Capital Days

Capital Days — page 5 — FLY THAT S WHAT ONE BOY ACHED TO DO WHEN Redcoats marched into the city scaring him half to death That boy was Maryland born Michael Shiner enslaved and about nine years old The place was the city of Washington On June 1 1812 President James capital of a nation at war with Great Britain Madison asked Congress for a declaration of again less than thirty years after the war He got it on June 18 Some would call Revolution the conflict that followed the second war of The stated causes were many For one Independence Others the War of 1812 Early on most of the combat was in the Great Britain in its long war with France wanted the United States to stop trading Great Lakes region and other places where with that nation to deprive it of goods So U S and British territory touched or nearly Great Britain tried to stymie that trade by did It was two years on when musket balls hijacking American merchant ships bound and bayonets came to Michael Shiner's for France for example What s more to world as he so well remembered feed the Royal Navy's need for sailors Brit August 19 1814 Several thousand British ish ships sometimes waylaid American ones troops land at Benedict Maryland about and kidnapped their actual and supposed forty miles south of the capital British born crew members August 24 1814 Yanks and Brits face off At root were ego and simmering enmity at the Battle of Bladensburg about six miles Great Britain looked down its nose at the northeast of the Capitol United States The United States its chest When the smoke cleared the Americans puffed out would not be bullied Too it were in flight As British troops marched on licked its lips over the prospect of seizing the capital scores of the scared fled But not some of British North America which youngShiner whoseownerputhim himinthecus included Upper and Lower Canada tody of a Mrs Reid She lived on Capitol Hill

Capital Days — page 6 — Action Between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere 19 August 1812 date unknown oil on canvas attributed to Thomas Birch The brief battle between the frigates occurred in the North Atlantic about four hundred miles of the coast of Nova Scotia The British ship is depicted striking her Union Jacks that is lowering her flags a sign of Surrender The captain of the Constitution was Isaac Hull someone Michael Shiner would come to know grabbed him Where are you running to It was twilight when Redcoats marched you nigger you what a witch she was along Pennsylvania Avenue and young What do you reckon the British wants with Shiner heard the tread of British army such a nigger as you The terrified boy feet To him those soldiers were like watched as the Redcoats marched on on flames of fire all red coats and the stocks towards the Capitol until they got against a of their guns painted with red vermillion large brick house on Capitol Hill and the iron work shined like a Spanish That house belonged to Maryland planter dollar Shiner wanted to fly But Mrs Reid Robert Sewall When the Redcoats reached

Capital Days — page 7 — it Robert Ross one of their generals had torching government buildings especially his horse shot out from under him In a the Capitol and the President s House twinkle of the eye remembered Shiner The fires the British set burned into the British troops surrounded the house then next day August 25 whereupon nature searched all through upstairs and down doused the flames another day forever stairs in search of the man that shot the seared into Michael Shiner's memory I horse from under the general but no man never shall forget that day one of the awful was found Unable to punish the shooter storms which raged for a long time without the British fired Congreve rockets at the intermission It thundered and lightninged house Those rockets burnt until they came hailed and rained What's more a tornado to the explosion part They made the rafters hoisted some ole houses up from off their fly east and west foundations Onward marched the Redcoats intent on Capture of the city of Washington a colored edition of an engraving published in volume 2 of The History of England by Paul Rapin de Thoyras

Capital Days — page 8 — After sacking the capital the British under a flag of truce he boarded the British aimed to take Baltimore a prime port city flagship to secure the release of an and rich with privateers Part of the plan American physician taken prisoner of war was to seize its harbor guard star shaped Peering through early morning mist on Fort McHenry September 14 Key was elated to see no sym The attack began on September 13 bol of British victory no Union Jack flying bombs and rockets nonstop Young Shiner atop the fort Ecstatic he scribbled down a thirty miles south could hear the guns poem about the Congreve rockets red glare distantly bombs bursting in the air and the broad Much closer was lawyer Francis Scott stripes and bright stars of an American flag Key Before the bombardment began and still there A view of the Bombardment of Fort McHenry 1818 a hand colored edition of a e 1814 aquatint by John Bower The failed land invasion had started at North Point on September 12 lete lists are train in A VIEW ofthe BOMBARDMENT of Fort Millery AP

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