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The Burning of Washington
24 August 1814
The British attack on Washington DC climaxed a two-year campaign along the shores of Chesapeake Bay. A British force of 2,500 troops marched from Benedict, on the Patuxent River, through Upper Marlboro, without meeting any resistance. General William Winder, leading an untrained militia, made a stand just west of the bridge across the Anacostia River at Blandensburg. They could not hold hold there position. Although Commodore Barney's sailors and marines resisted to the end, the British regulars overwhelmed them after a two-hour skirmish.
Led by General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, enemy troops entered Washington and set fire to the Capitol. To prevent enemy seizure, Captain Thomas Tingey set fires int he Navy Yard which consumed the sawmill, rigging loft, paint shops, timber sheds, the new frigate Columbia, and the sloop of war Argus. |