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The US Congress, at the request of President James Madison, declared war on June 18, 1812. It’s often overlooked, and it’s probably most noteworthy for verses written by an amateur poet and attorney who witnessed one of its battles. I also retraced the steps of the British Army going up the Potomac River, all the way up to Upper Marlboro [Maryland], then across to Bladensburg. The weakness of the British was their arrogance in continuing and trying to win Louisiana. Andrew Jackson completely destroyed the British Army, at the Battle of New Orleans.
The discovery of America… by a Welsh Prince?
Wearing sunglasses and a checkered windbreaker, an unemployed 22-year-old named Anthony Holbert parked near the northwest White House gate on Pennsylvania Avenue and approached the executive mansion. He pulled a samurai sword from a scabbard, waved it in the air and asked to speak with Ronald Reagan, who was then inside entertaining the French president. Sensing the sword-wielding man was mentally unstable and possibly suicidal, officers persuaded Holbert to lay down his weapon and surrender.
Easter Egg Roll: The President's Own Comes Marching In
In this moment of acute crisis a man of scant experience and even less authority was burdened with the responsibility for making snap decisions of crucial importance. He was sorely in need of the guiding hand of the clerk of the House of Representatives, Patrick Magruder, a former member of Congress and custodian of the Library of Congress. But here, as in so many instances throughout this catastrophe, the human factor was paramount. Magruder had been ill for months and had finally taken the advice of his doctor to leave the city to try to restore his health at mineral spas. It was the hottest summer in memory and no rain had fallen for three weeks.
Today We Celebrate the Time Canada Burned Down the White House
Once inside, the soldiers found the dining hall set for a dinner for 40 people. After eating all the food, they took souvenirs and then set the building on fire. The next day, Admiral Cockburn entered the building of the D.C newspaper, National Intelligencer, intending to burn it down. However, a group of neighborhood women persuaded him not to because they were afraid the fire would spread to their neighboring houses. The British commander's orders to burn only public buildings and strict discipline among the British troops are credited with preserving the city's private buildings. The burning of Washington, D.C., in 1814 was one of America’s darkest hours.
Civilians on both sides suffered, there were horrible massacres, and even more bungling by generals than is customary in warfare. Faced with an economy plagued by wildly fluctuating currency valuation and bank fraud, President John Tyler vetoed Congress’ attempt to reestablish the Bank of the United States. When word of his decision spread, angry supporters of the bank gathered outside the White House. The rioters hurled stones, shot guns into the air and hung an effigy of the president that they then set on fire. As a result of the unrest, the District of Columbia decided to create its own police force.
Easter Egg Roll: President Hayes Saves the Day
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But later that night, when they were still two miles away from Machen’s farm, the wagon overturned, and repair and reloading took several hours. The following morning, when McDonald arrived, he took the loaded wagon to the Quaker village of Brookeville, in neighboring Montgomery County, out of the path of the advancing British. The Senate documents remained there until the following month, when they were returned to Washington. On July 2, 1915, a former German professor at Harvard, Erich Muenter, planted a package containing three sticks of dynamite in the Capitol near the Senate Reception room. The explosive detonated around midnight and during a time when the Senate had been on recess.
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Historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin on George Washington
The archival material of the Senate was in equal jeopardy because no one of administrative seniority was on hand to take charge. Samuel Otis, the secretary of the Senate since 1789, had died in April 1814, and no one had appointed his successor in the intervening four months. The principal clerk was away from the city, leaving only two younger clerks, John McDonald and Lewis Machen, to decide whether to take matters into their own hands. Militia, where he commanded a company with the rank of captain, but seven weeks earlier he had bought a farm in Maryland, which disqualified him from holding a commission in the District.
Burning
The war hawks carried the day in June 1812, and with his signature to the congressional approved declaration of war, President James Madison locked the snippety transatlantic upstart into battle against the mightiest power on earth. The burning of Washington, which completely gutted the President’s House, would not have taken place but for the ongoing war between Britain and France, who tried to weaken each other by targeting trade with neutral American ships. The French felt free to seize British cargo aboard American ships and bar U.S. vessels from European ports if they had first docked in British harbors. The British blocked American vessels from entering French-controlled ports unless they first anchored in British harbors. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.
As such, fighting continued, and on January 8th 1815 the greatest American victory of the war took place; the Battle of New Orleans. As neither side had made any significant gains during the conflict, it was decided that a status quo ante bellum should be the centrepiece of the treaty, effectively setting back borders to their pre-war lines. This also allowed the treaty to be agreed and signed with much less wrangling, therefore ending the war much sooner.
Washington’s naval yard was ordered to be set ablaze to prevent warships from being taken into British hands. British Admiral George Cockburn ordered his men to burn the White House, Capitol Building, the Library of Congress (located in the Capitol Building at the time), the Treasury, and other government buildings. However, Cockburn instructed his men to not destroy private residences, and they even spared the Patent Office due to the head administrator convincing the British that inside the building contained private property.
As the British drew closer, the panicked residents of Washington began to depart in mass, and clerks began whisking important papers out of town, such as the Declaration of Independence. Finally, on August 24, after a series of disorganized maneuvers, American forces hastily dug in outside of Bladensburg, Maryland, a crossroads town six miles northeast of the Capitol. Borrowing a pair of pistols from his treasury secretary, Madison rode out to witness the battle, as did most of his cabinet. In fact, the president nearly galloped right into the British lines until a scout stopped him and directed him to safety.
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