Today is Veterans Day in the US, Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth. We honor those who have served in the armed forces. It seems a good day to look at one battle of the Regency period. This is 'my Regency battlefield'. Unlike Waterloo and Austerlitz, it happened near to home.
When Americans think of the War of 1812 they rather vaguely think 'we won'.
They recognize some famous quotes. The Capital got burned. Boo! And there was Dolly Madison. But they have no idea What It Was All About. Historians still scratch their heads over this question.
British people, when this 'War of 1812' is mentioned, are apt to say, "What? Oh, that." For them the war in America was a little bagatelle of a campaign, fought while everybody was concerned with Napoleon.
This indecisive and fairly pointless war crosses my own life the day the British marched into Washington and burned the capitol building. On their way in, they fought in a hamlet called Bladensburg. My home town. I learned the history of this battle in a school perched on a hill where American scouts once waited for the British.
The way this all happened . . .
The British had been hanging about the Chesapeake Bay for many, many months harassing shipping. Now, in 1814, ships, guns, men, and munitions arrived, freed up by the defeat of Napoleon. What would the British do with all these goodies? They could attack Baltimore, which was a valuable commercial and military target. Or they could invade Washington, which would Make a Point.
The British goal was to force a treaty, tidy up this American mess, and sail home to evolve into Victorians. They didn't so much want to conquer and hold land in the Americas, they having plenty of undeveloped land in Canada already.
So they went after Washington.
The American defense of Washington seems to have been based on a two-pronged strategy, namely, 'run around in panic' and 'everybody issue conflicting orders'. The British chose a more traditional 'let's get lost' plan. Both sides wandered about for a day or two across territory I associate with shopping malls and tracts of suburban housing but which was then marshy and mosquito-infested woodland.
Finally, the Americans under their hapless and inept general gathered near Bladensburg where a bridge and ford crossed the Eastern Branch of the Potomac.
British troops, considerably better trained after a decade of fighting Napoleon's finest, attacked. The American troops retreated in disorder . . .
With one notable exception. Commodore Joshua Barney's sailors and marines stood their ground. They put up a gallant fight till they were alone in the field and running out of ammunition. They made an orderly retreat.
Harry Smith over there to the left, though he was considerably younger at that time ― (This is the same Harry Smith who served in Spain under Wellington. His remarkable memoir is free on the internet, here). ― describes this battle and what followed in detail. His troops went on to burn the capital.
. . .we entered Washington for the barbarous purpose of destroying the city. Admiral Cockburn would have burnt the whole, but Ross would only consent to the burning of the public buildings.
I had no objection to burn arsenals, dockyards, frigates building, stores, barracks, etc., but well do I recollect that, fresh from the Duke's humane warfare in the South of France, we were horrified at the order to burn the elegant Houses of Parliament and the President's house.
In the latter, however, we found a supper all ready, which was sufficiently cooked without more fire, and which many of us speedily consumed, unaided by the fiery elements, and drank some very good wine also. I shall never forget the destructive majesty of the flames as the torches were applied to beds, curtains, etc. Our sailors were artists at the work.
Thus was fought the Battle of Bladensburg, which wrested from the Americans their capital Washington, and burnt its Capitol and other buildings ...So that's Bladensburg where I grew up and the battle that took place there. I come away honoring the men who fought on both sides. Could there be a better example of military restraint and professionalism than that shown by the career soldiers of the British Army? Is there any higher standard of bravery than Barney's men who held their ground as the enemy advanced?
Nobody, except some politicians back in England, wanted this battle. But the destruction that Smith deplored probably led to the swift ending of the War of 1812.