Sharp County record., 1879-10-30

Story of an Old Citizen.
A correspondent of the Hartford Times
writes from Washington, August %:
The Battle of Bladensburg and the
"burning of Washington" as some
writer's have spoken of it, took place on
August "a, 1914. Sunday was, there
fore, the sixty-ffth anniversary of the
day. There was no public celebration
of the event, though in several houses Of
our city "the heroes of Bladensburg "
(for there are some of them still living)
met and fought the battle over again;
but this time it was over dinner-table,
the pleasantest kind of a battle, by the
way. On Saturday had long and eX-
tremely pleasant chat with Mr. Nicholas
Callan, one of the originatOrS and lead
inc members of the Oldest Inhabitants
Association, as well as one of our most
prominent Oldest citizens. He has had
official business with every President
since Jackson, and remembers James
Madison very well. Mr., Callan has held
the office Of Notary Public in this city
for these many years, and in that time
has been brought into contact with thou
sands of officials, Congressman, foreign
ministers, who have long since been
numbered among the dead. He was not
old enough to take hand in the Battle
of Bladensburg, but remembers the day
very well, as also the entry of the Brit
ish into this city on the evening follow
ING the battle. [ will attempt to repro
duce the story of that day as it was told
to me by Mr.. Callan. Starting out, he
said:
"The authorities here had received
information from various sources that
the British were coming, and that they
intended to burn the public buildings in
this city. No one knew by which road
they would come. There were no tele-
phones, telegraph Or fast mails in those
days, and news was sent by carriers or
by the pony express only. Itwas learned
a day or so before the British came here
that they had arrived somewhere along
the coast of the Chesapeake Bay; that
they would come up the PatuXent to
Washington. 1t was expected that they
would cross the bridge over the eastern
branch of the Potomac, known then and
at the present day as Benning's bridge.
Preparations were made so that the
bridge could be set on fire as the British
were crossing it, or destroyed so that
they could not get back. Commodore
Barney had charge of detail of sailors,
and Maj. Miller company of marines.
They were stationed at the bridge and
remained there until they found out that
the British intended to enter the city by
the Bladensburg pike. They then went
to Bladensburg and played most i'm
portant partin that battle, which resulted
in the defeat of our side. Our forces at
that battle consisted of several thousand
volunteers, cavalry and infantry. The
majority of the cavalry had never been
on the back of horse before that day;
and as for the infantry, the great major
ity of them had never fired a gun, or
pistol even, in their lives. Firearms
were not as plentiful in those days as
now, and such a thing as a percussion
cap or breech-loader was never thought
of. The British attacking force was
great deal smaller than ours, but was
disciplined. President Madison and his
Cabinet witnessed the battle, having
gone out there on horseback that morn
ing. One of our regiments had no guns.
The others did not get to the battlefield
until it was too late for them to be of
service.n
GLOW was that?" | ventured to ask.
"Well,n continued Mr.. Callan, "the
man who was on duty in the arsenal did
not know much about counting, and he
had some difficulty in getting out the
guns for the volunteers, many Of whom
did not know how to fire them after they
received them; and then, again, he was
a long time in getting and counting out
the fints for them. He counted out the
flintS several times before he issued
them, 50 particular was he that he
would not make Il mistake. On the
road out they met the others coming in
on a lively retreat"
"When did the British arrive in this
city?" inquired.
"They got here pretty soon after our
army did, said Mr.. Callan, "reaching
the city about or ) O'Clock in the af-
ternoon. The battle was fought about
noon, or a little before that hour. re-
member very well their march into the
city. AS they were coming along Il
couple of squares east of the Capitol
some one fired at Gen. Ross, who was
in command of the red-coats, missing
him, but killing his horse. The gun
was fired from the house of a gentleman
named Sewall. Gen. Ross ordered that
the house be burned, and in few min
uteS it was in flames. No other private
property was destroyed. Soon after
that the British soldiers burned the
Capitol, and then marching to the Treas
ury Building, burned that. Then they
fired the Presidents house, and after
that marched to a place on MARYLAND