in the meantime, the american lines are starting to collapse as the british start crossing the river in force. some of using the bridge. others are wading across the water, and pretty soon they have enough of a force that the second line of militia defense is collapsing. one of the problems the americans are encountering here was command interference. you had james monroe, who was secretary of state, he had come to scout out the lines. he had basically been serving as a scout for several days for madison even though he was secretary of state. he was pretty much throwing himself into danger's way, but he directs some of the militia troops to move further back from the front line, and this leads them out of support for each other. so monroe didn't really do the

american troops at bladensburg much of a favor by his attempts to reorganize them. so you have two lines now of militia that are collapsing. they're all starting to retreat, but with no fixed point in mind. general winder hadn't saved -- or hadn't designated any kind of rally point. winder already had a lot of experience at retreating now just as the british had advanced on washington. he'd ordered his troops back a number of times, but he really botches this retreat. so as the maryland militia are falling back, a lot of them start heading north towards baltimore, others are heading towards georgetown, and really none of them are heading back to the third line of defense, which has been formed by joshua barney and his navy flotilla men and the district militia which had

raced up from washington during the course of the morning in the terrible heat. in fact, the maryland militia commanders hadn't even been informed that there was a third line. no one had told them that joshua barney and the district militia had formed behind them. so they're retreating in a chaotic fashion. winder is losing his nerve, and he ends up ordering a general retreat, and this even as the british are starting to approach the third line of defense, which is made up of barney and the district militia. now, the british at bladensburg have to moveup hill to attack this third line. barney is situated on a strong position right on the district/maryland line. he had big guns, 18-pound weapons that he'd brought with him. he also had some of the u.s. marines from the marine corps

barrack in washington which had come up to support the flotilla men serving as infantry for them. and the british, as they're trying to move into the face of these guns, take quite significant casualties. the front line troops from the 85th light infantry were taking one-quarter casualties. so very significant bloodshed and it appeared to barney and to some of the district militia commanders that they were on the verge of maybe turning the tide here. but winder with the maryland militia in retreat has ordered a general retreat. barney doesn't get this word. he and his men keep on fighting and then he sees that the district militia has pulled back under orders from winder. ross manages to get high ground over barney and his flotilla men

and some of the british sharpshooters are able to take down a number of the flotilla men, including some of the gun crews, and barney himself is hit in the hip and severely wounded and tries to disguise his wound own men because he doesn't want them to lose faith. but very quickly barney is also running out of ammunition. all the crew that is were bringing his ammunition, civilian crews, they had joined in the general retreat, so barney was running out of ammunition. it was pretty clear he was surrounded or close to it at this point, so barney then orders his men to surrender and retreat. and he orders thembattlefield. one of his officers stays with him. most of the flotilla men are able to escape back towards washington. barney is left on the

battlefield, and pretty soon he's found by some of the british soldiers who run and get admiral coburn. barney o officer who had really aoffered strong resistance to the british, and both coburn and ross were quite impressed with him, and ross comes up as well, and they agree to pardon barney on the spot meaning that he wouldn't be officially held in british custody, but he was out of the war at t be another prisoner. the americans are now in full retreat back towards washington. the british own the field at bladensburg afterse selsel sels hours of combat. this is sometimes called the bladensburg races because of the way the militia retreated so chaotically. in a sense it's an accurate term but it also does discredit to a

lot of brave fighting that did happen here, particularly from barney's flotilla men and the marines who fought bravely, took heavy casualties and at one point seemed like they might be able to turn the tide of the battle. certainly, you know, the british fought bravely fighting uphill against those guns in that type of heat. but these guys were known as wellingtons for a reason. they had fought the french in europe and the forces they met here at bladensburg just were not a match for them ultimately. >> 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. the battle was the culmination of six days of army and navy conflict. up next, we travel to plattsburg where david fitzend takes us on

a tour of kilocations to tell the story. >> i'm at the battle of plattsburg museum. it's on the old army post. there's 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 were 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 cannons one ball after the other after the other after the other until they

had so many cannon balls they rolled out of the end of the barrel. another case they put too much powder in and a cannon exploded when they set it off. so there was a huge cloud of smoke on the battlefield and at the end of the naval battle the british struck their colors there on the right, and that was seen by general provo who was sitting up on the hill, and 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 so he recallied the army an 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 ghent happened in between. and the red coated soldiers were never seen here again in the united states.

>> and we're back live at decatur house across from the white house in washington, d.c., as our live coverage continues of a two-day conference commemorating the war of 1812 and the burning of washington. it's co-hosted by the white house historical association, the u.s. capitol historical society, and james madison's montpeli montpelier. the next speaker, pamela scott, who wrote "buildings of the district of columbia. "we'll also hear from william seal, the author of "the president's house" and the authors of a book "madison and jefferson." all that this afternoon as our live coverage continues here on c-span3's american history tv.

thank you. our next speaker will be pamela scott, and pam is an old friend. i have known her for many, many years, and she is, i think, the authority on the history of public buildings in washington, d.c. she has been an architectural historian here in washington specializing in the architectural landscape and planning histories of the city and i have learned a tremendous amount from her over the years. some of her books include "the temple of liberty," "buildings of the district of columbia," "designing the nation's capit capitol", and "the fortress of