It is March 21st. Welcome to Episode 80 of History in a Year. Today, the First Lady holds the line. As the American army collapses at Bladensburg and the British march directly toward the White House, President James Madison is forced to flee into the woods. But Dolley Madison refuses to panic. We witness her desperate, frantic effort to save the national treasures, the iconic rescue of the George Washington portrait, and the crucial role of an enslaved teenager named Paul Jennings. Finally, we explore the miraculous, freak act of nature that suddenly unleashes its fury on the British army and literally blows them out of the capital.
STEPHEN:
Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH:
Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
It is March 21st. Welcome to Episode 80. Yesterday, the United States suffered its darkest day. The American militia was routed at the Battle of Bladensburg, and the British Army marched into Washington D.C.
LEAH:
President James Madison, the cabinet, and thousands of terrified civilians were fleeing the city in an absolute panic, clogging the dirt roads into Virginia and Maryland.
STEPHEN:
But back at the President’s House, the First Lady was refusing to leave.
LEAH:
Dolley Madison was waiting for her husband. She had a carriage waiting outside, but she wasn’t just packing her clothes. She realized that if the British captured the White House, they wouldn’t just burn the building; they would destroy the history of the young Republic.
STEPHEN:
So, as the sound of British cannons echoed in the distance, Dolley started frantically stuffing massive trunks full of irreplaceable government documents. She packed the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and her husband’s top-secret cabinet papers.
LEAH:
The military guards assigned to protect the White House had completely abandoned their posts. They had joined the panicked mob fleeing the city.
STEPHEN:
Dolley was essentially alone with a few servants and enslaved workers. A friend rode up to the house covered in dust and screamed at her, “Clear out, clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat!”
LEAH:
Dolley finally agreed to leave. But as she walked toward the door, she looked back into the dining room.
STEPHEN:
Hanging on the wall was a massive, eight-foot-tall, full-length portrait of George Washington. It was known as the Lansdowne portrait, painted by Gilbert Stuart.
LEAH:
To Dolley Madison, that painting was the physical embodiment of the United States. She knew that if the British captured it, they would parade it through the streets of London as a trophy. She refused to leave without it.
STEPHEN:
She ordered the servants to take it down. But the massive wooden frame was screwed tightly into the wall, and they didn’t have the right tools to unscrew it.
LEAH:
This is where the mythology of the story usually takes over. The legend says Dolley heroically pulled the painting down herself.
STEPHEN:
But the reality is even more compelling. The physical rescue of the portrait was actually carried out by a 15-year-old enslaved boy named Paul Jennings, along with a few other workers.
LEAH:
Since they couldn’t unscrew the frame, Dolley ordered them to break it. Jennings and the others grabbed whatever they could find, smashed the heavy wooden frame, carefully removed the canvas, and rolled it up.
STEPHEN:
They handed the rolled-up canvas to two New York businessmen who happened to be passing by, and told them to flee the city with it.
LEAH:
With the painting secure, Dolley Madison finally jumped into her carriage and sped away into the Virginia countryside, just hours before the British arrived to eat her dinner and burn the house down.
STEPHEN:
The British spent the night of August 24, 1814, setting fire to the Capitol building, the Treasury, and the White House.
LEAH:
When the sun came up the next morning, the sky was completely choked with thick, black smoke. The British commanders, General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, were preparing to burn the rest of the city.
STEPHEN:
But then, the sky started to change color. The black smoke turned into an eerie, bruised purple. The wind suddenly completely died down.
LEAH:
And then, the sky opened up.
STEPHEN:
An absolutely massive, freak storm hit Washington D.C. Modern meteorologists believe it was likely a hurricane that spawned a severe tornado right over the center of the city.
LEAH:
The tornado touched down with terrifying violence. It ripped the roofs off of the buildings the British hadn’t burned yet. It uprooted massive trees and threw them through the air like toothpicks.
STEPHEN:
The storm was so powerful it literally lifted heavy British cannons off the ground and tossed them down the street. Two British soldiers were instantly crushed to death by a flying chimney.
LEAH:
The torrential, freezing rain came down in sheets, completely dousing the massive fires the British had started the night before.
STEPHEN:
The British troops were terrified. They had survived the battlefields of Europe, but they had never seen a storm like this. They actually thought the Americans had invented some kind of new, devastating weather weapon!
LEAH:
A British admiral reportedly turned to an American woman in the street and said, “Great God, Madam! Is this the kind of storm to which you are accustomed in this infernal country?”
STEPHEN:
The woman supposedly replied, “No, Sir, this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from our city.”
LEAH:
And it worked. The British commanders realized they were completely exposed. Their ships were being battered by the hurricane out in the bay, their gunpowder was soaked, and the American militias were likely regrouping.
STEPHEN:
That very night, under the cover of darkness and still battered by the rain, the British Army quietly packed up their camp and fled Washington D.C., marching back to their ships.
LEAH:
The capital was saved by a tornado. But the British fleet wasn’t going back to England. They had a new target.
STEPHEN:
Join us tomorrow for Episode 81. The Star-Spangled Banner. The British fleet sails north to Baltimore, determined to bomb the city into submission. We stand on the deck of an American truce ship with a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key. We witness the terrifying 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry, the rockets’ red glare, and the massive flag that inspired the national anthem.
LEAH:
I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.