 In August 1814, Weightman (by now a First Lieutenant in D.C.'s Light Horse Cavalry) was apprehended by the British troops descending on the White House during the Siege of Washington, a battle in the War of 1812, and made to march with them to the Executive Mansion.Admiral George Cockburn taunted the upstanding Washingtonian, forcing him to choose a souvenir (albeit one of no monetary value) to remember the day the American capital was defeated.After serving seven one-year terms as an alderman on Washington's city council, the council elected Weightman in 1824 to serve out the remainder of the late mayor Samuel N. Smallwood's term.