Misery

In the stifling heat on August 24, 1814, British soldiers struggled to keep up their march and rested at Addison Chapel before that afternoon’s battle at Bladensburg. Despite an altered roofline, the chapel resembles the 1809 structure seen by the British. Benjamin Stoddert, first U.S. secretary of the navy, is buried there. The British brought few horses and picked up others along the way, and tradition holds that a British sympathizer on a fine horse greeted British officers resting at Addison Chapel, only to have them take his horse and send him off on a worn-out hack. As Lt. George Robert Gleig recalled, the sun beat upon them in full force and dust rose in thick masses from under their feet and flew directly into their faces.

Seat Pleasant, Maryland · United States