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SECRETARY OF THE NAVY JONES TO COMMODORE JOHN RODGERS Booth's eyewitness account portrays the confused, panic-stricken state of the city in the days before the invasion. Meanwhile, the commandant of the yard, Thomas Tingey, responding to an oral order from Jones, employed the yard's clerk, Mordecai Booth, to secure wagons for transporting supplies to troops in the area. Creighton to reconnoiter the British squadron progressing up the Potomac.

At the Washington Navy Yard, the secretary engaged Master Commandant John O. Perry, and promised them glory in defending the capital. He immediately enlisted the assistance of three of his illustrious naval captains, John Rodgers, David Porter, and Oliver H. When faced with imminent peril, however, Jones acted quickly and decisively. Secretary of the Navy Jones, as with most of Madison's cabinet, but not the president himself, did not consider Washington threatened. Brigadier General Winder, the newly appointed commander of the just-formed Tenth Military District, energetically undertook Washington's defense, but after six weeks had accomplished little due to his own lack of organizational skills and Armstrong's inertia. Seeing no strategic advantage the British could gain by attacking the capital, Secretary of War Armstrong denied any need to defend it. Washington was ill prepared for the invasion force that sailed up the Patuxent River on 19 August 1814. Naval Preparations for the Defense of Washington