Today is the 200th Anniversary of the British attack on Washington DC during the War of 1812, one of the three times that our homeland has been directly attacked!
The second was the Japanese attack on the US naval base on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, and the third was the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, leading to the war in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda, and the full development of the War on Terror!
The attack on the nation’s capital led to the burning of the White House and the US Capitol, and the fleeing of Congress to Baltimore, and the saving of the George Washington portrait in the White House by servants of President James Madison. The Library of Congress lost its 3,000 volume collection, and later bought the Thomas Jefferson private collection to replace it.
This was a low moment in the War of 1812, but thankfully, the British left DC after 26 hours, and within months, a truce and peace treaty (Treaty of Ghent) was signed, and the war was over. Also, fortunately, a heavy summer thunderstorm helped to put out the fire in the Capital and the White House, and therefore, less damage was done than might have been otherwise!
The thought that our government center had been attacked was hard to accept, and since the terrorists on September 11 intended to attack the Capitol and/or the White House, and only were stopped by the courageous passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, who brought down a plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, that horrible situation was prevented, but the attack on the Pentagon, right over the DC line in Virginia was a strong enough warning of the threats that still existed then, and still do today with the growing danger of ISIL (ISIS)!
Before the attack on Washington D.C. , there was a military naval strike to a little town called St. Michaels on the peninsula side of the Chesapeake Bay close to where my home is (and where both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney have vacation homes). It is just across the Bay from the mouth of the Potomac River and the Nation’s capital. There was a small ship building industry in St. Michaels, and the British wanted to make sure there was not a US Naval Fleet anchored upriver there to be able to come out and cut their path of retreat off. There was no U.S. Naval Fleet anchored in St. Michaels.
A night raid was planned to bombard the town of St. Michaels. The people of St. Michael’s found out the plan of the British fleet coming up there to perform the naval bombardment on the town. The people of st. Michael’s being quite resourceful, took lanterns and hung them in the trees downriver from St. Michaels. So when the British fleet came up the river and saw the lights in the trees thinking that that was the town, they attacked the wooded area instead of the town, thus saving the town.
They then raided Washington D.C.
After burning the Capital, the British then continued up the Chesapeake Bay to land a military force on an eastern route into Baltimore while the British Navy started their bombardment of Fort McHenry located at the mouth of a harbor for Baltimore. It was during this battle standing on the deck of one of those British Ship, that Francis Scott Key wrote different words to an old British fraternity drinking song, which has become today our National Anthem…..”The Star Spangled Banner”.
Deciding that the fort protecting Baltimore would not fall, the Brutish Fleet recalled their landed ground troops, and withdrew from the Chesapeake Bay.
Fascinating details, Engineer! Thanks so much! 🙂