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The most famous of these campaigns is Tecumseh’s War, in which Tecumseh, a Native American chief, led a war against American forces expanding into the region of the modern-day state of Indiana. The American forces, led by William Henry Harrison, won, however, congressmen back in Washington, D.C. Blamed Britain for providing aid to Tecumseh and his multi-tribe confederacy. By 1812, Britain was slowly phasing out America from trade in favor of their colonies in Canada and the Caribbean.
War of 1812 and the Burning of the White House
But it was not the first time the heart of American democracy had been subjected to a violent assault. The Capitol, and even the White House, had come under attack well over 200 years ago, during a war between the United States and the United Kingdom. …If, in any descent, you shall be enabled to take such a position as to threaten the inhabitants with the destruction of their property, you are hereby authorised to levy upon them contributions in return for your forbearance…’ (WO 6/2 folios 1-4). The British troops next turned their attention to the adjacent Treasury Department building, which was also set on fire.
The Battle of Britain
But while the Capitol was built to house legislative governance, it has also been the site of violence in multiple forms. Several factors converging at once have renewed the administration’s hopes that it can break through the stalemate in the next week or two. Mr. Biden’s team wants to capitalize on the successful defense of Israel from Iranian attack, rising public pressure in Israel to free the hostages and Saudi eagerness for a new diplomatic and security initiative. If history is written by the victor, and both sides consider themselves victorious, then even a torched presidential mansion can become a touchstone for patriots. The British and American armies, supplemented by militia and First Nations warriors, pushed back and forth for nearly three years, temporarily trading territory along the Niagara river, and hitting each other at their cores.
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Despite Britain's strong naval presence in the region, very little was done to protect Washington. The American secretary of war, John Armstrong, was convinced that Baltimore was the target. Concerned about the growing expense of the war, he hesitated to call out the militia, and he remained adamant that bayonets were stronger deterrents than barricades.
As the British troops moved onward, Dolley Madison gathered belongings, including her silver, from the White House. The United States capital of Washington, D.C., burned on this day in 1814, but it may have been an act of nature that forced the British from the besieged city. A few days later, the British diversionary force on the Potomac forced the surrender of Alexandria, Virginia (then part of Washington), and seized a large quantity of provisions there. Within a couple of weeks, however, the British had squandered their momentum, losing important battles at Lake Champlain and Baltimore. Their negotiators dropped a demand for a Native American buffer state between the United States and Canada, and on December 24, 1814, the two sides signed a peace treaty in which they agreed to return all conquered land to each other. With the British no longer a threat, reconstruction then began on the Capitol and White House.
The Race to Escape Washington
Washington was quickly rebuilt, with the White House becoming operational in 1817 and the Capitol Building was operational by 1819. Overall, the burning of Washington symbolized that the young nation that was built upon democracy and freedom was able to take a major world power head-on and come out victorious. Thomas Law, a foreign visitor who went to Washington, described the city after the war like a phoenix rising from the fires stronger than ever before. The War of 1812 showed the world that America was a force to be reckoned with and would continue to be perpetual.
Americans feared losing Great Britain as a trade partner, as Britain was one of the two major world powers at the time. As they approached the southeast junction of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the British ringed the low brick boardinghouse run for the past two months by the widow Barbara Suter. General Ross teased the frightened woman, telling her he had “come, madam, to sup with you.” She tried to divert him to the Washington Hotel across the road, but Ross would have none of it, telling her she had a superior location because of its better view of the public buildings. In their brief encounter she was horrified to learn from Ross that one of his spies had duped her a few days earlier when she had taken him for a British deserter and fed him against the advice of one of her permanent residents, the postmaster general. As he left, General Ross told her to prepare a meal for later that night when he would return with a number of officers. In the five years it took to research and write a book on the burning of Washington, nothing struck me as more poignant than Booth’s wrenching despair at that moment.
British Troops Attacked Government Buildings
On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican Americans fired guns in the House of Representatives, injuring five congressmen. The attackers said they acted to demand independence for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. (Puerto Ricans have U.S. citizenship but can’t vote for president and have no voting representatives in Congress.) The injured congressmen survived, and the four shooters received prison sentences. President Jimmy Carter commuted one of their sentences in 1977, and granted clemency to the other three in 1979. Construction of the Capitol formally began on September 18, 1793, when President George Washington laid the first cornerstone. The Clinton White House came under attack once again when pizza deliveryman and onetime psychology student Leland William Modjeski scaled a fence and sprinted toward the executive residence, pistol in hand.
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Next, about 150 men marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, then better known as the President’s House. Upon consuming food and wine that had been set out for 40 people, they stole some souvenirs, like Madison’s medicine chest, and started a new inferno that left the structure a charred mess. The adjacent Treasury building was also burned, although much to their disappointment, the British found no money inside. As they camped that night on Capitol Hill, the glow from the fires could be seen as far away as Baltimore. While the Americans dawdled, the British got moving, with their main fleet setting sail for the Patuxent River on August 17. At the same time, diversionary forces headed for the Potomac River, a more direct route to Washington, and for the northern Chesapeake above Baltimore.
Some of the invaders now closed in on the 67-foot-high twin buildings of the Capitol—the Senate on the north and the newer House on the south. The central part of the Capitol was not built; the two wings were linked by a covered 100-foot-long wooden walkway. Other invading troops marched south to burn more of the Navy Yard, already roaring with flames set pre-emptively by Americans hoping to deny the British supplies and naval vessels. Frost’s colleague, Samuel Burch, had tried hard to persuade his superiors to let him remain at his desk in the hope of saving the House papers. He was finally stood down at night on Sunday, August 21, three days before the British seized the capital. But when he went looking for transport the following day, it was already too late.
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His first line giving way, was driven on the second, which yielding to the irresistible attack of the bayonet, and the well directed discharge of rockets, got into confusion and fled, leaving the British the masters of the field. The rapid flight of the enemy, and his knowledge of the country, precluded the possibility of many prisoners being taken, more particularly as the troops had, during that day, undergone considerable fatigue. By that time President James Madison had fled to safety in Virginia, where he would meet up with his wife and servants from the president's house.
When the British commanders rode out to Capitol Hill, they were attacked by snipers from a house at the corner of Maryland Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and Second Street NE. This was to be the only resistance the commanders met due to the almost total abandonment of the city. Having satisfactorily infuriated the British troops, the house was burned to the ground. With the city deserted, the furious British raised the Union Jack and flew it over Capitol Hill. The War of 1812 would go on for more than two and a half years and include some pivotal moments in US history. One was the Battle of Baltimore, where a bombardment by the British would inspire onlooker Francis Scott Key to write what would become The Star-Spangled Banner, the US national anthem.
Knowing that their enemy was unprepared, the British sailed up the Patuxent River and landed approximately 4500 men near Benedict, Maryland, on 18 August. Their march toward the capital went virtually unimpeded; the worst hazards they faced were the heat and humidity. On the afternoon of 24 August, they reached the eastern shores of the Potomac River at Bladensburg. There, they faced three lines of hastily arranged and poorly distributed American regulars, militia, sailors and marines, approximately 7000 men in all, described as little more than a motley rabble. Most of the spoils were lost when a convoy of British ships led by HMS Fantome sank en route to Halifax off Prospect during a storm on the night of November 24, 1814. This wasn’t the American War of Independence, which had concluded in 1783, but the far more obscure War of 1812, a conflict which has since been pretty much forgotten among non-historians in the UK.
In keeping with their policy of destroying buildings used for hostile purposes, the invaded retaliated by quickly torching the house, even though the anonymous snipers had run off. Before darkness set in, one Washingtonian looked out of her window in horror to see the Union Jack flying atop Capitol Hill as enemy troops moved about brandishing Congreve rockets. Pleasonton loaded the bags into carts and crossed the Potomac River, driving two miles upstream above Georgetown, where he deposited them in an abandoned mill. But then he had second thoughts, for the mill was opposite Foxall’s Foundry in Georgetown, the largest manufacturer of munitions in the country, and certain to be targeted by the British. A spy or turncoat could easily lead the enemy to his nearby hiding place. So he reloaded the carts with his precious cargo and drove thirty-five miles inland to Leesburg, Virginia, where he placed the documents in an empty house, locked the door, and gave the key to the local sheriff.
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