Sgt Grit Marine Forums

during the war with Enland, The British burned every public building in Washington to include the White House but left one building standing. What was the building and why was it left standing?

my guess... Place: PUB Why: Beer

No!!!

Marine Barracks at 8th And I? They did this out of respect for the Marines, or fear, or both.

That is correct. I guess that it was a little to easy. Good Job!

UHH, hold on there. It was the Commandant's House that wasn't burned. Some say the Limeies didn't even know it was there.

According to what we could find it was the Marine Barracks.

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Originally posted by DaffysMom
According to what we could find it was the Marine Barracks.

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What's your citation? The officers of the Brits would've been derelict in their duties to leave a military post (the entire barracks), as opposed to an officer's house (which is the northern element of the barracks square), unscathed in wartime.

During the war of 1812 with England, the British burned nearly every public building in Washington (including the White House and the Capital). The Marine Barracks were spared the burning out of respect.

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Originally posted by Daffy
During the war of 1812 with England, the British burned nearly every public building in Washington (including the White House and the Capital). The Marine Barracks were spared the burning out of respect.

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That's the way I have always heard it...

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Originally posted by Daffy
During the war of 1812 with England, the British burned nearly every public building in Washington (including the White House and the Capital). The Marine Barracks were spared the burning out of respect.

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Again, please cite where you get this info. I lived in DC for Thirty plus years, attended over twenty Evening parades, studied USMC history since the age of ten and I have always seen it as the Commandant's House, not the entire barracks. This is a citation http://www.mcnews.info/mcnewsinfo/marines/divisions/pme.shtml If I am wrong I'd like to see it. And, BTW it was Aug. 24, 1814 that the battle took place. There is a Fort Washington across the Potomac from Mount Vernon which the Army surrendered to the Brits after firing one cannon shot "for honor's sake."

The early nineteenth-century barracks was arranged in a quadrangle as it is today, and the use of the building was similar. The areas on the south and east side of the quadrangle were used for offices, maintenance facilities and living spaces for troops, and a building on the west was the location of the officers' quarters. The Commandant's House at the north end of the barracks was completed in 1806 and is the only original building still standing. It is the oldest public building in continuous use in the Nation's Capital. The rest of the barracks was rebuilt between 1900 and 1907. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/marine-barracks.htm It doesn't say whether the original barracks were burned or just rebuilt due to being worn out. SSgt K

But our own magazine says the barracks were burned.

Update - it seems we are both wrong. In this month's MC Gazett an author says that Col Heinl had put in his book "Soldiers of the Sea" a hoax - the Navy Yard in DC was burned by the Navy Yard Commandant and the Brits never came near it nor the USMC barracks. So says the author.

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Originally posted by TWD87
Marine Barracks at 8th And I? They did this out of respect for the Marines, or fear, or both.

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That becuase thats where the Beer was.[;)]