It was September 11 of 1814, during the "forgotten" War of 1812, and the future of American independence was on the line. The most powerful military force in the world, the British Royal Navy, had positioned a massive naval blockade all along the American Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico, slowly strangling the infant U.S. economy. The invasion of Washington, D.C. by Lord Wellington's "Invincibles" the month before had resulted in the burning of the Capitol and White House, scattering Congress and the President to the wind. In the largest assembly of combatants during the entire war, the...