Battle of Bladensburg

As the British came up, the Baltimore regiment fled also, sweeping off with them General Winder, the President, and the Cabinet officers.

Continuing British Burns Washington, D.C.,
with a selection from The History of the United States of America by Richard Hildreth published in 1880. This selection is presented in 3.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in British Burns Washington, D.C..

Time: August 24, 1814
Place: USA Capital City

The Eastern Branch of the Potomac, deep enough opposite Washington to float a frigate, dwindles at Bladensburg to a shallow stream. A few houses occupy the eastern bank. Stansbury, abandoning the village and the bridge, had posted his men on an eminence on the Washington side of the river, with his right on the Washington road, in which were planted two pieces of artillery, to sweep the bridge. Pinckney’s riflemen lined the bushes which skirted the riverbank. The Baltimore regiment had been originally posted nearest the bridge, but, by Monroe’s orders, who rode up just before the battle began, they were thrown back behind an orchard, leaving Stansbury’s drafted men to stand the first brunt of attack. As Winder reached the front, other military amateurs were busy in giving their advice, the enemy’s column just then beginning to show itself on the opposite bank. Another Maryland regiment, which had marched that morning from Annapolis, but by a route which avoided the British army, appeared just at this moment on the field, and occupied a com manding eminence. The forces from Washington, as they arrived, were drawn up in the rear of the Maryland line. Barney, with his sailors, and Miller, of the marines, arrived last, and planted four heavy guns in a position to sweep the road, with the advantage, also, of being flanked by the Annapolis regiment.

The British soldiers, by the time they reached Bladensburg, were almost ready to drop, so excessive was the heat and so formidable was the appearance of the American army that Ross and his officers, reconnoitering from one of the highest houses of the village, were not a little uneasy as to the result. But it was now too late to hesitate. The British column, again in motion after a momentary check, dashed across the bridge. Some discharges of Congreve rockets put the Maryland drafted militia to flight. They were followed by the riflemen, Pinckney getting a broken arm in the tumult, and by the artillerymen, whose pieces had scarcely been twice discharged; and as the British came up, the Baltimore regiment fled also, sweeping off with them General Winder, the President, and the Cabinet officers. Encouraged by this easy victory, the enemy pushed rapidly forward, till Barney’s artillery opened upon them with severe effect. After several vain efforts, during which many fell, to advance in face of this fire, advantage was taken of the shelter of a ravine to file off by the right and left. Those who emerged on the left encountered the Annapolis regiment, which fled after a single fire. Those on the right fell in with some detachments of regulars, forming an advanced portion of the second line. They retired with equal promptitude, as did the militia behind them; and the enemy having thus gained both flanks, the sailors and marines were obliged to fly, leaving their guns and their wounded commanders in the enemy’s hands.

Such was the famous Battle of Bladensburg, in which very few Americans had the honor to be either killed or wounded, not more than fifty in all; and yet, according to the evidence subsequently given before a Congressional committee of investigation, everybody behaved with wonderful courage and coolness, and nobody retired except by orders or for want of orders. The British loss was a good deal larger, principally in the attack on the sailors and marines. Several had dropped dead with heat and fatigue; and the whole force was so completely exhausted that it was necessary to allow them some hours’ rest before advancing on Washington.

The Maryland militia, as they fled, dispersed in every direction, and soon ceased to exist as an embodied force. The District militia kept more together; the Virginians had at last obtained their flints; and Winder had still at his command some two thousand men and several pieces of artillery. Two miles from Washington a momentary stand was made, but the retreating troops soon fell back to the Capitol. Armstrong wished to occupy the two massive, detached wings of that building (the central rotunda and porticos having not then been built), and to play the part of the British in Chew’s house * at the Battle of Germantown. But, if able to withstand an assault, how long could they hold out without provisions or water? It was finally decided to abandon Washington, and to rally on the heights of Georgetown. Simultaneously with this abandonment of their homes by an army that retired but did not rally, fire was put at the navy-yard to a frigate on the stocks, to a sloop-of-war lately launched, and to several magazines of stores and provisions, for the destruction of which ample preparations had been made; and by the light of this fire, made lurid by a sudden thunderbolt, Ross, toward evening, advanced into Washington, then a straggling village of some eight thousand people but, for the moment, almost deserted by the male part of the white inhabitants.

[* The British during the action occupied the Chew house as a fortress, and its stone walls still show the marks left by American shot. ED.]

From Gallatin’s late residence, one of the first considerable houses which the British column passed, a shot was fired which killed Ross’s horse, and which was instantly revenged by setting fire to the house. After three or four British volleys at the Capitol, the two detached wings were set on fire. The massive walls defied the flames, but all the interior was destroyed, with many valuable papers, and the library of Congress —- a piece of vandalism alleged to be in revenge for the burning of the Parliament House at York. An encampment was formed on Capitol Hill; but meanwhile a detachment marched along Pennsylvania Avenue to the President’s house, of which the great hall had been converted into a military magazine, and before which some cannon had been placed. These cannon, however, had been carried off, and Mrs. Madison, having first stripped from its frame and provided for the safety of a valuable portrait of Washington, which ornamented the principal room, had also fled, with her plate and valuables loaded into a cart, obtained not without difficulty.

Richard Hildreth begins here. George R. Gleig begins here.

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