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An on-duty Capitol Police officer was nearly knocked out of his chair during the blast, but fortunately no one was injured. The fire didn’t completely destroy the Capitol, but it damaged enough of it that some members of Congress suggested relocating the federal government back to Philadelphia or find another city. Instead, workers rebuilt the Capitol and continued to expand it as the number of states—and their representatives in Congress—grew. (Today, it covers over 1.5 million square feet and has more than 600 rooms.) Over the next few decades, interactions between these congressmen became increasingly strained and violent. On August 24, 1814, the advance guard of the British military marched to Capitol Hill; they were too few in number to occupy the city, so Major General Robert Ross intended to destroy as much of it as possible.
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Later that August 24th evening, British soldiers moved on Washington holding bitter resentment for the American burning of the Canadian capital of York (present-day Toronto) in 1813. When entering Washington, the British and Canadian soldiers had unfettered access to the capital and began burning the city. President James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison both fled the White House. Before leaving, Dolley Madison had a portrait of President George Washington, and many other irreplaceable artifacts from the founding of the nation secured.
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The first lady famously rescued a life-sized portrait of George Washington from going up in flames. The building was then set on fire – the one and only time in its long history it would be harmed by enemy forces. It was a devastating inferno, and char marks from the 1814 fire are still visible on parts of the structure today. Following the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon in April 1814 and his exile to the island of Elba, British troops were no longer tied up in France. It's the only other time in American history that foreigners have attacked the American capital.
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British Troops Attacked Government Buildings
But as they were destroying the gunpowder there, an accidental explosion killed at least a dozen British soldiers and injured many more. That evening, right after a violent thunderstorm, the British withdrew from the city rather than face a potential counterattack, retracing their steps to the fleet at Benedict. The following day on August 25th, a storm rolled into Washington and put out the fires. Unfortunately, during the storm, a tornado erupted and tore through the city.
As the American militia retreated around them, Barney took a bullet to the thigh and was captured by the British, who, impressed by his bravery, paroled him right then and there. “They have given us the only fighting we have had,” Cockburn declared of the seamen. Madison, meanwhile, sent ahead a messenger to his wife, Dolley, who consented to leave the White House only after arranging for the safety of a full-length George Washington portrait. The burning of Washington was not a large embarrassment as it was originally thought to be.
Robert Preston, a young Army private who had flunked out of flight training, stole a helicopter from an airfield, flew to the White House and hovered above the south lawn. Secret Service guards unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the unauthorized craft, forcing Preston to land. Slightly injured and clad in fatigues, the hijacker was apprehended and admitted for psychiatric observation. The storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters on 6 January 2021 was a shocking and surreal spectacle.
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‘My Lord, I have the honour to communicate to your Lordship that on the night of the 24 instant, after defeating the army of the United States on that day, the troops under my command entered and took possession of the city of Washington. According to later accounts, the British were impressed by the fine architecture of the building, and some of the officers had qualms about burning it. Reaching Washington on the evening of August 24, the British found a city largely deserted, with the only resistance being ineffective sniper fire from one house. The first order of business for the British was to attack the navy yard, but retreating Americans had already set fires to destroy it. On August 24, 1814, troops from both armies met outside of Washington, and the British Army easily defeated a volunteer American force at the battle of Bladensburg. President Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe were nearly captured.
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Only the exterior walls remained, and they had to be torn down and mostly reconstructed due to weakening from the fire and subsequent exposure to the elements, except for portions of the south wall. A legend emerged that during the rebuilding of the structure, white paint was applied to mask the burn damage it had suffered, giving the building its namesake hue. This is unfounded, as the building had been painted white since its construction in 1798.
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The 86-foot-long room had a 36-foot-high flat ceiling, which, if vaulted, might have served as a firebreak. Secretary of State James Monroe, out spying on horseback as the British advanced east of Washington, sent a scribbled note to the State Department telling his staff to secure as best they could the precious national documents and departmental records. One of the clerks, Stephen Pleasonton, hurried out to buy coarse, durable linen and ordered it cut and made up into book bags. Together with other clerks, he stuffed the bags with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, international treaties, and the correspondence of George Washington, including the historic letter resigning his commission.
According to traditional accounts, with Dolley’s approval he took out a penknife and cut the heavyweight English twill fabric from its frame. On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops enter Washington, D.C. And burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1813. In early 2021, the Department of Defense's operational testing and evaluations office determined that "the damage was found to be primarily due to engine exhaust, auxiliary power unit exhaust, and discharge of aircraft fluids onto the grass." The rotors and engine exhaust from the Sikorsky-manufactured VH-92 Patriot will occasionally burn the grass when it lands, an issue that was initially identified in 2018, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
He had not yet been called up into the Maryland militia, so he decided to make himself available for civilian tasks at the U.S. As the official residence of the president and first family, the White House holds a special place in all our hearts. But when British troops set it on fire during the War of 1812, White House staff rallied to save its contents. A White House official told Business Insider that the respective offices involved in the program "are working diligently to ensure a smooth, safe, and timely transition" from the current fleet of helicopters to the VH-92. The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, noted in a June 2020 report on the matter that the military had "yet to demonstrate that it can meet the requirement to land on the White House South Lawn without causing damage."
Most of the carts and wagons had been grabbed by the military, and the remainder were piled high with the goods of civilians in flight. Although President Madison and his wife were able to return to Washington only three days later when British troops had moved on, they never again lived in the White House. Madison served the rest of his term residing at the city’s Octagon House.
With surprising ease, but not without substantial losses (casualties were estimated at 250), the British moved through the American defences to take the city. With few notable exceptions, the American troops - along with Madison and his administration - fled. The Americans' quick retreat later earned the nickname the "Bladensburg races."
Yet this was only a passing incident in a roller coaster of dramatic events. Once in control, the British troops proceeded to plunder what was left of the city. With foresight and determination, the president's wife, Dolly Madison, had managed to save many of the cabinet records and White House treasures. While most private residences were left alone, the White House, the Capitol building (including the Library of Congress), the treasury building, and the navy yard were all in flames before the British left the following day.
Only two objects of art that were in the President’s House before the conflagration of August 1814 remain in the White House today. One is Gilbert Stuart’s full-length portrait of George Washington, which now hangs in the East Room. Both were taken out of the mansion in dramatic circumstances before the British burned the building. Saner counsels prevailed in the government agencies, where many of the offices remained staffed because most of the clerks were over the age of forty-five and therefore exempt from call-up into the militia. But in the basement of the House of Representatives most of the offices were empty because nearly all of the employees were young men.
President James Madison and his wife, Dolley, were aware of the threat, and they made prearranged plans to escape the city if the British attacked. Seeking revenge for the sacking of York (present-day Toronto), the British first stopped at the still-uncompleted Capitol, where they piled up furniture in both the House and Senate wings, mixed in rocket powder and applied the torch. Within minutes, flames were shooting out through the windows and roof, damaging not only the congressional chambers, but also the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court, which were located inside.
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