Some more historical facts about the historical myths that have grown up around the war of 1812. Ralph conducted an inventory of war of 1812 resources in maryland, the National Park Services National battlefield served as a consultant to the starspangled Banner National historic trail. Published five books, including the war of 1812 and the chesapeake, a reference inde to Historic Sites virginia, maryland, and the District Of Columbia tikka and has appeared in six acumen to on the war of 1812. Documentaries on the war of 1812. Greater honor than being designated as an honorary colonel. It is my pleasure to welcome colonel eshelman to the podium. [applause] pleasure to welcome him to the podium. [ applause ] good morning, everyone. Thank you. That was a kind introduction. I have never been called colonel when im been introduced. Thank you very much. I want to add to the accolades expressed about the partners and individuals have done to put this together. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I
Misunderstandings of history. Its a part of fabric. It behooves us to try to know what are the colonels of truth. Thats why i enjoyed hollys paper. She helped us understand the myths behind dolley madison. The first question, did the british really burn washington . Im going to start out in a peculiar way. I am showing you the actual logo and title of this very symposium. Ill just read it to you. America under fire. Mr. Madisons war in the burning of washington city. One of the very myths i want to talk about today. Im going to go off on a tangent and youll understand why. If you look at the artwork, the image that is there, and if you remember during dinner last night, bill seal talked about the burning of the white house. He mentioned that some of the british sailors and soldiers had javelins wrapped in rags, soaked with oil. On the command by the officer you can see on the right hand side, when he fired a pistol, they all simultaneously, supposedly threw these javelins through the b
Theres the most recent book by peter snow which is when britain burned the white house. All of these books are great but the question or maybe the point that im trying to make is that to the average person when they read a title like that, its going to give them an impression that is not necessarily what really happened in washington, d. C. And i find it ironic that we have three books that talk about the white house, a very important public building, no question about it, where the president lived and it hurt the morale when you burn the president s house. No question about it. But to me, of all of the buildings that were burnt, the most significant was the Capitol Building. Thats where the seat of government existed. And none of these books have that in their title. Just interesting to me. And just so that you know they are all in good company, this is the title of a chapter in one of my books. Washington is burning. We all do it. Almost all of us that have been talking today at the