A big rainstorm hit the city that night after the n÷ britisd gone back to their camp, and extinguishes some of the flames including at the treasury. And coburn, the next morning, he rides up to the white house pretty much for the ae satisfn of seeing the burnt building and he also wanted to make sure that some of the parts of the building that hadt not been extinguished by the rain, and one party sent up to the navy yard, and coburn remarks that he is glad that the americansrn e÷d him the trouble of burning the place, but he sends some of his sailors and loyal marines there remaining buildings that had not been burned. Another party comesvel down hero point, and this was the southern tip of the city at this point. 2p the federal government had a large arsenal ofs;fcannons and hundreds of kegs of powder stored there. And the party Royal Marines gets to it, and they find the well sh, and they try to destroy it, and some of the cannons that had been left behind. And they are in the process of firing one cannon at another, and the breach of another gun in order to destroy it, and they are having some trouble. Theres another storm that is starting to blow up. And the fuse from one of the attempts lands on the ground, and by the account of one of the Royal Marines involved in the episode, the wind picked up the fuse and blew it up, and blew it into the well where all of the powder had been dumped, and suddenly, there is an e enormous explosion with the flames and the debris andcfkz bodies going flying up into the air. Absolutely shook the city. Caused dozens of british witness accounts from the royal marine described bodies flown over the e trees and into the water, and this causes quite a bit of damage both to the british morale and also shakes up the city further. The marines bury some of the bodies here, and they march back to join the rest of the British Force up on capitol hill, and meantime, the storm that has been brewing up, becomes worse and worse. This in fact becomes one or more tornadoes that unbelievably enough run through town in the midst ofa5 catastrophe of the y being burned. You have a tremendously destructive storm that comes through the city, and some witness accounts describe them as approaching from the northwest and running through virginia and then into the capital and down into maryland into southern maryland. Did some damage to both the city and some homes that had been spared by the british ended up losing their roof. The one Federal Building that british which is the Patent Office actually loses its roof to the storm. So there is one woman who is living here in washington at the time who is described, the storm hitting after the city had been burned is just as being almost like the vengeance of god delivered on washington. This is now ft. Mcnair, the National Defense university is head quartered here. It is still an important army. n installation, and this is also the spot where some of the conspirators in the lincoln assassination were hung. After the arsenal explosion and the storm that hits town on the 25th, the british made plans for pretty quick departure, and they never intended to stay for long. This is something that we have to remember is a very is small for est, and general ross was definitely concerned about the possibility of a counter attack, baltimo baltimore. And washington gave consideration of going from washington to baltimore, but ultimately the decision was made that admiral cochran wants them back at the fleet, and tha lh5ee low on munitions. So on the night of august 21st, they covered the retreat by making some fires and ordering a curfew, but they left the city ship ships on the01opo s tos on the and they z31vlalqnreturned to f virtually every vestige of powez destroyed. One force gone and still another coming up the Potomac River. 45 aa u e p the Potomac River. 45 attack on washington has happened, you have seen this attack coming up the potomac. 8 y many in washington thought it would be impossible for the british warships to make it up the potomac, because further down the river from where with e re, there is an area of the kettle of bottoms which notorious shows that no ship carrying heavy guns could sail through, but gordon and his squadron and by hook and crook and by enormous labor were able to use kej anchors to pull ,u themselves are through the mud, and all of the ships end up going aground 20 times each, but they manage to pull themselves through with great seamanship and a lot of muscle. N9otr t hah but this does slow them down. They have gotten, and by the time they get through the kettle bottoms and they are 20 miles or so from washington on the night of august 24th, they see a red glow in the sky. Its washington burning. It is just a stunning sight even from that distance. The flames were such that the night was being lit up. Now, in some ways, this is the disappointment, because gordon and the sailors were hoping to put the torches to theayc city themselves, but, they really had a couple of Different Missions here. This squadron by coming up the potomac was going to be a safety valve for the army forces in washington. If the army came under counter attack, then having the royal px gd c would relieve pressure on them, and perhaps they could carry out some of the army0w forces down the potomac if they were to get trapped at washington. Beyond that, there were some important targets of still up river from where they stood. This primarily included the city of alexandria which was then, although in virginia n the state of virginia, it was then part of the land making up thepk b dis of columbia and it was a very wealthy port on the potomac. And they also could pose a threat to other targets in threz hadnt been rgets in taken by the british army though point. Georgetown had been left alone by the british, and there is an important foundry that makes weapons for the u. S. Navy that is still sitting up touched. Event, they are proceeding up river when they are hit by the huge storm. The remarkable storm that comes through washington on august 25th sweeps down river, and severe severely damages several of the ships in gordons squadron and they have to stop to make repair repairs, and they almost consider turning back at this point, but they keep coming up river, ap they sail past mt. Vernon which is down riverehv f here. Finally on august 22nd, they which is the last fortress guarding thejmuq Potomac River they are on the approach to alexandria in washington. This is the fort that George Washington who lives across the river be built, because it is at this Strategic Point mz that th confluence of the Piscataway Creek and the Potomac River, but the fort that is built here in the early 1800s is not that impressive. In fact, one newspaper account describes it as little more than a pigpen, so it is basically earthworks and gun platforms up there on the high ground, but because of the channel coming to close to the shoreline here, those guns from that height would have enormous effect on any ship trying to sail by. It could have been a much stronger position if the u. S. Government had done more to f t fortify it. Recommendation had been made the prooef youts year that the fo fort the Previous Year that the fort be rebuilt into a stronger and more effective position, and ita1 n had not be done. But even so, it is an obstacle that the british officers estimated would have probably cost them at least 50 men tokuy the take. It would have caused quite a bit of damage to some of the valuable british ships if there and the british gordon and his men wereebc expecting to have real fight on their hands to get theyd just lobbed the first of their shells towards the fort on the evening of august 27th when gordon watching from the deck of his ship seahorse could see what looked like the garrison retreating from the fort, and then there is a terrific explosion, and the entire fort just goes sky high. Gordon and his men are not quite sure what has happened. They dont know whether one of the shells has been a luckb ki shot that hit the forts magazine and the whole thing is going up, or if the americans have destroyed the fort themselves. And it is not until the next morning on august 28th that they send a Landing Party on shore, amazement that this fort which is in position to do harm to the w the americansb c themselves, and th american garrison had retreated. What had happened was captain samuel dyson, the commander of the garrison, he was a u. S. Artillery officer, and he had been assigned, and he did not have a lot of confidence in the gar zn or the equipment that he had, and he had instructions from winder not to let the place fall into british hands. And he decided that based on the position that he could see that he had seen the smoke still rising over washington. Hes got the Royal Navy Squadron still approaching him, and he is thinking that he is perhaps going to be attacked by land and at the same time by british army troops, and he has decided to abb abandon the fort without a 3 he 3ae would soon be courtmard for that decision. An open path to alexandria as well to again, washington. Eiiu were right off of alexandria, virginia. About where the captain gordon positioned his Royal Navy Squadron on august 29th, 1814, f Fort Washington is destroyed, and everybody in alexandria knew that there was no way the defend the city now, and they had been left completely defenseless by t the federal government. And alexanders militia had been taken by general winder, and positioned off of Fort Washington for a while, and now that washington had been burned, they were marched away, and so that the citys fathers had essentially no defenses. Most of the weapons in town, and the cannons save for a couple had been taken away as well. And so the mayor and others had gone to madison the Previous Year, and said, you know, we dont have any defenses if the british make it past the kettle bottoms and Fort Washington, and then we are defenseless, and madison had pretty much said, well sh well, we cant defend every turn of patch. So that the city had been pretty much left on its own. The city didnt hesitate in want ing to quickly surrender to captain gordon, and in fact, they wrorode out a delegation t day before, and said, wait until i position myself off of alexandria and then you can surrend surrender, and so by the 29th of august, he had positioned off of the wharfs here in alexandria, h his bomb ships, and including the ships devastation meteor and aetna, and these ships were capable of setting the city afire pretty much within five or directed shells, and allp scity of beautiful old brick stru structures, and this is more or less George Washingtons hometown the, and he had worshipped here. This city at one point had been one of the largest ports of america, and it was beyond that heyday now shgsdacudq eh, and s city with the warehouses stocked with goods, tobacco, flour, cotton and the scity essentiall, the morning of august 29th, offered this surrender, and this time captain gordon took it, but he offered pretty harsh terms, surrender all valuable material materials that were in the warehouses were going to be turned over to the british and all hesitate to accept them, and as word of this spreads, you know, washington, this great outrage that the city has surrendered, so easily, because there was some thought thatrn alexander should have put up a defense before surrendering like this, but i think that one of the reasons that you still have many beautiful old colonial brick homes in alexandria is because they decidedljin it would be without any real means to protect the city against the ghahe british with the bomb ships anchored out here ready to fire, they anchored up at the foot of king street. Right across from us here where a lot of the warehouses were situated and over the course of the next four days, it took that long to basically empty all of the warehouses and raise the ships that had been sunk, and the british purported themselves quite well and the major of a x alexandria was quite delighted that any time any sort of hint of resistance was offered, he quickly tried to squelch it. At one point captain david porter of the u. S. Navy came to scout out the situation. He was situated up on suitors hill at the high point overlooking the city, and he and another navy officer came down trying to gather some intelligence, and they tried to essentially kidnap a young . n get some information. And they ran down and they came down on the horseback and gr grabbed him, and tried to pull him away, but the lad managed to escape. At that Point Alexander was almost put into flames, all of the warships out here raised their flags and got ready to fi fire. But mayor sims was able to persuade captain gordon that no offense had been meant by the city. So the british continued to empty the city. In fact, they were not able to fit everything on board even with the 21 captive ships that they were taking away as prizes of war, they didnt have room to fit everything. So they had to leave some stuff back here on the docks to their dismay. But, by september 1st, the british were ready to leave, and at this pointp captain gordon has received word that the americans are trying to set up an ambush for him. And in fact, david porter and oliver hazard perry, another well known navy officer, had set up down river . 3r where captain perry e head, and when the ships came by with bounty, they would be pummelled with fire. And also, captain john rodgers, the most senior officer in the navy, working out of the navy yard in washington is coming down river with some fireboat, and these are boats laden with flammable materiel, and they are going to set the ships on fire. And so admiral gordon decidesmet is time to sail. And one of the ships goes aground wheretde the wilson br sits today. Captain rodgers tried to set it after fire with one of the fi firebo fireboats, but the british managed to fend it off. As the british made their way down past Fort Washington, they run into captain porters2nf and for five days they exchanged fire and it is serious back and forth on the casualties on both side sides. Eventually the wind changes and allows gordon the blast his way past the american position. And blast his way past perry as well who runs out of ammunition quite quickly. And the squadron is delayed getting down river, and this is ultimately going to delay the attack on baltimore which has consequen consequences for the british. So when madison after three days as a refugee comes back to washington, he immediately realizes the importance of not surround i surrounding surrendering the city again, and he fights off efforts to move the capital away, and he directs that congress, he insists that and that the news of this, he realized, needed to get on the same ships that were going to be carrying the news of washingtons4gz capture back to europe, and in the same newspapers that would carry the news of washingtons capture around the country. So, he wants to send out a message as quickly as possible st despite the british capture had not surrendered and the government would stay in washington, and the United States was going to fight on. n the fight to get the capital restore d and rebuilt. There is a big debate this congress, and the vote for rebuilding washington as the capital is very close. But it passes ultimately. One of the d,8am is that the british actually by oo leaving federalfh4 building untouched i washington left a place for congress to reconvene while the city is restored. The decision to restore washington is made early in 1815, almost simultaneously news comes of two greath one is the american victory at defeat defeats the same British Force that has attacked washington and baltimore and continues down to new orleans. And then word comes from europe that a treaty has been signed between american e negotiators and the british negotiators iny ghent, and the war still continues though until madison and congress agree to ratify the treaty which happens quickly, but the combination of all of the events, the victory at new orleans, word of peace, the great sense of unity that emerges from the victory at baltimore allows madison and the country to escape from the war with a sense of victory. This war tends to be overlooked and this moment in history tends to be forgotten. I think that it is important for people to understand what a precarious moment this was in american history, and how close the United States came to disaster, and this period right after the burning of washington. It was certainly quite possible that the United States would have ceased to exist certainly as we know it today. And to me, anybody who listens to the star spangled banner or sings it, you know, they have to understand that this first verse that we all sing it at baseball games, and you are listening to it during the super bowl, you always have to remember that verse ends in a with question mark, because key didnt really know what the future would hold for the United States at this moment. And anybody who was alive at this time u understood what with a turning point this was for the United States. Understood what w a turning point this was for the United States. Nderstood what wia turning point this was for the United States. eln heres a great read to add to the reading list, cspans sundays at eight. It is a list of influential i always knew there was a risk of the bohemian and i decided to takeca n it, because whether it is an illusion or not, and i dont think it is, it helped my concentration. It stopped me being bored. It stopped other people from being boring to some extent. It would keep me more awake. To go on longer, to put on more conversation and to enhance the moment. If i was asked if i would do itu again, the answer is probably yes, i would have quit earlier possibly hope togdl the whole thing. Easy for me to say, and not nice for my children to hear, because it sounds irresponsible if i say, yes,