Governor Snyder Calls on Pennsylvania
When British Burn National Capitol
August 24, 1814
During the summer of 1813 the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British forces assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York, in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. The burning of York was accidental, but its destruction served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the British army.
The enemy took possession of Washington August 24, 1814, and the commanders of the invading force, General Ross and Admiral Blackburn, proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of burning the Capitol and city.
On August 26, Governor Simon Snyder issued a strong appeal for a call to arms: “The landing upon our shores, by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country.
“The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebannon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams and Lancaster, and that part of Chester County which constitutes the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and those corps particularly, who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous.
“Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow citizens, soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy’s country, now the occasion has occurred, will with order seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shore of two of our sister States.”
Camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. At the latter place 5,000 men were soon under the command of Major General Nathaniel Watson, and Brigadier Generals John Forster and John Adams.
When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. In the same year other of the State’s military forces rendered excellent services at Chippewa and Bridgewater, and thereby won the gratitude of the people of the entire country.
During the entire war the soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other state in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war.