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Battle of Bladensburg

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Battle of Bladensburg
Part of the War of 1812

Following their victory at the Battle of Bladensburg, the British entered Washington D.C. and burned many US government and military buildings
DateAugust 24, 1814
Location
Bladensburg, Maryland
Result Decisive British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom United States
Commanders and leaders
Robert Ross William H. Winder
Strength
4,500 sailors & regulars 6,500 militia
420 regulars
Casualties and losses
64 dead
185 wounded[1]		 11 dead
40 wounded
100 captured[1]

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The Battle of Bladensburg was a battle fought during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn Washington, D.C. It has been called "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms."[2]

Background

By April 1814, Napoleon had been defeated in Europe and was exiled to the island of Elba. Thus significant numbers of British troops were free to be sent to North America. Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada, planned for a dual invasion of the United States. He personally led one invasion into New York, from his headquarters in Canada, headed for Lake Champlain. The other was to be transported up the Chesapeake Bay into the central United States under the command of Major General Robert Ross. U.S. Secretary of War John Armstrong did not believe the British would attack the strategically unimportant city of Washington. He instead believed the likely target would be the more militarily important city of Baltimore. Armstrong was only half right—the British invasion was aimed at both Baltimore and Washington. Prevost wanted to avenge the American burning of the Canadian city of York, Ontario (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada (today the Canadian province of Ontario).

Ross landed his forces in Maryland in August 1814 and marched up the Patuxent River. The American commander was Brigadier General William H. Winder, an inept leader who had been recently exchanged after being captured at the July 1813 Battle of Stoney Creek. Winder had at his immediate disposal 120 Dragoons and 300 Regulars, but the rest of his force consisted of 1,500 poorly trained and equipped militia. On the day of the battle some 5,000 more militiamen began arriving on the field. Winder had the numerically superior force, but he was opposed by experienced British regulars.

By August 21, Winder had advanced south to the vicinity of Long Old Fields and Wood Yard, off modern Route 5, to confront the British at Upper Marlboro. Though he rode with the force directly challenging the British, he realized that Bladensburg was the key to the defense of Washington. By holding Bladensburg, Winder kept open the roads to Baltimore and Annapolis, roads upon which reinforcements were already moving. He also blocked one of only two routes available to the British for an advance on Washington, the preferable route, as it happened, because the Eastern Branch [Anacostia River] was easily forded there. Winder ordered General Tobias Stansbury to "take the best position in advance of Bladensburg...and should he be attacked, to resist as long as possible."

General Stansbury posted Ragan's, Schutz's, and Sterrett's regiments, Pickney's riflemen, and the artillery atop Lowndes Hill, just east of town. The road from Annapolis bisected the hill; the road from Upper Marlboro ran to its right and rear. The roads to Washington, Georgetown, and Baltimore intersected behind it. From this position, Stansbury dominated the approaches available to the British while controlling all lines of communication.

At 2:30 a.m., August 23, Stansbury received a message from Winder describing the latter's withdrawal across the Easter Branch and his intention to fire the lower bridge. Surprised, Stansbury was seized by an irrational fear that his right would be turned. Rather than further strengthen an already commanding position, he immediately decamped and marched his exhausted troops across Bladensburg bridge, which he did not burn, to a brickyard 1 1/2 miles further on. In so doing, he had thrown away almost every tactical advantage available to him.

Stansbury chose a defensible position, but not the best position, on the western side of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac (now called the Anacostia River), across from the town of Bladensburg, east of Washington.

Battle

Around noon on August 24, Ross's army reached Bladensburg. Stansbury's tactical errors quickly became apparent. Had he held the heights, Stansbury could have made the British approach a costly one. Had he held the brick structures of Bladensburg, ready-made mini-fortresses, he might have embroiled Ross' troops in bloody streetfighting. Because the bridge had not been burned, it had to be defended. Stansbury's infantry were posted too far from the river's edge to contest a crossing. The Baltimore artillery, armed only with solid shot and posted to the north of the bridge, could not, with oblique fire, prevent the bridge from being seized. President James Madison, having ridden out to see the battle, was nearly captured as he approached the bridge.

As the British artillery fired Congreve rockets, the first line of American militia panicked, broke and fled before the British regulars and the newly formed Corps of Colonial Marines locally recruited from Black refugees from slavery. Winder ordered a retreat.[3] Despite a brave show of resistance by 400 sailors and Marines—who fought against the enemy hand to hand with cutlasses and pikes—under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney at the second American line, these defenders were also forced to fall back when they were in danger of being cut off. Barney, severely wounded with a musketball in the thigh, was captured. Winder had failed to give any instructions in the case of a retreat, and the militia simply fled the field with no destination in mind.

The hasty and disorganized American retreat was so great that the battle became known as the Bladensburg Races from an 1816 poem. The battle was termed "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms" and "the most humiliating episode in American history."[4] The American militia actually fled through the streets of Washington. President Madison, along with the rest of the federal government, soon followed. Thanks to the efforts of the President's wife, Dolley Madison, several historic paintings and other artifacts were saved from the White House. That same night the British entered Washington unopposed.

Order of battle

British

American

Not listed in order of battle:

References

  1. ^ a b Heidler p.56 Encyclopedia of the War of 1812
  2. ^ Howe 2007 p.63
  3. ^ Howe 2007 p.63
  4. ^ quoted in Howe 2007 p.63

Sources and further reading

  • George, Christopher T., Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay, Shippensburg, Pa., White Mane, 2001, ISBN 1-57249-276-7
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What hath God wrought: the transformation of America, 1815-1848. Oxford University Press US. p. 904. ISBN 9780195078947.
  • Latimer, Jon.1812: War with America, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-674-02584-9
  • Lord, Walter (1972). The Dawn's Early Light. W W Norton & Co Inc. ISBN 0393054527. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Paine, Ralph D. (1924). Joshua Barney. Century Co.
  • Pitch, Anthony S.The Burning of Washington, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55750-425-3
  • Swanson, Neil H. (1945). The Perilous Fight. Farrar and Rinehart. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Whitehorne, Joseph A., The Battle for Baltimore 1814, Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing, 1997, ISBN 1-877853-23-2
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