On Aug. 18, 1814, authorities in Washington learned that British warships were sailing up the Patuxent River in considerable force. Was Washington their target? Taking no chances, the authorities immediately ordered the District of Columbia militiamen, including the Alexandria Brigade under General Robert Young, to report for duty.
Simultaneously, they ordered General Young to dispatch the Alexandria Dragoons to meet Secretary of State James Monroe in Maryland at 4 a.m. the next morning. Several days later, the Dragoons would ride with Monroe to the fiasco of the Battle of Bladensburg, the British victory that enabled the British army to seize Washington.
Monroe had volunteered to ride to the Patuxent “to find and reconnoiter the enemy.” No one seemed to think it unusual for a 56-year-old secretary of state to go on a scouting expedition, but Monroe was a veteran of the Revolutionary War with a bullet wound in his shoulder to prove it. Thus, on Aug. 19 at 1 p.m., Monroe rode out to seek the British accompanied by 25 or 30 Alexandria Dragoons as his escorts and messengers.
The Dragoons were led, as they had been on their adventurous ride to the Patuxent in June, by Alexandria druggist Captain William H. Thornton. Members of the Dragoons included relatives of several prominent Alexandrians. Young Privates Thomas and William Herbert were sons of Thomas Herbert, president of the Common Council. Cornet Samuel Thompson, 21, was the son of prosperous merchant and wharf owner Jonah Thompson of 209-211 North Fairfax Street, for whom Thompson’s Alley is named. Private Robert Conway, age 22, was the nephew of former Mayor Richard Conway, who in 1789 had loaned money to George Washington so Washington could clear his Virginia debts and go to New York to become President of the United States.
On the morning of the 20th, Monroe and the Alexandria Dragoons arrived on a hill overlooking the Patuxent about three miles from Benedict, Md. Monroe quickly sent one of the Dragoons to President Madison with the news that the British were disembarking numerous soldiers at Benedict. Where they were headed — to Washington, Annapolis, or Baltimore — was unclear.
For the next several days, Monroe continued to follow the British army as it marched north generally parallel to the Patuxent River, and he continued to send, by the fast-riding Dragoons, messages about the enemy’s movements and strength to General William H. Winder, the American army’s commander, President Madison, and even the French ambassador.
Although General Winder commanded the American army, he had only limited military experience, and that experience included blundering into the British lines near Lake Ontario, being captured, and remaining a prisoner for almost a year. While the British army was marching through Maryland, the American army under Winder only monitored the British from afar while repeatedly moving backwards and forwards uncertain as to the enemy’s destination. Historian Henry Adams wrote, “Thus for five full days a British army marched in a leisurely manner through a long-settled country, and met no show of resistance.”
Finally it was clear that the British were marching toward Washington by way of Bladensburg, a town of about 1,500 inhabitants on the east bank of the Eastern Branch (now the Anacostia River) six miles from Washington. There the road to Washington led over a bridge crossing the Branch at a spot where it narrowed and could be waded easily.
On the morning of Aug. 24, Winder ordered his army to Bladensburg. There the army was positioned disjointedly by individual unit commanders, by Monroe employing Captain Thornton’s Alexandria Dragoons, and by Winder into three parallel lines on the west side of the Branch facing the British in the town on the opposite bank. The lines, however, were too far apart to support each other effectively.
Early in the afternoon, the British charged. After being checked briefly by fire from the Americans, these veterans of battles against Napoleon quickly rallied, crossed the bridge or waded through the Branch, and swept through the American’s three lines one at a time, driving most of the largely inexperienced and tired American soldiers off to Washington at a run.
President Madison, Secretary of State Monroe, and other civil leaders were near the first line when the battle started. They soon moved to a place behind the third line, and when all appeared lost, they hastily retreated into Washington and then through it to the Virginia or Maryland countryside.
The Alexandria Dragoons also retreated, but it is unclear what they did next. Some probably accompanied Monroe as he moved about the Maryland countryside, but many of them had been dispersed earlier in various directions while carrying messages. As a captain of another American cavalry unit reported: “The Alexandria troop . . . had so many detached on duties [elsewhere], as left but a few scattering ones on the field [at Bladensburg].”
In the meantime, Alexandria’s infantry under General Young missed the Bladensburg Battle entirely. Initially it had been assigned a position in Maryland three miles behind Fort Washington to guard the fort from attack by land. Then on the morning of the battle, Young was ordered to abandon that position and march to the Eastern Branch bridge into Washington. Before he reached that new position, however, he was ordered to cross the Potomac into Virginia. Then, after some of his men had embarked on boats to take them across the river, he received new orders to occupy a position north of Fort Washington. Finally, as the main army was retreating through Washington, Young again received orders to cross to Virginia, which he wearily did that night. Encamped west of Alexandria, he awaited further orders.
Meanwhile, word reached Washington and Alexandria that seven British warships were sailing up the Potomac River with only the poorly designed Fort Washington blocking their way.