Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-08-25


ington had forcibly brought
~ home to them the truth Of
the old saying that it is an i'll wind
that blows nobody some good, for upon
this occasion the storm that passed
over Washington was accompanied by
such a high wind that it practically
blew the British invaders from the
city.
1t is said to have had the force and
movement of a tornado and did great
damage, blowing off the roofs of
houses and destroying chimneys and
property in general. 1t had been the
intention of the enemy to destroy
Foxall's Foundry. in Georgetown, and
other property there and elsewhere in
the District, but the elements put
stop to their destruction of property
and as darkness approached they kin
died large fires along their lines and
decamped that night, returning to
their ships, at Benedict, by the same
route they came.
Upper Marlboro was reached Au-
gust 26 and anchor was weighed Au-
gust 20, and by the morning of Sep
TENDER 10 the fleet took up a position
a little more than 2 miles opposite
Fort McHenry and the unsuccessful
bombardment that has gone down in
history and immortalized by Francis
Scott Key, was begun.
Another thing which tended to dis
concert the British beside the storm
was the terrific explosion at the
Arsenal, on Greenleaf Point. This
also occurred on July Is, at about 2
o'clock in the afternoon.
"A BRITISH captain, it seems, had
been sent with a company of
soldiers to the arsenal to destroy the
powder magazine. which, however,
upon reaching, they found empty, the
powder having been taken out the day
before and thrown into a dry WELL,
Naturally, not aware that this we'll
contained any explosives, one of the
British soldiers threw lighted match
or light of some kind into it, when
a most violent explosion occurred, re-
sulting in the killing outright of some
British officers and about 80 men.
Many were Shockingly mangled and
died later, while still others were
manned for life.
One report Of the occurrence tells
us that so great was the explosion that
some of the unfortunate victims were
said to have been seen flying through
the air to great distances. others be-
ing totally buried alive under tons of
earth thrown upon them.
So far as known, the throwing Of
the powder in the well was not in
tended to result as it did, but, since
all is fair in war and love, if it was
done Intentionally, it was justifiable
under the circumstances But there
seems to be q certain amount of hui
mainly in every mans soul, and so it
was in this case, for the survivors Of
the catastrophe were carefully taken
to Capitol Hill and those in the most
distressed condition were lodged in
CAROLS buildings adjoining the resi-
dence of DR.. Ewell who alone gave AZ
of them surgical and medical atten-
ton.
ZEN. SIR ROBERT ROSS in his
report of the capture Of Wash
ington says: THE enemy's army
. was under the command of
Gen. Winder, being formed of troops
drawn from Baltimore and Pennsyl-
vania. His artillery, 10 pieces of
which fell into our hands, was COM
manded by Comdr. Barney, who was
wounded and taken prisoner. The
artillery I directed to be destroyed.
Having halted the army for short
time, I determined to march upon
Washington, and reached that city
at o'clock that night. Judging it
of consequence to complete the de-
struction Of the public buildings with