Dublin Core
Title
Letter to Thomas Jefferson
Description
A letter from Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect in charge of restoring the Capitol, to former president Thomas Jefferson, describing the extent of the destruction.
Creator
Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Publisher
Library of Congress
Date
July 12, 1815
Coverage
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Some details respecting the state of the ruins of the buildings may perhaps be new, & not unpleasant to be received by you, & may perhaps find your at leisure to read them as your Library is no longer around you.
The south wing of the Capitol was set on fire with great difficulty. Of the lower story nothing could be burned but the sashes & frames, & their shutters & dressings, & the doors & doorcases. As all these were detached from one another some tim & labor was necessary to get thro' the work. The first thing done was to empty into buckets a quantity of the composition used in the rockets. A man with an axe chopped the woodwork, another followed & [illegible] some of the composition & on retiring from each room the third put fire to it. Many of the rooms however were thus, only partially burnt & there is not one in which some wood does not yet remain. In the Clerks office the desks & furniture & the records supplied a more considerable mass of combustible materials than there was elsewhere & the fire burnt so fiercely that the were obliged to retreat & leave all the rooms on the West side entirely untouched, & they are now as clean & perfect as ever. Two other committee rooms have escaped & the Gallery stairs have none of their wooden [illegible] injured. Above stairs the Committee rooms of Ways & Means & accounts is uninjured, & the whole of the Entrance with all the Sculptured Capitals of the Columns has fortunately suffered no injury but in the plaistering, & that from the wet & frost of the Winter.
In the house of Representatives the devastation has been dreadful. There was here not want of materials for conflagration. In 1811, when the number of members of Congress was increased the old platform was left in its place, & another raised over it, giving an additional quantity of dry & loose lumber. All the stages & seats of the Galleries were of timber & yellow pine. The Mahogany furniture, decks, tables, & chairs were in their places. At first they fired Rockets through the Roof. But they did not set fire to it; they sent men on to it but it was covered with sheet iron. At last they made a great pile in the center of the room of the furniture, & retiring, set fire to a large quantity of Rocket stuff in the middle. The whole was soon in a blaze & so intense was the flame, that the glass of the lights was melted, & I have now lumps weighing many pounds of glass, run into mass. The stone, is like most freestone, unable to resist the force of flame. But I believe no known material could have withstood the effects of so sudden & intense a heat. The exterior of the Columns & entablature therefore, expanded far beyond the dimensions of their interiors, scaled off & not a vestige of fluting or sculpture remained sound. The appearance of the ruin, was awfully grand when I first saw it, and indeed it was terrible for it seemed to threaten immediately to fall, so slender were the remains of the Columns that carried the Massy entablature. The sketch below is an exact copy of two columns, excepting that my paper does not admit of their being of proportionate heighth: but the Blocks stand upon one another in the manner represented and at the lowest pin which I had placed in the center of each block, to key, the next steady while putting into place is bare. If the Colonnade had fallen the Vaulting of the rooms below might have been beaten down, but fortunately there is not a single arch in the whole building which requires to be taken down. In the North wing the beautiful Doric Columns which surrounded the Supreme Court room have shared the fate of the Corinthian columns of the Hall of Representatives and in the Senate Chamber the Marble polished Columns of 14 feet shafts in one block are burnt to lime & have fallen down. All but the Vault is ruined. They stand a most magnificent ruin.
The West side containing the Library which was never vaulted burnt very fiercely & by the fall of its heavy timbers great injury has been done to the adjoining Walls and Arches, & I fear that the freestone is so much injured on the outside that part of the outer wall must be taken down. Otherwise the exterior stands firmly joined & doors thro' which the flames found vent, the architraves & other dressings injured that they must be replaced, all the parapet is gone.
The south wing of the Capitol was set on fire with great difficulty. Of the lower story nothing could be burned but the sashes & frames, & their shutters & dressings, & the doors & doorcases. As all these were detached from one another some tim & labor was necessary to get thro' the work. The first thing done was to empty into buckets a quantity of the composition used in the rockets. A man with an axe chopped the woodwork, another followed & [illegible] some of the composition & on retiring from each room the third put fire to it. Many of the rooms however were thus, only partially burnt & there is not one in which some wood does not yet remain. In the Clerks office the desks & furniture & the records supplied a more considerable mass of combustible materials than there was elsewhere & the fire burnt so fiercely that the were obliged to retreat & leave all the rooms on the West side entirely untouched, & they are now as clean & perfect as ever. Two other committee rooms have escaped & the Gallery stairs have none of their wooden [illegible] injured. Above stairs the Committee rooms of Ways & Means & accounts is uninjured, & the whole of the Entrance with all the Sculptured Capitals of the Columns has fortunately suffered no injury but in the plaistering, & that from the wet & frost of the Winter.
In the house of Representatives the devastation has been dreadful. There was here not want of materials for conflagration. In 1811, when the number of members of Congress was increased the old platform was left in its place, & another raised over it, giving an additional quantity of dry & loose lumber. All the stages & seats of the Galleries were of timber & yellow pine. The Mahogany furniture, decks, tables, & chairs were in their places. At first they fired Rockets through the Roof. But they did not set fire to it; they sent men on to it but it was covered with sheet iron. At last they made a great pile in the center of the room of the furniture, & retiring, set fire to a large quantity of Rocket stuff in the middle. The whole was soon in a blaze & so intense was the flame, that the glass of the lights was melted, & I have now lumps weighing many pounds of glass, run into mass. The stone, is like most freestone, unable to resist the force of flame. But I believe no known material could have withstood the effects of so sudden & intense a heat. The exterior of the Columns & entablature therefore, expanded far beyond the dimensions of their interiors, scaled off & not a vestige of fluting or sculpture remained sound. The appearance of the ruin, was awfully grand when I first saw it, and indeed it was terrible for it seemed to threaten immediately to fall, so slender were the remains of the Columns that carried the Massy entablature. The sketch below is an exact copy of two columns, excepting that my paper does not admit of their being of proportionate heighth: but the Blocks stand upon one another in the manner represented and at the lowest pin which I had placed in the center of each block, to key, the next steady while putting into place is bare. If the Colonnade had fallen the Vaulting of the rooms below might have been beaten down, but fortunately there is not a single arch in the whole building which requires to be taken down. In the North wing the beautiful Doric Columns which surrounded the Supreme Court room have shared the fate of the Corinthian columns of the Hall of Representatives and in the Senate Chamber the Marble polished Columns of 14 feet shafts in one block are burnt to lime & have fallen down. All but the Vault is ruined. They stand a most magnificent ruin.
The West side containing the Library which was never vaulted burnt very fiercely & by the fall of its heavy timbers great injury has been done to the adjoining Walls and Arches, & I fear that the freestone is so much injured on the outside that part of the outer wall must be taken down. Otherwise the exterior stands firmly joined & doors thro' which the flames found vent, the architraves & other dressings injured that they must be replaced, all the parapet is gone.