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The Battle of Bladensburg took place during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C. It has been called "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms".〔Howe (2007), p.63〕 ==Background== For the first two years of the War of 1812, the British had been preoccupied with the war against Napoleon Bonaparte on the continent of Europe. However, ships of the Royal Navy, commanded by Rear Admiral George Cockburn, controlled Chesapeake Bay from early 1813 onwards and had captured large numbers of American trading vessels. Landing parties had destroyed foundries and batteries, but lack of troops restricted Cockburn to mounting small-scale raids, the largest of which was the Battle of Craney Island, which involved 2,000 men of the British Army and the Royal Marines. The British occupied Tangier Island as an anchorage and staging area. As many as 1,200 British soldiers would be stationed there. Although Cockburn withdrew from Chesapeake Bay later in 1813, his sailors had taken soundings and even placed buoys to mark channels and sandbars, in preparation for a renewed campaign in 1814.〔Howard (2012), p.97〕 By April 1814, Napoleon had been defeated and was exiled to the island of Elba. Large numbers of British ships and troops were now free to be used to prosecute the war with the United States. Most of these troops went to Canada where Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada and commander in chief in North America, was preparing to lead an invasion into New York from Canada, heading for Lake Champlain. However, the Earl of Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, dispatched a brigade composed mainly of veterans from the Duke of Wellington's army and commanded by Major General Robert Ross, to Bermuda, from where a blockade of the American coast and even the occupation of some coastal islands had been overseen throughout the war. The intention was for this force to carry out raids on the Atlantic Seaboard to "effect a diversion on the coasts of the United States of America in favor of the army employed in the defence of Upper and Lower Canada".〔Hitsman, p.240. Instructions from the Earl of Bathurst to Ross.〕 Meanwhile, Albert Gallatin, President James Madison's nominated Commissioner for negotiations with the British government, sent news from Europe of Napoleon's abdication and the apparent hardening of British attitudes towards the Unites States.〔Howard (2012), pp.116-117〕 On 1 July 1814 Madison summoned his cabinet to discuss the increased threat to the United States' Atlantic coast, including Washington, although the Secretary of War, John Armstrong, insisted that the British would not attack Washington, since it was strategically unimportant. He felt the most likely target would be the city of Baltimore,〔Howard (2012) p.129〕 which offered more commercial targets and plunder than Washington. Armstrong was half right; the British would launch attacks against both Baltimore and Washington. Nevertheless, on 2 July, Armstrong designated the area around Washington and Baltimore as the United States Army's Tenth Military District. Brigadier General William H. Winder, who had practiced law in Baltimore before being commissioned as a Colonel in 1812 and who had only recently been exchanged after his capture at the Battle of Stoney Creek in July 1813, was appointed its commander. On July 5, he and Armstrong conferred. Winder suggested calling up some militia in advance of any attack, but Armstrong insisted that militia could best be used on the spur of the moment.〔Howard (2012), p.135〕 Winder spent a month visiting the forts and settlements in his new command. Armstrong did not provide him with any staff, and despite his fears that the British could launch an attack against almost any point with very little warning, Winder did not order any field fortifications to be constructed, nor make any other preparations.〔Howard (2012), pp.136-138〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Bladensburg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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