Theyre also very different. And i suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle here, and i couldnt tell you which one is better. And this is another one. This is an image that came out of one of the books that i did and it is showing the british piling up material, and this is in the Capitol Building. And if youll notice, the guy on the left, on the back, hes carrying a backpack that would carry two cases for a congrieve rocket. Rocket and if youll notice the man standing on top of the pile, hes literally taking the projectile material that would have been inside of that rocket and hes sprinkling it over the top and then thats how they would light that fire and here is the actual account and this is by Benjamin Henry latrobe. There was no want of material for the conflagration. For when the number of members of congress was increased the old platform was left in its place and another raised over it giving an additional quantity of dry and loose timber. All the stages and seats of
The shoals. And some more ships would sail up the bay under captain peter parker to disrupt communications and further confuse the americans. And hes able hes able to persuade ross and Admiral Cochrane to go along with this. Ross, he takes them ashore, in st. Marys county and ross sees how poor the defenses are. And ross is, you know, an aggressive commander himself. He certainly has proven himself in the european wars, and hes eager to get home. Hes got a wife who is not at all happy hes been sent across the ocean to fight in this new war. So what they agree to is they dont commit to an attack on washington, but they agree that theyll land the forces at benedict, and go try to trap barney and based on the resistance they meet, they can make a decision as to whether or not to continue on to washington. Cockburns plans are zealously endorsed by one of ross officers. This is lieutenant george de lacy evans. This picture was taken much later, during the crimean war, where he commanded a d
And most of them i think were built around either boston or philadelphia. In supporting the war, and particularly the naval war, did jobs ever come into any of the equations in 1812, or looking longer through American History, when did jobs become an issue of National Policy . All right. When did jobs start driving our defense policy . Yes. Not during this war. I dont see any evidence that federalists said, well, weve got to support expanding the navy because thats going to be jobs in our commercial ports where were often in a majority. Ive not seen that hint of that. And this is a rare war, in that the we really did bad economically during the war. Sometimes we do very well during a war, i think its more typical that the massive spending in the ploumt, world war ii being the best case probably, generates economic activity. But not in this war. And thats largely as Andrew Lambert will be happy to remind us, because of the overwhelming power of the british navy. Which established a bloc
Americans of this high cost of this war and to so humiliate the government of James Madison that they would be forced to make peace on british terms. In the summer of 1814, john stewart skinner, who was an american prisoner of war agent, who incidentally would later be Francis Scott keys companion watching the bombardment of ft. Mchenry, skinner travels out, sales into the potomac to meet with cockburn to exchange some letters and gossip. And cockburn mentioned to skinner as theyre walking along the deck of albeon, the flagship, that he doesnt see much way out for the president. He says, quote, mr. Madison will have to put on his armor and fight it out. I see nothing else left. There is nothing subtle about this, and cockburn was aware that this word would get back to washington and madison pretty quickly. But cockburn was so unimpressed with the american defenses that he didnt mind sending this word. He knew that there was nothing really the americans could do about it. In its third y
Is certainly in question. But in any event, they were a bit of an embarrassment for the royal navy, and the commander, the north american station, sir admiral john warren was conducting a pretty lackluster campaign. There was some thought he needed the boost of a subordinate who could be a bit more aggressive. There was a British Naval historian who was actually detained in philadelphia when war broke out. And he would later write, his name was william james, and he would later write, until cockburns arrival in the chesapeake, people in this region would, quote, scarcely have known except by hear say that war existed. And that was about to change. Cockburn arrives in the spring of 1813 and finds the chesapeake just custom made for an Expeditionary Force such as he had, 200 mile length of the bay with all the rivers serving as tributaries, really provided access to what was then the real economic as well as political heartland of america. And this Chesapeake Bay quickly turns into a lak