. Book of the Royal blue . nd mountain scenery; the vales dottedwith towns and farm houses: mountainswhich stretch away for fifty miles to theblue foot-hills of Virginia, and streamsthat wind like shining silver down thecourses of the valleys. Rich in historiclore; rich in agricultural pursuits; close tothe great cities and yet removed from thehurly burly of life, the town of Frederickneither increases nor decreases in size. THE STORY OF BLADENSBURG AND THE SACKINGOF WASHINGTON. R. M. CHESHIRE. MONDAY, August 24, 1908, marked theeighty-ninth anniversary of the sack-ing and burning of the Natio
. Book of the Royal blue . nd mountain scenery; the vales dottedwith towns and farm houses: mountainswhich stretch away for fifty miles to theblue foot-hills of Virginia, and streamsthat wind like shining silver down thecourses of the valleys. Rich in historiclore; rich in agricultural pursuits; close tothe great cities and yet removed from thehurly burly of life, the town of Frederickneither increases nor decreases in size. THE STORY OF BLADENSBURG AND THE SACKINGOF WASHINGTON. R. M. CHESHIRE. MONDAY, August 24, 1908, marked theeighty-ninth anniversary of the sack-ing and burning of the Nationalcapital by the British army under (jeneralRoss, but the real torch-bearer beingAdmiral George Cockburn, whose recordshows that he took a peculiar delight insuch war tactics. Ross had carried on war on the Penin-sula and in France under a different spirit,and it was not his wish that the Americancapital should be treated as it was, but hewas forced to obey orders, and the resultwas that the British did a good job in that. line. With Cockburn to lead, and withmen chafing under the loss of not lessthan 200 of their comrades at the Battleof Bladensburg, the work of sacking andburning was accomplished thoroughly andspeedily, and no heed given to theappeals of citizens to spare the publicbuildings. Burn every public building tothe ground! was Cockburns words as heled in the work, and his instructions werecarried out as nearly as possible—theunfinished Capitol, the Library of Congress,the White House, the War and Treasurybuildings, the Arsenal and Barracks, onehotel, the National Intelligencer newspaper office, besides a number of private resi-dences, were burned and pillaged. To addto the horror, the Americans fired theNavy Yard, a vessel and the Mrginia endof the Long Bridge, while the British lookedafter this end of the great structure andsaw that the fire did its work. It was the White House that Cockburnand his men took the greatest pleasure indefacing, sacking and burning.
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