Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-08-26
THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON
IN 1914.

| 1nc ioiioWiHS plt VI history lHTSs,tru
to the capture Of Washington City in
1914, we CLEAN from an interesting pa
per published in the last number of the
Manhattan and De La Selle Magazine.
In the Spring of 1914 the admins
tration at Washington felt uneasy un-
der the apprehension that an attack
would be made upon the capital by the
British forces from Admiral Cockburn' 8
feet, which were then ravaging the
coasts of Maryland and Virginia, and
the shores Of the Chesapeake. Ap-
prised of the threatened danger by the
ministers of our government abroad,
President Madison set on foot militia
organization, deemed sufficient for the
emergency. To check Cockburn's bru-
tai career, fotilla of gunboats and
barges was prepared and fitted out un-
der the direction of Captain Joshua
Barney, an experienced privateersman,
to whom the command was given. 1t
was April before Barney was in a con-
dition to commence operations; and his
fiotilla then comprised twenty-six gun
boats and barges, and about nine hun
dred men, well ofiicered by the princi-
pal shipmasters and mates of the port
of Baltimore. He succeeded in clud-
ing the British fleet, inflicted much in
jury on it, and prevented it from furth-
er spoliations.
The alarm of another intended inva-
sion had been treated with contempt by
the Secretary Of War, General John
Armstrong, and by the National Intelii-
gemcer, then and for many years the
leading journal at the seat of govern.
ment. The Secretary sneered Eat the
probability of an attempt to plumber
the Shcep-Walk, rs he styled the fede-
raj city of eight thousand inhabitants,
with streets scarcely defined by foot
paths" 1t seemed, according to Mon
roe's statement to the congressional
committee of investigation, to be the
Presidents object, that position should
be taken between the eastern branch of
the Potomac and the Patuxent with
two or three thousand men. and that an
additional force Of twelve. including
the militia of the District of Columbia,
should be held in readiness in the
neighboring States to march when called
on; the whole to be placed under the
command Of an officer of the regular
army.
On the 14th Of August Admiral Coch-
rane arrived in the Chesapeake, having
set sail from Bermuda with three thou
sand troops, under Major-gencral Rob-
ert Ross, on the 3rd. The junction Of
Cochrane and Cockburn made feet of
twenty ships. Sailing up the bay, Gen.
eral Ross and Admiral Cockburn de-
barked with four thousand troops at
Benedict, on the left bank of the Pa
tuxent, on the Goth August, and on the
afternoon of the next day started, with
out artillery or cavalry, for Washing
ton. The weather was exceedingly hot,
the sun broiliug, and it was the only
semblance of fire the invaders met
though it was sufficient TO cause many
to sink from fatigue-untilt they reached
the heights of Bladensburg unmoles-
ted. by noon on the oath. A local bard
described the security of the village at
the time:
ait was a, ancient Bladensburg,
The weather wondroas hot;
And mot:oniess the tall corn stood,
Ia every garden lot.
Aud in the shade. supinely laid,
Cats, dogs, and pigs were seea;
And geese went sailing on the brook,
Where drocped the willows green;
Went sailing forth a. pleasantly
As nothing were the matter,
Each praising her reflected charms,
In most delightful clatter.
They little ihoug he the hour was fraught
With direful charge Of i'll;
That fast the angry Redcoats came,
Both geese and men TO kill"
British writer's enormously exagger.
ated the dangers and difficulties of
these troops on the march, in order, of
course, as Williams says, to enhance the
glory of their achievement. They COM
plain of the exhausting effects of the
intense heat upon the men enervated
by confinement ON ship board, but, on
the other hand, the release rather ten.
ded 70 refresh; and the Rev. George
Robert Gleig, in The Subaitern in
America, says: "The prospect of q
few days sojourn upon their own ele-
ment was in the highest degree anima-
! ting and delightful" and he represents
the men after the landing at Benedict,
some "lying at full length upon the
grass. basking in the beams of a sultry
sun, and apparently made happy by the
very feeling of the green sod under
them. Others were running and leap
ins about, giving exercise TO the limbs