The situation looked desperate for America in the third year of what history would come to call the War of 1812. The British army had captured Washington, D.C., sending President James Madison and the rest of the government fleeing. “Shall this harbor of Yankee democracy be burned?” Rear Admiral George Cockburn supposedly said from the Speaker’s chair before setting the House of Representative’s chamber to the torch. Soon the White House would join it, going up in flames.