About
American soldier and a Maryland lawyer. He was a controversial general in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. On August 24, 1814, as a brigadier general, he led American troops in their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg, which led to the Burning of Washington by British troops.
Before Fame
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and from 1798 to 1812, practiced law in Baltimore.
Trivia
After the war, he became a leading attorney of the Baltimore bar, and joined an influential literary social group called the Delphian Club, which was satirized by Edgar Allan Poe in his unpublished "Tales of the Folio Club" in the 1830s.
Family Life
He was born in Somerset County, Maryland. He was the nephew of Levin Winder, a major during the American Revolution. He was married to Gertrude Polk, who was a first cousin about four times removed to Colonel Ezekiel Polk, grandfather of U.S. President James K. Polk.
Associated With
In 1804, he testified at the impeachment trial of associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase. Although he failed to show effective command in the Battle of Bladensburg, he got virtually no support from the newly designated Secretary of War and continuing Secretary of State, James Monroe (later the fifth President).
