Ryan Fischer's Blog

Washington D.C. The capitol of one of the most powerful countries in the world today. The Heart of democracy. You wonder what would happen if Washington D.C. was ever invaded. Well guess what. During the War of 1812 America was invaded by the British. The City wasn’t that big or with a lot of security like it was today. In 1812 the capitol wasn’t anymore guarded of big buildings then a regular small American town. N0t a lot of people remember this because the War of 1812 was nicknamed ”The Forgoten War”. The burning was a retaliation from when American forces invaded Canada and burned down the Parliment building in York, Canada aka Toronto (controled by the British at the time). James Madison, the President of the United States, was worried that the British would march on and take over Washington D.C. He gave 2 orders: one was to gather any militia that could be found to protect the capitol, and the other was to gather any important documents in the city and taken out of Washington. Two men took a bag and carefully put in The U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of the Indepence in the bag and carried it out of the city. When the British and the Americans met, 6 miles east of Washington D.C. The Americans got slaughtered and any remaining militia retreated. By nightfall the British entered the capitol. They first went to the capitol building and decided to burn it down. Meanwhile in the White House, Dolley Madison, even after the order to evacuate the White House was given, she took the picture of the George Washington and chopped it out of it’s frame. She said it was for future generations. The British took burned down any building they could get there hands on, The Capitol, Library of Congress, the even burned down the White House. Troops outside of Washington could she the flames form 60 miles away. The next day mother nature decided to fight on the American side. Around 2 PM next day a surprising Hurricane hit Washington. Tornados formed, lightning struck and it rained really bad. After the storm the British retreated. So the next time you think to yourself, what would happen if the United States was invaded, think about the War of 1812.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 2:24 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.