Hi, I'm Rosie Treverow, an intern for the National Park Service at Presidents Park
in Washington DC. tthe following is a presentation on the burning of
Washington in the War of 1812. When George Washington picked out the swampy
territory and the border of Virginia and Maryland to be the location of his new
nation's capital he couldn't have known the trouble it would take to reach the
point of even being considered a city. The government had been located in
Philadelphia until that point and in the city was where many wanted to stay.
Indeed by 1800 Washington, DC, was little more than a village with some large
edifices. There were only just over 3,000 citizens living there then compared to
the nearly 40,000 in Philadelphia by 1790, one-fifth of whom were enslaved.
Pierre L'Enfant, the original city planner had grandiose plans that hadn't
been fully realized and instead had created an incompetent system of
infrastructure. The mess was appalling to foreigners including visiting
dignitaries who were also repulsed by the behavior of the politicians. It was
said that Dolley Madison brought the first sense of sophistication to the
city and redeemed the capital to some degree with her festive social events.
By 1810 there were about 8,200 people living in the city,
nearly 6,000 of whom were white, less than nine hundred of whom were free
blacks, and the rest of whom were enslaved. The city was growing but it was
still insignificant. President James Madison, leader of the country during the
War of 1812, had to deal with conflicting advice from
his cabinet. John Armstrong, the Secretary of War, refused to believe that the
British would have anything to do with DC until after the fact and therefore
deliberately refused to take action. To further his point he made disparaging
remarks and attempts to discourage those who did take action. James Monroe, the
Secretary of State, wanted to be involved in the action himself. He tried to scout
the British when they landed in the bay but forgot his spyglass and so was
unable to report back with how many had arrived. It was William Winter, a lawyer
with no military experience, who was put in charge of the Washington militia. He
was short on men and the men he did have not only lacked experience but also
lacked money, weapons and clothes. There was no support from the government
because Armstrong couldn't comprehend the possibility of the city being under
attack so Winter was alone on all support fronts to defend the city from
the incoming British. The two ill-prepared armies met at Bladensburg
both consisting of starving and exhausted men who had been marching for
too long. The Americans had some initial success shooting several lines of
British soldiers but when the British soldiers kept coming and marching toward
them despite it all, the American militia got scared and turned heel. Some men fled
without taking a single shot and many others died from heat exhaustion without
a scratch. When Commodore Josh Barney showed up after having destroyed the
ships of his Navy so the British couldn't capture them he was outraged at
the reaction of its fellow Americans. He put up such a great fight that when
he was finally captured by the British they praised his bravery. Having
successfully pushed past Bladensburg the British troops proceeded to march toward
the capital where things were in a state of chaos. 90% of the inhabitants fled
before the British reached the city including the president and his
cabinet. By the time it was acknowledged that there was a problem it was too late
to take significant action. Citizens took wagons and carts to assist
them in their flight and refused to give them up to the government despite the
consequences. Because of this the government was unable to save many of
the important documents in the capital, although a few diligent men managed to
rescue some of the necessary papers such as the Constitution and the Declaration
of Independence from within the capital and other buildings. Almost everything
was left behind Dolley Madison. The fashionable first lady refused to leave
the White House until Gilbert Stuart's life-size portrait of George Washington
was rescued. Dolley was quoted as saying "Under no circumstances allow it to fall
into the hands of the British." Prepared to reach a truce, General Robert
Ross and Admiral George Cockburn led their troops into a mostly empty city on
August 24th, 1814. Ross's horse was almost immediately shot out from under him and
all attempts to find the sniper were unsuccessful.
According to Martha Custis Peter, George Washington's granddaughter living in
Georgetown, the man had been a worthless hairdresser Other rumors said that it
was an unidentified woman who'd shot the gun. Continuing on into the capital the
British were surprised by the splendor of the buildings. Many soldiers were told
to destroy these magnificent edifices and stood in awe of the soaring ceilings
in the Capitol and the elegant decorations in and on all the buildings.
However orders were orders and after eating the extravagant lunch that had
been set in the White House before the Exodus everything flammable was gathered
into piles to build up the fires. While the vaulted ceilings in the White
House protected some areas from the fires, the flames were hot enough to melt
glass and the light from the burning city was supposedly bright enough for
spectators on the surrounding hills to read by. The British were very careful
however to burn only public buildings and to leave private homes and
individuals alone. When they caught their own soldiers looting they punished them
severely and they made a general policy of paying
for the goods they took from people. After watching the city burn for two
days the British moved on, secretly leaving a false trail to be sure they
weren't followed. They moved their way up towards Baltimore hoping for more great
victories but instead faced trouble on the river. Fort Warburton, currently known
as Fort Washington, had been easily defeated because the Americans had left
without firing a shot. However the British faced more trouble at Fort
McHenry even after the bombardment on September 13th that continued well into
the night with thirty foot by 42 foot American flag that major George
Armistead had asked Mary Pickersgill to make was still waving over the fort,
prompting onlooker Francis Scott Key to pen the "Star-Spangled Banner." Back in
DC citizens and politicians alike were returning to a scene of desolation the
Madisons stayed for about a year in the Octagon house, where James Madison signed
the Treaty of Ghent, and they never moved back into the White House. There were
debates about returning the capital to Philadelphia instead of trying to
rebuild but it was decided that if the capital was set on wheels it would never
stop moving so Washington was rebuilt slowly but surely and continued to grow
into what you see today. The White House is now part of the National Park Service
and on August 24th 2014 both will celebrate the 200th
anniversary of the burning of Washington whose scorch marks still scar the White
House
If you would like to find out more about any of the almost 400 sites of the
National Park Service please visit our website at NPS.gov