For the first two years of the War of 1812, the British had been too occupied fighting Napoleon to devote serious resources to the American conflict. The Royal Navy controlled Chesapeake Bay from 1813, raiding coastal towns and establishing Fort Albion on Tangier Island off Virginia, but lacked the manpower for a decisive blow. That changed in April 1814, when Napoleon was defeated and exiled to Elba. Suddenly, thousands of seasoned British soldiers were available. The Earl of Bathurst dispatched a brigade of 2,500 men -- veterans from the Duke of Wellington's army -- under Major General Robert Ross to Bermuda. From there, Ross would carry out raids on the American coast. Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane concentrated his fleet at Tangier Island: four ships of the line, twenty frigates and sloops, and twenty transports. The backwater war was about to become something much more dangerous.

The American defense was a study in dysfunction. Secretary of War John Armstrong insisted the British would never attack Washington -- it was strategically unimportant, he argued, and Baltimore offered better plunder. President James Madison overruled him and created the Tenth Military District, appointing Brigadier General William H. Winder as its commander. Winder was a lawyer from Baltimore who had been commissioned as a colonel in 1812 and captured at the Battle of Stoney Creek the previous year. He spent a month touring his new command but ordered no fortifications built and made no defensive preparations. Armstrong refused to provide him with staff or allow militia to be called up in advance. When British troops landed at Benedict on the Patuxent River on August 19, Winder could muster only 120 dragoons, 300 regulars, and about 1,500 poorly equipped militia. The roughly 15,000 additional militia he could theoretically summon existed mostly on paper.

The American defense at Bladensburg was arranged in three uncoordinated lines with fatal gaps between them. General Tobias Stansbury's Maryland militia held the forward position near the bridge but had abandoned a commanding hilltop the night before in a panic. Behind Stansbury -- a full mile back, too far to offer support -- stood General Walter Smith's District of Columbia brigade. Further back still, Commodore Joshua Barney's 400 sailors and Marines manned five heavy guns astride the Washington turnpike. Around noon, Ross's army appeared. The Baltimore artillery and Major William Pinkney's riflemen stopped the first British rush across the bridge, but the British 44th Regiment forded the river upstream and began flanking the American left. When British Congreve rockets screamed overhead, Stansbury's conscript militia broke and fled. The 5th Maryland, a volunteer regiment, fought bravely but was overwhelmed on three sides. Within an hour, the first two American lines had collapsed.

The last American stand was made by men who knew nothing about retreat. Commodore Joshua Barney's naval flotillamen and Marines -- hardened sailors armed with 18-pounder and 12-pounder guns -- repulsed three British frontal assaults, counterattacking with hand pikes and cutlasses while shouting "Board 'em! Board 'em!" as if storming an enemy ship. When President Madison had asked Barney whether his Black sailors would run at the British approach, Barney had replied: "No, Sir... they don't know how to run; they will die by their guns first." He was right. Black sailors made up a significant portion of Barney's crew, and they held their ground. But when civilian ammunition drivers fled with the reserve supplies, the gun crews were left with fewer than three rounds. The British 4th and 44th Regiments flanked them. Barney, shot through the thigh, ordered his men to withdraw and was captured. The British congratulated him for his bravery and released him. Total British casualties: 64 dead, 185 wounded. The Americans lost approximately 10-12 killed, 40 wounded, and over 100 captured -- numbers that mask the totality of the rout.

The retreat was so chaotic it earned its mocking name from an 1816 poem. President Madison and most of the federal government had watched the battle from nearby -- and nearly been captured. They scattered across Maryland and Virginia. That night, the British entered Washington unopposed. The Capitol, the White House, the Treasury, and other public buildings were put to the torch. Private property was largely spared, but the symbolic damage was total. Major General Ross was killed weeks later at the Battle of North Point near Baltimore on September 12, 1814. His descendants received a royal augmentation of honor, and their family name was changed to Ross-of-Bladensburg. Today, the battlefield is mostly consumed by suburban development in the D.C. metro area, though the City of Bladensburg has installed historical markers and offers a walking tour. The lineage of the units that fought there endures: the 175th Infantry of the Maryland Army National Guard traces its roots to the 5th Maryland Regiment that held its ground when so many others ran.