I grew up in Halifax where I sometimes visited General Ross's grave.
My great grandfather was a Ross.
Before burning the White House, Ross and his men enjoyed a meal that had been prepared for the President and his staff before they ran away. The table was set with fine china, silverware, and included roast meats, vegetables, desserts, and fine wine. The supper became a point of national humiliation for Americans, and was widely reported in newspapers of the time.
Dolley Madison’s letters tell the story of her hasty evacuation, during which she famously saved a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart! Hard to imagine the Biden's or the Trump's doing that!
Ross then went on to burn: the Capitol Building, Navy Yard, the Treasury, War Department and State Department Buildings, and the office of the National Intelligencer - a pro-American newspaper that had criticized the British.
"The body of the gallant and much lamented Major General Ross was interred in St. Paul’s Church yard on Thursday last. The Corpse left the Flagship precisely at 3 o’clock under a discharge of half-minute guns and arrived at the King’s Wharf where it was received by the Grenadier Company of the 64th Regiment and followed to the grave by all the principal Naval and Military officers and a large number of inhabitants.” - Acadian Recorder, October 1, 1814
There is a book called "The Velvet Glove", now out of print—that documents the history of barbarity and civility in war and how, perhaps surprisingly, has become more barbaric over time.
The word "parole" (word of honor) originated in the 17th century as a promise made by prisoners of war, who might be released, or placed under loose house arrest after giving their word not to fight again. This practice was rooted in the trust-based systems of medieval Europe, where honor was a cornerstone of social interactions. Breaking parole was considered a grave dishonor and could lead to severe consequences if recaptured, including execution or harsher imprisonment.
Battles were usually fought on a field outside of towns. The townspeople were not considered combatants and as such were not deliberately targeted. That all began to break down in major way during the US civil war as demonstrated by Sherman's utterly brutal march to the sea. Sherman's troops burned plantations, destroyed crops, and razed cities like Atlanta. Even there though, civilians were not deliberately targeted.
FF to WWI where all sides began to deliberately kill civilians, bomb cities and attack civilian vessels.
The barbarity only increased in WWII which saw the deliberate burning of entire cities in Germany and Japan. In Japan a single night of bombing by the forces under the command of General Curtis Lemay - killed at least 80,000 people, with conservative estimates suggesting the toll likely exceeded 100,000. The firestorm caused by incendiary bombs left around one million people homeless - making it one of the deadliest air raids in history—more destructive than the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki in terms of immediate deaths. In the end, the fire-bombings alone, using the napalm developed at Harvard for that purpose, killed from 200,000 to 500,000 Japanese civilians, compared to 150,000–246,000 for the atomic bombings.
I miss those 'rules' - but they are never coming back.
A good ol' fashioned pickling...
I grew up in Halifax where I sometimes visited General Ross's grave.
My great grandfather was a Ross.
Before burning the White House, Ross and his men enjoyed a meal that had been prepared for the President and his staff before they ran away. The table was set with fine china, silverware, and included roast meats, vegetables, desserts, and fine wine. The supper became a point of national humiliation for Americans, and was widely reported in newspapers of the time.
Dolley Madison’s letters tell the story of her hasty evacuation, during which she famously saved a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart! Hard to imagine the Biden's or the Trump's doing that!
Ross then went on to burn: the Capitol Building, Navy Yard, the Treasury, War Department and State Department Buildings, and the office of the National Intelligencer - a pro-American newspaper that had criticized the British.
"The body of the gallant and much lamented Major General Ross was interred in St. Paul’s Church yard on Thursday last. The Corpse left the Flagship precisely at 3 o’clock under a discharge of half-minute guns and arrived at the King’s Wharf where it was received by the Grenadier Company of the 64th Regiment and followed to the grave by all the principal Naval and Military officers and a large number of inhabitants.” - Acadian Recorder, October 1, 1814
I wonder how we (US) ever got over that? Of course I always wonder how the UK ever got over the blitz.
That's a great question.
I don't have a good answer.
It seems like people thought differently back then.
Great article!
Thanks!
I still think old wars--like the Battle of the Plains of Abraham--ok, Britain, you get Canada-- were so odd in their rules.
There is a book called "The Velvet Glove", now out of print—that documents the history of barbarity and civility in war and how, perhaps surprisingly, has become more barbaric over time.
The word "parole" (word of honor) originated in the 17th century as a promise made by prisoners of war, who might be released, or placed under loose house arrest after giving their word not to fight again. This practice was rooted in the trust-based systems of medieval Europe, where honor was a cornerstone of social interactions. Breaking parole was considered a grave dishonor and could lead to severe consequences if recaptured, including execution or harsher imprisonment.
Battles were usually fought on a field outside of towns. The townspeople were not considered combatants and as such were not deliberately targeted. That all began to break down in major way during the US civil war as demonstrated by Sherman's utterly brutal march to the sea. Sherman's troops burned plantations, destroyed crops, and razed cities like Atlanta. Even there though, civilians were not deliberately targeted.
FF to WWI where all sides began to deliberately kill civilians, bomb cities and attack civilian vessels.
The barbarity only increased in WWII which saw the deliberate burning of entire cities in Germany and Japan. In Japan a single night of bombing by the forces under the command of General Curtis Lemay - killed at least 80,000 people, with conservative estimates suggesting the toll likely exceeded 100,000. The firestorm caused by incendiary bombs left around one million people homeless - making it one of the deadliest air raids in history—more destructive than the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki in terms of immediate deaths. In the end, the fire-bombings alone, using the napalm developed at Harvard for that purpose, killed from 200,000 to 500,000 Japanese civilians, compared to 150,000–246,000 for the atomic bombings.
I miss those 'rules' - but they are never coming back.
A fascinating tale. Thank you Kathleen.
This must be where the urban legend of the corpse in the barrel of rum came from: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12631404
What a way to go!
Why the acute accents in Général?
good question..I think I copied from a Quebec coverage.