. Our greater country; being a standard history of the United States from the discovery of the American continent to the present time ... e Patuxent, about fifty milesfrom Washington. General Ross at onceset out for Washington, advancing slowlyand meeting with no resistance. As he hadno horses, his troops were obliged to dragtheir three or four cannon by hand, and theBritish made but about ten miles a day. Afew determined troops might have driventhem back, ana the roads might at least havebeen obstructed and the progress ot theenemy impeded. General Winder gathered a small foice ofmilitia, and
. Our greater country; being a standard history of the United States from the discovery of the American continent to the present time ... e Patuxent, about fifty milesfrom Washington. General Ross at onceset out for Washington, advancing slowlyand meeting with no resistance. As he hadno horses, his troops were obliged to dragtheir three or four cannon by hand, and theBritish made but about ten miles a day. Afew determined troops might have driventhem back, ana the roads might at least havebeen obstructed and the progress ot theenemy impeded. General Winder gathered a small foice ofmilitia, and took position at Bladensburg, on the east branch of the Potomac, about threemiles from Washington, He was joined hereby Commodore Barney with five hundredsailors and marines from the gunboat flotillain the Patuxent, which Barney, unable tooffer any resistance, had burned upon theapproach of the British fleet. On the twenty-fourth of August the British reached Blad-ensburg, and attacked the force under Gen-eral Winder. The militia fled at the firstfire, but Barney and his sailors and marinesstood their ground, and served their gunj. COMMODORE MACDONOUGH. with vigor until their position was turned o*rboth flanks by the superior lorce of theenemy, when they retreated, leaving theirguns and wounded in the hands ot ihe vic-tors. The so-called battle ot Bladensburgwas little more than a skirmish. Genera! Ross halted to resi his men, .vhowere worn out with the heat, and towardssunset resumed his march, and entered Wash-ington a little before dark. The governmenthad abandoned the city some hours before,and had removed the greater part of itspaper \and archives, and such public property 538 FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE CIVIL WAR. s could be carried away, and only a fewirightened citizens remained in the Cochrane had some time beforeannounced that the British forces wereordered to destroy and lay waste ali townsand districts of the United States foundaccessible to the attacks
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