#OTD in 1845, 250 veterans of the Battle of Baltimore were honored in Washington DC on the battle’s
31 st anniversary – and they took time to honor their wartime First Lady.
(1)
(2)
The Weekly National Intelligencer reported that, after marching from the railroad depot to the White
House to meet President James K. Polk, the “Old Defenders of Baltimore ... marched in admirable order
to the residence of the venerable Mrs. Madison, where they saluted that much-respected lady, as she
stood on her front steps, attended by the Mayor and several of her friends in the city.”
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Dolley Madison,
by then 77 years old, had become an icon of an earlier time in American history.
William Elwell, 1848 portrait of Dolley Madison, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
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