Aka The Year Washington Burned

It is quite common knowledge that the American Capital has only been invaded once in its short life but yet very few actually know the story behind it:

The event occurred towards the end of the War of 1812, Many claim that the Canadians were the ones with the honour of being the only country to successfully raze Washington to the ground. This is not exactly the truth because in 1814 Canada was part of the British Empire and it was British troops marching from Canada who flamed the city.

On August 18 the British landed 3500 troops in Maryland and these units marched towards Washington, D.C. The British forces encountered little resistance and the only losses were due to a force of 600 sailors and Marines. The British marched on to Washington and burned locations such as the White House and the navy yard (including all the ships anchored there).

That's about all the information that I could find... could it be that the American system is trying to cover things up in the same way as Roswell and Area 51?

The truth is out there....

Born in 1814: Died in 1814: Events of 1814:
  • Pope Pius VII restores the Society of Jesus, which had been suppressed in 1783.
  • Jane Austen publishes her novel Mansfield Park.
  • (March 24) Percy Bysse Shelley marries Harriet Westbrook to ensure the legitimacy of their children.
  • (July 28) Shelley and Mary (Wollstonecraft) Godwin elope, even though Harriet is pregnant.
  • (August 1) A mock battle, recreating the Battle of the Nile, is fought between model ships on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
  • The war between Great Britain and the United States peters out.
    • (March 30) General James Wilkinson takes 4,000 troops north from Plattsburgh, NY into Canada.  70 Canadian soldiers hold them off at Lacolle Mills until reinforcements arrive.  Wilkinson is forced to withdraw back to Plattsburgh.
    • (March 27) Tennessee militia general Andrew Jackson, along with Creek and Cherokee allies, attack and destroy the rebellious Red Sticks village of Tohopeka on Horseshoe Bend in Alabama.
    • (August 9) The Treaty of Fort Jackson forces the Creeks to give up 20 million acres in Alabama and Georgia.  Much of the land belongs to the Creeks that had assisted Jackson. Red Sticks Chief Red Eagle is allowed to keep his Alabama farm.
    • (August 13-14) British forces capture Fort Erie after a bloody battle.
    • (August 22) British General Ross routs unseasoned Maryland militia at the Battle of Bladensburg.  More British soldiers die of exhaustion from the forced march than are killed in the fighting on either side.
    • (August 23) British troops enter Washington, DC and, in further retaliation for the burning of York the previous year, burn the White House and Capitol, including the Library of Congress, mostly books donated by Thomas Jefferson.
    • (September 11) The British Governor of Canada, Sir George Prevost, sends 10,000 troops into New York. However, the British fleet supporting this invasion on Lake Champlain is decisively defeated off of Plattsburgh (the flagship is captured because it it too big to maneuver on the lake).
    • (September 12) 9,000 British troops land at North Point, Maryland and begin to advance on Baltimore. They are repulsed by the 5th Regiment of the Maryland Militia.
    • (September 13-14) British ships bombard Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor but cannot capture it.  Francis Scott Key, watching the battle from his captivity on board the HMS , writes a poem about the battle, called The Defence of Fort McHenry.
    • (November 7) Jackson captures Pensacola in West Florida from the Spanish.
    • (December 4)  The United States and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Ghent ending the war.  The treaty essentially restores the status quo ante bellum without seeking any remedy to the causes of the war. American diplomats then leave Ghent for the six-week journey back across the Atlantic.
    • British ships offer Jean Lafitte rewards if he helps them take New Orleans.  Lafitte refuses and instead offers his services to Governor Claiborne.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte's enemies close in.
    • Norway changes hands.
      • (January 6) Napoleon's ally, King Frederik VI of Demark, surrenders to the Allies. He switches sides and offers Sweden Norway in exchange for peace.
      • (February 8) Swedish King Karl XIII grants Norway autonomy with nominal Swedish suzerainty.  This is probably the work of Sweden's Crown Prince Karl Johan, formerly Napoleon's Marshal Bernadotte.
      • (February 16) Danish Prince Christian Frederik decides he'd be better off eith Noway's outright independence.   He meets with several prominent Norwegians at Eidsvoll and get agreement to some of his program.
      • (April 10) A Constitutional assembly meets in Eidsvoll.
      • (May 17) The Constitution is passed, with Christian Frederik elected king.  This is the day normally celebrated as Norwegian Independence Day.
      • (July) Sweden invades Norway and quickly takes control of the country.
      • (August 14) At Moss, Sweden accepts Norway's new constitution (again, probably the work of Carl Johan).  Christian Frederik is not allowed to be king, however.
      • (October 8) Norway's new assembly, the Storting, meets for the first time (at Eidsvoll).
      • (October 10) Christian Frederik sails back to Denmark.  The same day, the Storting elects Karl Johan the new King of Norway.
    • (January-March) Volumes have been devoted to these three months. The allied armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden are west of the Rhine.  There is a British army in Holland, and another fighting its way up from Spain.  Napoleon pulls together an army of 120,000 unseasoned conscripts, including 14- and 15-year-old boys, to defend France against a Coalition army of 652,000.  The coalition generals are in awe of Napoleon and timid as mice.  However, as Napoleon rushes back and forth across Northern France, putting out fires here and gaining little victories there, his army gets weaker and weaker, and his enemies only get stronger.
    • (February 27) The Duke of Wellington defeats Marshal Soult at the Battle of Orthez.
    • (March 22) Tsar Alexander I orders the generals to march on Paris.
    • (March 31) Allied troops enter Paris.
    • (April 3) Marshal Ney refuses Napoleon's order for a counterattack on Paris.
    • (April 6) Napoleon abdicates in favor of his son. This is rejected.
    • (April 10) Wellington is poised to enter Tolouse.
    • (April 12) Napoleon relinquishes all claims on France.  This is accepted.
    • (April 12) Wellington learns of Napoleon's abdication, and thus ends the Peninsular War.
    • (May) The Treaty of Paris restores the French monarchy, putting Bourbon Louis XVIII on the throne; Napoleon is exiled to Elba.
    • (September 22) A Congress meets in Vienna to sort things out. Chaired by Austrian Prince Metternich, it will
  • The British enter into a border war with Nepal, controlled by the Gurkhas.
    • (May)  Gurkhas attack three police stations in Bhutwal.
    • (October) Lord Hastings, Governor-General of India, declares war against the Gurkhas.
  • Ferdinand VII is back on the throne of Spain, And he tries to put the rebellious countries in New Spain back in the bottle.
    • (January 17) Argentine General Manuel Belgrano, having been defeated in Bolivia, hands his army over to Jose de San Martin.
    • (February) A military coup in Chile deposes Bernardo O'Higgins, returning Jose Miguel Carrera to power.
    • (March 25) Simon Bolivar's family's plantation near San Mateo is captured by royalist forces.
    • (March 28) The USS Essex is captured by HMS Phoebe off Valparaiso, Chile.  An obstacle to British resupply of Royalist forces in Peru and Chile is removed.
    • (October 1-2) Chilean forces are defeated by a Royalist army from Peru at the Battle of Rancagua.  O'Higgins and Carrera flee across the Andes into Argentina, where they meet San Martin on October 10.
    • (October 22) The Mexican Congress, in Apatzingán at the time, draws up a constitution for Mexico.  The Congress is running around from place to place, one step ahead of Spanish forces.

1813 - 1814 - 1815

How they Were Made - 19th Century

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