To James Madison from James Monroe, 31 August 1814
From James Monroe
Augst.1 31. 1814
Dear Sir
Genl. winder will be in town, perhaps at McLeods this morning, if he is not already there. I am perfectly willing to resign to him the command, if the troops will act under him. I am aware that much is due to his feelings, especially after what occurrd at Baltimore.2 Still I am willing to command, it being understood that it is, at the request of the officers of the district, on the volunteer principle, and not as Secretary at war pro tem: In the latter case, where shall genl. winder be plac’d? His own wishes shod. be consulted, either on the lines, or by detachment, on the other side the Eastern branch, to sustain a demonstration against fort Washington, with an eye on the Patuxent. I wish you to decide this point, & have it immediately explaned & executed. Sincerely yours
Jas Monroe
I have all the heavy pieces in motion for Belvoir, & shall push Hungerfords brigade there.3
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers).
1. Monroe wrote “June”; canceled and corrected in an unidentified hand.
2. Following the 24 Aug. 1814 defeat of U.S. forces under Brig. Gen. William H. Winder at the Battle of Bladensburg, the Baltimore Committee of Vigilance and Safety requested Samuel Smith, a U.S. senator and major general of Maryland militia, to take command of the city’s defenses. Smith agreed to do so, though well aware that this role would likely bring him into conflict with Winder, who commanded the Tenth Military District including Baltimore, and whose failure at Bladensburg no doubt motivated the committee’s action. As a major general of militia, Smith outranked Winder, which created confusion in the command structure; similar conflicts had impeded the War Department’s authority in other locations. When governor Levin Winder, William H. Winder’s uncle, provided an ambiguous answer to Smith’s request that he clarify the situation, Smith simply assumed command of the Baltimore defenses and informed Secretary of War John Armstrong and General Winder of the fact. General Winder appealed for support to Armstrong and later to Monroe as acting secretary of war, but Armstrong resigned before addressing the matter, and Monroe declined to intervene for fear of jeopardizing Baltimore’s safety (Ralph Robinson, “Controversy Over the Command at Baltimore, in the War of 1812,” Maryland Historical Magazine 39 [1944]: 177–94).
3. Belvoir, completed in 1741 and sited on a bluff on the Virginia side of the Potomac, was the home of Col. William Fairfax and later his son, George William Fairfax. The mansion burned in 1783. On 1 Sept. 1814 U.S. Marines and sailors commanded by navy Capt. David Porter erected a battery at the White House, the nearby home of Ferdinando Fairfax, in an attempt to prevent the British squadron from descending the river. They were joined by Virginia militia under the command of Brig. Gen. John P. Hungerford, while navy Capt. John Rodgers mounted a water attack with boats and barges. The Americans managed to prevent the British from passing the battery for four days but in the end succumbed to superior firepower from the enemy’s frigates. The ruins of the Belvoir mansion were destroyed by the British bombardment (Quimby, U.S. Army in the War of 1812, 2:703; Garrett Peck, The Potomac River: A History and Guide [Charleston, S.C., 2012], 121; Dudley, Naval War of 1812, 3:251; Calder Loth, ed., The Virginia Landmarks Register, 4th ed. [Charlottesville, Va., 1999], 154).