INVESTIGATING THE BURNING OF WASHINGTON, DC

While reading my primary source and investigating it I started thinking of questions such as, is this soldier telling the truth about why Britain came to burn the capital of the United States, and what did the British army burn at the capital. The primary source says that a British soldier named Gleig believed that the British army was coming to the capital to negotiate a truce with America and fell into an ambush. This ambush, which the British found unjustifiable, was the reason that they burned the capital. This was interesting because after reading other accounts of the burning of the capital, I found that most people believed that Britain planed to burn the capital all along in order to destroy America’s fighting spirit, insuring Britain’s victory. Additionally, there are not many accounts of what was actually burned during the British attack. I would like to find out what parts of the capital was burned.

My prior knowledge of this topic is very little when it comes to the war of 1812. I actually choose this topic in order to learn more about it. I did know that the war of 1812 was started because Britain kept interfering with America even after America gained independence from Britain. Also, I knew that the capital of the United States was targeted and burned but I did not know the details of this event. It is interesting that not very many people knew about the war of 1812 or the battles that took place during this war.

The secondary source that I found gives the date that the attack took place and the time of day that the attack occurred. On August 24, 1814 the British started to attack the Bladensburg Bridge that made a path to the capital. The attack began at 1:30 pm and lasted till 4:00pm. After winning against America, Britain made their way to the nation’s capital at night fall. The attack on the nation’s capital lasted till 8:00pm on August 25. After this attack they headed to Baltimore. This secondary source directly relates to the primary source because the secondary source has quotes from the same soldier in the primary source. I found this very interesting when reading the secondary source that both sources would have the same British soldier telling accounts about what happened during the burning of the capital.   

Sources:      

"The British Burn Washington, DC, 1814," EyeWitness to History, eyewitnesstohistory.com (2003).  

 Greenblatt, Miriam. War of 1812. New York,NY: Facts on File, 2003. Print.