The Road to the Capitol

The War of 1812 raged on land and sea, touching every border of the young nation. On August 24, 1814, after two years at war, Americans faced the British at Bladensburg. American militia were unable to hold back the British attack at the Anacostia River, and Marines and sailors, including U.S. Chesapeake Flotillamen, set up a defense blocking the road outside present-day Fort Lincoln Cemetery. After hours of intense fighting, American forces were overrun and British troops marched on to invade the Nation's Capital. In the summer of 1814, the battlefield landscape outside the village of Bladensburg, in what are now Cottage City and Colmar Manor, was open countryside with gently rolling terrain, farm fields, orchards, and forest, and the battle progressed from the town toward the Capitol by way of the Turnpike, now modern U.S. Alt. 1, and Bunker Hill Road.

Colmar Manor, Maryland · United States