Through the perilous fight: six weeks that saved the nation

559 Pages·2013·7.12 MB·English

by  Steve Vogel

Two hundred years after the battle, tattered and frail, the Star-Spangled Banner seemed more
powerful than ever.

Copyright © 2013 by Steve Vogel
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vogel, Steve.
The perilous fight : three weeks that saved the nation / Steve Vogel. —1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4000-6913-2
eBook ISBN 978-0-67960347-4
1. Baltimore, Battle of, Baltimore, Md., 1814. 2. Cockburn, George, Sir, 1772–1853. 3. Key, Francis
Scott, 1779–1843. 4. Washington (D.C.)—History—Capture by the British, 1814. 5. Maryland—
History—War of 1812—Campaigns.
6. United States—History—War of 1812—Campaigns. I. Title
E356.B2V64 2013
973.5’2—dc23
2012039797
www.atrandom.com
Cover design: Dan Rembert
Cover painting: © Tom Freeman for the White House Historical Association
Excerpted from Through the Perilous Fight by Steve Vogel, copyright © 2013 by Steve Vogel. Published
by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York.
v3.1
To my wife, Tiffany,
and our children, Donald, Charlotte, and Thomas
Nations will seldom obtain good national anthems by
offering prizes for them. The man and the occasion
must meet.
—John Philip Sousa
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
M
AP
L I
IST OF LLUSTRATIONS
P : I See Nothing Else Left
RELUDE
C 1: How Do You Like the War Now?
HAPTER
C 2: Laid in Ashes
HAPTER
C 3: The British Invasion
HAPTER
C 4: What the Devil Will They Do Here?
HAPTER
C 5: Be It So, We Will Proceed
HAPTER
C 6: The Enemy in Bladensburg!
HAPTER
C 7: The Battle for Washington
HAPTER
C 8: A Spectacle Terrible and Magnificent
HAPTER
C 9: They Feel Strongly the Disgrace
HAPTER
C 10: Hide Our Heads
HAPTER
C 11: The Arrogant Foe
HAPTER
C 12: The Mission of Francis Scott Key
HAPTER
C 13: The Town Must Be Burned
HAPTER
C 14: The Battle for Baltimore
HAPTER
C 15: The Rockets’ Red Glare
HAPTER
C 16: Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Wave?
HAPTER
C 17: Our Glorious Peace
HAPTER
E
PILOGUE
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
N
OTES
S B
ELECTED IBLIOGRAPHY
About the Author
To download a PDF of this map, click here.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
col1.1 The Star-Spangled Banner (Armed Forces History Division,
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)
map.1 The Chesapeake Theater map (Gene Thorp/Cartographic
Concepts, Inc.)
col2.2 George Cockburn engraving from Edward Pelham Brenton’s Naval
History of Great Britain, published in 1824 (Library of Congress)
prl.1 Admiral Cockburn Burning and Plundering Havre De Grace on the 1st
of June 1813 by William Charles (Anne S. K. Brown Military
Collection, Brown University Library) 1.1 Etching of Francis Scott
Key from a newspaper clipping (Library of Congress)
1.2 The Key home in Georgetown by John Ross Key (Courtesy of the
Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State) 1.3
James Madison portrait by Joseph Wood (Virginia Historical
Society)
2.1 Joshua Barney portrait by Stanislav Rembski (Naval History and
Heritage Command)
2.2 Sketch of the British blockade at the mouth of the Patuxent River
by Commodore Joshua Barney in August 1814 (National
Archives) 2.3 Portrait of Major General Robert Ross (Stephen
Campbell)
3.1 Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane engraving from Brenton’s
Naval History of Great Britain (Naval History and Heritage
Command) 3.2 Advance on the Capital in 1814 map (Gene
Thorp/Cartographic Concepts, Inc.)
3.3 A View of the Capitol Before it was Burned Down by the British, by
William Birch (Library of Congress) 3.4 Sketch of Brigadier
General William Winder by Benson J. Lossing (The Pictorial Field-