The Rest of the Story, Washington and the War of 1812. We were told, in school about the facts about the war of 1812, or were we? Take the Battle of New Orleans there was a fog that made it impossible for the British force to see the American defenders. The Americans on the other hand had pickets set at specific distances, to tell them where the enemy was. The American Kentucky rifles had a field day shooting into the fog killing hundreds of British soldiers. This fog meant the cannon and the rockets used, were ineffectual as they under shot or over shot their targets. Then in the Battle of the city of Washington what do we know? Well the British fleet sailed up the Potomac River and discharged their troops. The President, Madison, got a Militia together and met the enemy Southeast of the city. This Militia was driven from the field and retreated to a position North of the city. Dolly Madison, the First lady, gathered all the documents of the American Revolution, including the Constitution and paintings off the wall of the White House and left the city as British troops were coming up the street. She later met her husband North of Washington. We also know when the Brits got to the W/H that they found the dinning room ready for a fancy dinner, that, they also ate the food and drank all the wine and spirits. Then they decided to burn the W/H down. As they watched the fire and thought that setting fire to more of the Buildings in the city would be fun and they did. Now we get to the interesting part, as British were standing their, it started to rain. The rain picked up and was coming down several inches an hour. The Brits were standing on very wet ground. Their uniforms were soaked and the later fires were being up out by the rain. They formed up and suddenly, their were a hundred lighting strikes. With the rifles, they were carrying, with a bayonet on the rifle the lighting found their mark easily. Hundreds of British soldiers were killed. The retreat for Washington became a rout when three tornados hit the British force, sending officers, horses and canon scattering all over the area. The survivors ran for their lives back to the river, but were knocked down by a 90 MPH force wind that made these men crawl to the Potomac. Two of their ships had their anchor chains broken and they were driven aground. Somehow the survivors managed to get aboard a ship and the fleet sailed out to sea. The fleet went north to Baltimore and ran into Ft. McHenry. NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 21:23:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015