AUGUST 18, 2024 – On 24 August 1814, during the second year of the War of 1812, British forces defeated American forces at Bladensburg, Maryland, marched into poorly defended Washington D.C., and burned most of the public buildings. Failures to heed early warnings and indications and the lack of an effective intelligence system contributed to this historical tragedy, the only time since the American Revolution that a foreign army captured and occupied the U.S. capitol.
After a series of disastrous campaigns in Canada in 1812 and 1813, American envoys in Europe began peace negotiations in August 1814. While doing so, they carefully noted and dispatched to U.S. officials in Washington any order of battle for British forces being sent to America. Notably, after the British captured Paris in March 1814, these envoys warned Washington the British were capable and inclined to send a large force across the Atlantic to bring the war with their former colonies to a speedy conclusion. President James Madison and his cabinet heard the warning, but their assessments of British intentions varied. While Madison believed the British would come directly for the U.S. capitol, others, including Secretary of War John Armstrong, believed Baltimore a more lucrative and militarily significant target.
President Madison did take some action on 1 July by directing the creation of the Tenth Military District for the defense of D.C., Maryland, and part of northern Virginia. His choice to command the new district was Brig. Gen. William Winder, whose limited military experience was far from exemplary. Winder had been captured by the British in 1813 and, after his release, Madison appointed him negotiator of prisoner of war exchanges. Winder’s inexperience was exacerbated by his foul relationship with the secretary of war. Miffed his own choice to command the Tenth Military District was overruled, Armstrong refused to allow Winder to call up any militia unless the British presented an imminent threat to the capitol. A few weeks later, when Winder did call up about 21,000 militia forces, response from the states was slow and defenses in Washington, D.C. were few.
On 15 August 1814, Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, commander of British naval forces in North America, sailed up the Patuxent River with approximately 4,000 men under the command of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross. Ross’s orders were to affect a diversion on the American east coast to pull troops away from Canada. Five days later, Ross took the town of Benedict, approximately forty-five miles from Washington. The British then did their best to confuse the Americans about their intentions. Ross marched his men to Upper Marlboro, where, although still about twenty miles from D.C., he was easily situated to move on the capitol, Annapolis, or Baltimore. Cochrane also sent a detachment further up Chesapeake Bay to feign an attack on Baltimore and another up the Potomac River to threaten an approach on the rear of D.C. The British objective was not fully determined until Ross marched his forces out of Upper Marlboro in the direction of Bladensburg, just eleven miles from Washington.
At this time, the U.S. military lacked any systematic intelligence organization. Winder had established an ad hoc system of coast watchers, supported by local residents and naval observers, to alert him to the arrival of the British fleet. With no reliable courier system, however, Winder’s headquarters did not receive word of Cochrane’s arrival until 18 August. Secretary of State James Monroe independently took a cavalry troop to get a first-hand view of the British force and returned with an inflated estimate of 6,000 men. While this news spurred Winder to action, he was still unclear of British intentions and scattered his poorly equipped, unprepared forces between the three possible targets.
After the British easily defeated the American forces at Bladensburg, they proceeded into the capitol and set fire to the White House, Capitol building, and Treasury, as well as several private businesses and residences. Their occupation of Washington lasted a mere twenty-six hours as a severe storm extinguished the fires and forced the British to return to their ships.
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Story by Lori Stewart
U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence