Download The War of 1812

By Maria Magidenko
The War of 1812 lasted from1812 to1815. America declared war on Britain on June 18,
1812. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, was signed on December 24, 1814 but
news about the peace treaty took two months to reach the U.S., so the fighting
continued until 1815. The war was fought between the United States and Great Britain
and her North American colonies in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Québec), New
Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and
Bermuda. Most of the war was fought on the Atlantic Ocean and the land, coast, and
waterways of America. The war was fought on the oceans where warships and privateers
attacked the other side's merchant shipping; along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. which
was blockaded by the British; along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence river (which
separated the U.S. from Canada); and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. During the
war, both the British and Americans invaded each others' territories, but were
unsuccessful or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British had
parts of Maine and some outposts in the West and the Americans held Canadian territory
by Detroit, but these territories were restored at the end of the war. America declared
war on Britain because of trade restrictions Britain enforced to stop America’s trade with
France, the impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy (American seamen were
accused of being British deserters and they were forced to join the Royal Navy), and
because the British offered military support to the Native Americans who were resisting
the expansion of the American frontier.


At the start of the war, America had only state-raised militias
(which had poor training) and America had financial and
logistical problems. Military and civilian leadership was the
biggest weakness until 1814. Since New England was against
the war, it refused to provide troops or financing. America
failed to take control of Canada, the capital was burnt, and
the navy was swept off the seas. But in the end, peace has
gotten them much farther than war has.
Britain was at war with Napoleon during the time so the War
of 1812 was sort of like a sideshow and Britain was less
affected by the fighting. Britain was more focused on
Napoleon but after the war with the French was over, they
could send more troops to the Americas.

In 1807, Thomas Jefferson passed the embargo act which
forbade Americans to leave for foreign ports. But instead of
helping America, the embargo act hurt America, so in 1809, it
was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act which reopened
trade with all nations except for Britain and France. But in this
act, the President had the power to renew the trade with
either of those two nations if and when either should stop
their violations of American rights on the seas. Soon after this
act came into effect, James Madison became president. He
received a promise from the British Minister that England
would revoke the Orders in Council (which forbade neutral
ships to go to a French port without stopping at a British
one). But the British Minister was replaced, and Madison failed
to bring about peace with England.

Ever since the Revolution, American settlers had been pushing into the West.
In 1794, General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen
Timbers. Also, in the same year, Britain gave up their control of the western
forts. It seemed that the Indians would no longer be a threat to American
settlers. But instead, Chief Tecumseh united the Indians and encouraged
them to fight back. Together, the Indians organized a great confederacy of
Indian tribes to block the westward push of America. In 1811, William Henry
Harrison gathered a military force to break up the Indian Confederacy. He
wanted to destroy the town Tippecanoe Creek so he led his men to camp
about a mile from the Indian village. The Indians made a surprise attack at
dawn, but the Americans drove the Indians back and set fire to the village.
The men found that the Indians were being supplied with weapons from the
British and they were outraged. The British foolishly gave America another
reason to go to war when they refused to revoke their Orders in Council.
Congress voted on going to war and the vote was close. In the Senate it was
19 to 13 and in the House 79 to 49. The West and South voted for the war
and New England voted against it. But two days after Congress acted, Britain
announced that she had suspended the Orders in Council. But it was too late.

The war didn't start well for the U.S. when an attempt to invade Canada in August 1812 was
unsuccessful. A second invasion (but this time in the Niagara Peninsula) was defeated in October 1812
at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Then, Detroit fell to British General Isaac Brock. The American
territory north and west of Ohio had fallen to the enemy. But even though the battles fought on land in
1812 were unsuccessful, the war at sea brought glory to the navy. Captain Isaac Hull’s Constitution
outfought and sank the British frigate Guerriére by Nova Scotia. And Captain Jacob Jones’s Wasp bested
the Frolic. The frigate United States commanded by Captain Stephen Decatour captured the
Macedonian. And the Hornet sank the Peacock. Five one-sided victories in a row shocked the British
but kept the outlook good for the American navy. At the end of 1812, the British tried to blockade the
Atlantic coast from New York to Savannah. But they did not blockade New England because they hoped
that New England would separate from the rest of the country because the Americans there were
against the war. But when New England did not do so, the British blockaded New England as well. They
used Chesapeake Bay as a naval station and made it difficult to import goods into the United States.
The blockade encouraged Americans to make their own goods and once the war was over, New England
became a large industrial region. The Americans dispatched cruisers which captured British merchant
convoys and whalers and many American privateersmen roamed the seas. But even this did not force
the British to loosen their blockade of the American coast. In 1813, the Chesapeake of the U.S. Navy
and the British frigate Shannon fought thirty miles outside of Boston Harbor. Both ships fired at the
same time and were hit hard, but the Chesapeake suffered most. Captain Lawrence was shot through
the lungs and as he heard the British board the ship, he cried out “Don’t give up the ship!” The British
still took the Chesapeake into Halifax as a prize and Lawrence’s dying words became the rallying cry of
the American navy.


Hull had lost Detroit in 1812, and Harrison had made little headway in
getting it back the following year. These failures made it clear that the
Americans had to gain control of Lake Erie before they could recapture the
city. Captain Perry assembled a fleet, guns, and crews. In August 1813, he
sailed up the lake and anchored in Put-In-Bay. There, on September 1813, he
met the British fleet. His ship was battered and all of his officers were killed
but he refused to give up. He took a small boat and was rowed over to the
Niagara and kept on fighting. Soon the entire British fleet surrendered. In
fifteen minutes Perry had gained control of Lake Erie.
With Lake Erie cleared of the British, Harrison sailed against Fort Malden. A
regiment of Kentucky mounted riflemen moved along the shore of the lake
toward Detroit. The British tried to retreat eastward but Harrison caught up
to them about eighty-five miles from Malden. Most of the British surrendered
and the Indians fled into the woods but the Kentuckians fought with them
hand-to-hand. Chief Tecumseh was killed and this battle shattered the
Indian Confederacy.


One of the biggest failures of the United States in the war was the expedition
launched in 1813 against Montreal. This group of 6,000 men was led by
Wilkinson. A second force led by General Hampton was supposed to move
north against Montreal from Lake Champlain. Hamilton and Wilkinson
despised each other and it was clear that they couldn’t work together.
Wilkinson’s men were driven back about ninety miles from the city and
Hamilton never even started. At the end of the year, the British seized Fort
Niagara and burned Buffalo.
In early 1814, Napoleon was overthrown so England was now able to throw
all of her strength into the war with America. The British planned to go south
into New York through Lake Champlain, against Washington and Baltimore
from the Chesapeake Bay, and to seize New Orleans and get control of the
Mississippi River. The British tightened the blockade of the American coast.
But Wilkinson and other incompetent generals were removed and better
people were chosen to lead the U.S. fighting forces.

Before the British could start their invasion, Americans crossed the
Niagara River into Canada and took control of Fort Erie. The British
and Americans fought the Battle of Chippewa and the British lines
crumbled. Still, the invasion of Canada got nowhere. Americans tried
to fight a battle at Lundy’s Lane but were pushed back to Fort Erie.
The British attacked the fort but Americans held out and forced the
British to withdraw. Then the Americans destroyed the fort and gave
up the drive to Canada. In September 1814, the big British land and
water attack along Lake Champlain got under way. The British
outnumbered the Americans at Plattsburg, New York, by about four
to one. The Americans anchored in the narrow channel between
Crab Island and Cumberland Head. The Battle of Lake Champlain
lasted two hours and twenty minutes. The Americans were victorious
and took control of Lake Champlain and forced the British back into
Canada.

In August 1814, the British fleet landed at the
mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland and
marched on to Washington. The Americans
tried to stop them at Bladensburg but they
were outnumbered. As the British entered the
capital, government officials fled from the
city. The British burned the White House, the
Capitol, the Navy Yard, and other public
buildings. This attack was called the "Burning
of Washington.“ The British marched on to
Baltimore.

The British marched to Baltimore but the men there were already
prepared. A force of a thousand men held Fort McHenry, where a
line of sunken hulks barred enemy ships from entering the harbor.
The enemy on land was opposed by 3,200 militiamen. The
Americans fell back but not before mortally wounding General Ross
who was commanding the British. Because they failed to take
Baltimore by land, the British bombarded Fort McHenry, which
blocked the approach to Baltimore. Francis Scott Key, a Washington
lawyer, had been sent to rescue William Beanes who was being held
hostage by the British. Key got Beanes released but the men couldn’t
leave the ship until the fighting was over. The next morning, the
British ceased their fire. The American flag still waved over Fort
McHenry and Francis Scott Key took some notes for a song that he
completed later in Baltimore. It was originally written as a poem and
was printed at first as the “Defense of Fort McHenry.” And so the
patriotic song was born.

In August 1813, the Creeks, an Indian tribe, attacked Fort Mims, located
about thirty-five miles above Mobile, Alabama. Of the 550 people in the fort,
the Creeks massacred 250 and burned to death many more. When news of
this reached Andrew Jackson, major general of the Tennessee militia, he
gathered 2,000 volunteers. They went to Alabama and defeated the Creeks
and their Cherokee allies at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. He
made the Creeks agree to give up part of their lands to the U.S. and get out
of western and southern Alabama. At the same time, William Henry Harrison
made peace with the Northwest Indians who now declared war on the British.
At the end of November, a large British fleet sailed from Jamaica to attack
New Orleans and seize control of the Mississippi River. In December 23,
1814, Jackson withdrew his men five miles from New Orleans and waited for
the enemy. On January 8, 1815, the British attacked. The Americans fought
back and in half an hour, 2,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded
compared to the 71 casualties the Americans sustained. Even though the
Battle of New Orleans was America’s greatest land victory of the war, it had
no effect on the outcome of the conflict. Two weeks earlier, peace had been
signed, but it took so many weeks for the news to travel overseas that the
war was over at the time of the Battle of New Orleans. But it still made the
Americans proud at last of their fighting men.



Peace talks had begun in August 1814, at Ghent in Flanders. The
American commissioners were told to insist that the British stop
impressment and cease the blockade and other actions on the seas
that Americans considered illegal. The British commissioners were
told to demand that a neutral Indian state be set up in the
Northwest. But the Duke of Wellington told them that they couldn’t
demand for territory from the United States when Britain didn’t
control the Great Lakes and the English were tired of the war.
The result was the each side gave up its claims against the other.
The treaty ended the war and provided for the release of prisoners
and the turning back of all territory conquered by either side. The
treaty also provided for the naming of a commission to settle the
dispute between the United States and Canada over the northeastern
boundary.
News of the signing of the treaty reached New York on February 11,
1815. The Senate quickly approved the treaty and a new era of
peaceful relations between the two English-speaking
countries had begun.
Even though the War of 1812 did not settle a
single issue that had caused the war, when
the war was over, Britain and America were
better friends than they had been since the
U.S. had become an independent nation. After
the war, the two countries entered an era of
true peace. The War of 1812 was also very
important because after the war, the United
States had become a strong nation that the
whole world respected.
The USS Constitution
vs. the Guerriére
The Burning of
Washington