Hours after routing American militia at Bladensburg, Maryland, a British force of about 4,500 under Major General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn marched into the city. President James Madison and the government had fled. The British burned public buildings in part as retaliation for the American burning of York, the capital of Upper Canada, in 1813. A violent thunderstorm the next day helped put out the fires. The British left after 26 hours.
The War of 1812 had been going badly for Britain in North America, but with Napoleon defeated in April 1814, veteran troops became available. A British fleet sailed into Chesapeake Bay in August and landed an army that marched on Washington. At Bladensburg on August 24, the American militia broke and ran in a rout that became known as the "Bladensburg Races".
That evening the British entered the capital. They set the Capitol alight, burning the Library of Congress with it, and then went to the President's House. There, officers reportedly ate the dinner that had been laid out for the Madisons before torching the building. Hours earlier, Dolley Madison had overseen the removal of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, ordering the frame broken so the canvas could be saved.
The next afternoon a storm, possibly including a tornado, swept through the city, killing some British soldiers and damaging buildings further. The British withdrew. Their next target, Baltimore, held out in September; the bombardment of Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that became the national anthem.
Key people: Robert Ross, George Cockburn, James Madison, Dolley Madison