The Burning of Washington, also known as the Capture of Washington, was a successful British amphibious attack conducted by Rear-Admiral George Cockburn during Admiral Sir John Warren's Chesapeake campaign. It was the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a foreign power had captured and occupied a United States capital. Following the defeat of American forces at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814, a British army led by Major-General Robert Ross marched on Washington, D.C. That evening, British soldiers and sailors set fire to multiple public buildings; including the Presidential Mansion, United States Capitol, and Washington Navy Yard.
The Capture of the City of Washington shows the burning of Washington, D.C., on August 24, 1814.
Admiralty House in Bermuda, where the British attack was planned
The Burning of Washington, August 1814
An 1814 watercolor and ink depiction of the United States Capitol after the burning of Washington, D.C. in the War of 1812. Painting by George Munger.
Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted using ship's boats as the primary method of delivering troops to shore. Since the Gallipoli Campaign, specialised watercraft were increasingly designed for landing troops, material and vehicles, including by landing craft and for insertion of commandos, by fast patrol boats, zodiacs and from mini-submersibles. The term amphibious first emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the 1930s with introduction of vehicles such as Vickers-Carden-Loyd Light Amphibious Tank or the Landing Vehicle Tracked.
A Crusader tank landing on a beach from a Tank Landing Craft in a 1942 test
South Korean Type 88 K1 MBT comes ashore from an American LCAC in March 2007.
Two Australian M113s disembarking from a landing craft during a training exercise in 2019
The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion of England with a force of some 8,000 infantry and heavy cavalry landed on the English shore.