immense quantities of stores, ammunition, and provisions; about 200 were slain, and strange to say, 800 deserted to the American side. On the 15th of August, the very day on which the British general, Drummond, was repulsed from Fort Erie, ruin was approaching the city of Washington, the federal capital of the United States. The British, on the return of spring, had renewed their predatory inroads on the banks of the Chesapeake, in pursuance of governmental orders to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts of the coast as might be found assailable; and now, about the middle of August, Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn, having on board the land troops of Major-General Ross, another Peninsula hero, entered the Potomac, on which river Washington stands, and which empties itself into the Chesapeake. The British general landed his forces, 5,000 in number, and commenced his march to Washington, distant twenty-seven miles; Admiral Cockburn proceeding at the same time up the river in a flotilla of launches and armed boats. Washington was not defenceless, although her defenders, neither by land nor water, appear to have been very efficient. On the 22nd, the expedition reached Pig Point, and descried the flag of the American flotilla. It was naturally supposed that it was the intention of Barney, the American commodore, to dispute the passage of the river; but, to the surprise of the British, the shipping was found to be on fire. Sixteen out of seventeen vessels were blown up to prevent their falling into the hands of the British. On the 20th, General Winder, who commanded the land forces, being joined by the marines of Commodore Barney, marched out to meet the advancing enemy, and encamped at Marlborough, where they were inspected by the president, by General Armstrong, secretary of war, and by various heads of other departments, who, appearing to despair at the first glance, at once dispersed. On the 24th, General Ross and his troops reached Bladensberg, a village five miles from the capital, where a stand was made, principally by seamen and marines, the commodore being wounded and taken prisoner. The example of President Madison had been followed; the American army retreated across the Potomac. Nothing was easier than the task which Ross had undertaken. At the head of 1,600 men, after a skirmish which did not last half an hour, he took possession of Washington. The work of destruction began immediately. The capitol, or senate-house, the president’s house and public offices, the arsenal, the navy yard, and the bridge over the Potomac, all were destroyed. On the following night a leisurely retreat was commenced, and the British troops, meeting with no resistence on their return, re-embarked on the 30th.