The Road to the Capital

The Road to the Capital. Battle of Bladensburg. , The War of 18 12 raged on land and sea, touching every border of the young nation. On August 24, 1814, after two years at war, the Americans faced the British here at Bladensburg., While the American militia were unable to hold back the British attack at the Anacostia River, Marines and sailors, including U. S. Chesapeake Flotillamen, set up a defense blocking the road outside present-day Fort Lincoln Cemetery. After hours of intense fighting, American forces were overrun and British troops marched to invade the Nation's Capital., In the summer of 1814, the landscape of the battlefield was very different than it is today. Once outside the village of Bladensburg in modern Cottage City and Colmar Manor, buildings gave way to open countryside, gently rolling terrain with farm fields, orchards, and forests.