Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/282

 An American flotilla had taken refuge in the upper water of the Patuxent, and an attack upon this flotilla served to cover an approach to the capital. While the boats of the fleet moved up the river, the troops marched up the right bank to Upper Marlborough. The American commodore, having no means of escape, blew up his vessels. Ross then struck inland, and marched on Washington by way of Bladensburg, a distance of about twenty-eight miles. At Bladensburg he found the United States troops drawn up on high ground behind a branch of the Potomac—6,500 men, mostly militia, with twenty-six guns, worked by the sailors of the flotilla. There were about five hundred dragoons; while Ross had no horsemen except some fifty artillery drivers who had been mounted on such horses as could be found. His troops had to defile over a bridge swept by the fire of the enemy's guns. But he attacked without hesitation. After three hours' fighting the Americans, pressed on both flanks as well as in front, broke and fled, taking shelter in the woods, and leaving ten of their guns behind. The British loss was 250 men, and Ross himself had a horse shot under him.

The same evening (24 Aug.) he pushed on to Washington. On his approach to reconnoitre a few shots were fired, and he again narrowly escaped, his horse being killed. Otherwise no resistance was made. ‘So unexpected was our entry and capture of Washington,’ he wrote, ‘and so confident was Madison of the defeat of our troops, that he had prepared a supper for the expected conquerors; and when our advanced party entered the President's house, they found a table laid with forty covers.’ In the course of that night and the next day all the public buildings—the halls of congress, the supreme court, the public offices, including the national archives and library—were burnt. The arsenal and dockyard, with the vessels under construction in it, had already been set on fire by the Americans themselves. Their destruction was completed; and the great bridge over the Potomac was also burnt. Private property was scrupulously respected, with the exception of the house from which the shots had been fired. The following night the troops began their march back to their ships. It was not interfered with, and they re-embarked on the 30th.

Of this expedition Jomini wrote: ‘To the great astonishment of the world, a handful of seven or eight thousand English were seen to land in the middle of a state of ten million inhabitants, and penetrate far enough to get possession of the capital, and destroy all the public buildings; results for a parallel to which we should search history in vain. One would be tempted to set it down to the republican and unmilitary spirit of those states, if we had not seen the militia of Greece, Rome, and Switzerland make a better defence of their homes against far more powerful attacks, and if in this same year another and more numerous English expedition had not been totally defeated by the militia of Louisiana under the orders of General Jackson’ (Des Expéditions d'Outremer). The United States government had ample warning that an attempt on Washington was contemplated. General Armstrong, the secretary of war, who had made light of it, was forced by the public outcry to resign.

It was decided by the general and the admiral that the next stroke should be at Baltimore. The troops, now reduced to less than four thousand, were landed at North Point on 12 Sept., and had to march through about twelve miles of thickly wooded country to reach the city. About six thousand militia were drawn up to protect it, and skirmishing soon began in the woods. Ross, riding to the front as usual, was mortally wounded, a bullet passing through his right arm into his breast. He died as he was being carried back to the boats. The advance was continued, and the militia were routed; but the attack on Baltimore was eventually abandoned, as (apart from the irretrievable loss of their commander) the navy found it impossible to co-operate, and the troops re-embarked on 15 Sept.

The British reprisals excited great indignation in America. Monroe, the secretary of state (afterwards president), wrote to the British admiral: ‘In the course of ten years past the capitals of the principal powers of Europe have been conquered and occupied alternately by the victorious armies of each other; and no instance of such wanton and unjustifiable destruction has been seen.’ The same feeling found voice in the House of Commons, but Mr. Whitbread, while giving expression to it in the strongest terms, acquitted Ross of all blame, and said that ‘it was happy for humanity and the credit of the empire that the extraordinary order upon that occasion had been entrusted to an officer of so much moderation and justice’ (Hansard, xxix. 181).

The ministers showed their satisfaction with his work both in public and private. The chancellor of the exchequer said in the House of Commons (14 Nov.): ‘While he