Events
A force of 2,500 soldiers under Major General Robert Ross arrived in Bermuda aboard HMS Royal Oak, three frigates, three sloops, and ten other vessels. They sailed to the Washington area and, together with Royal Marines already under Cockburn's command, Ross landed at Benedict, Maryland on August 19. His forces routed the US Navy's Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, a detachment of US Marines, and the inexperienced American militia at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24.
Immediately after the battle, the British sent an advance guard of soldiers to Capitol Hill. Major General Ross sent a party under a flag of truce to agree to terms, but they were attacked by partisans from a house at the corner of Maryland Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and Second Street NE. This was to be the only resistance the soldiers met within the city. The house was burned, and the British raised their Union Flag over Washington.
The buildings housing the Senate and House of Representatives—construction on the central rotunda of the Capitol had not yet begun—were set ablaze not long after. The interiors of both buildings, which held the Library of Congress, were destroyed, although their thick walls and a torrential rainfall that was caused by a hurricane preserved the exteriors. Thomas Jefferson later sold his personal library of more than 6,000 volumes to the government to restock the Library of Congress.
Read more about this topic: Burning Of Washington
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