plattsburgh, the war of 1812's most decisive battle, takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> pilot, joseph baron, ship, saratoga, september 11th, 1814, battle of plattsburgh in cumberland bay. this is a battle that is lost to american history. it is the first 100th anniversary, it was known by everyone. this was a huge celebration. people knew how important the battle of plattsburgh was. but in the meantime, things have changed. that poem became the national anthem. baltimore is in the center of a populated area. and people have been taught what took place there and what took place there was very important. but it was a diversion. the real battle was up here. you see, if the british can take

plattsburgh, there is no troops between here and washington, d.c. there is no american -- the cavalry is not coming. and with plattsburgh gone, they can sweep down the lake, they can go on to lake george, and they can go on to the hudson and split the united states in half. in the meantime, the treaty of gent talks are on. and this is a bargaining chip. if you can take plattsburgh, and you can redraw the northern border of the united states, wherever the british troop lines are at the time, well, these negotiations are going on, that's going to be the new northern border. what they had in mind, they didn't plan to take the united states again. this is not a revolution. what they planned was they wanted a new northern border for the united states. not the 45th parallel, but the 43rd. they wanted the northern border of massachusetts to be the border of the northern united states. if you take that line, and you run it across the country, take

that parallel, you end up in buffalo. that means that the united states would have lost maine, vermont, new hampshire, and all of northern new york. that way the british would have had control of the southern and that's what they were after. but plattsburgh put a stop to that. the british army is notñc in t united states. the british army is back in canada, and so when the treaty is signed on christmas eve, 1814, the status quo is what we see today. >> each week, american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. 200 years ago on september 11th, 1814, british and american naval forces clashed for 2 1/2 hours in cumberland bay, near

plattsburgh, new york. the battle was the culmination of six days of army and navy conflict. up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired army colonel david fitzend, author of the final invasion, platsburg, the war of 1812's most decisive battle takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> we're at the clinton county museum in plattsburgh, northern new york, on lake champlain. today i got something to show you that is very rare. the militia deployed from the state of new york and there were 2500 that were asked to come to fight the british as they cross the border. but only 700 showed up. and captain martin akin, who is the son of a lieutenant colonel in the militia, he decided that he had all these weapons and no one to use them. since the arsenal for the militia was in the basement of st. john's academy, he went upstairs to see the reverend. and he asked to address the class and the class consists of boys and girls, of course, teenagers. and he said to the boys, your

fathers are all going forward it fight the british. and you're here, you can really help out. i've got plenty of weapons downstairs. if you come with me, if you volunteer to come with me and come downstairs and get these weapons, i'll show you how to shoot them. and i'll show you how to do the military drill. and this afternoon we'll go out and we'll join the militia. and we'll defend these girls and other members of the city right here in plattsburgh. well, of course, with that, the boys looked around at all the girls and every one of them volunteered. 18 teenagers went downstairs with martin akin. and they learned how to use the rifles and as the regular army passed by, they joined the end of the column. this little platoon of teenagers led by a 20-year-old captain. they fought for five days. they stayed when the militia ran. and at the end of the battle, when mccomb was successful, he was so impressed with akin and

his boys that he gave them their rifles, granted them their rifles. but, of course, the army being the army, nothing ever changes, you know, the quarter master officer said to the general, you don't have the authority to give away these rifles. these are government property. so they had to recover all the rifles from the boys. and they left. but in 1825, congress granted decorative rifles to the boys. and this is the only one that we know in existence. this is martin akin's decorative rifle. looks a little unusual because it is a hall. and the hall rifle was the very first of the rifles to have been assembled on the line. therefore, the lock, the stock, and the barrel are all separate and interchangeable. and this lock, rather than being fed from the side, is fed from the top. with the release mechanism here, the entire lock comes out, can be replaced with a good one,

snapped back in place, and the rifle is functional once again. no longer will the rifles be made individually. congress wanted people to know exactly what this rifle was. and so when they granted them the rifles, they put this decorative plate on the butt of every rifle. one of these showed up on the antique road show a couple of years ago, the second one, the only other one we know that skif exists. i'll bet you there is more around. have you ever seen a rifle with a plate on it like this? >> each week, american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. 200 years ago on september 11th, 1814, british and american naval forces clashed for 2 1/2 hours in cumberland bay, near plattsburgh, new york. the battle was the culmination of six days of army and navy conflict. up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired army colonel david fitzend, author of the final invasion, plattsburgh,

the war of 1812's most decisive battle takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> i'm at the battle of plattsburgh museum. it is on the old army post. there has been an army post here ever since the war of 1812 and in this museum the most important item is this painting by davidson. and it shows the culmination of the battle when the royal navy had finally closed with the americans and they fought it out, only 300 yards apart for an hour and a half. there was some 90 guns firing at the same time. and the noise was so disoriented that the sailors were unable to figure out what was going on. and they began to load the canons, one ball after the other after the other after the other until they had so many cannonballs that the ball rolled out of the end of the barrel.

another case where they put too much powder in and the cannon exploded when they set it off. there was a huge cloud of smoke on the battlefield. at the very end of the naval battle, the british struck their colors there on the right. and that was seen by general provo, sitting up on the hill. when he saw that happen, he knew he had lost the battle. without the navy, without the ships to take his army south, there was no point in going on any longer. and in so he recalled the army, and the next day they left. and they went back to canada. and the battle was over. he planned to come and fight again in spring, but, of course, the treaty of gent happened in between and the soldiers, the red coated soldiers were never seen here again in the united states. we're back live across the

street from the white house as we bring you live coverage of this all day event, both yesterday and today, discussions about the british burning of the white house and the war of 1812. coming up on the session scheduled to begin in just a couple of minutes should be holly schulman, the editor of the dolly madison project at the university of virginia. and our coverage will go right through closing remarks scheduled to begin around 4:30 this afternoon. so all day right here on c-span3, live coverage of this discussion and interaction about the war of 1812.

start taking your seats again, please. if you are out in the hallway, come back in, please. we are about to start.

just as a reminder, please silence your cell phones. thank you.

please begin to take your seats. we'll be starting right away. welcome back. excuse me while i fumble around. okay. our next speaker this morning's

session will be talking about dolly madison and the british invasion of washington, d.c. in the war of 1812. we have heard some things about dolly madison's role in the war of 1812. now, we'll hear more from holly shulman, a former editor of the dolly payne todd madison papers. associate senior editor of the papers of james madison in 2004. dr. shooulman continued to publh dolly madison papers which she has grants from the historic preservation and records commission of the national archives. please welcome holly shulman. [ applause ]

>> those of you who are interested in the full papers of dolly payne todd madison, what i do now is as complete as possible edition of the dolly madison papers in the dolly madison edition. like the book, it's published by the university press. unlike the book is published by their electronic imprint, the name which is rotunda. if you go and you take a look at it, i hope you enjoy it. do you want me to do -- oh, okay. having said that, i want to thank, of course, as everyone speaking as thanked, the three organization that is have sponsored this and thank them

for putting on a conference which is so beautifully focused so the papers can talk to each other in a way that doesn't happen at conferences. i would like to thank kathryn al gore who is over there for introducing a more general view of dolly madison. what i'm going to do today is talk about dolly, not the burning of the white house, but her saving of the portrait of george washington. that really is the topic of my -- it's narrow, but the question then is, what could we learn from it. there was a famous biologist at harvard who once gave an image of looking, from a distance, at a fence, which had a knot hole in it.

if you looked at this knot hole from a distance, it was a small part of the fence. if you put your eye to the knot hole, you could see the world. and yes, he studied eyes. in any case, let me begin here. two stories about the war of 1812 are lodged in our collective memory. they remained in the present. they are told in books, in textbooks and in popular culture. one captures american victory over the british during the war. the other symbolizes american resistance. the first, a military success is about andrew jackson, who defeated the british in new orleans in january of 1815. the second is an act of defiance. that one is about dolly madison, who on august 24, 1814 saved the portrait of george washington

from british. jackson american prowess and determination and stands for the triumph of the still young dolly is audacity mixed with resolution and em bodies the weak, but pure, an unarmed woman, against the strong but foul, the enemy army. they did route the enemy, although it was an empty -- lives were lost in vain. in fact, we do not know whether or not dolly madison saved the portrait of george washington. no letters written either by dolly or james on august 24 have survived. there's very little from august 23rd. in other words, the documentary evidence for that day is either

circumstantial or post factum. what dolly did when the british invaded washington remains uncertain into a vacuum of information, dolly imposed her own story. to understand the story of dolly and the burning of the white house, we need to explore what we know happened and how and why she shaped her own legend. let us start with what we know from dolly's personal and collateral correspondence. james madison was off with the general and wrote her more than once on august 23rd, but only one letter survived. in it, the president stated that he had heard encouraging news about the enemy troops. but the information was not

reliable. he hoped she might see him by the evening, which, of course, did not happen. equally, dolly could not have known that at the time. the next day, august 24th, we have a letter from eleanor young jones. she was the wife of the secretary of the navy, william jones. she wrote excusing herself from the dinner that day at the president's house. jones admitted her fears in the, quote, present state of alarm, but following social protocol, menned she imagined, quote, it will be mutually convenient to disspend of your hospitality and pray you to admit this as an excuse. it's probably the only thing we know about that dinner. she was waiting to hear from dolly's sister, anna payne cuts.

anna payne cuts was also in washington. she wrote a quick message. it was undated but probably also composed on august 24th and her tone was frantic. quote, tell me, for god's sake where you are and what you are going to do, she dispaired. quote, we could hear nutting but what is horrible. i know not who to send this to and will say but little. soon afterwards, william jones, we identify as the husband of eleanor young jones, also secretary of the navy wrote a memo outlining his actions on the 24th. presumably quite close to the events. he said he had left the navy yard about 3