympians
1912 Territory of Alaska organized
1912 US passes Anti-gag law, federal employees right to petition the govt
1922 1st Phillie to hit for the cycle (Cy Williams)
1932 1st transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman, Amelia Earhart
1936 Australian Antarctic Territory created
1939 Germany & USSR sign 10-year non-aggression pact
1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established
1950 1st US Negro delegate to UN appointed-ES Sampson
1950 Operation Magic Carpet-45,000 Yemenite Jews move to Israel
1954 Communist Control Act passed, at height of McCarthyism
1954 International Amateur Athletic Federation recognizes Red China
1956 1st non-stop transcontinental helicopter flight arrived Wash DC
1959 Hiram L Fong sworn in as 1st Chinese-American senator while Daniel K Inouye sworn in as 1st Japanese-American Rep (Both from Hawaii)
1960 -127 F (-88ø C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record){More proof of global warming}
1960 60 people die when bus plunges off bridge into Turvo River, Brazil
1961 Former nazi leader Johannes Vorster becomes South Africa's minister of justice
1963 1st 200 meter freestyle swum under 2 minutes (Don Schollander 1:58)
1963 John Pennel is 1st to pole-vault 17'
1964 2nd Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 6-4
1966 USSR launches Luna 11 for orbit around Moon
1967 Liberian flag designed
1968 France became world's 5th thermonuclear power
1970 Bomb kills 1 at U of Wisconsin's Army Math Research Center in Madison
1972 8th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 2-1
1972 Gordie Howe & Jean Beliveau inducted in Hockey Hall of Fame
1975 SF Giant Ed Halick no-hits NY Giants, 6-0
1975 Tampa Bay Rowdies beat Portland 2-0 for NASL cup
1976 Soyuz 21 returns to Earth
1979 NFL fans (60,916) choose old Patriots logo over new
1979 UN's Vienna office begins issuing postage stamps
1981 Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 yrs to life for Lennon's murder
1984 Pat Bradley set the LPGA record for 9 holes with a 28 at Denver
1985 STS 51-I mission scrubbed at T -5m because of bad weather
1987 Announcement of possible Martian tornadoes
1989 Pete Rose is suspended from baseball for life for gambling
1989 Voyager 2 flies past Neptune
1990 Iraqi troops surround US & other embassies in Kuwait City
1991 Gorbachev resigns as head of USSR Communist Party
1991 Ukraine declares independence from the USSR
1992 Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida.
1994 Israel & PLO initialed accord giving autonomy to Palestinians in West Bank in education, health, taxation, social welfare & tourism
1995 Windows 95 debuts
1998 24 beads are donated to the Native American Museum of North America at the Crazy Horse Memorial, said to be the ones used in 1626 to buy Manhattan from Native Americans

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Liberia : Flag Day (1847)
Sierra Leone : President's Birthday
Windows 95 Birthday
Volcano Eruption Awareness Day
National Catfish Month

Religious Observances
RC, Ang, Luth : Feast of St Bartholomew, apostle

Religious History
0410 The Visigoths sacked Rome, disillusioning Christians who were trusting in God's protection of this ecclesiastical center of early Christianity. St. Augustine (354©430) later tacked this religious problem in his monumental work, "City of God" (ca.413ª27).
1456 In Mainz, Germany, volume two of the famed Gutenberg Bible was bound, completing a two-year publishing project, and making it the first full-length book to be printed using movable type.
1572 The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre took place all across France, where thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots) were slaughtered. depleted the intellectual, educational and financial reserves of the French nation.
1854 The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa was organized by German Lutherans. In 1930 this synod merged with the synods of Ohio and Buffalo to form the American Lutheran Church.
1906 Five Baptist congregations met at Jellico Creek, Whitley County, Kentucky, and formed the Church of God of the Mountain Assembly. The CGMA both pentecostal and holiness in doctrine reports a world membership today of 7,000.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Nothing beats reading a good book when there is work to do."

You Might be a College Student if...
If you live in a house with three couches, none of which match.

Murphys Law of the day...(Abbott's Admonition)
If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know.

Cliff Clavin says, it's a little known fact that...
A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.