War of 1812 Willow Oak - Oxon Hill, Maryland
Posted by: 
flyingmoose
N 38° 48.152 W 077° 00.221
18S E 326008 N 4296770
Located in a small field to the right after entering the parking lot.
Waymark Code: WM14721
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 05/03/2021
Views: 2
Located within the Oxen Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm the War of 1812 tree is a large Willow Oak. The Tree itself is quite a massive tree and hard to miss as it sits in an open field surrounded by some picnic tables. On the north end of the trunk there is a hole and pieces are rotting and breaking off, other than that the tree is likely to witness more events as time goes on.
The following is taken from the Smithsonian Magazine:
The blood and fire of the War of 1812 Willow Oak’s namesake hostilities reached the tree during the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814. The lonely oak with its thick, gnarled trunk now stands in a grassy field in Maryland, near the parking lot of the Oxon Cove Park & Oxon Hill Farm in Oxon Hill, known two centuries ago as Mount Welby, home of British sympathizers Dr. Samuel DeButts and his family. The tree and estate overlooked Washington, D.C.
On that August night, British troops defeated American troops about six miles away from Mount Welby, then attacked the capital, setting the White House and other parts of the city on fire. DeButts’ wife, Mary Welby, wrote of that evening: “Our house shook repeatedly by the firing upon forts [and] Bridges, [and was] illuminated by the fires in our Capital.” The DeButts family later found three rockets from the fighting on their property.
Website: [Web Link]
Historic Event:
War of 1812
Year: 1812
Species: Willow Oak
Approximate Age: 208
Location: Oxon Hill
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