--- title: The White House Fire of 1814: Why It's Still a Serious Matter description: Aug. 24, 1814: British forces set fire to the White House canonical: https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-24T14:30:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:29.686Z article:section: History og:title: The White House Fire of 1814: Why It's Still a Serious Matter og:description: Aug. 24, 1814: British forces set fire to the White House og:url: https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5df2bf89357aa443/69885f32196cf4af7b0378b9/wh.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A view of the Capitol after the conflagration of the 24th August 1814. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The White House Fire of 1814: Why It's Still a Serious Matter twitter:description: Aug. 24, 1814: British forces set fire to the White House twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5df2bf89357aa443/69885f32196cf4af7b0378b9/wh.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the White House Fire Still Matters ## Video: Take a Tour of the Capital Dome and See Why It Needs Repair [Watch (HLS stream): Take a Tour of the Capital Dome and See Why It Needs Repair](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6zuady2c.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2013-12-20. With 1,300 cracks, the U.S. Capital Dome is long overdue for a touch-up._ by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Aug 24, 2015 2:30 PM UTC  A view of the Capitol after the conflagration of Aug. 24, 1814. A view of the Capitol after the conflagration of Aug. 24, 1814.Universal History Archive / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Aug 24, 2015 2:30 PM UTC When Americans remember the War of 1812 — [if we remember it at all](http://time.com/3154675/white-house-burning-war-1812/) — we typically recall the stinging losses it entailed: dominion over Canada, for one, along with many of the brand-new buildings in our nation’s young capital. While we won the war, these humiliating deprivations made it “the bucktoothed stepsister of American military victories,” as [TIME put it ](http://time.com/76284/1812-war-commemorate-washington/)last year. On this day, Aug. 24, in 1814, following their victory at the Battle of Bladensburg, British forces marched on Washington and set fire to the White House — as well as the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. Treasury, among other buildings. It was a low point in the war, and our entire military history, as [_National Geographic_ notes](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/remembering-when-white-house-was-burning-president-was-hiding-and-u-was-close-to-collapse/), when Americans saw “their capital burned, their Army literally running away, and President Madison and his wife, Dolley, forced to abandon the White House… with the president’s dinner still on the table.” British officers helped themselves to the food and wine before torching the place, [according to TIME](http://time.com/3154591/burning-of-washington-200th-anniversary/). It’s no surprise, then, that the War of 1812 doesn’t get the same attention in American history books as the Revolutionary War. But [some historians say](http://nation.time.com/2013/05/08/six-weeks-that-saved-the-nation/) it doesn’t deserve its bad rap: It went a long way toward establishing America’s national identity and its reputation as an international superpower. Three weeks after being routed in Washington, after all, the American military bounced back at Baltimore, handing the British a dramatic defeat that inspired Francis Scott Key to write [_The Star-Spangled Banner_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,761993,00.html). And while scorch marks are still visible on some White House walls, the past two centuries have put a lot of water under the bridge between the U.S. and the U.K. When British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the White House in 2012, Obama joked that his predecessors had “really lit the place up,” per _National Geographic_. Others think it’s still too soon to make light of the famous fire, however. The British embassy in Washington learned this lesson the hard way when it commemorated the 200th anniversary of the fire on Twitter last year. Embassy officials [tweeted a photo](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/25/british-embassy-tweet-white-house-burning-1814) of a cake topped with a model of the White House — adorned with glowing sparklers. According to _The Guardian_, outraged Americans took issue with the British display of levity. One tweeted back “WWHHAATT??? Is this suppose \[sic\] to be funny?” It was, according to the British embassy, which apologized for ruffling any feathers. “We meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today,” embassy officials replied. **_Read more from 1967 about the burning of Washington and other military-history lowlights, here in the TIME archives_**: [Divided We Stand: The Unpopularity of U.S. Wars](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,844001,00.html) ### See Washington D.C. as a Winter Wonderland  Snow falls at dusk by the White House in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015, Jacquelyn Martin—AP  A snow-plough cleans the snow in front of the US Capitol building in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images  Snow covers the Tidal Basin in front of Jefferson Memorial in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images  Snow covers the Tidal Basin in front of the Washington Memorial in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images  A man takes a photo of the snow covered Iwo Jima memorial in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images  Snow covers "The Breadline" sculpture at the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images  A snow-plough cleans the snow on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington on Feb. 16, 2015. Mladen Antonov—AFP/Getty Images _Read next:_ [_How the Star-Spangled Banner Became the National Anthem_](http://time.com/3318644/star-spangled-banner/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/"},"headline":"Why the White House Fire Still Matters","datePublished":"2015-08-24T14:30:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:29.686Z","description":"Aug. 24, 1814: British forces set fire to the White House","url":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/","keywords":["White House","conflict"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5df2bf89357aa443/69885f32196cf4af7b0378b9/wh.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5df2bf89357aa443/69885f32196cf4af7b0378b9/wh.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A view of the Capitol after the conflagration of the 24th August 1814.","caption":"A view of the Capitol after the conflagration of the 24th August 1814.","creditText":"Universal History Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/","name":"Why the White House Fire Still Matters"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Take a Tour of the Capital Dome and See Why It Needs Repair","description":"With 1,300 cracks, the U.S. Capital Dome is long overdue for a touch-up.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6zuady2c/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-20T16:46:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6zuady2c.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/","duration":"PT2M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3997040/1814-white-house-fire/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```