Military
3
British troops reached Washington on August 24, 1814, only hours after their victory at the Battle of Bladensburg, and made the U.S. Capitol their first target. They fired rockets through the Capitol's windows, and when the building's iron-plated ceiling kept the flames from spreading, they forced their way inside, piled furniture, draperies, and other combustibles together, and fired a rocket into the heap, creating a blaze so intense that it melted glass light fixtures. The destruction of the Capitol, where Congress had voted to declare war on Great Britain in June 1812, left Congress without a home, and the legislators reconvened at the Patent Office at seventh and F Streets, NW, where on February 16, 1815, they ratified the Treaty of Ghent and the end of the war. In the summer of 1814, the United States had been at war with Great Britain for two years, with fighting stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and the British march on Washington after Bladensburg brought devastating results.
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Washington, District of Columbia · United States
