BATTLE OF BLADENSBURG. 507 XXVIII. Bladensburg. Winder thereupon put his forces in mo- CHAPTER tion, except the newly-arrived Virginians left behind to complete their equipments, which a very careful clerk 1914. still delayed by scrupulously counting out their flints one by one. Barney was to have remained to superintend the blowing up of the bridges over the Eastern Branch, but his remonstrances finally extorted from the president, after a consultation with the heads of departments, all of whom were present on horseback, liberty to march with his guns for the field. Campbell moodily retired, having first lent the president his dueling pistols-the same, probably, with which, a few years before, in a political quarrel about the embargo, he had shot Gardinier through the body on the very ground of the approaching battle. With the provision of ways and means on his hands, he had, indeed, a sufficiently arduous task of his own, without aiding in military movements. Armstrong, by permis sion of the president, on Campbell's suggestion that his military knowledge might be of use there, had already ridden to the field. The president, Monroe, and Rush, who soon followed, were prevented only by an accidental piece of information from riding straight into Bladensburg, where the enemy had already arrived. The presi dent, on reaching the field, revoking the permission lately given, directed Armstrong to leave to the commanding general the array of the battle. The Eastern Branch of the Potomac, deep enough opposite Washington to float a frigate, dwindles at Bladensburg to a shallow stream. The 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 CHAPTER artillery, to sweep the bridge. Pinkney's riflemen lined XXVIII. the bushes which skirted the river bank. The Balti1814. more 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 commanding 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, Pinkney 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 the general, the president, and the cabinet officers. Encour BATTLE OF BLADENSBURG. 509 XXVIII. aged by this easy victory, the enemy pushed rapidly CHAPTER forward, till Barney's artillery opened upon them with severe effect. After several vain efforts, during which 1814. 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 2000 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 mass CHAPTER ive, detached wings of that building (the central rotun XXVIII. da and porticoes having not then been built), and to play 1814. 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 thunder-gust, Ross, toward evening, advanced into Washington, then a straggling village of some 8000 people, but, for the moment, almost deserted by the male part of the white inhabitants. 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 putting 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 THE BRITISH AT WASHINGTON. 511 XXVIII of Washington, which ornamented the principal room, CHAPTER had also fled, with her plate and valuables, loaded into a cart, obtained not without difficulty. 1814 The president's house, and the offices of the Treasury and State Departments near by, were set on fire, Ross aud Cockburn, who had forced themselves as unbidden guests upon a neighboring boarding-house woman, supping by the light of the blazing buildings. By the precaution of Monroe, the most valuable papers of the State Department had been previously removed; yet here, too, some important records were destroyed. The next morning the War Office was burned. The office Aug. 25. of the National Intelligencer was ransacked, and the types thrown into the street, Cockburn himself presiding with gusto over this operation, thus revenging himself for the severe strictures of that journal on his proceedings in the Chesapeake. The arsenal at Greenleaf's Point was also fired, as were some rope-walks near by. Several private houses were burned, and some private warehouses broken open and plundered; but, in general, private property was respected, the plundering being less on the part of the British soldiers than of the low inhabitants, black and white, who took advantage of the terror and confusion to help themselves. The only puhlic building that escaped was the General Post-office and Patent Office, both under the same roof, of which the burning was delayed by the entreaties and remonstrances of the superintendent, and finally prevented by a tremendous tornado, which passed over the city, and, for a while, completely dispersed the British column, the soldiers seeking refuge where they could, and several being buried in the ruins of the falling buildings. A still more serious accident at Greenleaf's Point, where near a hundred British soldiers were killed or wounded |