Battle of Bladensburg

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Bladensburg
partof=the War of 1812


caption=
date=August 24, 1814
place=Bladensburg, Maryland
result=Decisive British victory
combatant1=United Kingdom
combatant2=United States
commander1=Robert Ross
commander2=William H. Winder
strength1=4,500 sailors & regulars
strength2=6,500 militia
420 regulars
casualties1=64 dead
185 wounded [Heidler p.56 "Encyclopedia of the War of 1812"]
casualties2=11 dead
40 wounded
100 captured [Heidler p.56 "Encyclopedia of the War of 1812"]

The Battle of Bladensburg was a battle fought during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn Washington, D.C.

Background

By now, Napoleon had been defeated in Europe and was exiled to the island of Elba. Thus significant numbers of British troops were free to be sent to North America. Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada, planned for a dual invasion of the United States. He personally led one invasion into New York, from his headquarters in Canada, headed for Lake Champlain. The other was to be transported up the Chesapeake Bay into the central United States under the command of Major General Robert Ross. U.S. Secretary of War John Armstrong did not believe the British would attack the strategically unimportant city of Washington. He instead believed the likely target would be the more militarily important city of Baltimore. Armstrong was only half right—the British invasion was aimed at both Baltimore and Washington. Prevost wanted to avenge the American burning of the Canadian city of York, Ontario (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada (today the Canadian province of Ontario).

Ross landed his forces in Maryland in August 1814 and marched up the Patuxent River. The American commander was Brigadier General William H. Winder, an inept leader who had been recently exchanged after being captured at the July 1813 Battle of Stoney Creek. Winder had at his immediate disposal 120 Dragoons and 300 Regulars, but the rest of his force consisted of 1,500 poorly trained and equipped militia. On the day of the battle some 5,000 more militiamen began arriving on the field. Winder had the numerically superior force, but he was opposed by experienced British regulars.

By August 21, Winder had advanced south to the vicinity of Long Old Fields and Wood Yard, off modern Route 5, to confront the British at Upper Marlboro. Though he rode with the force directly challenging the British, he realized that Bladensburg was the key to the defense of Washington. By holding Bladensburg, Winder kept open the roads to Baltimore and Annapolis, roads upon which reinforcements were already moving. He also blocked one of only two routes available to the British for an advance on Washington, the preferable route, as it happened, because the Eastern Branch [Anacostia River] was easily forded there. Winder ordered General Tobias Stansbury to "take the best position in advance of Bladensburg...and should he be attacked, to resist as long as possible."

General Stansbury posted Ragan's, Schutz's, and Sterrett's regiments, Pickney's riflemen, and the artillery atop Lowndes Hill, just east of town. The road from Annapolis bisected the hill; the road from Upper Marlboro ran to its right and rear. The roads to Washington, Georgetown, and Baltimore intersected behind it. From this position, Stansbury dominated the approaches available to the British while controlling all lines of communication.

At 2:30 a.m., August 23, Stansbury received a message from Winder describing the latter's withdrawal across the Easter Branch and his intention to fire the lower bridge. Surprised, Stansbury was seized by an irrational fear that his right would be turned. Rather than further strengthen an already commanding position, he immediately decamped and marched his exhausted troops across Bladensburg bridge, which he did not burn, to a brickyard 1 1/2 miles further on. In so doing, he had thrown away almost every tactical advantage available to him.

Stansbury chose a defensible position, but not the best position, on the western side of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac (now called the Anacostia River), across from the town of Bladensburg, east of Washington.

Battle

Around noon on August 24, Ross's army reached Bladensburg. Stansbury's tactical errors quickly became apparent. Had he held the heights, Stansbury could have made the British approach a costly one. Had he held the brick structures of Bladensburg, ready-made mini-fortresses, he might have embroiled Ross' troops in bloody streetfighting. Because the bridge had not been burned, it had to be defended. Stansbury's infantry were posted too far from the river's edge to contest a crossing. The Baltimore artillery, armed only with solid shot and posted to the north of the bridge, could not, with oblique fire, prevent the bridge from being seized. President James Madison, having ridden out to see the battle, was nearly captured as he approached the bridge.

The first line of American militia quickly broke and fled before the British regulars. Despite a brave show of resistance by 400 sailors and Marines—who fought against the enemy hand to hand with cutlasses and pikes—under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney at the second American line, these defenders were also forced to fall back when they were in danger of being cut off. Barney, severely wounded with a musketball in the thigh, was captured. Winder had failed to give any instructions in the case of a retreat, and the militia simply fled the field with no destination in mind.

The hasty and disorganized American retreat was so great that the battle became known as the Bladensburg Races from an 1816 poem. The American militia actually fled through the streets of Washington. President Madison, along with the rest of the federal government, soon followed. Thanks to the efforts of the President's wife, Dolley Madison, several historic paintings and other artifacts were saved from the White House. That same night the British entered Washington unopposed.

Order of battle

British

*Foot (Infantry)
**4th Regiment (King's Own)
**21st Regiment (Royal North British Fusiliers)
**44th Regiment (East Essex)
**85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers)
**Royal Marines

ources

References and further reading

* George, Christopher T., "Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay", Shippensburg, Pa., White Mane, 2001, ISBN 1-57249-276-7
* Pitch, Anthony S."The Burning of Washington", Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55750-425-3
* Latimer, Jon."1812: War with America", Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-674-02584-9
* Whitehorne, Joseph A., "The Battle for Baltimore 1814", Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing, 1997, ISBN 1-877853-23-2
* cite book
last =Paine
first =Ralph D.
title =Joshua Barney
publisher =Century Co
date =1924
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =
* cite book
last =Swanson
first =Neil H.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =The Perilous Fight
publisher =Farrar and Rinehart
date =1945
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =
* cite book
last =Lord
first =Walter
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =The Dawn's Early Light
publisher =W W Norton & Co Inc
date =1972
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0393054527

External links

* [http://www.warof1812.ca/charts/regts_na.htm War of 1812 British Regiments]