Night of 8/24/1814

Did the Prince of Persia and Prince Michael square off in D.C. on 8/24/1814?

---How HISTORY behind the veil of the seen and unseen works.

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia [Lucifer] was standing in my way.... then behold, Michael, [Christ] one of the chief princes, came to help me... Daniel 10:13---

"On the night of August 24, 1814, British troops led by Rear

Admiral Sir George Cockburn marched on Washington, D.C. and set fire to most of the city. Dolley Madison famously saved the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and a copy of the Declaration of Independence before she fled to nearby Georgetown. The British didn't stay long, though; their occupation lasted just 26 hours. 

 

With much of the city aflame the next day, British soldiers kept moving through, lighting more fires. They didn't notice the darkening skies, the thunder and lightning. City residents knew a bad storm was on its way and quickly took shelter.

 

The clouds began to swirl and the winds kicked up. A tornado formed in the center of the city and headed straight for the British on Capitol Hill. The twister ripped buildings from their foundations and trees up by the roots. British cannons were tossed around by the winds. Several British troops were killed by falling structures and flying debris.

The rain continued for two hours, dousing the flames. The British decided it was time to leave. Local meteorologists later wrote in their book Washington Weather:

As the British troops were preparing to leave, a conversation

was noted between the British Admiral and a Washington lady regarding the storm: The admiral exclaimed, “Great God, Madam! Is this the kind of storm to which you are accustomed in this infernal country?” The lady answered, “No, Sir, this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from our city.”

The tornado ripped through Washington and headed straight toward the British occupation. Structures were torn off their foundations, other buildings were blown down. Feather mattresses were sucked out of windows, trees were uprooted, fences were blown down,

chimneys collapsed, the heavy chain bridge across the Potomac River buckled, and many British cannons were picked up and tossed around. Panic ensued; many British soldiers did not have time to take cover and were killed by collapsing buildings and flying debris. One officer, riding his horse around a corner, inadvertently rode directly into the oncoming wind, and “in an instant both he and his horse were blown to the ground.”

George Robert Gleig, a British soldier, later remembered the scene:

Of the prodigious force of the wind it is impossible for you to form any conception...The darkness was as great as if the sun had long set and the last remains

of twilight had come on, occasionally relieved by flashes of vivid lightning streaming through it; which, together with the noise of the wind and the thunder, the crash of falling buildings, and the tearing of roofs as they were stript from the walls, produced the most appalling effect I ever have, and probably ever shall, witness. This lasted for nearly two hours without intermission, during which time many of the houses spared by us were blown down and thirty of our men, besides several of the inhabitants, buried beneath their ruins. Our column was as completely dispersed as if it had received a total defeat, some of the men flying for shelter behind walls and buildings and others falling flat upon the ground to prevent themselves from being carried away by the tempest.

Trying to impose an 8 p.m. curfew was pointless, as soldiers staggered around in gale-force winds.

Finally, the winds quieted but the rain fell in torrents for more than

two hours quenching most of the flames and prevented Washington from continuing to burn. The British Army regrouped near Capitol Hill, a bit shaken by the harsh weather and decided to depart Washington that evening. Downed trees across roads hampered their journey and when they reached their ships, it was discovered two had broken free from their moorings and were washed ashore. The British Commander later reported that more of their soldiers were wounded and killed by this catastrophic disaster than from all the firearms the American troops could muster in their ineffectual defense of Washington.

President Madison returned to the city on August 27, and a peace between the two nations was signed the next year. Though Congress briefly considered abandoning Washington to make a capital somewhere else, the city was eventually rebuilt."

Smithsonian/557WeatherWing/BoundaryStones