Existing comment:
Heroes of 1814
-- Star-Spangled Banner Historic Trail --
Congressional Cemetery, founded 1807, is the resting ground for many War of 1812 figures. Among them are Navy Yard Commandant Thomas Tingey, the first architect of the Capitol, Dr. William Thornton, State Department Clerk Stephen Pleasonton, and National Intelligencer newspaper editor Joseph Gales. Chocktaw Indian Chief Pushmataha, who served with Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, is also buried here.
Joseph Gale's grave maker memorializes the editor of the National Intelligencer as "a journalist of the highest integrity."
Saving the Declaration:
Thanks to Stephen Pleasonton, the Declaration of Independence escaped the flames of August 1814. Just before the British arrived, Pleasonton rounded up 22 carts, loaded them with the nation's most precious documents, and led them to safety in Leesburg, Virginia. Stephen Pleasonton, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Choctaw Chief Pushmataha,
Basement chamber in Leesburg, VA that stored precious federal documents. Photograph by Ralph Eshelman
In the summer of 1814 the United States had been at war with Great Britain for two years. Battlefronts had erupted from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. On August 24, following their victory over the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, British troops marched on Washington with devastating results.
The Star-Spangled Banner Historic Trail reveals sites of the War of 1812 in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland. Visit ChesapeakeExplorerApp.com or download the Chesapeake Explorer App. |