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 th

whatever rude things one says about the battle of bladensburg, one cannot detract from the fact that joshua barney and his flotilla men filled with 300 blokes, facing the entire british army which run right the way through the first two american lines face this quite small force who held them up and took severe british casualties. barney was a serious problem for the brits. and ross himself took his life in his hands. there we are, three huge problems in what was, i'm sorry to say, it was an american disaster. >> thank you. steve? maybe you can rebound the americans. >> i'll see what i can do. peter did make this claim about baltimore being a defeat last night and my response to him was fairly simple -- scoreboard. >> it's true. >> the important point is that the british did withdraw and the attack was turned away. as for bladensburg, that cannot be described as an american victory by any means. but i will say, i'm very glad we're doing this today and that there's been a dedication of the monument this morning because i think we sometimes tend to make all these jokes about bladensburg. it's known

jointly by land and water, royal marines and barges further up the river and succeed in trapping joshua barneythe flotilla. barney basically scuttled the flotilla. has it flown up and escapes with his men. but the net result of all this is that the american commanders back in washington were utterly paralyzed. as to what they should be doing. they had one squadron coming up the potomac. a force they weren't quite sure how large in the patuxent, with forces that had been landed. there's a lot of hope that they're just after barney and that after destroying barney's flotilla they'll reboard their ships and move back into the bay. so one of the results of all of this indecision is that the american commander general william winder doesn't do a very effective job of doing anything in terms of setting up defenses around washington. in terms of mustering much of a force. he's getting very little support from the secretary of war, john armstrong, who even at this late date with british troops on the ground in maryland and moving in the direction of the capital still maintains that washington is under

no one told them joshua barney and the district militia form behind them.in the chaotic fashion, and winder is losing his nerve and ends up ordering a general retreat, and this even as the british are starting to approach the third line of the defense, which is made up of barney and the district of and the district of militia, and the british at blatensburg have to move up the hill to attack this line. and varney is on the district/maryland line, and he had big guns that he had brought with him, and also had some of the u.s. marine corps here from the marine barracks here from washington to the support the flotilla men. and so the british as they are trying to move into the space of the guns, they take a quite significant casualties, and the front line troops from the 59th one-quarter casual citi-- casuas and very significant q!mbloodsh and it appeared to varney and the rest of the militia men that they were on the verge of turning the tide here. and winder with the militia retreat has ordered the general retreat. varney does not get this word, and he and h

whatever one says things about the battle of bladensburg one cannot detract from the fact that joshua barney the entire victorious british army which run right through the first two american lines faced this quite small force who held them up and took severe british casualties with them for an hour or two they battled. barney was a serious problem for the brits. ross himself. so there we are. three huge problems. i'm sorry to say it was an marine disaster. >> thank you. steve? >> see what i can do. peter did make this claim about baltimore being a defeat last night and my response to him was fairly simple, scoreboard. [ laughter ] >> true. >> and the point was, the important point is that the british did withdraw and the attack was turned away. as for bladensburg, that cannot be described as an american victory bysd#'w any means. but, i will say i'm very glad we're doing this today and there's been a dedication of the monument this morning because i think we sometimes tend to make all these jokes about bladensburg, it's known as the bladensburg races, and we laugh and joke about the soldiers

whatever one says things about the battle of bladensburg one cannot detract from the fact that joshua barney which run right through the first two american lines faced this quite small force who held them up and took severe british casualties with them for an hour or two they battled. barney was a serious problem for the brits. ross himself. so there we are. three huge problems. i'm sorry to say it was an marine disaster. >> thank you. steve? >> see what i can do. peter did make this claim about baltimore being a defeat last night and my response to him was fairly simple, scoreboard. [ laughter ] >> true. >> and the point was, the important point is that the british did withdraw and the attack was turned away. as for bladensburg, that cannot be described as an american victory bysd#'w any means. but, i will say i'm very glad we're doing this today and there's been a dedication of the monument this morning because i think we sometimes tend to make all these jokes about bladensburg, it's known as the bladensburg races, and we laugh and joke about the soldiers who fought here and, you know, how

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. this even as the british are starting to approach the third line of defense, which is made up of barney and the district of militia. now the british at blade denseberg have to move uphill to attack this third line. barney is positioned on a strong position on the district/maryland line. he has big guns, 18 pound weapons that he brought with him. he also had some of the u.s. marines, the marine corps barracks here in washington which had come up to support the platoon men serving as infantrymen for them. the british as they're trying to move into the face of these guns take quite a significant amount of casualties. the front line troops from the 85th light infantry were taking 1/4 casualties. so very significant bloodshed. it appeared to barney and to some of the district militia commanders that they were on the verge of maybe turning the tide here. winder with the maryland

and that's commodore joshua barney, who was a hero from the revolutionary war and had sprung to action when war was declared and commanded a privateer very successfully and then the -- as cockburn is going ravaging the chesapeake bay, he proposes the construction of a -- a more or less a mosquito fleet of shallow draft barges that could attack the british in the chesapeake, which much of the waters in the chesapeake being quite shallow. he sails from baltimore in may of 1814 and pretty soon comes into contact with the british, who chases him into the patuxent river, and he's soon trapped in st. leonard creek. this is now june of 1814. now, barney manages to escape up the river, blasts his way out through a combination of incompetence by the british and barney's aggressive actions and he manages to continue up the patuxent. cockburn is not too happy about this at first. he quickly sees an opportunity here. true, he would have to take care of barney and the flotilla before he can mount an attack on washington, but he sees the flotilla as an opportunity to disguise his designs on washingt

whatever one says things about the battle of bladensburg one cannot detract from the fact that joshua barneymy which run right through the first two american lines faced this quite small force who held them up and took severe british casualties with them for an hour or two they battled. barney was a serious problem for the brits. ross himself. so there we are. three huge problems. i'm sorry to say it was an marine disaster. >> thank you. steve? >> see what i can do. peter did make this claim about baltimore being a defeat last night and my response to him was fairly simple, scoreboard. [ laughter ] >> true. >> and the point was, the important point is that the british did withdraw and the attack was turned away. as for bladensburg, that cannot be described as an american victory bysd#'w any means. but, i will say i'm very glad we're doing this today and there's been a dedication of the monument this morning because i think we sometimes tend to make all these jokes about bladensburg, it's known as the bladensburg races, and we laugh and joke about the soldiers who fought here and, you know, h

and that's commodore joshua barney, who was a hero from the revolutionary war and had sprung to actionwhen war was declared and commanded a privateer very successfully and then the -- as cockburn is going ravaging the chesapeake bay, he proposes the construction of a -- a more or less a mosquito fleet of shallow draft barges that could attack the british in the chesapeake, which much of the waters in the chesapeake being quite shallow. he sails from baltimore in may of 1814 and pretty soon comes into contact with the british, who chases him into the patuxent river, and he's soon trapped in st. leonard creek. this is now june of 1814. now, barney manages to escape up the river, blasts his way out through a combination of incompetence by the british and barney's aggressive actions and he manages to continue up the patuxent. cockburn is not too happy about this at first. he quickly sees an opportunity here. true, he would have to take care of barney and the flotilla before he can mount an attack on washington, but he sees the flotilla as an opportunity to disguise his designs on washingto

defensemaned by maryland militia were never informed a third line was being formed behind them with joshua barney and districtr by lish sh militia. general winder fails to make that clear to even p commandersa front. there are so new orleans the co instructions on wherell they ar supposed to retreat to. this is one of the republicans the collapse of the initialphic lines up front was so catastrophic. if they retreated in a more the orderly fashion they could havey supported the very strong line n that barney had. but instead they just flee in a pell-mell fashion, some up i towards baltimore, some th georgetown, where the roadat wo. them. i think that goes to the point that this battle was not a phone go -- foregone conclusion. >> general winder made a fatal mistake because he told the guy near the bridge to retreat up the georgetown road. andll much as we've just discussed, they could have or fallen back to join with barney and the d.c. militia near present day fort lincoln. the u and the british might not have - won the battle. in fact, u.s. army sergeant that hanson in his testimony to congress