The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-09-01
One of the Particular Chapters in the History
Of This Country That WILL Never
Be Forgotten.
The Torch Applied to All the Woodwork Of
the Capitol Building and the Ii
brary Destroyed.

The anniversary Of the capture OF
Washington by the British is on Au-
gust "a, says the Brooklyn Eagle. In
that month and the year 1914 q British
force landed at Benedict, Charles
County, Maryland, and, marching
through the villages of Nottingham,
Marlboro and Old Fields, advanced
to the. ancient town Of Bladensburg,
six miles northeast of the Capitol, and
there defeated an American army. On
the night following the battle the in
raders encamped on common, part
of which is now the east plaza of the
Capitol. They were reckless with the
torch. The sky was red with flames
from the Capitol, White House, Treas
ury, War Office and private buildings
fired by the English.
is listless hamlet on the west bank
of the Patuxent River about forty
miles southeast of Washington by the
commonly travelled wagon roads. The
place has neither railroad nor telegra-
phic connection. though steamboats,
plying between Baltimore aud Patux-
ent River landings stop at Benedict.
The nearest railroad point is Hughes
vile, six miles away, on little sim
-ln al.
long, over which one combination
freight and passenger train travels
once a day. The hamlet. though tri-
butary to a region of exceeding fer
tility, and great natural beauty. is of
less commercial Importance than it
was century ago. It's trade and pop
ulation, like many other of the older
waterside towns in Maryland and Vir-
sinia, have shrunk. Many of the old
houses have disappeared. some by fire
and some by sheer decay. But it is
Il place Of intense historic charm.
The anchorage of the English fleet is
pointed out and the shore where the
redcoats and the bluejackets landed
from their small boats is shown with
pride by the villagers. One may walk
the old street where the English COL
umn formed for it's march against
Washington. Nottingham, a tiny viii
lage; and Marlboro, court town of
Prince Georges County, have changed
very little in the last ninety-two years.
The settlement at Old Fields has vir-
tually disappeared. Bladensburg is
pretty much now as it was then. Still
standing are many of the houses in
and behind which the English found
shelter from the American six-pound-
ers. An old mill, under cover of which
q body of retreating Americans made
a stand, is still grinding. The house
in which General Ross and Admiral
Cockburn, commanders of the British
expedition, ate breakfast on the battle
morning, is in fair state of preser-
walton, but is tenanted by less aristo-
cratic persons than in the long ago.
Though no effort has been made to
keep the battlefield as it was, it has
not so changed but that the men who
fought there would recognize the land,
could they revisit it. The English kill
ed and some of the American slain
were buried on the field, but their
graves have been long ago forgotten.
There is one point on the battlefield
which particularly attracts the passer-
by. 1t is a small spring that has ben
bricked up and arched over so that
it is open on only one side. 1t is called
j. Barney's Spring. 1t was the centre
of the American line in the final stand.
Commodore Barney and 400 sailors
from the notilla of gunboats that had
ben burned in the Patuxent, were post
ed across the road that runs by this
spring. There is no monument on the
Blanedsburg field, but every now and
then suggestion is made that a mark
of some kind be erected there.
A man travelling along the route
taken by the British from Benedict to
Bladensburg can get some very bad
history by the way. For example: One
sees at the spring a negro drinking.
He is an ordinary colored man of the
country, but the day being Sunday he
lis dressed up and wears coat, though