Burning of Washington

The United Kingdom was already at war with France when the United States declared war in 1812. The war against France took up most of Britain's attention and military resources. The initial British strategy against the United States focused on imposing a naval blockade at sea, and maintaining a defensive stance on land. The British Army could not reinforce Canada; instead, the government relied on militia units and indigenous allies to support the British Army units already posted in Canada. With the defeat and exile of Napoleon in April 1814, Britain was able to use its newly available troops and ships to prosecute its war with the United States. The Earl of Bathurst, serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, dispatched an army brigade and additional naval vessels to the imperial fortress of Bermuda, from where a blockade of the U.S. coast and even the occupation of some coastal islands had been overseen throughout the war. It was decided to use these forces in raids along the Atlantic seaboard to draw American forces away from Canada. The commanders were under strict orders not to carry out operations far inland, or to attempt to hold territory. Early in 1814, Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochrane had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy's North America and West Indies Station, controlling naval forces based at the new Bermuda dockyard and the Halifax Naval Yard, which were used to blockade American ports throughout the war. He planned to carry the war into the United States, by attacks in Virginia and against New Orleans. Rear-Admiral George Cockburn had commanded the squadron in Chesapeake Bay since the previous year. On June 25, he wrote to Cochrane stressing that the defenses there were weak, and he felt that several major cities were vulnerable to attack. Cochrane suggested attacking Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. Rear Admiral Cockburn accurately predicted that "within a short period of time, with enough force, we could easily have at our mercy the capital". He recommended Washington, D.C., as the target, because of the comparative ease of attacking the national capital and "the greater political effect likely to result". On July 18, Cochrane ordered Cockburn to "deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages ... You are hereby required and directed to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts as you may find assailable". Cochrane further instructed, "You will spare merely the lives of the unarmed inhabitants of the United States". Ross was less optimistic. He "never dreamt for one minute that an army of 3,500 men with 1,000 marines reinforcement, with no cavalry, hardly any artillery, could march 50 miles inland and capture an enemy capital", according to historian John McCavitt. Ross refused to accept Cockburn's recommendation to burn the entire city. He spared nearly all of the privately owned properties. An added motive was retaliation for the "wanton destruction of private property along the north shores of Lake Erie" by American troops under Colonel John Campbell in May, the most notable being the Raid on Port Dover. On June 2, Sir George Prevost, Governor General of British North America, wrote to Cochrane at Admiralty House, in Bailey's Bay, Bermuda, calling for a retaliation against the American destruction of private property in violation of the laws of war. Prevost argued that, in consequence of the late disgraceful conduct of the American troops in the wanton destruction of private property on the north shores of Lake Erie, in order that if the war with the United States continues you may, should you judge it advisable, assist in inflicting that measure of retaliation which shall deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages. Many sources also suggest that the attack on Washington was motivated by revenge for the American looting of York in Upper Canada, the provincial capital, Major General Ross commanded the 4,500-man army in Washington, composed of the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. This force defeated an American army at the Battle of Bladensburg. == Burning ==

President James Madison, members of his government, and the military fled the city in the wake of the British victory at Bladensburg. They found refuge for the night in Brookeville, a small town in Montgomery County, Maryland, which is known today as the "United States' Capital for a Day". President Madison spent the night in the house of Caleb Bentley, a Quaker who lived and worked as a silversmith in Brookeville. Bentley's house, known today as the Madison House, still stands in Brookeville. On August 24, 1814, the British, led by Ross and Cockburn, entered Washington with a force of 4,500 "battle hardened" men. The plan to attack Washington had been formulated by Rear Admiral Cockburn, who predicted that "within a short period of time, with enough force, we could easily have at our mercy the capital". U.S. Capitol after the burning of Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812. Painting by George Munger. The United States Capitol was, according to some contemporary travelers, the only building in Washington "worthy to be noticed". Thus, it was a prime target for the British, for both its aesthetic and its symbolic value. Upon arrival into the city via Maryland Avenue, the British targeted the Capitol, first the southern wing, containing the House of Representatives, then the northern wing, containing the Senate. Prior to setting it aflame, the British sacked the building, which at that time housed Congress, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court. Items looted by troops led by Rear Admiral Cockburn included a ledger entitled "An account of the receipts and expenditures of the United States for the year 1810"; the admiral wrote on the inside leaf that it was "taken in President's room in the Capitol, at the destruction of that building by the British, on the capture of Washington, 24th August, 1814". He later gave it to his elder brother Sir James Cockburn, the governor of Bermuda. The book was returned to the Library of Congress in 1940. The British intended to burn the building to the ground. They set fire to the southern wing first. The flames grew so quickly that the British were prevented from collecting enough wood to burn the stone walls completely. However, the Library of Congress's contents in the northern wing contributed to the flames on that side. Among the items destroyed was the 3,000-volume collection of the Library of Congress and the intricate decorations of the neoclassical columns, pediments, and sculptures designed by William Thornton in 1793 and Benjamin Latrobe in 1803. The wooden ceilings and floors burned and the glass skylights melted from the intense heat. White House ruins after the fire of August 24, 1814, depicted in a watercolor painting by George Munger, is now on display at the White House , the British commander who led the burning of Washington After burning the Capitol, the British turned northwest up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. After U.S. government officials and President Madison fled the city, First Lady Dolley Madison received a letter from her husband, urging her to be prepared to leave Washington at a moment's notice. Dolley organized the enslaved and other staff to save valuables from the British. James Madison's personal enslaved attendant, the fifteen-year-old boy Paul Jennings, was an eyewitness. The soldiers then burned the president's house, and fuel was added to the fires that night to ensure they would continue burning into the next day. The First U.S. Patent Office Building was saved by the efforts of William Thornton, the former architect of the Capitol and then the superintendent of patents, who gained British cooperation to preserve it. "When the smoke cleared from the dreadful attack, the Patent Office was the only Government building ... left untouched" in Washington. The Americans had already burned much of the historic Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion. The Navy Yard's Latrobe Gate, Quarters A, and Quarters B were the only buildings to escape destruction. Also spared were the Marine Barracks and Commandant's House, although several private properties were damaged or destroyed. In the afternoon of August 25, General Ross sent two hundred men to secure a fort on Greenleaf's Point. The fort, later known as Fort McNair, had already been destroyed by the Americans, but 150 barrels of gunpowder remained. While the British were trying to dispose of them by dropping them into a well, the powder ignited. As many as thirty British soldiers were killed in the explosion, with several others injured. File:Rear-Admiral George Cockburn (1772-1853), by John James Halls.jpg|Portrait of Admiral Cockburn at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, with Washington, D.C., burning in the background, including the U.S. Capitol and Treasury Building on the right File:U.S. Treasury building (1804) (Harper's engraving).png|The U.S. Treasury Building (built 1804) File:Blodget's Hotel, built 1793.tif|The Blodget Hotel, which housed the U.S. Patent Office; spared during the burning of Washington in 1814. The patent office later burned in 1836. File:Washington Navy Yard lithograph 1862.jpg|Washington Navy Yard in 1862 =="The Storm that Saved Washington"==

Less than four days after the attack began, a sudden, very heavy thunderstorm—possibly a hurricane—put out the fires. It also spun off a tornado that passed through the center of the capital, setting down on Constitution Avenue and lifting two cannons before dropping them several yards away and killing British troops and American civilians alike. Following the storm, the British troops returned to their ships, many of which were badly damaged. There is some debate regarding the effect of this storm on the occupation. While some assert that the storm forced the British to retreat, It is also clear that Ross never intended to damage private buildings as had been recommended by Cockburn and Cochrane. The Royal Navy reported that it lost one man killed and six wounded in the attack, of whom the fatality and three of the wounded were from the 6th West India Regiment of the Corps of Colonial Marines. The destruction of the Capitol, including the Senate House and the House of Representatives, the Arsenal, Dockyard, Treasury, War Office, President's mansion, bridge over the Potomac, a frigate and a sloop together with all materiel was estimated at £365,000 (). A separate British force captured Alexandria, Virginia, on the south side of the Potomac River, while Ross's troops were leaving Washington. The mayor of Alexandria made a deal and the British refrained from burning the town. In 2013, an episode of the Weather Channel documentary series When Weather Changed History, entitled "The Thunderstorm That Saved D.C.", was devoted to these events. == Aftermath ==

President Madison and the military officers returned to Washington by September 1, on which date Madison issued a proclamation calling on citizens to defend the District of Columbia. Congress did not return for three and a half weeks. When they did so, they assembled in special session on September 19 in the Post and Patent Office building at Blodgett's Hotel, one of the few buildings large enough to hold all members to be spared. Congress met in this building until December 1815, when construction of the Old Brick Capitol was complete. Most contemporary American observers, including newspapers representing anti-war Federalists, condemned the destruction of the public buildings as needless vandalism. However, the Pennsylvanian physician and abolitionist Jesse Torrey argued in 1815 that the burning was a divine punishment for American slavery: Many in the British public were shocked by the burning of the Capitol and other buildings at Washington. Such actions were denounced by most leaders of continental Europe, where capital cities had been repeatedly occupied in the course of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars but always spared destruction, at least on the part of the occupiers—the famous burning of Moscow that occurred less than two years prior had been an act carried out by the defenders. According to The Annual Register, the burning had "brought a heavy censure on the British character", with some members of Parliament, including the anti-establishment MP Samuel Whitbread, joining in the criticism, declaring that the government was "making much of the taking of a few buildings in a non-strategic swamp, as though it had captured Paris". In contrast, the majority of British public opinion perceived the burnings to be justified following the damage that the U.S. military had inflicted during its incursions into Canada. The British public also pointed to the United States's role in initiating the war, viewing the conflict as an American war of aggression. Several commentators regarded the damages as just revenge for the American destruction of the Parliament buildings and other public buildings in York, the provincial capital of Upper Canada, early in 1813. Sir George Prevost wrote that "as a just retribution, the proud capital at Washington has experienced a similar fate". The Reverend John Strachan, who as Rector of York had witnessed the American acts there, wrote to Thomas Jefferson that the damage to Washington "was a small retaliation after redress had been refused for burnings and depredations, not only of public but private property, committed by them in Canada". When they ultimately returned to Bermuda, the British forces took with them two pairs of portraits of King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte, which had been discovered in one of the public buildings. One pair currently hangs in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of Bermuda, and the other in the Cabinet Building, both in the city of Hamilton. == Reconstruction ==

There was a movement in Congress to relocate the capital after the burning. Congressmen from the north pushed for relocation to Philadelphia or some other prominent northern city, while Southern congressmen claimed that moving the capital would degrade the American sense of dignity and strength (however, many Southern congressmen simply did not want to move the capital north of the Mason–Dixon line). On September 21, the House of Representatives voted to strike down a proposal to relocate the capital from Washington, D.C. by a margin of 83 to 54. On February 3, 1815, in an effort to guarantee that the federal government would always remain in the area, Washington property owners funded the building of the Old Brick Capitol, a larger meeting space where the Supreme Court now stands. Construction of the Old Brick Capitol cost $25,000 () and was funded primarily through the sale of stocks. The largest donor was Daniel Carroll of Duddington, a rich English property owner in the area. Construction began on July 4, and concluded in December. Congress met in the Old Brick Capitol between December 1815 and December 1819, when the Capitol reopened. The Capitol reconstruction took much longer than anticipated. The Old Brick Capitol took only five months to complete, but the Capitol took twelve years. On February 13, President Madison and Congress passed legislation to borrow $500,000 to repair the public buildings, including the Capitol, "on their present sites in the city of Washington". Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the Capitol who took over for William Thornton in 1803, was rehired to repair the building on April 18. He immediately requested 60,000 feet (18,288 m) of boards, 500 tons of stone, 1,000 barrels of lime, and brick. ==Legacy==

In 2009, President Barack Obama held a ceremony at the White House to honor the Madisons' slave Paul Jennings as a representative of staff action to save the Gilbert Stuart painting and other valuables. (The painting that was saved was a copy Stuart made of the painting, not the original, although it is the same one on display in the East Room.) "A dozen descendants of Jennings came to Washington, to visit the White House. They looked at the painting their relative helped save." In an interview with National Public Radio, Jennings' great-great-grandson, Hugh Alexander, said, "We were able to take a family portrait in front of the painting, which was for me one of the high points." During heated free trade negotiations in 2018, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau asked President Donald Trump how the United States could justify protective tariffs as a national security issue. Trump retorted, "Didn't you guys burn down the White House?" == In literature ==

Lydia Sigourney reflects on this event in her poem "The Conflagration at Washington", written under her maiden name, Lydia Huntley, in her first collection of poetry of 1815. Bob Dylan references this event in his song "Narrow Way". Corb Lund references this event in his song "Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier". == See also ==