In late August 1814, after two hard years spent fighting the Second American Revolutionary War against the British, the United States rushed to establish defenses to protect important military installations in northern Virginia and Maryland, then under threat from the intimidating British invasion forces menacingly lurking in the Chesapeake Bay. President Madison and his administration had difficulty determining overall British military and political objectives and were slow to realize the symbolic importance of Washington D.C. to the British. As a result they made little preparation to defend the city. As for the commander of the British forces, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, he did not yet have his sights set on other valuable American military objectives, such as the nearby port city of Baltimore. Instead, spurred by a letter urging him to avenge the earlier brutal American raid on the Canadian port of Dover, he concentrated his forces toward the destruction of Washington, DC. Just after dark on August 24, 1814, to the shock and horror of the city's remaining inhabitants, British forces descended on the Capitol with one goal in mind: to raze it to the ground. Casting aside the token resistance of the few American regulars and militias stationed in the district, the British proceeded to burn the White House, the Treasury Building, the State Department, the War Office, and the shipyard. In this primal act of wanton destruction, the British humiliated the United States, avenged the outrage over the Dover raids, dispersed key members of the American government, and exercised complete dominion over the capital of their archenemy. By achieving a political victory by burning the US Capitol, the British lost their most important strategic initiative. ).Jones, William. “Washington Fire Investigation.” Naval History and Heritage Command. http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/burning_washington.htm#burning (accessed 26 June 2010). "Official letters of the military and naval officers of the United States, during the war with Great Britain in the years 1812, 13, 14, and 15: with some additional letters and documents elucidating the history of that period." Internet Archive: Free Movies, Music, Books, and Wayback Machine. http://www.archive.org/stream/militarynavalofficer00goverich#page/24/mode/2up (accessed 26 June 2010).Pitch, Anthony. "The Fire of Washington." The White House Historical Association. http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_publications/publications_documents/whitehousehistory (accessed June 26, 2010).