Burning of Washington in the context of "United States Capitol"

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia. The White House is also a metonym for the Executive Office of the President.

The residence was designed by the Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style. Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and his architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semicircular South Portico in 1824 and the North Portico in 1829.

The 13th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1813, to March 4, 1815, during the fifth and sixth years of James Madison's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1810 United States census. Both chambers had a Democratic-Republican majority. The first two sessions were held at the Capitol building while the third, convened after the Burning of Washington, took place in the First Patent Building.

Southern Maryland, also referred to as SoMD, is a geographical, cultural and historic region in Maryland composed of the state's southernmost counties on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the state of Maryland, the region includes all of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties and the southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. It is largely coterminous with the region of Maryland that is part of the Washington metropolitan area. Portions of the region are also part of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area and the California-Lexington Park Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 Census, the region had a population of 373,177. The largest community in Southern Maryland is Waldorf, with a population of 81,410 as of the 2020 Census.

Initially inhabited by the indigenous Piscataway people, the first European settlement in Southern Maryland (and the state as a whole) was established in St. Mary's City in 1634. While the settlement was intended to be a Catholic refuge, religious strife was prominent in Maryland's early years. The passage of the Maryland Toleration Act in 1649 resulted in St. Mary's City being cited as the birthplace of religious freedom in North America. The area developed an agricultural economy based on tobacco with labor sourced from indentured servants and slaves. The War of 1812 saw military action in the region during the British campaign to capture Washington, while the American Civil War saw the end of slavery in Maryland and John Wilkes Booth fleeing through the region following the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Much of the area remains rural with agriculture still playing a large role in the region's economy. Despite this, the region has seen large suburban growth and development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as urban sprawl from nearby Washington, D.C., expands southward.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, GCB, PC, FRS (22 April 1772 – 19 August 1853) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a captain, he was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He commanded the naval support at the invasion of Martinique in February 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars.

He also directed the capture and Burning of Washington on 24 August 1814 as an advisor to Major General Robert Ross during the War of 1812. He went on to be First Naval Lord and in that capacity sought to improve the standards of gunnery in the fleet, forming a gunnery school at Portsmouth; later he ensured that the Navy had the latest steam and screw technology and put emphasis on the ability to manage seamen without the need to resort to physical punishment.

The Battle of Bladensburg, also known as the Bladensburg Races, took place on August 24, 1814, during the Chesapeake campaign of the War of 1812 at Bladensburg, Maryland. It has been described as "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms". A British force of army regulars and Royal Marines routed a combined U.S. force of Regular Army and state militia troops. The American defeat resulted in the British capture and burning of the national capital of Washington, the only time that the city has fallen to a foreign invader.

The Raid on Port Dover was an episode during the War of 1812. American troops crossed Lake Erie to capture or destroy stocks of grain and destroy mills at Port Dover in Upper Canada, which were used to provide flour for British troops stationed on the Niagara Peninsula. At the instigation of Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell and without sanction from his superiors or the government of the United States, the Americans also destroyed private houses and other property, prompting British commanders to demand reprisals in other theatres of the war. To some degree, the burning of Washington by the British later in the year was influenced by the American actions at Port Dover.