He commanded the British troops that burned Washington D.C. during the War of 1812.
- Kenneth Bailey
- William Howe
- Robert Ross
- Phineas Riall
- Isaac Brock
Robert Ross. Maj. Gen. Robert Ross commanded the British troops that burned Washington D.C. during the War of 1812. British forces landed on the Patuxent River, August 19, 1814, routed the Americans in the Battle of Bladensburg, and then marched to Washington. Once in possession of the city, the British occupiers, following the courtly code of contemporary warfare, kept their troops from looting and destroying private property. Public property, however, was another matter, and the soldiers under the command of General Ross set fire to building after building, including the president’s house and the grand U.S. Capitol, admired by its destroyers for its sculpture and ornamented columns. The very orderly burning of these buildings was in part a response to the American destruction of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada earlier in the war. After setting the fires, the approximately 4,000 troops returned to their ships. General Ross was subsequently killed in action that September during the assault upon Baltimore.