The Burning of Washington; The British Invasion of 1814
Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998. Fourth printing [stated]. Hardcover. xv, [3], 298, [8] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Inscribed to Mary Anne Tuohey, Chevy Chase Maryland notable, by author on half-title page. Anthony S. Pitch is the author of a many non-fiction books including The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814, read by President Clinton and a History Book Club selection, with movie rights optioned by National Geographic. He has appeared on C-Span TV, the History Channel, National Geographic TV, NPR, PBS, Smithsonian TV, and inside Ford's Theatre. He has been guest speaker at the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the Brookings Institution, the Library of Congress, National Archives, National Press Club, the Smithsonian Institution, Fort McHenry, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was formerly with the Associated Press, and a senior writer in the books division of U.S. News & World Report, and has reported from Israel and Africa. In the hot and humid summer of 1814 British troops completed a fifty-mile march to capture the American capital, putting to rout along the way pitiful citizen militiamen while President James Madison galloped out of town. British arsonists set off an inferno whose glow was seen miles away and from which burn marks are visible today on original stones of the White House. This attack was one of the defining moments in the coming-of-age of the United States, and Anthony Pitch tells the dramatic story with all the immediacy, of an eyewitness account. Tracking down firsthand sources and tattered letters, diaries, journals, and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, Pitch has brought this key episode of American history to life in a gripping narrative filled with vivid details. He describes how, after the catastrophe in Washington, a hostage on a British warship named Francis Scott Key wrote an epic poem that later became the national anthem as he viewed the Star-Spangled Banner still flying over embattled Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor Readers of Anthony Pitch's book will experience again the sense of pride and honor felt by Key and all Americans in 1814. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: War of 1812, Fort McHenry, John Armstrong, Alexander Cochrane, Joshua Barney, Bladensburg, Mordecai Booth, Arthur Brooke, Francis Scott Key, George Cockburn, George Gleig, Dolley Madison, James Madison, James Monroe, John Rodgers, Robert Ross, Washin
ISBN: 1557506922
[Book #74823]
Price: $50.00