On August 24, 1814, Dolly Madison had dinner prepared for herself and her husband, President James Madison. Nothing unusual about that. What was a bit on the odd side is who actually ate that meal; that was the day that British troops arrived, took the city of Washington and burned almost all of it. After eating the meal left in the White House, of course.
The next day, the head of the British forces there, Read Admiral George Cockburn (Easy Boys!) searched out the offices of a local newspaper, The National Intelligencer, as they had put him in such a bad light and nicknamed him "The Ruffian". He was determined to burn that building too but some local women persuaded him not to do that as it would almost certainly set the nearby houses afire. Instead, he ordered the building be taken down brick by brick, and ordered all the type in the letter 'C' be destroyed "so that the rascals can have no further means of abusing my name."
And by the way, the oft- repeated stories of Dolly Madison personally taking the portrait of George Washington down and removing it from the White House to save it are false: the painting was far too large and heavy for any single person to carry it, never mind remove it from the wall mounting. Servants actually removed the painting.
Brian