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Chapter VI - Battles Continue, Washington Burns
Battles Continue, Washington Burns 1814
Four days after Jackson's victory, Napoleon's European empire collapsed. Freed from battle in Europe, Britain planned to concentrate its forces in North America and finally defeat the American enemies. On April 14, 1814, the London Times declared, "There is no public feeling in this country stronger than that of indignation against the Americans." Fueled by this public sentiment, the British launched an invasion via the Niagara River and Lake Champlain intending to seize New Orleans and cut off the Mississippi River. The British also blockaded New England ports and raided seacoast towns. After several terribly bloody battles in Canada, superior seamanship gave Americans control over Lake Champlain when their ships destroyed or captured all four ships in the British flotilla.
In the meantime, the British decided to attack Washington, D.C., and Baltimore to divert American troops from Lake Champlain. On August 14 while their navy battled the Americans at Lake Champlain, British troops marched unopposed into Washington, where British officers heartily consumed a meal of roast ham and fine wine which had been intended for President and Mrs. Madison. Though the Madisons "hastily joined the other refugees in Virginia," Dolley Madison had the presence of mind to rescue the famous Stuart portrait of George Washington and the original Declaration of Independence from the engulfing flames started by the British troops, The Capitol and all other government buildings except for the patent office blazed into the night until "patriotic thunderstorms" dampened the flames and saved most of the White House from complete destruction.
Returning to Washington after the British troops left, one woman sadly described the condition of the Capitol and the "president's house":
Nothing remained but its cracked and blackened walls . . . . Who would have thought that this mass so solid, so magnificent, so grand which seemed built for generations to come, should by the hands of a few men and in the space of a few hours, be thus so irreparably destroyed.
Even some British citizens expressed "shameful regret" at their troops' action, and one newspaper editor wrote. "The Cossacks spared Paris, but we spared not the Capitol of America."
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