so millard fillmore is nominated and they nominated winfield scott was destroyed in a landslide and they are incredibly divided over the issue divided north and south and so you start to see the coalescing of the parties along the regional wines which is of course a very dangerous thing that will cost of the civil war. so fillmore was replaced as the president by franklin pierce who served in congress for the first time in franklin pierce had gone back to new hampshire, gone back to the practice of the mexican-american war consistent with his wishes and he was behind this seems to get the party nomination. anyone that is a front-runner for president -- in 1852 for the democrats it was james buchanan and stephen douglas and of course they took so many shots at each other it was badly damaged the supporters were never going to come together. so they select franklin pierce who had been out of office and served as a general in the mexican-american war and when the messenger showed up to help pierce she actually think that the news. they are coming back to politics in the biggest way possible

this is winfield scott, a famous american general. more people are familiar with the scary looking early photographs around the time of the civil war. this is how he looked in his 20's just getting started out in dashing, veryry ambitious. he was described by his contemporaries as a god of war. 6'5" he was worried about being so tall. most people would be at least a foot shorter. a very imposing picture on the battlefield. he went on to eventually throughout the entire united states military. he is probably best known for commanding the mexican american war and mentoring many of the young officers that and then fought on both sides of the civil war. he was taking over from the old guard. they were holdover from the revolutionary war. he was probably the best representative of the new young guard coming up through the ranks. this is a very striking piece. surprised by how modern he looks with this haircut. you can see that. considering where we are in washington, d.c., the burning of washington will always be very important. he was not

so, if there had been a better general, like winfield scott, who was up in canada, or maybe nathan townson, who was of the same family the town in maryland is named for, a capable army leader leading the americans here, this need not have been the bladensburg races. >> thank you. i think it is just worth mentioning a little bit about the bridge because you get this image, what peter was talking about, the british coming across that bridge. this was not your normal bridge. this was a bridge that was really meant either for horsemen or people that were walking. it did not even accommodate a wagon, for example. only three men shoulder to shoulder could stand on the width of that bridge. it was a relatively small bridge. the reason is because there was a fjord there. you did not go across that kind of bridge. this is the bridge we are talking about. >> a question over here. right here. >> you mention criticism in british newspapers of the burning in washington. the previous december, in a snowstorm, american forces had burned the town of niagara. these were civilian homes, churches and so fort