File:The naval history of the United States (1896) (14784084382).jpg

Identifier: navalhistoryofun02abbo (find matches)
Title: The naval history of the United States
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John), 1863-1934
Subjects: United States -- History, Naval To 1900
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead and company
Contributing Library: University of Massachusetts, Boston
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Boston

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ere right, though I couldnot believe you, was the response. They have given us the only fight-ing we have had. Meanwhile, the British, having, routed the Americans at every point,pressed on to Washington. The inhabitants fled before them, and the townwas almost deserted when the British marched in with banners flying andbands playing. The enemy held the city for only a day ; but in that timethey did such deeds of vandalism, that even the people and the press ofLondon cried out in indignation. The Presidents house, the Capitol, all BLUE-JACKETS OF 1812. 491 the public buildings except the Patent Office, were burned to the ground.The navy-yard, with the uncompleted ships on the stocks, was likewiseburned; but in this the enemy only acted in accordance with the rules ofwar. It was their destruction of the public buildings, the national archives,and the Congressional library, that aroused the wrathful indignation of allfair-minded people, whether Americans or Europeans. « Willingly, said
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THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON. one London newspaper, would we throw a veil of oblivion over our trans-actions at Washington. The Cossacks spared Paris, but we spared notthe capital of America. A second English journal fitly denounced theproceedings as a return to the times of barbarism. But, if the invaders are rightly to be blamed for the useless vandalism 02 BLUE-JACKETS OF 1812. ihey encouraged, the American authorities are still more culpable for theireglect of the most ordinary precautions of war. That a national capital,ise to the sea, should be left virtually unprotected while the enemy wasmassing his forces only a few miles away, seems almost unbelievable. Butit was with Washington; for five hundred flotilla men were forced to bearthe brunt of the attack of five thousand British. True it is that the mili-tary authorities had massed seven thousand militia-men for the defence ofthe city; but such was the trepidation of these untrained soldiers, that theybefore the main body of the Bri

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