Existing comment:
Battle of Bladensburg
Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail
The Road to the Capital
The War of 1812 raged on land and sea, touching every border of the young nation. On August 24, 1814, after two years at war, the Americans faced the British here at Bladensburg.
While the American militia were unable to hold back the British attack at the Anacostia River, Marines and sailors -- - including U. S. Chesapeake Flotillamen -- set up a defense blocking the road outside present-day Fort Lincoln Cemetery. After hours of intense fighting, American forces were overrun and British troops marched to invade the Nation's Capital.
In the summer of 1814, the landscape of the battlefield was very different than today. Once outside the village of Bladensburg in modern Cottage City and Colmar Manor, buildings gave way to open countryside -- gently rolling terrain with farm fields, orchards and forests. |