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00:00This is one city that's difficult to imagine in flames.
00:30Even post 9-11, it seems inconceivable Washington D.C. is imperial, impregnable, but surprisingly Washington
00:42has burnt.
00:47The Capitol Building went up like a torch, the Treasury Building was reduced to ashes,
00:53and the White House was turned into a smoking shell.
01:01The city's greatest landmarks were destroyed, not as a result of a pudding burning in a bakery,
01:06or a cow kicking over a lantern.
01:08We did it, the Brits, during the War of 1812.
01:14The War of what?
01:161812.
01:171812?
01:17Yes.
01:19I thought 1812 was an overkill.
01:20Yes.
01:21And it's a war.
01:23Well, that's a new one on me.
01:26It's a new one on most people.
01:29The War of 1812 is known as the Forgotten War.
01:32The Americans don't remember it.
01:34The Brits don't even know it happened.
01:36But it's the last time America and Britain went to war against one another.
01:40It lasted two and a half years, and it resulted in some of the most iconic moments in American history.
01:50The bombardment of Fort McHenry.
01:54The writing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
01:58The burning of the White House.
02:02In fact, the only place the War of 1812 is remembered is Canada.
02:07In 1812, the Canadian provinces were very much British colonies,
02:12the nearest the Americans could get to attacking the enemy by land.
02:17And the battles that were fought there are seen as defining moments
02:20in the development of a Canadian national consciousness.
02:24But the War of 1812 is important,
02:27and what better time to revisit it than as we commemorate its bicentenary.
02:32I think the significance of the War of 1812,
02:34at least in terms of what it teaches in modern times,
02:37is that we have to rely on one another.
02:39That the title of citizen is the most important title in the defense of any nation.
02:43It was the first time we stood together as a nation
02:46and really felt like a country that could stand among all of the other nations of the world.
02:50I think it showed that the young nation
02:52actually had the ability, the military capability,
02:56to be able to defend itself.
02:58We had some naval battles where this little tiny nation
03:05beat the biggest, best, baddest navy in the world.
03:10In many ways, the War of 1812 helped define our young nation.
03:14It gave Americans a sense of unity and independence.
03:18It made an icon of the flag we fly and gave us the national anthem we sing,
03:23enduring symbols of our democracy.
03:25I'm on the trail of the War of 1812 in the US capital region.
03:30I'm visiting the sites, the battlefields,
03:32the homes of the big names that played a key role in it,
03:35proving that tracking down history can be fascinating and a lot of fun.
03:39So where do we start our trail?
04:00Well, how about why war broke out?
04:02Because one of the reasons the War of 1812 is so badly remembered
04:05is there was no Great Crusade involved, no slaves to be freed,
04:09no evil to be crushed, no terrorist threat to overcome.
04:14Instead, there were a whole mess of reasons why, in June 1812,
04:17the American Congress declared war on Great Britain.
04:22By 1812, Britain had been fighting France for almost 20 years.
04:27Napoleon held Europe, and Britain held the seas,
04:32but she behaved in a high-handed manner when it came to American shipping.
04:36The Royal Navy impounded American ships to stop them trading with the French.
04:42British captains boarded American vessels and stole their sailors.
04:47And on land, Americans blamed renewed fighting with the Indians
04:51along the Canadian border on British intrigue and guns.
04:55It added up to a sense that Britain was treating the state
04:59as if it wasn't a nation at all.
05:00Still colonies that Britain could do what she wanted with.
05:03The honour of America was at stake.
05:06War was in the air, and here at the US capital,
05:09it all came to a boil.
05:12Free trade and sailors' rights.
05:15The depredations of the Indians are instigated by the British in Canada.
05:19This nation will be disgraced.
05:22Free trade.
05:23Spieler's rights.
05:24British.
05:26Disgrace.
05:26Talk about hot under the collar.
05:29Well, they got their war, but it was a close call.
05:31The vote was 79 to 49 in the House of Representatives,
05:35and only 19 to 13 in the Senate.
05:38It's the closest vote on war in American history.
05:41On June 18, 1812, America went to war
05:44against the most powerful nation in the world, Great Britain.
05:48And it was no desert storm.
05:50In fact, initially, it was a disaster.
05:56The main objective was to invade Canada,
05:59and the Americans set out to do this in the autumn of 1812.
06:03Ex-president Thomas Jefferson famously said
06:07it would be a mere matter of marching.
06:10How wrong could you get?
06:11On paper, it looked so easy.
06:16For 20 years, the US had been shifting ever westwards,
06:20its settlers pouring into Kentucky, the Ohio Valley, and Indiana.
06:25Canada only had a population of 500,000,
06:29compared with the Americans' 7.5 million.
06:34Piece of cake.
06:36But it wasn't.
06:37What the Americans ended up with was a military disaster.
06:40Bad planning, lack of communication, and incompetent leadership
06:44resulted in them being driven back on all fronts.
06:50One of the leaders who helped give the Canadians the edge
06:54was a Shawnee warrior whose father had been killed by settlers
06:58whilst defending his lands.
07:00His name was Tecumseh,
07:03and he was one of the most extraordinary Indian leaders of all time.
07:08Tecumseh saw that the Indians were losing their lands,
07:11heritage, and identity as the United States moved westwards,
07:15and that this would continue as long as the tribes remained disunited.
07:19He set out to bring them together under his leadership,
07:22and when war broke out, he allied himself with the British.
07:29Here we see him in death.
07:31The sculpture of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington
07:35is entitled The Dying Tecumseh.
07:38It may seem surprising that one of their bitterest enemies
07:42should be remembered here in glistening marble,
07:44but even the Americans recognise Tecumseh's courage and chivalry.
07:56To meet Tecumseh's American nemesis,
07:59travel one and a half hours south-west of Washington, D.C.
08:03to Berkeley Plantation in Virginia.
08:06William Henry Harrison was the descendant of wealthy planters,
08:10and he inherited his class's unshakable belief
08:14in America's destiny and his own.
08:18When war broke out, Harrison was the governor of Indiana.
08:22In a series of treaties with the Indians,
08:24he negotiated 100 million acres of land for the U.S.,
08:29and Tecumseh refused to recognise these paper agreements.
08:32In what now might strike us as part of the inevitable march
08:39of American history, the Indian leader was shot in battle.
08:44His body was mutilated and stripped for mementos.
08:48Harrison became the all-American hero.
08:51As you walk around Berkeley,
09:01you'll notice that there's actually very little evidence of Harrison,
09:05and, in fact, most visitors come here in search of a day out
09:08at a beautiful period home and plantation.
09:11There are some interesting firsts associated with the property.
09:14The first Thanksgiving was celebrated here.
09:17The first bourbon whiskey was distilled here.
09:20And the bugle called Taps was played for the very first time
09:24here during the Civil War.
09:4630 years later, Harrison rode into the presidency
09:49on the back of his reputation as an Indian fighter.
09:52He was portrayed as a rugged pioneer brought up in a log cabin.
09:56The truth, of course, was that he was brought up here,
09:59in one of America's first great homes,
10:02with a Virginian silver spoon firmly in his mouth.
10:08Two and a half hours' drive north from Berkeley
10:11is another place where Tecumseh is remembered,
10:14the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
10:24This statue has become something of an icon for the students here.
10:27When the Navy plays the Army at a home football game,
10:30they paint it for the occasion,
10:32and students place pennies here for good luck in their exams.
10:36The Naval Academy is a surprisingly accessible tourist attraction
10:43with its own visitor centre.
10:46It's sobering to think that immediately post 9-11,
10:50there were gun turrets and armed guards on its front gates.
10:54This place is all very officer and a gentleman
10:59and a testament to the professionalism of the U.S. Navy.
11:02Back in 1812, the Navy was far from professional.
11:06In fact, if the U.S. was going to fare badly in the war,
11:09it was going to be at sea.
11:11They had 17 seaworthy vessels
11:13against the Royal Navy's 1,000-plus.
11:17Do the math.
11:18Scott, I've made the point that the U.S. Navy in 1812
11:27was far from ship-shaped,
11:28but surprisingly,
11:30America's first successes against the Brits were at sea.
11:33Tell us about that.
11:35Well, there were three great frigate actions in 1812.
11:40Not the war, just the first six months.
11:43The most famous of these probably is the U.S.'s constitution,
11:47a 44-gun frigate, mounting about 56 guns,
11:51and HMS Guerriere, a 38-gun frigate, mounting about 48 guns.
11:57In this battle, Constitution gets her nickname.
12:02She was fortunate in that when she was built,
12:06she was framed up with live oak,
12:08much harder and denser than the British oak.
12:10And when the Guerriere was firing her 18-pounder cannonballs
12:15against the Constitution,
12:17they were seen to be bouncing off.
12:19And one of the sailors yells out,
12:21Huzzah!
12:22Our sides are like they're iron.
12:25And thence we get the name Old Ironsides for this frigate.
12:30Here we see the famous motto,
12:32Don't give up the ship.
12:34Tell us the story.
12:35There's a lot of irony in that motto, isn't there?
12:40James Lawrence had been awarded command of the USS Chesapeake
12:45because of an action he had had in February of 1813.
12:50He took command in Boston.
12:53There was a raw crew, had not trained together.
12:56He had what he thought was a superior ship.
13:00And off the coast of Boston was the HMS Shannon,
13:05Captain Philip Vers Broke.
13:08Broke had been in command of his ship for seven years.
13:13He used his own money to pay for powder and ammunition
13:17so his crew could exercise with live rounds.
13:21But Lawrence thought he could defeat Broke.
13:26I mean, American frigates have been winning after all.
13:28So he takes a challenge.
13:31Well, Lawrence missed his opportunity.
13:34And very quickly, Lawrence was wounded.
13:39Most of his officers were wounded.
13:41The British boarded.
13:43And just before this, as Lawrence was carried below,
13:48mortally wounded,
13:49he gave out their cry or the moan,
13:53don't give up the ship,
13:55fight her till she sinks, burn her.
13:57Well, his crew did none of those things.
14:00Surrendered the ship and the British had a prize.
14:04They made a lot of it
14:05because it was, I think,
14:06the only prize they took during the war.
14:12An institution like this is a fascinating place to visit.
14:16To attend the academy,
14:17you must be between 17 and 23 years old,
14:20unmarried, with no children.
14:22Well, I tick so few of those boxes
14:24that the only way an old landlubber like me
14:26is going to get a feel for the sea
14:28is to do what other tourists do.
14:29After the break,
14:36I'll be taking a trip on a 19th century schooner,
14:39getting a bird's-eye view of the British at sea
14:42and a taste of vicious war on land.
14:45The War of 1812,
15:00the Forgotten War,
15:02what one historian has described
15:04as the strangest war in American history.
15:07Very few people have heard of it,
15:10but it created some of the most iconic images
15:12in American history.
15:14The burning of the White House,
15:16the bombardment of Fort McHenry,
15:19and the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
15:23The War of 1812 was the last time
15:25Britain and America went to war against one another,
15:29and it determined the destiny of a continent.
15:33I'm on the trail of the War of 1812
15:35in the US Capitol region.
15:36I'm visiting the sites,
15:38the battlefields,
15:39the homes of the big names
15:40that played a key role in it,
15:42proving that tracking down history
15:43can be fascinating and a lot of fun.
15:45I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:49I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:50I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:51I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:52I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:53I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:54I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:55I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:56I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:57I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:58I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
15:59I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
16:00I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
16:01I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
16:02I'm on the trail of the war of 1812.
16:03This is the largest estuary in the United States.
16:24200 miles long, with more than 150 rivers and streams draining into it.
16:30Chesapeake Bay, the gateway to Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC.
16:37One of the great joys of a visit to this part of the world is a trip out on a schooner
16:41and we really couldn't have chosen a better day than today.
16:44Salt wind in your hair, wine in your glass.
16:49I'm on Schooner Liberté, a popular tourist vessel based in Annapolis, Maryland,
16:55that takes visitors out onto the waters of the Chesapeake.
16:58It's a replica of the classic early 19th century schooners
17:02that played such a key role in the War of 1812.
17:07Jeff, explain to me, what is a schooner?
17:10Well, a schooner is typically a two-masted schooner.
17:13The one we happen to be on has three masts.
17:16And that varied. The largest ones had as many as seven masts.
17:19But the difference is in the rigging.
17:22In tall ships, square riggers were designed to move downwind and were useful for crossing oceans.
17:30Schooners are fore and aft rig, and so they go across the wind.
17:35And that made them very effective at moving along coasts, up and down coasts like the United States,
17:41and particularly the Chesapeake Bay.
17:44A lot of the naval warfare of the War of 1812 took place here in the Chesapeake.
17:48Did schooners play a prominent role?
17:50Absolutely. At the very beginning of the war, there wasn't much of a U.S. Navy at all.
17:57The ships were outnumbered 20 to 1 by the British fleet.
18:00And so the United States relied on privately owned vessels that were known as privateers.
18:07They were commissioned to attack enemy vessels.
18:10And most of these were schooners.
18:13The end of 1812 saw the Americans riding high in their encounters with the Royal Navy.
18:19The score in naval engagements so far, America 5, Great Britain nil.
18:25But things were about to change.
18:28The British press had been outraged that America, with its miniscule navy,
18:33had succeeded where even Napoleon's France had failed.
18:36So the British government responded by sending more ships across the Atlantic.
18:40In 1813, the Royal Navy built up a blockade of American ports.
18:45And by November, it stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of New England.
18:54Britain had tied a noose around the States.
18:56In 1813, the war came home to the people of the Chesapeake.
19:01I think we need a bird's eye view.
19:06Now I'm going to do something I've never done before, but I've always wanted to try.
19:09And what better way of getting the line of the land and the sea than from the air on a parasail?
19:14This is such an amazing feeling of elation. It's Monday morning. I think everyone should start their week like this.
19:3315 minutes at 1,000 feet is what's on offer from Shore Drive Parasailing, a company operating out of Virginia Beach, though the trip out onto the water lasts about an hour and a half.
19:52What an amazing view. I can see Virginia Beach. And I'm floating over Lynnhaven Bay. And this was the main anchorage for the British fleet in 1813.
20:11From here, they could control all the shipping going in and out of the Chesapeake. I bet they wished, though, they'd had a view like this.
20:22And there's a real sense of calm. Great.
20:44Now, of course, the increased British presence didn't only mean control of the water.
20:49It also gave them a free hand when it came to raids on land.
20:53In 1813, the Chesapeake was a dangerous place to be.
21:01The British officer in charge was a bullish, ambitious man called Admiral Sir George Coburn.
21:07And throughout the spring and summer of 1813, he raided up and down the Chesapeake,
21:13plundering plantations, capturing shipping and burning settlements.
21:19The British officer in charge of the British.
21:24Coburn became the most hated Brit in America.
21:27So unpopular, a local offered a $1,000 reward for his head and $500 apiece for his ears.
21:34On June 25th, 1813, his troops came here to Hampton, Virginia.
21:41What followed came to epitomise the atrocities of war.
21:45There was murder, arson and pillage.
21:48And, unsurprisingly, pillage was accompanied by rape.
21:56This is St John's, the oldest Anglican church in America.
21:59And it's said that the British sacked it and slaughtered cattle here in the churchyard.
22:04Now, their officers weren't indifferent to these atrocities.
22:07And, in fact, the colonel in charge here was so shocked by his men's behaviour
22:11that he had them withdrawn and shipped to Nova Scotia.
22:15But what really got the British goat in the Chesapeake was the number of privateers that swarmed out of Baltimore
22:26to plague British merchant shipping as far as the coast of Britain itself.
22:33What's a privateer?
22:34Well, it's a form of state-sponsored piracy.
22:37You applied for a licence and then the world's your oyster.
22:40Go out, capture enemy ships, take a percentage of the plunder,
22:43while the rest goes into the government's pockets.
22:46Very cost-effective, thank you very much.
22:51Sweep away the bars, restaurants, shops and coffee bars at Fells Point in Baltimore
22:57and what you'd find here in 1812 was a nest of pirates.
23:01Oh, pardon me, I mean privateers.
23:05Today, Fells Point is Baltimore's trendiest district.
23:08More bars and pubs than any other part of the city.
23:11Back then, according to the British, this was a den of iniquity.
23:15More armed ships sailed out of here during the War of 1812 than any other US port.
23:22126 privateers in total captured or sank more than 1,700 British merchant vessels.
23:29And there was worse to come.
23:34Ah, just the place to rest your head.
23:36This beautiful period, bed and breakfast, just a half-hour's drive from Baltimore,
23:41was the home of one of the War of 1812's great American heroes,
23:45Commodore Joshua Barney.
23:47In 1813, 54-year-old Barney had what could be described as a barmy idea.
23:54Barney could see what the British were up to in the Chesapeake.
24:06And he thought if you could cobble together some gunboats and barges
24:10able to exploit the shallow waters of the bay
24:13and man them with experienced sailors, then you could challenge the British on their own turf.
24:17Now, the government loved this idea, so they commissioned Barney to put together
24:22what would become the Chesapeake flotilla.
24:26In April 1814, Barney and his small fleet sailed out of Baltimore to irritate the Brits.
24:37He may have floated like a barge, but he could sting like a bee.
24:41In a series of skirmishes, he irritated the British who could never pin him down.
24:46There's always something about the little guy thumbing his nose at the big guy
24:50that makes you want to cheer.
24:52But Barney's moment didn't last.
24:54Within a couple of months, the Chesapeake flotilla was sunk.
24:57And Barney and his marines were fighting the British in a very different kind of war.
25:05In Europe, Napoleon had been defeated.
25:08The British now turned their attention to America.
25:12Thousands of hardened veterans were free to finally teach the Yanks a lesson.
25:17The question was, where would they strike?
25:20Annapolis? Baltimore? Even Washington DC?
25:23In the summer of 1814, that was the question facing the little American president,
25:28James Madison.
25:32I'm not being patronising.
25:34Little is what Madison was.
25:36The shortest of America's presidents at five foot four.
25:40But if ever the phrase, never judge a book, had any relevance,
25:44then it described Madison.
25:46He had a gigantic intellect.
25:48He'd been the driving force behind the creation of the Constitution.
25:53It's just that the shy, thoughtful, slightly academic qualities
25:57that made him such a powerful thinker
25:59didn't necessarily make him a powerful president.
26:02Forceful isn't a phrase you'd use to describe Madison, is it?
26:06No, James Madison was not a big personality.
26:09He was not a big person.
26:10And so he came into meetings with the most information
26:13and the most data relevant to the situation.
26:16He didn't come in and just sort of force decisions down people's throats.
26:20He was much more thoughtful, presented evidence and data,
26:23did a lot of research so that he could convince people of the course of action.
26:27You're describing quite a retiring individual.
26:30It's interesting, therefore, that he's so personally associated with this war.
26:34His opponents call it Mr. Madison's War.
26:37Yes, James Madison was Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state
26:40for eight years before becoming president of the United States
26:43and was involved in the whole process of setting up the embargo,
26:46which was designed to prevent the Americans from trading with the British.
26:50And when he became president, things were still not going well with the British
26:55and Madison wanted to do something about it.
26:57And so he's the one who wrote a message to Congress and said,
27:00here's the problems we're having with Britain right now.
27:03He didn't explicitly say, let's go to war with them,
27:05but everybody knew what he was asking.
27:07Congress writes back to him a couple of weeks later with a declaration of war,
27:11which he then signs.
27:12And he became the first president to ask for a declaration of war.
27:16And arguably, he faces the greatest conundrum of his presidential career
27:20in the summer of 1814.
27:22Tell us about that.
27:23Well, in 1814, the British had blockaded the coast of America.
27:26They were coming ashore and burning our towns.
27:29And there was a large number of troops sailing up the Chesapeake Bay towards Bladensburg.
27:35And we didn't know what they were going to do.
27:36We didn't know if they were going to go towards Baltimore,
27:38which would be a tremendous strategic importance,
27:40or if they were going to come to Washington, which would be much more of a political move.
27:44And James Madison got news that the British were there.
27:47He rides out at midnight and heads towards Bladensburg
27:50to see what's going to happen in that battle.
27:52And, of course, from there, an important part of American history begins.
27:59This is Montpelier in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains,
28:03Madison's lifelong home.
28:05In the study, he conceived his own system of government,
28:08the foundation of today's US Constitution.
28:12And here, he was buried alongside his beloved wife, Dolly.
28:20Dolly Madison was the chalk to her husband's cheese.
28:23She was the polar opposite of him.
28:25Vivacious, outgoing, a trendsetter.
28:28She loved being the centre of attention.
28:30She was the presidential wife who inspired the phrase, First Lady.
28:37Montpelier is open to the public
28:39and provides a real insight into the lives of its occupants.
28:43Madison no doubt would have preferred to have been here in the summer of 1814,
28:48as the British prepared their invasion.
28:51On Friday 19th August, 5,000 crack British troops
29:02under the command of veteran general Robert Ross, land of Benedict, Maryland.
29:07Only 32 miles south-east of Washington, they march north.
29:13On Monday 22nd August, the British forces reach Upper Marlborough.
29:17There, they're joined by the hated Admiral George Coburn and his Marines.
29:23By now, the British are only 20 miles from Washington,
29:26but the American government still has no idea in which direction they're headed.
29:30Will they continue north to Baltimore or turn towards the capital?
29:34Both are undefended.
29:38On the morning of Wednesday 24th August,
29:40the American forces are hurriedly organised into three defensive lines at Bladensburg.
29:46Only eight miles from Washington.
29:57Well, I thought I'd get into the spirit of the thing, but take it from me, it is bloody hot.
30:02Now, ironically, the Americans outnumber the British.
30:05There are around 7,500 of them, but they're mostly inexperienced volunteers.
30:10And over there, beyond the modern-day tree line on a hill,
30:14President Madison is watching the whole thing with members of his cabinet.
30:19At 1pm, the British attack across the bridge,
30:26and so begins what later became sarcastically known as the Bladensburg Races.
30:31The first American line collapses into the second.
30:38The two lines make a run for it.
30:40The President and his entourage join in.
30:43The run becomes a stampede.
30:45The Brits move forward and forward.
30:47Only when they reach the third line do they pause.
30:50That line holds, keeping the British at bay for 30 minutes.
30:55And the man in charge of the defence is our old friend, Commodore Joshua Barney.
31:00He only surrenders when he's shot in the thigh.
31:02The British commanders Coburn and Ross are so impressed by his bravery,
31:06they parole him on the spot.
31:08And eventually, he and his marines get a monument.
31:15Over-development at Bladensburg means it's difficult to get a handle on the battle itself.
31:20But the waterfront park, with its bike trails, picnic spots, canoeing and kayaking facilities,
31:27is a beautiful spot to sit and ponder one of the worst American defeats of the war.
31:32Washington was now open to the enemy.
31:38For three days, the American capital has been in chaos.
31:47Its citizens abandoning their homes, carting out their furniture and valuables,
31:52the various state departments shipping out documents,
31:55including the Declaration of Independence.
32:00Of course, Washington wasn't a city like this.
32:03Only 15 years old, it was barely a town, a village.
32:068,000 inhabitants, its avenues mud tracks.
32:10But it was the seat of government.
32:12And here were the nation's two most iconic buildings,
32:15the White House and the Capitol.
32:17Anthony, when the British arrived in Washington, they focused on public buildings.
32:36And you can't get more public than the Capitol.
32:38Yes, the British reassured the remaining residents that their lives and their property would be safe
32:44so long as they didn't take up arms against the occupying force.
32:47With one or two exceptions, they adhered to that.
32:50They were scrupulously fair in sparing the private property.
32:55I'm imagining it's quite a challenge to burn a building like that.
32:58Yes, what the British did, they went into rooms and they assembled the furniture.
33:05And in rooms where there was not enough furniture, they hacked at the doors and window frames
33:10and they spread the piles of wood with the combustible content of the Congareve rockets.
33:14They also tried to fire rockets at the ceiling, but they found that the wood was 16 inches deep
33:20and there was plate glass there and iron sheeting, so that failed.
33:25But the bonfires worked.
33:27All that remains today of the original Capitol is a section of sandstone wall west of the Senate chamber.
33:34As the Capitol burned, the British moved on to the White House where Dolly Madison was waiting for news.
33:41A horseman galloped down Pennsylvania Avenue and shouted at everybody to flee the city
33:46because the British were on the verge of capturing the Capitol.
33:49Dolly refused to leave the White House, even though the President had already crossed the river to Virginia
33:56where they were going to meet up.
33:58She insisted on staying to save a portrait of George Washington by the famous artist Gilbert Stewart.
34:05This was to save it for posterity, for future generations.
34:10Who amongst us would risk our lives for a painting?
34:13She did.
34:18That night the British burned the White House.
34:20Before they burned it, I understand that when the British turned up,
34:23they found, for want of better words, a ready-made meal waiting for them.
34:26Yes.
34:27Dolly had been expecting the Cabinet, the military leaders and some other guests for dinner at 3pm.
34:33So they'd brought up the ale, the wine, and the British set to with abandon.
34:39They feasted inelegantly.
34:42They poured wine from decanters into cut glass.
34:45They were toasting the health of the Prince Regent and the success of His Majesty's Land and Naval Forces.
34:50They even drank to peace with America and down with Madison.
34:53And when one of the men found the ceremonial hat belonging to the President,
34:58he raised it by the tip of his bayonet and he said if they could not capture the little President,
35:03Madison was only 5'4", they would parade his hat in England.
35:07The fires in Washington burned through the night and into the next day,
35:19when, as if by a miracle, the dry spell broke and a storm swept through the city,
35:24causing buildings to collapse.
35:26Some British soldiers were killed.
35:28In Virginia, Madison, a president in exile, watched his capital in flames.
35:33And far away in Baltimore, citizens gazed at a glowing night sky
35:38and wondered, would they be next?
35:43After the break, I head for a city under siege
35:46and witnessed the birth of a national anthem.
36:03Washington DC is burning.
36:05The capital building is in flames.
36:08And the White House has been reduced to a shell.
36:11It's the War of 1812 and the British have scored their greatest victory
36:15against the United States, leaving the American capital devastated.
36:22I'm on Federal Hill in Baltimore, where on the night of August 24th, 1814,
36:27locals saw the light of fire in the sky 45 miles to the southwest.
36:36Throughout the war, Baltimore had been the proverbial pain
36:39in Britain's naval backside.
36:41From here, privateers headed out into the Atlantic
36:44to ravage British merchant shipping.
36:46So, having humbled Washington,
36:48General Robert Ross and Admiral Coburn decide to make Baltimore pay.
36:54The British fleet moves north.
36:58The defence of Washington had turned into farce
37:01as untrained troops fled the battlefield.
37:03Here in Baltimore, the two men in charge were determined
37:06the fate of their city would be very different.
37:16In charge of the city's defence forces was Samuel Smith,
37:2062-year-old revolutionary war hero.
37:25And commanding the strategic approach to Baltimore by water
37:28at Fort McHenry was Colonel George Armistead.
37:32The fall of Washington in late August had a profound impact on the country.
37:39Knowing Baltimore could be next, volunteers poured into the city
37:42to assist with its defences.
37:44They came from all the surrounding states,
37:46so that by the end of the first week of September,
37:48Samuel Smith had more than 15,000 men under his command.
37:53Here at Paterson Park, on the east approaches to the city,
37:58Smith put the men to work.
38:00A choking hot summer was giving way to a wet autumn,
38:04but the men dug trenches and threw up batteries in the soggy mud.
38:08Then on September 12th, three shots were heard from Federal Hill.
38:12The British had landed.
38:18At 2am on the 13th,
38:194,500 British troops under the command of General Robert Ross
38:23disembark on the North Point Peninsula east of Baltimore.
38:27By 7am, they're on the march.
38:29Commanding a force of 3,200 Maryland militia,
38:37General John Stricker moves his troops into three parallel lines of defence
38:42at the narrowest point on the peninsula.
38:45Here at 3pm, the Americans open fire on the approaching British.
38:51The artillery tears holes into the lines on both sides,
38:54but the Brits manage to outflank the militia who start to fall back.
38:59But this is no panicked retreat.
39:02Stricker manages to keep his troops in order
39:05and it's the British who bear the brunt of the casualties.
39:08The battle ends about an hour after it began.
39:14This is North Point Battlefield.
39:16The state of Maryland has bought it
39:18and the plan is to eventually put up signage explaining the battle.
39:22Stricker's troops made it back to the eastern defences
39:25of Baltimore at Paterson Park.
39:27The British settled down for the night.
39:30A pretty dismal night.
39:32Their general, Robert Ross, had been killed.
39:46The following day,
39:47the British advanced within sight of the defences of Baltimore
39:50and they waited.
39:52From Fort McHenry comes the sounds of a bombardment.
39:55A fleet of 17 ships is hurling its might at Fort McHenry.
40:07There are rockets and shells.
40:09From the morning of September 13th and through the night,
40:13through the rain, the attack continues.
40:17A barrage so intense that on average
40:20a bomb a minute explodes over the fort.
40:231,500 rounds in total,
40:26133 tonnes of searing metal.
40:30Baltimore holds its breath.
40:32So does the nation.
40:34Then at 7am on the 14th, the guns fall silent.
40:44And at this point, history becomes legend
40:46because watching the attack is a young lawyer called Francis Scott Key.
40:51And the only question that concerns Frank is,
40:53has the fort surrendered to the British
40:55or is the flag still flying there?
40:58Is the star-spangled banner with its broad stripes
41:01and bright stars still flying over the home of the brave?
41:04Well, as the smoke clears, Frank sees that it is.
41:08And he's inspired to write.
41:10It's not just any old star-spangled banner that inspires Frank.
41:22It's a 30-foot by 42-foot giant garrison flag
41:26that Colonel Armistead hoists on the morning of September 14th
41:30to cock a snook at the British.
41:33The flag was a quarter of the size of a basketball court.
41:43And there's a fragment of it here in the house where it was made.
41:46Today, this is Baltimore's flag house and star-spangled banner museum.
41:50And I'm guessing you must be Mary Pickersgill, the lady who made it.
41:53Yes, hello. Lovely to meet you. Welcome to my home.
41:56Thank you so much.
41:57Wow, this is the fragment.
41:59What was the flag made of?
42:00It was made out of English wool bunting.
42:02And we actually had to use 400 yards of it.
42:06Now, we're here in Baltimore, quite far away from Great Britain.
42:10So you can imagine it took quite a bit of time for us to get all that we needed.
42:14It's a huge piece of work.
42:16I'm guessing you're not the only person who worked on it.
42:18Actually had my mother, who was a flag maker in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War,
42:23who made flags for General George Washington at that point.
42:27And she was the woman to sort of show me how it was done.
42:31My daughter Caroline also helped me with the sewing of the flag.
42:35I had three nieces living in the house, as well as a few indentured servants.
42:40I like to think that the flag was a community effort as well,
42:43as the women in the area also knew what I was doing and came to lend a hand.
42:48It's a wonderful piece of work.
42:49And I can see how Francis was inspired to write his poem.
42:53Thank you very much.
42:54You're welcome.
42:55This is the earliest known draft of Frank's poem, and it's on display at the Maryland Historical Society.
43:16This is probably the best place to come in Baltimore to get an overview of the Siege of 1814,
43:27as well as the rest of Maryland's history.
43:29It's stuffed with artefacts and mementos.
43:32Frank's poem was published within a week, and within a month it was known all over the country.
43:38It was set to an English drinking song, how's that for irony?
43:43But it wasn't until 1931 that the Star Spangled Banner became America's national anthem.
43:50Having failed to take Fort McHenry, the British withdrew from Baltimore,
44:01a victory celebrated all over the nation.
44:04But the British weren't done yet.
44:06One final battle remained to be fought, the strangest one of all.
44:11Strange because it was fought when the war was already over.
44:15The greatest defeat the British suffered during the War of 1812
44:18was at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8th, 1815,
44:22at the hands of the man on the horse, Andrew Jackson.
44:26What nobody knew, thanks to the achingly slow communications of the period,
44:31was the peace had already been signed between Britain and America in Belgium on Christmas Eve.
44:37News of the treaty finally reached Washington in early February.
44:51So what had it all been for? What did the War of 1812 achieve?
44:56On paper, absolutely nothing.
44:59The negotiators in Belgium agreed to return to status quo antebellum.
45:04No mention of sailors' rights, no mention of free trade,
45:08all lands captured, returned, life back to normal.
45:12But something had changed and America would never be the same again.
45:17I think the particular lesson to be learned from this war is that a nation's defense depends ultimately
45:23on the willingness of every citizen to join together with their neighbors to do what's required.
45:29The war really helped America feel like it could stand on its own two feet and wasn't subordinate to other nations.
45:36Once again we had faced the world's greatest superpower, the United Kingdom, and were able to not be defeated.
45:44It dispersed the Native Americans. They were the ones who suffered greatly by it.
45:50They were uprooted from their ancestral homelands, and that opened up westward expansion for America.
45:57America realized that a permanent Navy was absolutely vital, that we couldn't rely on privateers.
46:06The Navy had a sense of permanency after the war, which it did not have before the war.
46:12But the end of the war also laid the foundation for the growing relationship between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
46:19The bonds we now celebrate as the strongest of allies and closest of friends.
46:24Now the war's origins may be obscure today, but what matters is that since its end, our two countries have been allies for almost 200 years.
46:34It's not surprising that a war which in many ways left so much unchanged should be forgotten.
46:40But that doesn't detract from the fact that it's a gripping story with great characters, and it certainly left its mark on the US and Canada.
46:48Well, I hope we've inspired you to set out on the trail yourself, and track down your own war of 1812.
47:00And to help you do that, you can literally follow in my footsteps.
47:03Just visit travelchannel.co.uk slash warof1812trail.
47:08?
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