Battle Of Washington Dc Essay

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The burning of Washington D. C happened in 1814 when British troops led by General Robert Ross who took over the capitol and ordered his men to burn the Washington D. C and the White House. The British did this because the Americans had burned down York (Toronto), the British did this to embarrass the nation of America. The capitol was left unprotected because the secretary of war said that the British were going to go to Baltimore so know barricades were put in the way or militia being called. On August 14, 1814, a battle at Bladensburg, Maryland about 9 miles from Washington D.C. There was a force of 6000 American troops and 4000 British Troops, even though the Americans and an advantage in numbers they were not organized but the 4000 British …show more content…

Dolley Madison took with her a full-length Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and also ordered her servants to collect anything of value. She then went to her husband James Madison who had fled to Virginia. For the remainder of his term as president, James Madison lived in the Octagon house.
The British troops ate dinner at the white house and then set it ablaze along with the Treasury Department building, the docks and all of the public buildings in the capital including the Library of Congress. The only things left were the private buildings. Later on, a storm came to Washington D. C and put out the fires of the British minimizing the damage, but then the storm turned into a tornado and ripped up buildings. The British troops then went to go fight the battle of Baltimore.

The roof was the weakness of the white house. The room was fireproofed but the roof was not so the only thing the British had to do was burn the roof and it would come down on the room and destroy it. The burning made the skylights glass melt and it fell into large chunks. So the real weakness was the

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