[The following was written by Dolly Madison’s grand-niece in the book Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison. The name of the grand-niece was left intentionally anonymous when publicized, but the author had allegedly heard it from Dolly herself.]
All the afternoon, parties of straggling soldiers, on their way to Georgetown, with vagrant negroes pilfered in many directions, in spite of the efforts of faithful servants. Mad with disappointment at the escape of the President and his wife, “whom they wanted to capture and show in England,” the enemy broke open the doors of the White House, and ransacked it from cellar to attic, finding nothing of value, in the way of trophies, except a small bundle of pencil notes received by Mrs. Madison from her husband when he was with the troops, and which she had inadvertently rolled together, and left in her table drawer. To everything else in the house, furniture, wines, provisions, and family stores of all kinds, which had cost Mr. Madison twelve thousand dollars, together with an excellent library, the torch was applied. Fire for the purpose was procured at a small beer-house opposite the Treasury, and common soldiers, together with negroes, and thieves of all grades, did what they could to pillage and destroy. The White House was not so large and complete as it is now. The east room, which had served Mrs. Adams for a drying-room, was bare and unfurnished, and totally destitute of ornament; the front vestibule had not then been added, and the grounds were unenclosed [sic], and entirely uncultivated.
Nothing but the lateness of the hour and the threatening storm prevented the troops from firing the War Department. The promised reinforcement had failed to come, filling the minds of the officers with vague and timorous apprehension, and they resolved to evacuate the next day. Constant rumors and frights had unnerved the stoutest hearts, and the unhappy citizens of Washington flying from a foreign foe rendered the situation of those who could not leave even more distressing. All the vehicles had been pressed into the service, and valuables scattered in every direction for safety.
An English narrator states that “the most tremendous hurricane ever remembered by the inhabitants broke over Washington the day after the conflagration. Roofs of houses were torn off and carried up into the air like sheets of paper, while the rain which accompanied it was like the rushing of a mighty cataract rather than the dropping of a shower. This lasted for two hours without intermission, during which time many of the houses spared by us were blown down, and thirty of our men, with as many more of the inhabitants, were buried beneath the ruins. Two cannons standing upon a bit of rising ground were fairly lifted in the air and carried several yards to the rear.”
Source:
Stephens, John Richard. “Firsthand Accounts by Famous People.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 103-4. Print.
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