What allowed the British to be able to burn Washington D.C. in the war of 1812?
score:17
British Major General Robert Ross landed his brigade on 18 August 1814 at Benedict, Maryland, less than 40 miles (65 km) from Washington DC. The Royal Navy had blockaded Chesapeake Bay since spring 1813, and the US had built the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla for protection; this was trapped in the Patuxent River, enabling the British to land.
The only significant battle was on 24 August at Bladensburg, about 9 miles from Washington DC, where Ross defeated a larger force of US militia under Brigadier General William H. Winder.
He then immediately proceeded to Washington DC and burnt the White House, Capitol, Navy Yards and other public buildings that night in retaliation for the earlier burning of Toronto (then called York) and other Canadian towns.
Ross then joined the wider British attack on Baltimore, but died in the Battle of North Point on 12 September.
Upvote:2
@Henry covered the tactical angle, there's also a strategic one.
The War of 1812, lasting from 1812 to 1815, happened at the tail end of Britain fighting France and Napoleon since 1792. Until 1814 it was a side show for the British, particularly the bulk of the British Navy was preoccupied blockading France and French occupied territory.
But in April 1814 Napoleon was finally defeated and sent into exile by the Sixth Coalition; he'd be back in a year, but the British didn't know that at the time. With the apparent end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British were free to turn their full attention to the war with the US.
The bulk of these forces went to Canada to invade New York, they were defeated in the Battle of Plattsburgh. Some, including a brigade of Duke Wellington's veterans, joined the forces blockading the US Atlantic coast. With these additional forces the British planned two raids, one against Baltimore and one against Washington DC, to divert forces away from the Canadian border.
The US Secretary Of War did not think the British would attack Washington DC as it had little strategic value, choosing to concentrate on defending the important seaport of Baltimore, and so Washington DC was left lightly defended.
More post
- 📝 How did warriors age historically?
- 📝 How Successful Were the International Brigades?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 Were people of Third Estate rich?
- 📝 Was Pablo Vicente de Solá married?
- 📝 Were there any elections in the First French Empire?
- 📝 Why were the Germans and Russians so fixated on an unlikely "separate peace" in 1945?
- 📝 Which army uniform is this (2nd Boer British or WWI US)?
- 📝 Who was the Irishman that betrayed Coronel's gold claim?
- 📝 Did the Mapuche conquer other non-Mapuche tribes?
- 📝 Why did democracy emerge in what is now Greece?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Jesus' Mother lived in Ephesus?
- 📝 Which port did Alexander board his ship from, while returning from the Indian campaign?
- 📝 What did Germany do after World War II to recover so successfully that it became more prosperous than its WW2 victors?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 Why was France given such a lenient peace after Napoleon was defeated?
- 📝 When was glass first used to protect art?
- 📝 How were the bodies of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette identified in their unmarked graves?
- 📝 Has the majority ever seceded?
- 📝 What is the origin of these assertions about The Palaces of Qin shih Huang?
- 📝 What are some government expenditure reports from the Middle ages?
- 📝 Which people resisted Russian expansion most fiercely?
- 📝 Did Aztecs know how many continents there are on earth?
- 📝 Who were some of the specific people in the Renaissance who wrote about their period being different from the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Diminishing powers of the Roman Catholic church in international matters
- 📝 3 commander-in-chiefs of india can ever meet in one place
- 📝 Where does Akbar the Great's "Great" come from?
- 📝 Did Julius Caesar say: "Africa, I have grabbed you"?
- 📝 What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
- 📝 Why did the southern states have to be readmitted?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What allowed the British to be able to burn Washington D.C. in the war of 1812?
- 📝 What is the name and meaning of a World War 2 CCC Medal with both the Polish Eagle and British Statant Gardant Lion?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 What was the size of the British East India fleet at the end of the War of 1812?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
- 📝 What was the cleanest war ever fought?
- 📝 What was the Seven Years War called at first?
- 📝 On what basis do some historians accuse the British government of genocide during the great Irish famine?
- 📝 What date does a 1738 British author intend by "soon after the revolution"?
- 📝 What tactical situations made the use of traditional horse cavalry effective in World War II?
- 📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
- 📝 What made the English the dominant power of the British Isles?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 What was lost when the British burned the White House in 1814?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 What was the first known war in history?
- 📝 What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?
- 📝 What factors related to the Eastern Crisis contributed to the outbreak of World War 1?
- 📝 When did the American War of 1812 actually end?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 What percentage of British and American troops were involved in direct combat with enemy in World War II
- 📝 What happened to the British convicts transported to America after the American Revolution?
- 📝 To what degree did women participate in the air war during WW2?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 What were the individual soldiers motivated by during World War 1?
- 📝 What is the story of war that started with "if"?