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Book: When Britain Burned the White House


Norfolk nChance

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Book: When Britain Burned the White House

Peter Snow, 2013

https://www.amazon.com/When-Britain-Burned-White-House/dp/1250048281

Hadn’t done a book review for sometime and thought this is one might be useful for the New Ultimate-Age of Sail testing by @sterner. A Campaign mission around this incident would be interesting.

The book tells of the 1814 invasion of Washington DC by British forces.

Anybody from the UK will know John Snow the journalist very well indeed. He and his nephew have done some great battle re-works over the years. In this work John Snow gives a very readable piece covering the amphibious assaults on Washington DC and Baltimore.

The key is Snow’s narrative bringing the story alive making it read like a thriller. With colourful details regarding personalities and their interactions with one another. The notes on Harry Smith and George De Lacy Evans giving new revelations was an insight on the events. I buried the book in a weekend without even noticing…

The book contains several maps and glossy prints of the participants and the White House of course. However, the book only gives a brief outline to the British-US war of 1812 and its outcome. Also, from a Naval-Action point of view it is lacking in big picture detail surrounding the Naval events. It does cover the FORT McHenry bombardment from British Bomb ships though.

Summary

For me from an armchair strategists’ point of view, we start to see the development of British Armed Forces working together as a team. Before we’d seen the Royal Navy as a delivery system only, like in the Peninsula campaigns of Portugal. The influence of Admiralty butting heads with Senior Army hierarchy is interesting here while fighting the young American’s. That friction of Navy, Army and air force still exists to this day in many ways…

The book I would recommend actually to all GL Forum members from UG to NA-OW.

I bet you’ll struggle to put this book down…!

 

Regards

 

Norfolk nChance [ELITE]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

 

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