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- [00:02]
Podcast Host/Announcer
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- [00:32]
Narrator/Storyteller
It's August 1814. The air in Washington is heavy with humidity and dread. British troops are in Maryland, closing in a rapidly tightening noose around the young nation's capital, the city. It's a sitting dock, half built, barely defended. Amid the growing frenzy of activity, one unassuming hero emerges. Stephen Pleasanton, a senior clerk in the State Department. He's just a guy with a desk job, racing against time to save America's indispensable, most priceless possessions, the fragile papers that form the blueprints of our nation. So Stephen Pleasanton springs into action. He dashes out and buys bolts of sturdy linen. Back at the office, he and his fellow clerks grab scissors and just start cutting. They stitch the fabric into makeshift book bags. Then they open the drawers and the cabinets, delicately lifting out the contents. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, treaties, letters in George Washington's handwriting. These are the original copies, the document DNA of America. Pleasanton meticulously tucks them into bags. There is no margin for error here. There can be zero snags or tears. Yet the clock is ticking. Rumors of redcoats swarm the streets. The bags are quickly loaded onto a makeshift convoy of wagons. Pleasanton leads the charge, escorting them across the Potomac. At dusk, they rumble into a grist mill on the Virginia side of Chain Bridge, wheels grinding over rough roads. They unload the bags, and they're about to stash them when Pleasanton learns there is a cannon foundry nearby. He knows it could be a prime target for the British. Too risky. He rallies locals and secures more wagons from nearby farms. They reload the precious cargo and push on. The wagons roll another 30 miles west through the darkness. Finally, they spot their new destination, a deserted mansion near Leesburg, Virginia. Inside, down in the basement, is an empty brick vault. As Pleasonton and others rush the documents into the vault, every noise turns their head. Every rustle in the woods could be an enemy scout. The linen bags are stacked inside the brick chamber. Pleasanton finally closes the heavy door and locks it. He exhales with relief. The heart of America beats on. But now it's cloaked in linen and brick. You know, sometimes the fate of history hinges on those who just recognize the moment and what is worth saving. He steps back into the stuffy night air and pauses. In the distance, an eerie glow lights the horizon. It's the fire of burning buildings. In the nation's capital, Washington is ablaze. This is the American story the Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton. Episode 12 the War of 1812 From Ashes to Anthem in 1808, James Madison, that quiet intellectual who had been Thomas Jefferson's right hand man as Secretary of State, was easily elected as the nation's fourth president. But right from the start, Madison inherited a massive headache. Britain and France were locked in their latest war, and neither respected America's neutrality. They intercepted US Ships, seizing cargo and disrupting trade like it was no big deal. To push back, Madison tried a limited embargo banning US Trade with Britain and France. It was supposed to hurt their economies without crippling ours. But it didn't work. Britain and France were America's biggest customers, and choking off that trade meant choking the young nation's economy. Britain had another motive for stopping US Ships. Their enormous navy and war with Napoleon demanded more sailors. American merchant ships, with their higher pay and better conditions, had become a kind of floating job fair for British sailors. In fact, about 30% of American sailors were actually British guys who had made the switch. So Britain turned to impressment, forcibly grabbing men and shoving them into Service. They boarded US ships, dragged off their own citizens, and also took 10,000American citizens in the process. France did some of this too, but nowhere near the scale of Great Britain. To Americans, this wasn't just an insult, it was a ghost of the Revolution. Impressment had been one of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence. Now it was happening again. And as if that weren't enough, Britain brushed aside US Protests, ignored claims of neutrality, and quietly armed Native American tribes, encouraging them to raid settlers along the western frontier. By June 1812, Madison had had it. He was fed up. He sent Congress a grim list of British offenses. After weeks of debate, Congress did something they had never done before. Congress declared war. But this was no slam dunk unified moment. The House vote was 79 to 49, the Senate 19 to 13. Barely 60% of Congress supported the decision, the slimmest margin for any declared war in all of US History. The loudest opponents were the Federalists, mostly from New England. They were cozy with Britain, their biggest commercial partner. War to them, looked like economic suicide. They sneered at the conflict as Mr. Madison's war, pinning it squarely on the soft spoken president. This Congress was packed, however, with fiery newcomers called war hawks. Young guns from the west pushing for action. Their leader was Henry Clay from Kentucky, a charismatic orator who got elected speaker of the house and stacked key committees with all of his allies. These war hawks, they talked of national honor, of standing up to the British arrogance. But they also dreamt of expansion. Canada to the north, Spanish Florida to the south. A continent waiting they believed to to be claimed by Americans. Declaring war sounded bold, but America's military was still a joke compared to Britain's. Both Jefferson and Madison had shrunk the forces during peacetime. The US had a tiny army and navy, scattered and underfunded. State militias, rusty from decades without real threats, were poorly trained and equipped. The one silver lining here was it. Britain was bogged down in a massive war with France, so most of their elite troops were tied up in Europe. The war in North America, to British leaders, was just an annoying sideshow. On paper, the Americans even seemed to have an advantage. Counting regulars and militias, they outnumbered British forces in Canada by a wide margin. But numbers hid the truth. British soldiers were professionals. Canadian militias were much better drilled than their American counterparts. Plus Britain had allies, Native American warriors who knew the terrain and were being paid to fight. Some US leaders were way overconfident. Madison's secretary of War, William Eustis, boasted,
- [08:27]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
we can take the Canadas without soldiers. We have only to send officers into the province and the people will rally round our standard.
- [08:36]
Narrator/Storyteller
Henry Clay chimed in, the militia of
- [08:38]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and upper Canada at your feet.
- [08:44]
Narrator/Storyteller
Reality was harsh. General William Hull, a Revolutionary war veteran, led the first push into Canada. His campaign unraveled almost immediately. He split his forces, making them easy pickings. Ambushed by Indians, his men panicked and Hull yanked everybody back across the border. Then the British counterattacked at Fort Detroit with his superior force of 2,500. Hull surrendered without firing a shot. He said he was trying to spare his soldiers and nearby civilians from massacre. The collapse didn't stop there. Hull ordered the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, near present day Chicago. As the column withdrew, it was attacked. Many were killed and the post was destroyed. General Hull was eventually court martialed, convicted of cowardice and sentenced to death. But president Madison, remembering Hull's service in the revolution, intervened and commuted his sentence. Two more American invasions of Canada followed before the end of 1812. Both failed miserably. A Vermont newspaper summed up the war so far with brutal clarity, saying it had produced nothing but disaster, defeat, disgrace, and ruin in death. In 1813, America scrambled to regroup. Troops were added. New ships were built. In April, US Forces struck at the Canadian capital of York, which is present day Toronto. They captured the town, but as the British withdrew, they lit the fuse on the fort's powder magazine. The explosion was catastrophic. 250Americans were killed or wounded. Over the next several days, furious U.S. troops burned public buildings, the legislative hall, the governor's house, acts that would prove consequential later in the war. Surprisingly, the greatest bright spot for the US came on the water. In September of 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry met the British fleet on Lake Erie. At the height of the battle, Perry's flagship was wrecked, but he rode to another ship, under heavy fire, rallied and smashed the British. The victory kept Lake Erie in American hands for the rest of the war, blocking any British invasion of Ohio or Pennsylvania from Canada. For a moment, morale soared, but it was only a moment because far to the south, the war took on a darker, more savage cast.
- [11:19]
Sponsor/Advertiser
Britain relied on Indian allies to strike American settlements. In August of 1813, Red Stick Creek warriors stormed Fort Mims in the Alabama territory.
- [11:32]
Narrator/Storyteller
The attack was sudden and overwhelming. 500 men, women and children were slaughtered, many of them scalped, and the fort was a charred ruin. Into the chaos stepped a backwoods Southerner named Andrew Jackson. He volunteered his services to President Madison, who gave him a military command in the Southeast. Jackson's soldiers called him Old Hickory. Tough, unyielding, impossible to bend. Discipline under him was fierce. If you were a volunteer and you tried to bail, Jackson planted himself right in front of you with a rifle and warned that he would shoot any man who deserted. He also believed in finishing what he started. His personal maxim was simple and relentless.
- [12:21]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
Until all is done, nothing is done.
- [12:26]
Narrator/Storyteller
In early 1814, Jackson hunted the Red Stick warriors responsible for the Fort Mims massacre. He cornered them in a section of the Tallaposa river called Horseshoe Bend. The fighting was close, chaotic, very bloody. Among Jackson's troops was a young soldier named Sam Houston. At Horseshoe Bend, he was nearly killed, pierced by an arrow in the thigh, then struck by two musket balls in the arm and the shoulder. Doctors expected him to die.
- [12:55]
Sponsor/Advertiser
Instead, he went on to become the
- [12:57]
Narrator/Storyteller
legendary governor of Texas. But when the smoke cleared, more than 800 Red Stick warriors were dead. Their power in the region had finally been broken. The British lost their most effective allies in the Southeast, and Jackson had crushed the resistance exactly as his gritty motto promised. Yet The War of 1812 was far from over. Greater trials were in store. But in these early years, the pattern was already clear. A young republic, overconfident, underprepared, struggling for full independence from the world's strongest empire. It played out over and over.
- [13:41]
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- [14:41]
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- [15:16]
Sponsor/Advertiser
Back when James Madison was a congressman during George Washington's presidency, Madison was introduced
- [15:21]
Narrator/Storyteller
to a Quaker widow named Dolly. The introduction was made by their mutual friend, Aaron Burr, who was then a senator. You might recall that Burr is the guy who actually went on to shoot and kill Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Dolly's life had been upended just a year earlier in 1793, when her first husband and their youngest son both died in that brutal yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia. Well, after a whirlwind courtship, Madison and Dolley tied the knot. She was 26. He was 43. Over the next 41 years, they were rarely apart. Devoted partners in both life and politics. James Madison was reserved. He was a man who preferred papers to people. Dolly was the opposite. She was warm. She was unreserved magnetic. She loved Conversation, laughter, and above all, gathering people together. Where Madison calculated, Dolly connected well. As his career rose, she became the indispensable bridge between power and personality. She hosted receptions and dinners that drew in the most influential figures of the young Republican Thomas Jefferson was the first president to spend his full term living in the White House. But as a widower, there was no official First Lady. Sometimes his daughter stepped in as hostess for events, but often Jefferson leaned on his buddy Madison, who was Secretary of State. And that meant Dolly frequently took the reins as official hostess. She shaped the first official Washington scene, charming the diplomats and the lawmakers alike. And in doing so, she basically invented what we think of as the First Lady's role today. By the end of her husband's presidency, combined with Jefferson's eight years in office, Dolley had effectively served as first lady for 16 years. The public adored her as much as the power players did. She became the toast of Washington D.C. and remains the only first lady ever granted an honorary seat on the floor of Congress. But what could have been a charmed White House existence for the Madisons was upended by war. When Britain finally crushed Napoleon in 1814, the world's greatest navy and battle hardened army were suddenly available to focus on America. They expanded their assault on multiple fronts across the U.S. part of their new strategy targeted Chesapeake Bay. British ships fanned out across Maryland's eastern shore, attacking the small towns, burning some to the ground and raiding farms for livestock and crops. Despite this escalating grip on the region, Madison's new Secretary of War, John Armstrong, insisted the real British threat was in Baltimore. In a message to the D.C. militia's commander, he scoffed.
- [18:21]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
By God, they would not come here with such a fleet without meaning to strike somewhere. But they certainly will not come here. What the devil will they do here?
- [18:32]
Narrator/Storyteller
No, no.
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Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
Baltimore is the place, sir, that is of so much more consequence.
- [18:37]
Narrator/Storyteller
Because of that hubris, defenses around the capital stayed pathetically weak. No serious preparations, no real urgency. And the reckoning began August 24, 1814 at Bladensburg, Maryland. That's less than 10 miles away from Washington D.C. american forces outnumbered the British 2 to 1, holding the high ground with artillery overlooking the bridge that the Brits needed to cross. Yet numbers and position meant little against experience. British artillery thundered. Congreve rockets screamed through the air with a terrifying shot. High pitched shriek unlike anything most American troops had ever heard. Panic spread. Many dropped their muskets and bolted in terror. A lone British regiment forded the Anacostia river north of the bridge, outflanking The American's left side. More rockets rained down and the US force shattered, men fleeing in droves and leaving the path wide open. One British officer smirked that they'd captured some prisoners, but not too many because the Americans vanished too quickly. A newspaper article later described the hasty American retreat as the Bladensburg races. President Madison himself was there at Bladensburg, watching the humiliating rout unfold. In his official report to the Secretary of War, General William Winder wrote one of the most understated assessments of a defeat ever recorded.
- [20:12]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
The contest was not as obstinately maintained as could have been desired.
- [20:16]
Narrator/Storyteller
As soon as the defeat became apparent, President Madison dispatched his servant James Smith back to the White House with urgent orders. Tell the first lady to flee. A British march on the Capitol was imminent. Word of the retreating soldiers hit Washington, D.C. like a shockwave, turning concern into outright chaos. Citizens and officials grabbed what they could carry and poured across the Potomac toward Virginia. 90% of the residents evacuated, leaving a virtual ghost town. Now, inside the President's house, Dolley Madison remained composed. She issued orders to save the valuables and state papers. And in the nail biting final minutes before fleeing, she focused on Gilbert Stuart's iconic 1797 portrait of George Washington. She ordered the heavy frame broken, the canvas cut free, rolled and carried out. It was later hidden in a farmer's barn outside of the city. An exhausted Madison staggered back to the White House around 4pm Finding Dolly already gone. Shaken by the Bladensburg debacle, he waved off food, downing just a glass of wine before fleeing to evade capture himself. The Capitol lay completely exposed. Paul Jennings, Madison's enslaved White House worker, later reported, a rival, taking advantage of the confusion, ran all over the White House and stole lots of silver and whatever they could lay their hands on. Looting had begun before the British even arrived. Well after dark, the British army marched
- [21:56]
Commercial Narrator
in,
- [22:00]
Narrator/Storyteller
and as they crested Capitol Hill, they traded shots with stray US soldiers. But it was far too little, too late. They reached the Capitol building, the first phase of which had only been completed three years earlier.
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Sponsor/Advertiser
The Capitol didn't have yet the iconic
- [22:13]
Narrator/Storyteller
rotunda, just two large wings of the building connected by a covered wooden wall walkway in the central section where the rotunda would eventually rise. Margaret Bayard Smith, founder of the local newspaper, described the horror that ensued.
- [22:29]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
50 men, sailors and marines were marched by an officer silently through the avenue. When arrived at the building, each man was stationed at a window. The windows were broken and this wild fire was thrown in so that an instantaneous conflict, immigration, took place and the whole Building was wrapped in flames and smoke.
- [22:51]
Narrator/Storyteller
This initial effort did not achieve the desired destruction. Since ceilings in the capital were covered in sheet iron, the building proved a challenge to burn down. Frustrated, the British piled furniture and curtains inside the House and Senate chambers, doused them with gunpowder and fired rockets into the heaps. Finally, the flames roared. A plume of embers rose so high it ignited a nearby building. The Union Jack was then raised over the ruins. At 11pm General Robert Ross and Admiral George Cockburn rode down Pennsylvania Avenue with 150 men. The White House stood there empty. They rifled through what was left of the Madison's food and possessions and then they stacked the furniture, bedding and curtains. And they ordered 50 soldiers to encircle the mansion and throw oil soaked rags on poles through the windows. Like flaming javelins. The roaring furnace collapsed the White House interior into a smoldering shell. Today, scorch marks from the fire are still visible on the exterior of the White House in two small sections that have been left unpainted as reminders of the national tragedy. The British next burned the Treasury War Executive office buildings, the Library of Congress and its 3,000 books all went up in flames. It was revenge for the American destruction of public buildings in York, Canada just the year before. In the aftermath of the destruction, D.C. residents inscribed their anger on the walls of the Capitol. One message read, the Capitol and the Union was lost by cowardice. Another said, quote, george Washington founded this city after a seven years war with England. James Madison lost it after a two years war. Senator Robert Henry Goldsborough of Maryland wrote this to his the city of Washington,
- [24:46]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
once very beautiful to my eye, is now an odious, miserable object.
- [24:52]
Narrator/Storyteller
It is the dreadful monument of an unfortunate and illy timed war and the unerring evidence of open a weak, incompetent and disgraced administration. It was the lowest point of the war. The capital was now in ruins, the army disgraced and the Nation stood stunned. Ten days after the burning of D.C. madison accepted the resignation of War Secretary John Armstrong. Three and a half weeks on, Congress slowly crept back to survey the wreckage. They set up a temporary Capitol in the unscathed patent and Post Office Building. Debates raged about relocating the Capitol, maybe to Philadelphia or New York. But in late October, they voted to stay put in Washington D.C. in a rare practical move for Congress, they determined it would be cheaper to restore the Capitol and White House than to build entirely new ones. Six months after the fire, Madison approved a $500,000 loan to rebuild. In the meantime, James and Dolley Madison move to A house known as the Octagon, second in size only to the White House. The Octagon's owner granted the government's six month lease for $800. Madison set up his office in a circular study on the second floor. From there, in a scarred city still reeking of smoke, the quiet president and the indomitable first lady began the work of holding together a shaken
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Narrator/Storyteller
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- [26:40]
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- [27:25]
Narrator/Storyteller
Mary Pickersgill, appropriately enough, shared a birthplace and a birthday with America. Philadelphia, 1776. She was widowed at age 29, leaving her with a young daughter to support. No safety nets back then. Mary had to work hard. She was a flag maker. It was a trade she learned from her mother. So she moved to Baltimore, one of America's biggest port cities where ships were in constant need of flags and banners. In 1807, Mary rented a modest house on Pratt street, right there in the heart of it all. She dove into her flag making business and in a little over a decade, she scrapped together enough cash to buy that house outright. For a woman in that era, that was almost unheard of.
- [28:16]
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- [28:34]
Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
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- [28:49]
Narrator/Storyteller
The summer of 1813 brought Mary the biggest commission of her life. Major George Armistead, the no nonsense commander of Baltimore's Fort McHenry, needed two new American flags. He wanted one so large the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance. Well, Mary got to work on this massive new flag, 30ft by 42ft plus a smaller storm flag, 17 by 25ft. She had help from her mother, her 13 year old daughter, two nieces and an indentured black servant. For the large flag, the red and white stripes were 2ft wide. The stars were 24 inches point to point. Now at the time, the US added a star and a stripe for every new state that had been added to the Union. So Mary's flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes. To work they had to spread this giant flag out on the expansive floor of a nearby brewery. They finished the project in seven weeks, having no clue that they had just stitched together what would become the most famous flag in their nation's history. The glow of the burning of Washington D.C. could be seen from Baltimore and residents knew where next. Baltimore was the third largest city in the nation. Its port was a hub of privateers who specialized in raiding British ships. It was only a matter of time before the British paid them a visit while under army supervision. Baltimore was divided into four zones, each zone working on the city's defenses on alternating days. Every citizen had to pitch in regardless of age, sex or race. In just three weeks, they threw up over a mile and a half of entrenchments. Baltimore would not be going down without a fight. On September 12, 1814, the British landed 5,000 troops and eight cannons at North Point, that's about 10 miles southeast of Fort McHenry. The US countered with 3,200 troops, most of them Baltimore natives. Early in the battle, two young sharpshooters from the 5th Maryland Militia shot and killed the British commander as he rode near the front of his line. Amid the chaos, heavy casualties piled up. The Americans were ultimately forced to retreat. But they delayed the British push forward into Baltimore, buying precious time. At 6:30am on September 13, the British fleet of of 55 ships opened fired on Fort McHenry with mortar shells. These bombs weighed about 200 pounds each. They were hollow shells stuffed with 10 to 15 pounds of gunpowder with wooden fuses screwed in. When the shells were fired from ships, the explosion of powder in the cannon lit the fuse, which was timed for a 27 second flight. When the fuse burned down to the floor, powder inside the shell. The gunpowder was set off and the bomb exploded in the air, raining down jagged shrimp on the target. While inside Fort McHenry, 1,200 troops worked out in the open. There were no bunkers for cover. The men fired back at the British, nailing some of the frigates and smaller ships. But the British mostly stayed out of range. So by 11am Major Armistead dialed it back to conserve ammunition. Suddenly, a British bomb struck the fort's powder magazine. It glanced off the arched roof and caved in part of the ceiling of a room that held 200 barrels of gunpowder. Had the bomb punched through the barrels, Fort McHenry and all of its soldiers would have vanished in a single catastrophic explosion. But Major Armistead quickly ordered the powder barrels moved and spread out along the fort's outer walls. Through his spyglass, Admiral Cochrane saw the activity and mistook it for panic. He ordered his ships closer. Then they dropped anchors at the bow and the stern just to steady themselves. As they closed in with a mile and a half. Armistead gave the order. All of Fort McHenry's guns opened fire. For an hour, US Cannons hammered the British fleet, Rigging shattered, hulls splintered. Admiral Cochrane finally pulled his ships back out of range. But the British fleet was wounded, however far from done. All night, their bombs and rockets peppered Fort McHenry. Across the harbor, the citizens of Baltimore watched from the rooftops and windows, feeling the ground tremble with every explosion. Among the sleepless observers was a prominent lawyer named Francis Scott Key. But he had a much different vantage point because he was on a ship that was under guard of the very British fleet raining destruction on Fort McHenry. Francis Scott Key was a family man and a slave owner. He and his wife had 11 children. He was a respected attorney. He had defended two men accused of treason in a shadowy construction conspiracy tied to Aaron Burr. Several days before the British bombardment began, Key was on a small American ship sailing towards the British fleet under a flag of truce. After the burning of Washington, D.C. the British arrested a Maryland physician. His name was William Beans. They accused him of helping round up some British soldiers as they left Washington. Francis Scott Key knew Dr. Beans, so Key went to President Madison. He received permission to intervene and traveled to Baltimore to meet up with John Skinner, who was the US Prisoner exchange agent. Together, they sailed out to Admiral Cochran's flagship. They negotiated Dr. Bean's release, and then they were Told they couldn't leave, they had heard too much. While on board the flagship, the British had been discussing the impending bombardment around the American. And so they wouldn't let key, Skinner or Dr. Beans return to shore until the attack was officially complete. The Americans were allowed to return to their own ship, but they were guarded by a group of British marines. There they waited, helpless, two miles from the fort. They watched from the deck of the truce ship as the 25 hour bombardment dragged on through the night. 1600 shells and cannonballs pummeled Fort McHenry. When the firing finally stopped in the early hours of September 15, Key and Skinner scanned the fort with a spyglass. What was over it? Had the fort fallen? Had Baltimore surrendered? Then, in the first light of the morning, they saw it. The enormous 30 by 40 foot flag, Mary Pickersgill's flag, unfurling above the ramparts. It was unmistakably the American flag, identifiable from this great distance, just as Major Armistead had wanted. Key, as a lawyer, always was prepared with paper. He pulled some out and he began to write. He labored over the verses while they were still under British guard, shaping the experience into poetry. The following evening, after the British finally released them, Key reached Baltimore and took to a room in the Indian Queen Tavern. There he finished the poem. Skinner and Dr. Beans read it and urged him to print it. Later that day, 1,000 copies rolled off the press under the title the defense of Fort McHenry set to the tune of Anacrean in Heaven. By afternoon, the handbills were in the streets and the hands of soldiers at Fort McHenry. Within six weeks, newspapers all over, across every state had reprinted it. Key's song would eventually become known as the Star Spangled Banner. The song grew in popularity over the next century, but it didn't become our official national anthem until an act of Congress in 1931. Today, the same flag that Francis Scott Key saw by the dawn's early light is preserved on display in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, completely restored and repaired by Ralph Lauren.
- [37:26]
Sports Commentator
And we're live from the living room as Doug eyes up the machete spread. He's reaching for the buffalo wing. Perfect. Hang on. What's this? Oh, he's gone for a can of Pepsi too. Incredible. What a finish. Sensational combination. Look at the delight on his face. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a pack of Pepsi. Zero sugar for today's match. It's poetry in motion.
- [37:57]
Narrator/Storyteller
Unbeknownst to those in Baltimore. At almost the same moment, far to the north, another drama was unfolding on Lake Champlain in upper New York. There, US captain Thomas McDonough faced a superior British fleet. During the brutal, brutal engagement, the 30 year old commander was knocked unconscious twice. The first time by falling rigging and later by the flying decapitated head of one of his gun captains. After a British cannonball struck the ship, McDonough fought on and won. The victory, like Fort McHenry Stand electrified the nation. But America wasn't out of the woods yet. Britain sent so many warships to US shores that they achieved an almost total blockade of American ports. The British Navy captured 1400American merchant vessels. U.S. exports collapsed by 95%. The country was being strangled. America was not going to be able to hold out much longer. President Madison replaced his Secretary of War with James Monroe, who immediately called up the militia to strengthen the defenses of Washington and Baltimore. He then ordered Andrew Jackson to march his troops south towards New Orleans, where another British blow seemed inevitable.
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Sponsor/Advertiser
I think about providence often these days.
- [39:27]
Narrator/Storyteller
The idea that we're stewards of our
- [39:29]
Sponsor/Advertiser
families, our communities, our own safety. The founders understood this. It's woven into the fabric of who we are as Americans. And I want to share something with you. It's called Byrna B Y R N A And it's changed how I think about personal protection. Here's the thing. Most people assume self defense is complicated, that you need training, licensing, you know, government approval. But Burna is legal in all 50 states. No permit, no background check because your right to protect your family shouldn't require anyone's permission. The range on this is 60ft. That's not pepper spray distance, that's real distance. That gives you time to think, to move, to get your family safe. It's simple enough that anyone can use it. Anyone. And it's built in Fort Wayne, Indiana, right here in America, in American hands, American craftsmanship. And that matters to me. And I think it matters to you.
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Narrator/Storyteller
I'm not here to scare you.
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I'm here to tell you being prepared isn't paranoia, it's love.
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Narrator/Storyteller
It's what we do for the people
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that you do anything for. So go to byrna by r n
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Narrator/Storyteller
a.com glenn for more of the history that inspired this podcast series. Be sure to read the American the Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton, available now@wallbuilders.com. Andrew Jackson hated the British. It was a very personal hatred that reached back to 1781, when the Revolutionary War still smoldered across the Southern colonies. Jackson had been 13 years old and he was riding through Carolina backcountry as a courier for the patriot cause. He was scrawny, fiery, stubborn. Already displaying the gritty traits that would later earn him the nickname of Old Hickory. Jackson joined his 16 year old brother Robert in fighting with the local militia in their latest guerrilla attack on the British. It was a raid on an enemy outpost at Hanging rock that inflicted 200 British casualties. A rare win for the scrappy frontier patriots. But Jackson and Robert, it wasn't a win for them. They were captured. They were hungry, sick and herded into a makeshift prison camp. One day, a British officer ordered Jackson to clean his boots. Jackson refused. He was a prisoner of war, not a servant. The officer swung his saber, slashing Jackson across the face and cutting his left hand to the bone. The scars and the memory never left him. Smallpox hit the prison camp and both brothers caught it. Their mother pulled strings for a prisoner exchange to free their sons, but Robert died of smallpox a few days after the release. The older brother had been killed in a battle two years earlier. When Jackson recovered from smallpox, his mother left for Charleston to help care for the sick and wounded troops. But she contracted cholera and died. Jackson's immediate family was now entirely gone, as his father had died just a few weeks before he was born. By war's end, 14 year old Andrew was an orphan, alone in the world and seething with rage. Years later, with the heat of that teenage trauma still burning in his chest, Jackson would tell his wife Rachel, I
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Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
owe to Britain a debt of retaliatory vengeance. Should our forces meet, I trust I shall pay the debt.
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Narrator/Storyteller
In December 1814, in the Belgian city of Ghent, American negotiators led by John Quincy Adams, son of the second president, and the war hawk Henry Clay, were holed up with their British counterparts trying to end the Messy War of 18. As the days dragged on, Adams scribbled in his diary about how Clay kept
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him up all night boozing, gambling with the enemy.
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Narrator/Storyteller
Finally, both sides threw in the towel. The US had no real military edge and the British were just tired of the hassle. On Christmas Eve they signed the Treaty of Ghent, officially calling it quits. Nothing much changed. Any conquered land was returned and borders snapped back to pre war lines between the US and Canada. Oh, and the British promised to stop stirring up Indian tribes against the American settlers. The treaty also contained a provision that was long overdue, yet still a bit ahead of its time. There was an anti slavery clause in which both nations agreed to work together toward abolishing the African slave trade.
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Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both his Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object.
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Narrator/Storyteller
After Britain's embarrassing flop at Baltimore, they pivoted south, eyeing New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They knew if they could control that, they would have a highway into America's heartland. Andrew Jackson was already racing ahead, forces in tow. That old vengeance debt fueling his urgency, He declared martial law in New Orleans and rallied every able bodied man to fortify the outskirts. Jackson scraped together an unlikely patchwork army of 4,500 men, including army regulars, frontier militiamen, free black fighters, wealthy Creole aristocrats and Choctaw warriors. And then there were the pirates. Jean Lafitte, the suave smuggler king of Barataria Bay, had been courted by the British. Instead, he sent word to Jackson he'd fight for the Americans and his cannons and gunners would come with him if his captured men were pardoned. Jackson, who valued results over respectability, agreed. Waiting offshore in the swamps south of the city were 8,000 British troops, many of them veterans of wars against Napoleon. Commanded by Lieutenant General Edward Pakenham, they were battle hardened professionals. They fully expected to crush the American rabble that they referred to as the Dirty shirts. The clash kicked off on December 23rd. Jackson struck first, launching a gutsy nighttime raid on the British camp nine miles south of New Orleans. The fighting was fierce and confused. The British absorbed the blow, but it did not break. Jackson withdrew and fell back to a 10 foot wide canal near a large plantation off the Mississippi River. There, using enslaved labor, his men widened the canal into a defensive trench and piled the excavated earth into a seven foot high rampart. Reinforced with timber. The line stretched nearly a mile from the river's edge to almost an impassable swamp. When the work was done, Jackson rallied his motley crew.
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Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
Here we shall plant our stakes and not abandon them until we drive these redcoat rascals into the river or the swamp.
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Narrator/Storyteller
A probing skirmish by The British on December 28th fizzled indecisively. But on New Year's Day, British artillery roared for hours trying to smash the American line. But the rampart held together. January 8, 1815. At dawn, the final British assault began. A concrete rocket screams overhead. That was the signal. Redcoats cheered, surged forward. The British guns roar. But Jackson's 24 artillery pieces, some manned by Lafitte's salty pirates, answer with a flash. Fury. Pakenham banks on burning fog for cover, but it lifts with the sun, exposing his lines. In bright red uniforms. American cannons rip holes into the British ranks, flinging men and gear skyward. As the British push on, musket fire shreds them further. Frontiersmen who had spent their lives hunting deer in dense forests now take aim at the massed ranks in open ground. Their rifle fire is devastatingly precise. General Pakenham rides forward to rally his men, and he's struck down by grapeshot. Within 30 minutes, the attack collapses. The British fall back in chaos, leaving over 2,000 wounded or killed. The American lose 71 men, 13 killed, 39 wounded and 19 missing or captured. One Kentucky soldier stared across the carnage and later wrote, when the smoke had
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Historical Figure/Actor (portraying historical quotes)
cleared away and we could obtain a fair view of the field, it looked at the first glance like a sea of blood. It was not blood itself which gave this appearance, but the red coats in which the British soldiers were dressed. The field was entirely covered with prostrate bodies.
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Almost a month passed before the battle
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Narrator/Storyteller
result even reached Washington, D.C. it was February 4th that messengers finally arrived with word that Jackson had annihilated the British at New Orleans. Ten days later came another urgent dispatch. The Treaty of Ghent had been signed. Because Americans learned of the battle first, many assumed the victory had forced Britain to make peace. In reality, the war had already ended. But perception mattered more than chronology. The nation had been battered and humiliated by so many earlier defeats, they chose to remember the war as ending in triumph. The Senate rushed to ratify the treaty, and Congress asked President Madison to proclaim a national day of prayer. In his address, Madison said, no people
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ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the great disposer of events and of the destiny of nations than the people of the United States. And to the same divine author of every good and perfect gift, we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
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Narrator/Storyteller
The War of 1812. It didn't produce territorial gains or formal surrender. The British simply agreed to stop fighting. But it had produced something more respect. Britain and Europe learned the United States could not be casually bullied anymore. War would no longer be their first solution. That's why Americans soon began calling the war of 1812 the second war for independence. And towering over that memory stood Old Hickory. The Battle of New Orleans transformed Andrew Jackson into a national hero. The scarred boy who had once defied a British officer's command, had finally, in his own mind, at least paid his debt of retaliatory vengeance. Jackson's fame would mutate into a consequential presidency that brought permanent changes to the office, U.S. politics and an untold tragedy for Native Americans that would echo on through generations. Coming up on THE American the beginnings seven o' clock in the morning, May 30, 1806. Jackson and Dickinson face each other 24ft apart, pistols loaded. Jackson, playing it cool, or maybe strategic, lets Dickinson fire first. The shot cracks the air, slamming into Jackson's chest, lodging near his heart. Blood begins to soak his shirt, running down into his boot. But Jackson steadies himself, levels his pistol.
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Click.
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The hammer catches halfway, re cocks, aims again. And fire. Dickinson is struck in the abdomen and crumples to the ground. By sundown, he's dead. Jackson walks away. That bullet remained buried in his chest for the rest of his life.
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