William Allen (Royal Navy officer)

Transcription

Segment 1: The British Arrive Historian William C. Allen describes the British advance on the Capitol. When the British army arrived in Washington having defeated the American militia at the battle of Bladensburg, they marched down Maryland Avenue to the new capital city of Washington, expecting, of course, to find the government buildings that they were intent to damage and to destroy. They came across the Capitol first because it was the most, eastern most of the government buildings; it was the closest to Bladensburg. So, they happened upon the Capitol as the sun was going down on the evening of August 24th, 1814. And the building that they saw was not the building that we see today. At that time it consisted of just two wings. The North wing and a matching South wing. The North wing was occupied by the Senate and the South wing was occupied by the House of Representatives. There was nothing in between where the Rotunda is today and the great Dome that presides over the city of Washington. That lay long in the future. What the British saw was just an empty space between these two three-story wings. The wings were connected, however, by a sort of a rickety two-story passage way that connected the two wings. It was built for the ease of messengers going back and forth communicating between the House and the Senate. Never intended to be permanent. So the British soldiers saw these two wings and they noticed, of course, that they would most likely be able to destroy them by sending part of their army into one, part of the army into the other. And they went through eastern doors that are still visible today. We still use these doors, they are, however, today, there�re not exterior doors; they have been since 1960 interior doors. So, people using the doors today probably don�t realize that they are going through the same doors that British soldiers used in 1814 to come in and begin their destructive mischief at the Capitol. When one begins touring the North wing you see as you step through that door, you see exactly what British soldiers first saw. You see a vestibule which we today call the Corn Cob Vestibule named for the distinctive columns that are such a prominent part of the room�s architecture. That�s exactly what the British saw � precisely. They walked into that room or marched into the room. There was no need to knock down the door. No need to fire a shot. The building was empty. The doors were unlocked as far as I know. They walked in and probably looked around, and decided, of course, not to set fires in a room that would be very important to their escape. This is one of the few rooms in the North wing which we can go to today and see it just as the British soldiers saw it in 1814. Those of us who study the history of the Capitol tend to divide its history into to a pre-fire phase and a post-fire phase. The fire, of course being a defining moment in the building�s history.