Combat· War of 1812
Destruction of Washington Navy Yard
With the army routed at Bladensburg and the British marching on the capital, the Washington Navy Yard was given up to the torch rather than the enemy.
On the night of 24 August, acting on orders from the Secretary of the Navy, the yard's commandant Commodore Thomas Tingey set fire to the facility to deny its ships, guns, and stores to the British. A small Marine guard held the grounds through the afternoon, covering the demolition parties and the evacuation before withdrawing across the Eastern Branch with Tingey's party as the flames spread. The new ship of the line Columbia and the sloop Argus burned on the stocks along with the ropewalk, timber, and magazines. It was the most destructive single loss of American naval infrastructure in the war, a deliberate sacrifice. The Marine Barracks a few blocks north was bypassed by the British and survived.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 90