Mr. and Mrs. Madison's War by Hugh Howard

Author:Hugh Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
ISBN: 9781608193776
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

Colonel Monroe immediately saw something he didn’t like in Stansbury’s configuration. Monroe believed “the left would be much exposed, as it scarcely extended to the rear of the battery.”2 He ordered one of the Baltimore regiments to a new station, 150 yards farther back to higher ground beyond the orchard. This position, though exposed, offered an expansive view of Bladensburg and the likely British advance. As these and other troops were shifted, Colonel Monroe met with Stansbury. Soon after, at about noon, Brigadier General Winder arrived.

Some eight hundred militiamen from Annapolis, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Beall, marched across the bridge. The men had hustled sixteen miles that morning in the heat. Though dog-tired, they took a position anchoring a third line of defense atop a hill that looked down upon the Washington turnpike, several hundred yards behind the artillery breastwork and Pinkney’s rifles. From the other direction, reinforcements began to arrive from the Navy Yard, and another gun emplacement of three 6-pounders was established on the Georgetown Road about five hundred yards from the bridge, manned by Captain Burch’s volunteers from Washington City. Two more guns were set on the Washington road, their barrels directed at the Bladensburg pass. The scene was ever-changing, with the several commanders issuing orders that shifted infantry, artillery, and cavalry this way and that, not unlike sand on a tidal shore.

Though a member of no militia, William Simmons, a former War Department accountant, appeared at Colonel Monroe’s side. Inspired by the alarm raised at the approaching British, he wished to offer “all the services in [his] power to oppose them.” Simmons volunteered to reconnoiter the enemy as “no person appeared to be able to give any correct account of them.”3 With Monroe’s approval, Simmons rode across the bridge to Bladensburg. Inquiring of militiamen in Ross’s tavern what they knew of the British advance, he learned nothing. Regaining his horse, he rode east to the summit of Lowndes Hill, a rise less than half a mile from the town with an unobstructed view south along the river road. At first he could discern no sign of the enemy, but, after a short wait, he saw “at a considerable distance, a great cloud of dust.” Though Simmons supposed it was the British “coming in great force,” he continued watching.

Soon he spotted “a few horsemen, not in uniform, on the road, who appeared to be reconnoitering.” Then a column of enemy troops began to fill the road behind the advance guard. The infantry marched “in close order, not less than twenty-four or thirty abreast in front.” Simmons wheeled his horse and returned the way he came. As he recrossed the Bladensburg bridge, he saw the first British horsemen entering the streets and lanes of the town behind him.

Less than two months before, a War Department cartographer had surveyed Bladensburg. The man concluded that the town, with its long bridge across the river, offered the American defenders their best chance to stop an invading force bent on attacking Washington City.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.