Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/111

The Tin Horn Defense at various points along the Chesapeake, from Baltimore to Norfolk.

My son, we've tried the bugle-trump and it gives me a shiver to think of relying wholly upon such a tin horn scheme of defense. It's just a little worse than the ten-to-one shot.

After the capture and burning of Washington had been so smoothly accomplished, our people got wrathy, and howled. The Secretary of War was chased out of the Capital, and not permitted to return, even for the pious purpose of handing in his most urgently demanded resignation. Washington City had fallen, and the popular indignation fell upon the Secretary. It was possibly no more his fault than the surrender of Detroit had been the fault of General Hull. He had relied upon the state governors to send 93,500 militia to protect the National Capital. But the 93,500 didn't come. As a result of his depending upon a rush of patriots who failed to rush, the Secretary was compelled to fly, "hissed and hunted" to his home in Virginia.

Now, let's skip a lot of bungles, and go [93]