living in america land of the free home of the brave song

Locked in a fierce struggle for global domination with Emperor Napoleon’s France, they brazenly interfered with neutral America’s lucrative maritime commerce with Europe by seizing American ships and forcing kidnapped American seamen to meet the need for manpower on British naval vessels. The British had been largely responsible for provoking hostilities. The Navy was just plain outmatched by the Royal Navy.” Donald Hickey, author of The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, says, “The Army was understaffed, untrained, poorly equipped and led by superannuated and incompetent officers. England remained a mighty world power, while the fledgling United States was strapped for cash, plagued by domestic discord and militarily weak. Reporting news of the rout, the London Courier crowed: “War America would have, and war she has got.”Īs the flames rose across the capital on that sweltering August evening, the American government’s decision two years earlier to declare war on Britain-in a conflict that would come to be known as the War of 1812-seemed foolhardy and self-destructive. President James Madison, along with his attorney general and secretary of state, had fled to safety across the Potomac River. Battle-hardened redcoats had overwhelmed and scattered the largely untrained and poorly led American militiamen and regulars deployed to stop them from reaching the capital. All burned ferociously, as did the structures housing the War and the State departments.

On the evening of August 24, 1814, British troops torched the Capitol, the Treasury, the President’s House (not yet called the White House).

One by one, the buildings at the heart of the American government went up in flames.

Living in america land of the free home of the brave song