“Washington is Burning” by Graeme Garrard, in History Today, vol. 64, no. 8 (2014):
“…When James Madison, fourth President of the United States and ‘Father of the Constitution', signed a declaration of war against Britain on June 18th, 1812 he could scarcely have imagined that two years later he would be fleeing from his burning capital before the invading enemy…
Graeme Garrard describes the events that led to the torching of the new US capital by British troops in August 1814 and considers the impact of the ‘greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms' on the US, Britain and Canada….”