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War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Military History Companion: War of 1812 Known at the time as ‘Madison's war’ after the US president who prosecuted it so badly. This war was a failed attempt by the young USA to seize Canada while Britain was engaged fighting Napoleon in Europe. It might better have been called ‘the Republicans' war’, for it was this party, and in particular the ‘war hawks’ who dominated the House of Representatives thanks to the leadership of Henry Clay of Kentucky, that most wanted it. It was remarkable in that the alleged reason for the war, the British Orders in Council designed to counter Napoleon's Continental System, had been repealed before the USA declared war, and the principal victory won by American arms, by Andrew Jackson at New Orleans in January 1815, was won after peace terms had been agreed. Many attribute this to slow communications, but what the episodes underline is that the US government was determined on war in 1812 and desperate for peace in 1815. It is, finally, a classic illustration of the principle of political economy that wars are fought to increase the domestic power of those who wage it, because the Republicans, while achieving none of their stated war objectives, decisively won the political battle with their opponents the Federalists. The flashpoint was the stopping of US shipping by the Royal Navy, allegedly to recover deserters but actually impressment by captains desperate for seamen, as they always were —there were five sailors admitted to be American on board HMS Victory at Trafalgar, as there were French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and Italian, and we may be sure that few of them were there voluntarily. Thus it was fitting that the war was decided at sea by an imperfect blockade that nonetheless strangled US commerce, bankrupting among others expresident Thomas Jefferson, who was in many ways the grandfather of the war. He it was http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 1 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM who reversed the prudent policy of accommodation with the ocean-dominating British that permitted US exports to treble 1794-1801, who rejected a British offer of what would now be called ‘most favoured nation’ status in 1806 and imposed his own ‘continental system’ that had no significant impact on Britain but reduced US exports from $108 million in 1807 to $22 million in 1808. On paper it was no contest. The USA had a population of about 7.5 million and a regular army of 12, 000 against 500, 000 and less than 7, 000 in Canada. Her navy, now with seven ‘super frigates’ that outgunned their British equivalents, had acquitted itself well in an undeclared naval war with the French in 1794-1801, the national debt was minuscule thanks to the Federalists, and her flanks were covered. Indeed the one territorial gain to come from the war was West Florida, acquired by sending in agents to proclaim independence from Spain and then request US protection, a technique that also nearly worked in Texas in 1813. This was part of Secretary of State Monroe's forward policy in the matter of western expansion, later to be called ‘manifest destiny’. The USA had ample supplies of powder and two efficient arsenals at Harpers Ferry and Springfield. What it did not have was functional systems of recruitment or supply, the former based on short-term volunteers because of the collapse of the militia and the latter based on notably corrupt contracts with sutlers who added insult to injury by providing short-weight and condemned food to troops already restive because their inadequate pay was invariably months in arrears. Additionally, since 1808 they had been fighting a guerrilla war with Indian tribes loosely confederated by the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh. Although the westerners blamed them for this uprising, in fact one of the greatest lost opportunities of the war was that the British once again failed to exploit the usefulness of Indian allies as systematically as they easily could have. This does not mean that the role of the Indians was minor; to the contrary, both in the battles along the Canadian border and in tying down US troops all along the western frontier their contribution ensured that the land war started very badly for the USA. A three-pronged invasion of Canada ended with the surrender of armies at Detroit, Frenchtown, and Queenston, while the capitulation of Fort Dearborn was followed by a massacre of the defenders by the Potawatomi, who had some scores to settle. By contrast, the war at sea went spectacularly well, with USS Constitution sinking HMS Guerrière and HMS Java, and the USS United States capturing HMS Macedonian. The US navy also took 50 merchant ships, while privateers took a further 450. As both Theodore Roosevelt and Mahan were later to point out in their outstanding studies of the war, the python-like effect of British sea power was slow to make itself felt, but even so 150 of the fast commerce raiders were taken, writing on the wall for those who could read it. The year 1813 saw a more sober US strategy of winning control of the Great Lakes, the key to their defeats of the previous year. A US force took York (modern Toronto) and Newark, looted them, and burned the government buildings, something they were to regret. In September under Cdre Perry they won by far the most significant naval engagement of the war against a British flotilla of equal strength on Lake Erie, enabling them to reverse the land results of the previous year. Two British invasions of Ohio failed and at the battle of the Thames east of Detroit, the Americans caught up with the retreating Anglo-Indian army and trounced it, killing (and skinning) Tecumseh, who had earlier suggested that the British commander should wear petticoats. Elsewhere skirmishing characterized by incompetence when not treasonable corruption left the British controlling much of the frontier. In the south, with little assistance from the British save for the use of Pensacola as a base of operations for escaped slaves and Indians, later to be called Seminoles, some of the Creek people fought their own war 1813-14 until Andrew Jackson instilled some order in the militia rabble under his command by executing one of them, and destroyed the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. Among those under his command were Crockett and Sam Houston, later heroes of Texas independence. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 2 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM But 1813 had witnessed the turning point at sea, with the British sailing in convoys and sending several new squadrons, one of which ravaged the Chesapeake Bay area. The blockade began to bite and unleashed violent inflation in the USA, while the commander of the USS Chesapeake chose to accept a challenge to single combat by HMS Shannon, which unknown to him had been up-gunned, and was defeated and killed in a 15-minute engagement. The USS Essex was also tracked down and captured in the Pacifics after a very successful year of commerce-raiding, but it was the privateers who kept the stars and stripes on the high seas, boldly sailing around the British Isles and capturing merchant ships by the hundred and even defeating the occasional small warship. With the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, the British were able to release more ships and regular troops for the war in America, their numbers rising to about 40, 000. But the US army was able to match these numbers and, under the pressure of war, had shed incompetent commanders and promoted able ones such as Winfield Scott who, although he was nearly killed at Lundy's Lane in July, had drilled his men so well that they fought the British regulars to a standstill. Things went less well elsewhere, with a punitive amphibious operation in the Chesapeake returning the favour for Newark and York by burning Washington and then bombarding Baltimore. More significant was the capture of eastern Maine and the unilateral surrender of a number of New England islands and ports, which were delighted to be able to resume trade in exchange for swearing an oath of allegiance to the crown or otherwise betraying their country. US public finance had collapsed and the Royal Navy, paying in cash, was better able to supply itself from American farmers and merchants than were the US forces offering promissory notes. The peace negotiations at Ghent that ran from August until Christmas Eve 1814 were a game of bluff and counter-bluff. Wellington, asked to command the forces in America, put his finger on the loss of control of the Great Lakes as the Achilles' heel of the British position, so naturally the British mounted their last big offensive in the south under the command of his brother-in-law Pakenham, who launched a frontal attack across a river and into field fortifications manned by men who could shoot, and was killed along with 1, 500 of his men (a further 500 surrendered) at the battle of New Orleans on 8 January 1815. On 21 February the last men to die in the war were the ringleaders of a mutiny by Tennessee militia in September the previous year, shot by the implacable Jackson, although by that time Congress had hastily ratified the Treaty of Ghent, which restored the status quo ante bellum. Bibliography Hickey, Donald R., The War of 1812: A Short History (Urbana, Ill., 1995) — Hugh Bicheno War of 1812 US Military History Companion: War of 1812 The War of 1812 is often referred to as the United States's second war of independence because, like the Revolutionary War, it was fought against Great Britain. The Conflict resulted from the clash between American nationalism and the war Britain and its allies http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 3 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM were waging against the empire of Napoleonic France. Many Americans believed that England sought to humiliate the United States, limit its growth, and perhaps even impose a quasi-colonial status upon its former colonies. Throughout the wars between Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and Great Britain (1793–1801 and 1803–15), the belligerent powers of Europe repeatedly violated the maritime rights of neutral nations. The United States, endeavoring to market its own produce while also asserting the right to profit as an important neutral carrier in the Atlantic commercial system, was particularly hard hit. In order to man the Royal Navy, British naval officers impressed seamen from American vessels, claiming that they were either deserters from British service or British subjects, irrespective of whether they had been naturalized by the United States. The United States defended its right to naturalize foreigners and rejected Britain's claim that it could legitimately practice impressment on the high seas. Relations between the two countries reached breaking point on this issue in June 1807, when the frigate HMS Leopard fired on the USS Chesapeake inside American territorial waters in order to remove, and later execute, four of its crew.The exact number of Americans affected by impressment is difficult to ascertain—American newspapers on the eve of the war claimed that it was in excess of 6,000—and Great Britain and the United States were never able to resolve the dispute. Over time the issue became the most flagrant example of Great Britain's reluctance to respect the sovereignty of the United States, and this was one of the reasons why President James Madison cited impressment in his 1 June 1812 message to Congress as the first major grievance that had to be settled by war. Equally offensive to the United States was the British practice of issuing executive orders in council, particularly those of November 1807 and April 1809, in order to establish blockades of the European coast. The Royal Navy then seized neutral vessels bound for the Continent that did not first call at a British port to pay duties and unload cargo. By these means, Great Britain could simultaneously wage economic warfare against France and control American trade to its advantage. British ministries justified these tactics as fair retaliation against Napoleon's equally antineutral Berlin and Milan decrees, promulgated in December 1806 and December 1807, respectively; but American merchantmen suffered more heavily from British seizures than from French, and the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison never accepted British blockading practices as valid under the law of nations. It was the seriousness of this dispute that ultimately raised the question of whether the United States should go to war to defend its neutral rights. At first, the United States responded with policies of economic coercion rather than war. At the suggestion of President Jefferson, Congress passed a series of embargo laws between December 1807 and January 1809. These laws prohibited virtually all American ships from putting to sea and eventually banned any overland trade with British and Spanish colonial possessions in Canada and Florida. Because the legislation failed to change British policy and seriously harmed the U.S. economy as well, it was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act in March 1809. This measure forbade trade with European belligerents until it was replaced in May 1810 by Macon's Bill No. 2. This law reopened American trade with all nations subject to the proviso that in the event of either France or Great Britain repealing its antineutral policies, the United States would then enforce nonintercourse against whichever nation failed to follow suit by lifting the remaining restrictions on trade. In August 1810, Napoleon announced he would repeal the Berlin and Milan decrees on the understanding that the United States would also force Great Britain to respect its neutral rights. President Madison accepted this as proof that French policy had changed, and in November 1810 he imposed nonintercourse against Great Britain. He then demanded the repeal of the orders in council as a condition for the resumption of Anglo-American trade. When Great Britain refused to comply, Madison, in July 1811, summoned the Twelfth Congress into an early session in November to prepare for war. After eight months of debate, Congress responded to the president's initiatives by declaring war on 18 June 1812. The decision was bitterly controversial and was carried by Republican Party majorities alone. In the House of Representatives, the vote was 79 to 49 for war; in the Senate, 19 to http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 4 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM 3. The Federalists, whose constituents (especially in New England) depended heavily on trade with Great Britain, believed that France had equally offended against American neutrality; they opposed the declaration of war and, thereafter, its prosecution. Military and Naval Events The principal theater of operations in the war was the American-Canadian frontier between Detroit and Lake Champlain. Upper and Lower Canada were the closest British imperial possessions that were vulnerable to U.S. military and naval power. The rapid growth of their economies in the early nineteenth century, particularly in the timber trade, had transformed them into a significant resource for Great Britain during its protracted maritime struggle against France; this reinforced the American desire to seize them, and fostered a strategy of invasion. To the extent that the British were able to carry the war to the Americans, it was by sea; thus, especially after the summer of 1814, the theater of operations expanded to include the mid-Atlantic coast and the American territories around the Gulf of Mexico. For this reason, a war that commenced as an invasion of Canada in 1812 concluded in a defense of the city of New Orleans in the early months of 1815. Over the summer and fall of 1812, U.S. forces, under the commands of Brigs. Gen. William Hull, Alexander Smyth, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Maj. Gen. Henry Dearborn, were directed to invade Canada at Detroit, Niagara, and Montréal; but inadequate preparations, poor leadership, and untrained troops undermined the invasions. The British general Sir Isaac Brock, together with Tecumseh and the Shawnee, Delaware, and other northwestern Indians who had their own complaints about American territorial expansion, captured Detroit in August 1812. In September and October, Brock and Maj. Gen. Roger Sheaffe defeated two American invading armies on the Niagara peninsula, while Dearborn's invasion of Lower Canada was called off after only one minor engagement in November. American efforts made at the same time by Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison and Brig. Gen. James Winchester to retake Detroit were also unsuccessful; the latter officer surrendered his army to British and Indian forces on the Raisin River in Michigan Territory in January 1813. The only American victories in the opening months of the war occurred on the ocean as the heavy frigates of the tiny U.S. Navy took to the seas to protect American trade and to harass the vastly superior naval forces of their enemy. In August 1812, the USS Constitution, under Capt. Isaac Hull, destroyed HMS Guerrière; in October, Capt. Stephen Decatur's USS United States captured HMS Macedonian; and in December, the Constitution, now under Capt. William Bainbridge, defeated HMS Java in an engagement off the coast of Brazil. Between May and November 1813, the U.S. Army attempted to invade Canada across the Great Lakes and down the St. Lawrence River. American forces were successful inasmuch as they captured Fort George and York (now Toronto) in Upper Canada in May, but subsequent efforts to extend American control in the province were thwarted by British victories at Stony Creek and Beaver Dams in June. A major thrust from Sacketts Harbor down the St. Lawrence toward Montréal under Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson was also aborted, first by British resistance at Crysler's Farm in November 1813, then by Wilkinson's decision to end his offensive after learning that he would be unable to join forces with U.S. troops below Montréal. On the northwest frontier, American naval forces under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British squadron at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie in September. Thereafter, Harrison and his U.S. and Kentucky troops were able first to retake Detroit, and then, in October, to destroy the alliance between the British and the Indians with a victory at the Battle of the Thames. There were no other major American victories in 1813. The Royal Navy avenged the defeats of 1812 by capturing the USS Chesapeake in June 1813, and throughout the year British frigates steadily extended their blockade of U.S. ports, annoying coastal communities and disrupting trade. Yet another setback for the American war effort came in the fall of 1813 http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 5 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM when “Redstick” factions in the Creek Nation, who like the Shawnees and Delawares had ample grievances against the United States, attacked forts and settlements on the southwestern frontier. Georgia and Tennessee mobilized troops in response and Tennessee forces under Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson eventually defeated the Creeks at Horsehoe Bend, Mississippi Territory, in March 1814. By 1814, American land forces had improved in both quality and leadership. Disciplined troops under Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown and Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott resumed efforts from the previous year to expel the British from Niagara, and between July and September they fought the enemy on even terms in three major engagements at Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and Fort Erie. But the defeat of Napoleon in Europe in the spring of 1814 allowed Great Britain to send more troops to North America, and by late summer, the United States had to contend with invasions by combined army and navy forces at Lake Champlain and in Chesapeake Bay. Capt. Thomas Macdonough's victory over a British squadron on Lake Champlain in September compelled one invading army to withdraw to Canada. Meanwhile, another British force had taken and burned the White House, the U.S. capitol, and most other government buildings in Washington, D.C. (in August), and a third had occupied the northeastern section of the District of Maine. Efforts to seize Baltimore failed as Maryland militiamen inflicted heavy losses on the British regulars of Gen. Robert Ross, and the harbor defenses of Baltimore withstood a heavy naval bombardment. It was during the shelling of Fort McHenry on 13–14 September that the poet Francis Scott Key composed the work that became The Star-Spangled Banner as a tribute to the American defense. Conclusion Efforts to end the war lasted almost as long as the conflict itself. Great Britain, in fact, repealed its orders in council in June 1812 before it had learned of the declaration of war, but President Madison decided to continue the struggle in order to obtain a comprehensive settlement of American grievances. For this purpose, he accepted in March 1813 a Russian offer to mediate the conflict and dispatched a five-man negotiating team to St. Petersburg. Britain rejected mediation in July, but later offered to open separate peace negotiations. Madison accepted this offer in January 1814; the opening of the talks was delayed until July, however, because of changes in venue resulting from the defeat of Napoleon. At Ghent, Belgium, Great Britain initially made unrealistic demands, seeking not only to establish a neutral Indian buffer state in the American Northwest but to revise both the Canadian-American boundary and the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris that had established the United States as an independent nation. The United States, which had originally wanted an end to all objectionable British maritime practices and cessions of Canadian territory as well, forbore to press any claims at this time. Its diplomats parried Great Britain's demands until the British ministry, rebuffed by the duke of Wellington (who refused to take command in Canada) and fearing the expense of a long continuation in hostilities decided to settle for a peace based on the status quo ante bellum. Between the signing of the treaty, on 24 December 1814 and the time the news arrived in the United States, the last major battle, the Battle of New Orleans, had been fought on 7–8 January 1815. Neither the War of 1812 nor the Treaty of Ghent secured American maritime rights on a firm basis; but a century of peace in Europe after 1815 meant that they were not seriously threatened again until World War I. Nor did Great Britain pursue its future disputes with the United States to the point of risking war. And though the United States failed to obtain any Canadian territory, the campaigns of the war destroyed Indian opposition to U.S. expansion on the northwestern and southwestern frontiers. Both the United States and Canada emerged from the war with a heightened sense of national purpose and awareness, and particularly in the American case, the war consolidated the nation's military and naval establishments on more secure bases than before 1812. In other respects, though, the war was as much a mixed blessing as an unqualified gain for http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 6 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM the United States. The immediate domestic impact of the conflict was to heighten tensions between the northern and the southern states, on the one hand, and the Federalist and Republican parties, on the other. These strains became so serious that in November 1814, New England Federalists met in convention at Hartford, Connecticut, to consider measures to nullify the war effort. The ending of the war shortly afterwards left the Federalists marked with the stigma of disloyalty, and this undoubtedly contributed to the party's rapid demise after 1815. The economic impact of the war was equally complex. The disruptions it entailed on America's international commerce were, to some extent, offset by greater governmental expenditures, an increased demand for domestic manufacturing, and the deflection of capital from shipping to the first large-scale American industries, especially in New England. Yet not all of the resulting gains survived the unstable economic conditions of the postwar period; and even the American belief that the war marked a significant stride toward cultural, economic, and political independence would ultimately be overshadowed by the Civil War, which profoundly altered the meaning of all America's earlier conflicts in the shaping of the nation's identity and purposes. [See also Neutrality; Rush-Bagot Agreement; Trade, Foreign.] Bibliography Henry Adams, The History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 9 vols., 1891; 1986. Alfred T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812, 2 vols., 1905. Frank Updyke, The Diplomacy of the War of 1812, 1915. Bradford Perkins, Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805–1812 , 1961. Bradford Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812– 1823, 1964. J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830, 1983. George F. Stanley, The War of 1812: Land Operations, 1983. Steven Watts, The Republic Reborn: War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790– 1820, 1987. Donald Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, 1989 US Military Dictionary: War of 1812 (1812-15) Often called the “second war of independence” because it, too, was fought against Great Britain, this war yielded no territorial gain, but it did carry sharp political and economic ramifications. Its origins were partly political but primarily economic. During the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1801, 1803-15), Great Britain impressed a considerable number of American seamen into the Royal Navy, claiming they were either deserters or British subjects and refusing to recognize their naturalized status. Equally offensive to U.S. sovereignty and more damaging to its economy was that its maritime neutrality was being repeatedly violated by both Great Britain and France. The administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were particularly piqued by British orders of council in 1807 and 1809, which authorized the seizure of neutral vessels bound for the Continent if they did not pay duties and unload cargo at a British port. Jefferson's retaliatory embargoes in 1807 and 1809 not only failed to influence the British but also crippled the U.S. economy. Subsequent legislation issued under Madison demanded the end of antineutrality on the part of both European powers. In August 1810, Napoleon announced that he would repeal his Berlin and Milan decrees, to which the British had long been pointing as justification for their orders of council. But Great Britain did not follow suit and repeal their orders, and after months-long deliberation, Congress responded to Madison's request and declared war on June 18, 1812. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 7 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Most of the fighting took place on the American-Canadian frontier between Detroit and Lake Champlain. This area was both the nearest British possessions that the U.S. army and navy could attack and a significant resource of timber for both countries. But in the opening months of the war, the U.S. lost every battle it waged there, due to poor preparation, inadequate leadership, and untrained soldiers, as well as to a staunch defense by the British aided by northwestern Indians who had been feeling the brunt of American westward expansion. The only battles the U.S. won were while protecting trade routes in the Atlantic, where its inferior navy managed to sink or capture three British ships. The U.S. was somewhat more successful in the middle months of 1813, capturing Fort George and York in Upper Canada in May, retaking Detroit in September, and from there embarking on the Battle of the Thames, which destroyed the British-Indian alliance in November. But further incursions into Upper and Lower Canada were either thwarted or aborted. Moreover, the Royal Navy began to assert its superiority by extending its blockade of trade routes throughout the year, to the great frustration of coastal communities and overseas traders. In the South, meanwhile, “Redstick” factions of the Creek Nation took out their frustration on garrisons and settlements, but were eventually repelled by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend in March, 1814. The improvement of both training and leadership led to greater military success in 1814. But Napoleon's defeat in the spring also meant that Britain could commit more troops to North America and thus stretch U.S. defenses. While Capt. Thomas Macdonough repelled the British on Lake Champlain, other British forces occupied northeastern Maine and still others torched Washington, including the White House and the Capitol. The Maryland militia and the Fort McHenry cannons managed to fend off an attempt to capture Baltimore, the battle in which Francis Scott Key composed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The last major battle was a U.S. victory in New Orleans, fought two weeks after peace had officially been reached with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. The treaty was long in the making. Though the British had repealed the orders of council as soon as Congress declared war, Madison wanted to use the war to settle larger grievances. Attempts at Russian mediation in 1813 were rebuffed by Britain, and then, after it opened separate negotiations in July, 1814, demanded a neutral independent buffer Indian state and to revise the American-Canadian border established by the 1783 Treaty of Paris. In the face of these exaggerated demands, the U.S. did not press its own for Canadian territory and an end to British maritime practices that were hurting American trade. Both sides eventually settled for the prewar status quo. Thus, while maritime rights were not finalized, nor were they threatened again until World War I. And while Canadian territory was not gained, Indian opposition to westward expansion was considerably quelled in the north- and southwest. More troubling, however, were the increasing tensions between Federalists and Republicans and between northern and southern states. The Federalists had opposed the war, and after meeting to nullify the war in late 1814, appeared as disloyal, which greatly contributed to the party's demise after 1815. In the long term, the postwar economic recovery sharpened the rift between North and South, as federal expenditures rose, demand for domestic manufacturing grew, and large-scale industries, especially in New England, reaped the bulk of the rewards. And when the economy proved still unstable, it gradually became clearer that the war was an important stand against the British Empire, but not the final step toward cultural, economic, and political independence for the U.S. See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: War of 1812 U.S.-British conflict arising from U.S. grievances over oppressive British maritime practices in the Napoleonic Wars. To enforce its blockade of French ports, the British boarded U.S. and other neutral ships to check cargo they suspected was being sent to France and to impress seamen alleged to be British navy deserters. The U.S. reacted by passing legislation http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 8 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM such as the Embargo Act (1807); Congress's War Hawks called for expulsion of the British from Canada to ensure frontier security. When the U.S. demanded an end to the interference, Britain refused, and the U.S. declared war on June 18, 1812. Despite early U.S. naval victories, notably the duel between the Constitution and the Guerrière, Britain maintained its blockade of eastern U.S. ports. A British force burned public buildings in Washington, D.C., including the White House, in retaliation for similar U.S. acts in York (Toronto), Can. The war became increasingly unpopular, especially in New England, where a separatist movement originated at the Hartford Convention. On Dec. 24, 1814, both sides signed the Treaty of Ghent, which essentially restored territories captured by each side. Before news of the treaty reached the U.S., its victory in the Battle of New Orleans led it to later proclaim the war a U.S. victory. See also Battle of Châteauguay; Chippewa; Thames; Isaac Hull; Francis Scott Key; Oliver Perry. For more information on War of 1812, visit Britannica.com. British History: War of 1812 The last conflict between Britain and the USA began when the British blockade of Napoleonic Europe and naval impressment of American sailors inflamed relations. Western American politicians campaigned for conquest of Canada to open land for settlement and eliminate Indian resistance. Congress declared war on 16 June 1812. The Americans failed to overrun Canada, despite battles including Queenston Heights (1812). The British retaliated for the destruction of York (later Toronto) in April 1813 by occupying Washington in August 1814 and burning the White House. The war was ended by the treaty of Ghent, with its causes unresolved. US History Encyclopedia: War of 1812 War of 1812, fought under the motto "free trade and sailor's rights," was the result of British maritime policies during the wars between Great Britain and France, the desire of President James Madison to strengthen republicanism, and the American belief that it could secure possession of Canada as a bargaining chip against Great Britain. Neither Britain nor France cared much about the rights of neutrals in their struggle, which lasted with only short interruptions from 1793 to 1815. Britain's major asset was its navy, which contained France by closing off large stretches of the European coastline. The British blockade from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe River; Napoleon's Berlin Decree of 21 November 1806, declaring a blockade of the British Isles and prohibiting ships from entering French harbors if they previously had been in British waters; the British Orders in Council of 1807 that all neutral ships coming from France would be seized if they had not previously visited British harbors; and Napoleon's Milan Decree of 17 December 1807 that all neutral ships that concurred with the British demands would be seized had little impact on the war in Europe but affected the United States and its profitable maritime trade. Americans were in no position to do anything about this sort of war. Great Britain, straining for sailors on their warships, insisted on the right of its naval officers to "impress" from American ships deserters from the Royal Navy or other British subjects liable to naval service. British sailors had deserted by the thousands to the American merchant marine. Many who had taken out naturalization papers were nonetheless the victims of the British policy. Anger over the British practices reached a climax on 22 June 1807, when the USS Chesapeake was stopped by the British frigate Leopard. When the American captain denied the British request to search his ship for deserters, the Leopard shelled the American vessel. Not prepared for a military engagement, the Chesapeake suffered casualties quickly. After firing one shot, the American captain allowed the British to board his ship. They took four sailors prisoner and put out to sea again. This arrogant provocation injured American national pride. Although President Thomas Jefferson seemed ready to go to war, he resorted to economic warfare. At his request, Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which was intended to prevent additional entanglement in European affairs by prohibiting http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 9 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM the export of American goods on both American and foreign vessels. While the British and French embargoes had led to seizures of American merchantmen, they had provided an opportunity for traders to reap huge profits by counting on the fast and sleek American ships to run the blockades. Prohibiting the ships from leaving harbor prevented seizure and impressment, but it also put an end to a lucrative situation. Although smuggling became routine, the Embargo Act severely hurt communities in New England and cotton planters and farmers in the West and South who depended on the European markets, particularly the British markets. The embargo had little impact on Great Britain and France. Amidst growing protests against the embargo, under the impression of election victories by the rival Federalists, and with New Englanders airing secessionist ideas, President Jefferson asked for a modification of the Embargo Act shortly before he left office. Congress repealed the act and on 1 March 1809 passed the Nonintercourse Act. The new law prohibited trade with Great Britain and France and banned British and French ships from U.S. waters, but it permitted trade with the rest of the world. Great Britain had found ready suppliers in Central and Latin America, and like the embargo, nonintercourse did not change British naval conduct. Having accomplished nothing, the United States backed down and replaced the Nonintercourse Act with Macon's Bill No. 2, a bill introduced by Representative Nathaniel Macon that barred armed vessels of the belligerents from entering American ports but reopened trade with France and Great Britain. Macon's Bill promised that, if either England or France revoked the blockade, nonintercourse would be imposed against the other. Napoleon reacted swiftly. He instructed his foreign minister, Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny, duc de Cadore, to notify the Americans that the Milan and Berlin Decrees were revoked. Although the note the Americans received from Cadore was vague and stated that repeal of the decrees was contingent on resumption of American nonintercourse with Great Britain, President James Madison proclaimed the French in compliance with Macon's Bill. This gave the British until February 1811 to revoke the Orders in Council. Great Britain remained intractable, and by the time Congress assembled in November, Madison was ready to put the nation on a war footing. Many members of Congress, however, were reluctant to go to war with the mightiest naval power on the globe. The most vocal group calling for war or at least some action was called the War Hawks. They were for the most part a group of young Jeffersonian Republicans from the West and the South who had recently been voted into office. Among them was Henry Clay of Kentucky, who had never served in the House of Representatives before and was only thirty-four years old but was nonetheless elected to the influential position of speaker of the House. Clay made sure that a number of his colleagues willing to go to war were appointed to important committees. The War Hawks argued that British crimes were not confined to the high seas. On the northwestern frontier, in Ohio and the territories of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, Native Americans, led by the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa and his brother Tecumseh and supported by the British in Canada, resisted the relentless white encroachment on their lands. Tenskwatawa preached a return to the customary way of living, Native American brotherhood, and abstinence. Strongly opposed to the extensive land cessions secured by the Americans and using anti-white rhetoric, he attracted many young warriors. After the Treaty of Fort Wayne, in which chiefs opposed to Tenskwatawa ceded 3 million acres of land to the United States, Tenskwatawa threatened to prevent settlement of the land by force. Tecumseh would supply the necessary military and political leadership. Americans suspected that Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh were agents of British interests, and while Tecumseh traveled into the South to enlist other Native American nations, the Indiana governor William Henry Harrison moved against what he perceived to be a threatening Native American coalition. He destroyed their town at the Tippecanoe River, providing an additional incentive for the Native Americans to seek support from the British in Canada. The attacks against white settlers did not end, and the War Hawks, holding Great Britain http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 10 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM responsible for those attacks, advocated ousting the British from North America by conquering Canada. Others from the Southwest and the South saw an opportunity to conquer East and West Florida. The United States had long claimed that West Florida was part of the Louisiana Purchase and had begun absorbing it piecemeal. Frontier grievances and ambitions were debated in Congress, but they were hardly sufficient by themselves to bring about war with Great Britain. Some may have hoped to incorporate Canada into the United States, but most members of Congress simply perceived Canada as an easy target because Britain was too occupied with France to divert men and arms to defend its dominion in North America. Canada was to serve as a bargaining chip to force Great Britain to change its conduct on the high seas. After more than half a year of deliberations and persuasion, Congress declared war on 18 June 1812. The House voted 79 to 49 on 4 June 1812, with 17 Republicans voting against war and 10 abstaining. Not one Federalist voted for war. The Senate approved the declaration by a narrow margin of 19 to 13 on 17 June. Madison signed it the following day. Two days before and unknown to the members of Congress, the British Parliament had repealed the Orders in Council. When the news reached the United States, it was already too late. Invasion of Canada Despite the long period of debates in Congress, the nation was hardly prepared to actually wage the war it declared on a formidable enemy. Inadequate military, naval, and financial preparation resulted in insufficient and illtrained troops. Military incompetence and defective strategy led to a series of military disasters, particularly during the first year of the war, when American troops tried to invade Canada. The army was additionally hampered by a militia that generally defined itself as a defensive force and was unwilling to partake in a war of conquest and by obstruction of the war effort in the Federalistcontrolled New England states. General William Hull had to surrender Detroit on 16 August 1812, Generals Stephen van Rensselaer and Alexander Smyth failed dismally on the Niagara River in October, and General Henry Dearborn broke off a feeble attempt to march on Montreal in November. On Lake Erie, U.S. forces achieved their greatest success under the command of Oliver H. Perry in September 1813. Detroit was recovered the following year, and Harrison defeated the British at the Thames River on 5 October 1813, a battle in which Tecumseh was killed, breaking Native American resistance. The year closed, however, with the complete failure of a renewed campaign against Montreal by General James Wilkinson on 11 November 1813, the British capture of Fort Niagara on 18 December 1813, and the destruction of a number of towns, including Buffalo, New York, by the British during December 1813. By the summer of 1814 many incompetent officers had been replaced, and under the command of Generals Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott, the northern army, although failing to conquer any substantial territory, stood its ground at Chippewa River on 5 July 1814, Lundy's Lane on 25 July 1814, and the siege of Fort Erie in August 1814. In September, despite an overwhelming majority, the British broke off an attack against upper New York when their naval support was defeated on Lake Champlain. British Landing Operations After Napoleon's abdication in April 1814, Britain was free to transfer battle-hardened troops from Europe to North America, which made landing operations in Maine and the Chesapeake Bay possible. The British were successful in Maine, and their attack against Washington, D.C., brought about the infamous routing of the American militia and troops at Bladensburg, Maryland, and the burning of official buildings in the nation's capital, including the White House and the Capitol on 24 and 25 August 1814. In early September, the British moved against Baltimore, but there they were driven off. That battle inspired http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 11 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner." Blockade of the American Seaboard During the first six months after the declaration of war, the Royal Navy was slow to use its superiority, but by the end of 1813, the American East Coast was under blockade. Only the New England states were exempted by Admiral John B. Warren until May 1814, because they opposed the war and supplied the British in Canada and the West Indies. American exports dropped sharply, and even coastal trade became increasingly dangerous. Harbor towns were affected severely, but farmers and planters in the West and the South also suffered heavily. Most American ships, navy and merchant marine, were bottled up in port, and single-ship actions on the high seas failed to affect the overwhelming superiority of the British fleet. Even privateers, who had been quite successful in previous years, found few prizes because most British ships now sailed in convoys. Peace Both the Americans and the British were eager to enter into negotiations. Russia offered to mediate the conflict, and American and British peace commissioners met in Ghent, Belgium, in August 1814. The American delegation had hoped to put impressment on the negotiation table but soon found that the British would not be moved on this issue. Anxious to protect Canada and their Native American allies, the British first demanded territory, a Native American buffer state, and demilitarization of the Great Lakes. In view of little encouraging news from North America and increasing opposition at home to war taxes, they agreed to end the war on the basis of a status quo ante bellum. The British navigation rights on the Mississippi River and the American rights to fish in Canadian waters, both guaranteed in 1783, were left out of the Treaty of Ghent, signed on 24 December 1814. Although the United States had not achieved one thing it had gone to war for, the news that the war was over was received joyously in all parts of the United States. For the United States, it seemed that not to have been defeated by Britain was a victory. News about the most important battle victory of the war arrived almost simultaneously with word about peace and added immensely to an impression of achievement. It did not matter that the Battle of New Orleans, where, on 8 January 1815, General Andrew Jackson inflicted the most crushing military defeat of the war on a British army, took place two weeks after the war was over. The peace treaty, unanimously ratified by the Senate, led to the final demise of the Federalists and any secession ideas harbored in New England. The years after 1815 saw a sense of national identity in the United States and in Canada that had not existed before or during the war. Capital that lay dormant during the embargo, nonintercourse, and the British blockade found a new outlet in the developing industry in the United States, now protected by high tariffs. Americans learned not to rely too heavily on a militia, making way for a reorganized army that enabled future expansion. The Second War of Independence, as the War of 1812 has been called, was the first step in establishing the United States as a serious, permanent player in international politics. Bibliography Benn, Carl. The Iroquois in the War of 1812. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Egan, Clifford L. Neither Peace nor War: Franco-American Relations, 1803–1812. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983. Elting, John R. Amateurs to Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812. Chapel Hill, N.C.: http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 12 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Algonquin Books, 1991. Fredriksen, John C., comp. War of 1812 Eyewitness Accounts: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwod Press, 1997. Gardiner, Robert, ed. The Naval War of 1812. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1998. Heidler, David S., and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC–CLIO, 1997. Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989. ———. "The War of 1812: Still a Forgotten Conflict?" Journal of Military History 65, no. 3 (2001): 741–769. Lord, Walter. The Dawn's Early Light. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Skeen, C. Edward. Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999. Columbia Encyclopedia: War of 1812, armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. It followed a period of great stress between the two nations as a result of the treatment of neutral countries by both France and England during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, in which the latter two were antagonists (1793–1801, 1803–14). Causes of the War American shippers took advantage of the hostilities in Europe to absorb the carrying trade between Europe and the French and Spanish islands in the West Indies. By breaking the passage with a stop in a U.S. port, they evaded seizure under the British rule of 1756, which forbade to neutrals in wartime any trade that was not allowed in peacetime. In 1805, however, in the Essex Case, a British court ruled that U.S. ships breaking passage at an American port did not circumvent the prohibitions set out in the rule of 1756. As a result the seizure of American ships by Great Britain increased. The following year Great Britain instituted a partial blockade of the European coast. The French emperor, Napoleon I, retaliated with a blockade of the British Isles. Napoleon's Continental System, which was intended to exclude British goods or goods cleared through Britain from countries under French control, and the British orders in council (1807), which forbade trade with France except after touching at English ports, threatened the American merchant fleet with confiscation by one side or the other. Although the French subjected American ships to considerable arbitrary treatment, the difficulties with England were more apparent. The impressment of sailors alleged to be British from U.S. vessels was a particularly great source of anti-British feeling, a famous incident of impressment being the Chesapeake affair of 1807. Despite the infringement of U.S. rights, President Jefferson hoped to achieve a peaceful settlement with the British. Toward this end he supported a total embargo on trade in the hope that economic pressure would force the belligerents to negotiate with the United States. The Nonimportation Act of 1806 was followed by the Embargo Act of 1807. Difficulty of enforcement and economic conditions that rendered England and the Continent more or less independent of America made the embargo ineffective, and in 1809 it gave way to a Nonintercourse Act. This in turn was superseded by Macon's Bill No. 2, which repealed the trade restrictions against Britain and France with the proviso that if one country withdrew its offensive decrees or orders, nonintercourse would be reimposed with the other. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 13 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM In 1809, after the passage of the Nonintercourse Act, a satisfactory agreement had been reached with the British minister in Washington, David Erskine, who promised repeal of the orders in council. The pact was disavowed by Foreign Secretary George Canning, however, and Erskine was replaced by F. J. Jackson, who soon proved himself persona non grata to the U.S. government. Subsequently, by a dubious commitment, Napoleon tricked James Madison, who had succeeded Jefferson as President, into reimposing (1811) nonintercourse on England. Negotiations with Britain for repeal of the orders in council continued without result; just before the declaration of war, yet too late to prevent it, the orders in council were repealed. In reality, it was not so much the infringement of neutral rights that occasioned the actual outbreak of hostilities as the desire of the frontiersmen for free land, which could only be obtained at the expense of the Native Americans and the British. Moreover, the West suspected the British, with some justification, of attempting to prevent American expansion and of encouraging and arming the Native Americans. Matters came to a head after the battle of Tippecanoe (1811); the radical Western group believed that the British had supported the Native American confederacy, and they dreamed of expelling the British from Canada. Their militancy was supported by Southerners who wished to obtain West Florida from the Spanish (allies of Great Britain). Among the prominent “war hawks” in the 12th Congress were Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Felix Grundy, Peter Porter, and others, who managed to override the opposition of John Randolph and of the moderates. Course of the War War was declared June 18, 1812. It was not until hostilities had begun that Madison discovered how woefully inadequate American preparations for war were. The rash hopes of the “war hawks,” who expected to take Canada at a blow, were soon dashed. The American force under Gen. William Hull, far from gaining glory, disgracefully surrendered (Aug., 1812) at Detroit to a smaller Canadian force under Isaac Brock. On the Niagara River, an American expedition was repulsed after a successful attack on Queenston Heights, because the militia under Stephen Van Rensselaer would not cross the New York state boundary. On the sea, however, the tiny American navy initially gave a good account of itself. The victory of the Constitution, under Isaac Hull, over the Guerrière and the capture of the Macedonian by the United States (Stephen Decatur commanding) were two outstanding achievements of 1812. The smaller vessels also did well, and American privateers carried the war to the very shores of England. In 1813 the British reasserted their supremacy on the sea; the Chesapeake, under Capt. James Lawrence (“Don't give up the ship!”), accepted a challenge from the Shannon and met with speedy defeat. Most of the American ships were either captured or bottled up in harbor for the duration of the war. It was on inland waters, however, that the American navy achieved its most notable triumphs—victories that had an important bearing on the course of the war. In Jan., 1813, at the Raisin River, S of Detroit, American troops suffered another defeat. But with the victory of Capt. Oliver Perry on Lake Erie in Sept., 1813, American forces, under Gen. William Henry Harrison, were able to advance against the British, who burned Detroit and retreated into Canada. Harrison pursued and defeated them in a battle at the Thames River (see Thames, battle of the), in which Tecumseh, the Native American chief, was killed. Yet the feeble efforts of James Wilkinson along the St. Lawrence River did nothing to improve the situation on the New York border. The first months of 1814 held gloomy prospects for the Americans. The finances of the government had been somewhat restored in 1813, but there was no guarantee of future supplies. New England, never sympathetic with the war, now became openly hostile, and the question of secession was taken up by the Hartford Convention. Moreover, with Napoleon checked in Europe, Britain could devote more time and effort to the war in http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 14 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM America. In July, 1814, the American forces along the Niagara River, now under Gen. Jacob Brown, maintained their own in engagements at Chippawa and Lundy's Lane. Shortly afterward, Sir George Prevost led a large army into New York down the west side of Lake Champlain and seriously threatened the Hudson valley. But when his accompanying fleet was defeated near Plattsburgh (Sept., 1814) by Capt. Thomas Macdonough, he was forced to retreat to Canada. In August, a British expedition to Chesapeake Bay won an easy victory at Bladensburg and took Washington, burning the Capitol and the White House. The victorious British, however, were halted at Fort McHenry before Baltimore. Negotiations for Peace The Fort McHenry setback and the American victory at Plattsburgh helped to persuade British statesmen to agree to end the war, in which no decisive gains had been made by either side. For some time negotiations for peace had been taking place. Although Great Britain had refused an early Russian offer to mediate between it and the United States, the British entered into direct peace negotiations at Ghent in mid-1814. The American delegation to the meeting at Ghent was headed by John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Albert Gallatin. After long and tortuous discussions, a treaty (see Ghent, Treaty of) was signed (Dec. 24, 1814), providing for the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of conquered territories, and the setting up of boundary commissions. The final action of the war took place after the signing of the treaty, when Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British at New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815. This victory, although it came after the technical end of the war, was important in restoring American confidence. Although the peace treaty failed to deal with the matters of neutral rights and impressment that were the ostensible cause of the conflict, the war did quicken the growth of American nationalism. In addition, the defeats suffered by the Native Americans in the Northwest and in the South forced them to sign treaties with the U.S. government and opened their lands for American expansion. Bibliography See G. W. Cullum, Campaigns of 1812–15 (1879); T. Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812 (1882, repr. 1968); A. T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vol., 1905; repr. 1968); J. W. Pratt, Expansionists of 1812 (1925, repr. 1957); H. Adams, The War of 1812 (ed. by H. A. DeWeerd, 1944); F. Beirne, War of 1812 (1949, repr. 1965); G. Tucker, Poltroons and Patriots (2 vol., 1954); C. S. Forester, The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812 (1956); A. H. Z. Carr, The Coming of War (1960); R. Horsman, The Causes of the War of 1812 (1962, repr. 1972) and The War of 1812 (1969); H. L. Coles, The War of 1812 (1965); R. V. Remini, The Battle of New Orleans (1999); A. J. Langguth, Union 1812 (2007). Intelligence Encyclopedia: War of 1812 The War of 1812, spawned by the European Napoleonic Wars, was the last war in which the fledgling United States fought its former colonial power, Great Britain. After three years of fighting on land and at sea, the United States military successfully drove the British forces from United States soil, but not before British troops burned Washington, D.C. The War of 1812 assured the United States the independent sovereignty it claimed after victory in the American Revolution and shaped American foreign policy for over a century. When continental Europe erupted in conflict in 1793, the United States declared itself neutral. Not wanting to anger France or Britain, the two main rivals in the European war, the United States tried to remain out of contentious European politics, especially in regards to European colonial holdings in the Americas. Relations were further strained by British http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 15 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM resentment of ongoing United States trade and diplomatic cooperation with France. British ships blockaded United States ports, hoping to prevent supplies and trade goods from reaching France. United States leaders, George Washington and John Adams, worked to ease tensions and lift the blockade, and by 1795, the nation again conducted trade with allies in Europe. However, by 1803, the United States government grew deeply concerned about the presence of a strong British military force in the Great Lakes region. Negotiations with Britain to reduce their military presence in the West and along the northern border of New England failed. Tensions again mounted when France sold the United States significant territories, including the Mississippi River, in the Louisiana Purchase. In 1805, the British Navy resumed its blockade of the Unites States coast, prohibiting the export of most goods to continental Europe. The Orders in Council of 1807 further restricted neutral trade with Europe, and authorized British ships to take both the cargo and crew of seized neutral ships. The practice of impressment, forcing captured seamen into service on British ships, inflamed anti-British sentiment in the United States. The passage of the Embargo Act, confining all United States trade to the North American coast, the failure of continued diplomatic relations, and British-incited Indian attacks on United States outposts, gave credence to the opinions of the "War Hawks" in the United States government. In June 1812, the United States declared war on Britain. The War of 1812 forced the United States to rapidly form and train military forces. After the Revolutionary War, the federal government only reluctantly allowed provisions for national forces. Most armies were maintained by individual states, with little standardization of training and equipment. The war spanned the entire breadth of the United States and its territories, from the Great Lakes region to New Orleans, Louisiana. Regional armies facilitated troop movement and deployment, but the lack of national infrastructure made travel and communication among the different battlefronts difficult. Military generals attempted to create a complex communication and espionage network, utilizing couriers on horseback and semaphore, to deliver messages. Codes were primitive and easy to break, but both British and American forces employed invisible inks to help conceal communications. The vast expanses of rough and unfamiliar territory that both armies traversed required the extensive use of scouts. Both British and American forces preferred to use Indian scouts, who often had superior knowledge of regional terrain and could communicated in several indigenous languages. Indian scouts also aided in the recruitment of Indians to fight rival forces. British and United States military leaders also attempted to spark warfare between rival tribes with varying allegiances, hoping to distract opposing forces or break their aid network. Extensive contact with indigenous populations proved devastating, as during the American Revolution, disease ravaged Indian villages and several thousand Indian warriors died in battle. From 1812 to 1814, the United States suffered numerous crushing defeats at the hands of superior British forces. United States offensives failed to take the Great Lakes region, and military defenses could not keep British troops from occupying Washington, D.C. Anticipated French aid never materialized in the 1813, as the tide of war in Europe had shifted decisively in favor of the British, and Napoleon's French Empire was in grave danger of collapse. American diplomats in Paris maintained a small espionage network in Europe and the Americas to monitor the British military and diplomatic corps. A French spy, posing as a local trader, rode to the White House to inform the president and cabinet members of the British plans to invade, occupy, and then destroy Washington, D.C. The government fled the British invasion of the capital city, but only by a matter of hours. Despite the grim prospects of the United States land campaign in the early years of the war, the new United States Navy mounted surprisingly successful battles against the powerful British Navy. The United States reluctantly formed its Navy to combat the extortionist trade monopoly of the North African Barbary Pirates who dominated shipping in http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 16 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM the Mediterranean. While wealthier European government simply paid annual tributes and occasional ransoms to the Barbary authorities, the fledgling United States Federal government could not afford to pay such large sums of money. The nation mounted a small but highly effective Navy, eventually driving the Barbary authorities to capitulation. After the conflict, the government only narrowly voted to keep naval forces. When the British began the blockade of the American coastline, United States navy and merchant ships successfully ran the blockade. The government employed "pirate" ships to destroy British ships, and recapture seized cargo and Americans impressed into service. With the outbreak of war, naval resources were increasingly devoted to strategic sea campaigns against British vessels. The United States Navy successfully captured the British frigate Macedonian, defeated the Java, and raided several other merchant and military ships. Victories at sea, though limited, enforced the need for a permanent navy in the United States and ensured its continued survival. One hundred and forty years later, the United States Navy surpassed the British fleet to become the world's dominant sea power. As the French were defeated in Europe, the British devoted more resources to the battlefront in America. However, United States forces rallied, turning the tide of the war in their favor by August 1814. Wishing to avoid clear military defeat, both sides began peace negotiations. The British failure to capture Baltimore prompted the government to settle their dispute with the United States, instead of continuing a lingering, expensive, and increasingly stalemated overseas war. The Treaty of Ghent formally ended the war in 1815. On January 8, 1815, after the signing of the treaty, United States forces, commanded by Andrew Jackson, achieved a stunning victory against the British at the port of New Orleans. Since communication was tedious across the Atlantic and the expansive western territory of Louisiana, news of the Treaty of Ghent did not reach either forces in time to prevent the engagement. The Battle of New Orleans gave the impression that the long-stalemated war was a sound United States victory, but the new nation was successful largely because of the failure of British offensive operations. After the War of 1812, the United States declared firmer international policy. With the issuance of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the nation stated its policy of non-intervention in European conflicts. Furthermore, the United States declared the New World closed to further colonization, and that attempts of foreign powers to intervene in conflicts between colonial powers and their colonies would be viewed as an act of aggression. The War of 1812 solidified the political and military preeminence of the United States in the Americas, and began the great expansion westward toward the Pacific coast. Further Reading Books Dudley, Wade G. Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815, reprint ed. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 2000. Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. reprint ed. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Katcher, Philip R. The American War, 1812–1814 (Men-at-Arms, no. 226). reprint ed. Buffalo, MN: Osprey Publishing, 1990. Law Encyclopedia: War of 1812 This entry contains information applicable to United States law only. The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was a conflict fought over the right of neutral countries to participate in foreign trade without the interference of other nations and the desire of many in the United States to end British occupation of Canada. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 17 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM The war, which lasted from 1812 to 1815, proved inconclusive, with both countries agreeing to revert to their prewar status as much as possible. The U.S. declaration of war against Great Britain that President James Madison signed on June 18, 1812, culminated nearly a decade of antagonism between the nations. The British, who from 1802 to 1815 were involved in the Napoleonic Wars with France, sought to prevent the United States, a neutral, from trading with France. Britain imposed a blockade on France and required that U.S. ships stop at British ports and pay duties on goods bound for France. In addition, outrage grew in the United States over the British practice of boarding U.S. ships on the high seas and impressing seamen (seizing them and forcing them to serve Great Britain) who the British claimed had deserted the Royal Navy. More than ten thousand U.S. seamen were impressed between 1802 and 1812. In 1807 President Thomas Jefferson succeeded in convincing Congress to pass the Embargo Act, which prevented virtually all U.S. ships from sailing overseas. The economic consequences of this law were disastrous to the U.S. economy, forcing the act's repeal in 1809. In its place, Congress enacted the Non-Intercourse Act, which forbade trade only with Great Britain and France. A third law, passed in 1810, allowed trade with both nations but stipulated the revival of nonintercourse against whichever nation did not remove its trade restrictions. When France announced an end to its trade decrees, the United States banned trade with Great Britain. Anger against Britain was also fueled by a group of expansionist congressmen, nicknamed the War Hawks, who wanted more land for settlement and military action against the British in Canada. British support of the American Indians on the frontier had led to Indian wars against U.S. settlers. The war itself provided limited success for the United States. Though a U.S. naval squadron under the command of Oliver Hazard Perry captured the British fleet on Lake Erie in 1813, battles in northern New York and Ontario, Canada, proved inconclusive. After U.S. forces burned the city of York (now Toronto), Ontario, the British attacked Washington, D.C., on September 13 and 14, 1814. The British burned the U.S. Capitol and the White House. Both sides realized the futility of the struggle and began treaty negotiations in 1813. Because of the military stalemate, neither side could extract concessions from the other. The United States and Great Britain agreed, in the Treaty of Ghent, to return to the prewar status quo. The treaty, which was signed on December 24, 1814, in Ghent, Belgium, was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 16, 1815. However, the Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, before news of the treaty reached the two armies. General Andrew Jackson led his troops to a decisive victory over the British forces, providing the U.S. public with the illusion that the United States had won the war. The battle also enhanced Jackson's national reputation and helped pave the way for his presidency. The frictions that had precipitated the war disappeared. The end of the Napoleonic Wars ended both the need for a British naval blockade and the impressing of U.S. seamen. Although the United States did not acquire Canada, American Indian opposition to expansion was weakened, and U.S. nationalism increased. History Dictionary: War of 1812 A war between Britain and the United States, fought between 1812 and 1815. The War of 1812 has also been called the second American war for independence. It began over alleged British violations of American shipping rights, such as the impressment of seamen — the forcing of American merchant sailors to serve on British ships. American soldiers attacked Canada unsuccessfully in the war, and the British retaliated by burning the White House and other buildings in Washington, D.C. American warships frequently prevailed over British vessels (see “We have met the enemy, and they are ours”). The greatest victory for the Americans came in the Battle of New Orleans, in which Andrew Jackson was the http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 18 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM commanding general — a battle fought, ironically, two weeks after the peace treaty ending the war had been signed, but before the armies could be informed. (See also “The StarSpangled Banner.”) Wikipedia: War of 1812 This article is about the U.S. – U.K. war. For Napoleon's invasion of Russia, see French invasion of Russia (1812). War of 1812 The Battle of New Orleans Date June 18 1812–February 18 1815 Location Eastern and Central North America, Gulf Coast, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Result Treaty of Ghent, status quo ante bellum Combatants British Empire: United States United Kingdom * and some Native American The Canadian Provinces Allies Eastern Woodland Indians Commanders James Madison Henry Dearborn Jacob Brown Winfield Scott Andrew Jackson George Prevost Isaac Brock† Tecumseh† Strength •British & Provincial •United States Regulars: 5,000 (48,163 at Regular Army: 35,800 wars end) •Rangers: 3,049 •Militia: 4,000 •Militia: 458,463* •Royal Navy & Royal Marines: •US Navy & US (by war's end): Marines: (at start of •Ships of the Line: 11 war): •Frigates: 34 •Frigates:6 •Other vessels: 52 •Other vessels: 14 •Provincial Marine: unknown •Indigenous peoples •Indigenous peoples: 3,500 Casualties http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 19 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com Killed or wounded: 6,765 Disease and other: 17,205 Civilian: presumably 500 7/20/08 4:17 PM Killed or wounded: 4,400 Disease and other: unknown Civilian: unknown *Very few militia members left their homes to fight in the war's campaigns The War of 1812 (known as the American War of 1812 in Britain to distinguish it from the war with Napoleon I of France that occurred in the same year) was fought between the United States of America and the United Kingdom and its colonies, especially Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia and Bermuda. The war was fought from 1812 to 1815 on both land and sea. By the end of the war, 1,600 British and 2,260 American troops had died. [1] St. Lawrence/Lake Champlain frontier 1st Sackett's Harbor – 1st Lacolle Mills – Lake Ontario Ogdensburg – York - Sackett's Harbor – Chateauguay – Crysler's Farm – 2nd Lacolle Mills – Fort Oswego – Big Sandy Creek - Plattsburgh Niagara campaigns Queenston Heights – Fort George – Stoney Creek – Beaver Dams – Fort Niagara – 1st Fort Erie – Chippawa – Lundy's Lane – Cook's Mills – 2nd Fort Erie Detroit frontier Tippecanoe – 1st Mackinac Island – Brownstown Maguaga – Fort Dearborn – Detroit – Fort Harrison – Fort Wayne – Mississinewa – Frenchtown – Fort Meigs – Fort Stephenson – Lake Erie – Thames – Longwoods – Prairie du Chien – 2nd Mackinac Island – Lake Huron – Malcolm's Mills Britain was at war with France and, to impede American hemp trade Chesapeake campaign with France [citation needed] , Craney Island – St. Michaels – Bladensburg – Washington imposed a series of restrictions that – Alexandria - Caulk's Field – North Point – Baltimore the U.S. contested as illegal under international law. The Americans American South declared war on Britain on June 18, Creek War – Pensacola – New Orleans – Fort Bowyer 1812 for a combination of reasons, including: outrage at the impressment (conscription) of thousands of American sailors into the British navy; frustration at British restraints on neutral trade; anger at alleged British military support for American Indians defending their tribal lands from encroaching American settlers; and a desire for territorial expansion of the Republic. Overview The war started badly for the Americans as their attempts to invade Canada were repeatedly repulsed by General Isaac Brock, commanding a small force composed largely of local militias and American Indian allies. The American strategy depended on use of militias, but they either resisted service or were incompetently led. Financial and logistical problems also plagued the American war effort. Military and civilian leadership was lacking and remained a critical American weakness until 1814. Importantly, New England opposed the war and refused to provide troops or financing. Britain possessed excellent finance and logistics, but the ongoing war with France had a higher priority, so in 1812-1813, it adopted a defensive strategy. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the British were able to send veteran armies to invade the U.S., but by then the Americans had learned how to mobilize and fight as well. At sea, the powerful Royal Navy blockaded much of the American coastline (though allowing substantial exports from New England, which was trading with Britain and Canada in defiance of American laws). The blockade devastated American agricultural exports, but http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 20 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM helped stimulate local factories that replaced goods previously imported. The American strategy of using small gunboats to defend ports was a fiasco, as the British raided the coast at will. The most famous episode was a series of British raids on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, including an attack on Washington D.C. itself that resulted in the burning of the White House, the Capitol, the navy yard and other public buildings, later called the "Burning of Washington". The Americans were more successful sending out several hundred privateers to attack British merchant ships; British commercial interests were damaged, especially in the West Indies. Although few in number compared to the Royal Navy, the American Navy's more powerful frigates prevailed in several one-on-one naval battles against British ships. The decisive use of naval power came on the Great Lakes and depended on a contest of building ships. Ultimately, Americans won control of Lake Erie and thus neutralized western Ontario and cut off the native forces from supplies. The British held Lake Ontario, preventing any major American invasion. The Americans controlled Lake Champlain, and a naval victory there forced a large British invasion army to turn back in 1814. The Americans destroyed the power of the native people of the northwest and southeast, thus securing a major war goal. The trade restrictions and impressment by the British ended with the defeat of France, removing another root cause of the war. Both nations eventually agreed to a peace that left the prewar boundaries intact. In January 1815 after the Treaty of Ghent was signed but before the US Congress had received a copy to ratify, the Americans succeeded in defending New Orleans, and the British captured Fort Bowyer before news of the treaty reached the combatants on the south coast. The war had the effect of both uniting Canadians and also uniting Americans far more closely than either population had been prior to the war. Canadians remember the war as a victory by avoiding conquest, while Americans celebrated victory personified in the hero of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson. Causes of the war Main article: Origins of the War of 1812 On June 18, America declared war on Britain for a number of reasons: outrage at the impressment (seizure) of thousands of American sailors, frustration at British restrictions on neutral trade while Britain warred with France, and anger at British military support for tribes in the Ohio-Indiana-Michigan area. One faction in Congress desired the conquest of Canada while the British were occupied in their war with France, in the belief they would be sufficiently weakened they would be easily overcome. [2] This group was a minority, but another faction opposing impressment of seamen contributed sufficient votes to pass a bill declaring war. As it happened, the British were no longer impressing seamen at the time the bill was passed. After war was declared, Britain offered to rescind the trade restrictions, but it was too late to appease the American "War Hawks", who portrayed the conflict as a "second war for independence." In addition to the stated reasons for going to war, a major goal of the War Hawks in the western and southern states was aggressive territorial expansion. The intent was to drive the British out of North America, and the Spanish out of Florida.[3] Course of the war Although the outbreak of the war had been preceded by years of angry diplomatic dispute, neither side was ready for war when it came. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 21 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Great Britain was still hard pressed by the Napoleonic Wars; most of the British Army was engaged in the Peninsular War (in Spain), and the Royal Navy was compelled to blockade most of the coast of Europe. The total number of British regular troops present in Canada in July 1812 was officially stated to be 6,034, supported by Canadian militia. Throughout the war, the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was the Earl of Bathurst. For the first two years of the war, he could spare few troops to reinforce North America and urged the Commander-in-Chief in North America—Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost—to maintain a defensive strategy, which accorded with Prevost's own inclinations. But when large-scale reinforcements of over 25,000 battle-trained regulars became available in 1814, Prevost's invasion of New York failed when he was defeated at the Battle of Plattsburgh, and the invasion of Louisiana was repulsed at the Battle of New Orleans. Despite years of warlike talk, the United States was unready to prosecute a war, for President Madison assumed that the state militias would easily seize Canada and negotiations would then follow. In 1812, the regular army consisted of fewer than 12,000 men. Congress authorized the expansion of the army to 35,000 men, but the service was voluntary, low paid and unpopular and there were initially very few trained and experienced officers. The militia—called in to aid the regulars—objected to serving outside their home states, were not amenable to discipline, and as a rule, performed poorly in the presence of the enemy when outside of their home state. The U.S. had great difficulty financing its war, especially since it had disbanded its national bank and private bankers in the Northeast were opposed to the war. The early disasters brought about largely by American unpreparedness and lack of leadership drove United States Secretary of War William Eustis from office. His successor, John Armstrong, Jr., attempted a coordinated strategy late in 1813 aimed at the capture of Montreal, but was thwarted by logistics, uncooperative and quarrelsome commanders, and ill-trained troops. By 1814, the United States Army's morale and leadership had greatly improved, but the embarrassing Burning of Washington led to Armstrong's dismissal from office in turn. The war ended before the new Secretary of War James Monroe could develop any new strategy. An artist's rendering of the battle at Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The Star Spangled Banner". American prosecution of the war also suffered from its unpopularity, especially in New England, where anti-war spokesmen were vocal. The failure of New England to provide militia units or financial support was a serious blow. Threats of secession by New England http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 22 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM states were loud; Britain immediately exploited these divisions, blockading only southern ports for much of the war and encouraging smuggling. The war was conducted in three theatres of operations: 1. The Atlantic Ocean 2. The Great Lakes and the Canadian frontier 3. The Southern States Atlantic theatre USS Constitution defeats HMS Guerriere; a significant event during the war Britain had long been the world's pre-eminent naval power, confirmed by its epic victory over the French and the Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1812, the Royal Navy had ninety-seven vessels in American waters. Of these, eleven were large ships of the line and thirty-four were smaller frigates. By contrast, the United States Navy, which was not yet twenty years old, was a frigate navy that had only twenty-two commissioned vessels, though a number of the American frigates were exceptionally large and powerful for their class. Whereas the standard British frigate of the time mounted 38 guns, with their main battery consisting of 18-pounder guns, the USS Constitution, USS President and USS United States were theoretically 44-gun ships and capable of carrying 52, 55 and 56 guns respectively, with a main battery of 24-pounders. The strategy of the British was to protect their own merchant shipping to and from Halifax and Canada, and to enforce a blockade of major American ports to restrict American trade. Because of their numerical inferiority, the Americans aimed to cause disruption through hitand-run tactics, such as the capture of prizes and engaging Royal Navy vessels under only favorable circumstances. The Americans experienced early successes at sea. Days after the formal declaration of war, two small squadrons sailed, including the frigate USS President and the sloop USS Hornet under Commodore John Rodgers (who had general command), and the frigates USS United States and USS Congress, with the brig USS Argus under Captain Stephen Decatur. Meanwhile, USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, sailed from Chesapeake Bay on July 12. On July 17, a British squadron gave chase. Constitution evaded her pursuers after two days. After briefly calling at Boston to replenish water, on August 19 Constitution engaged the British frigate HMS Guerriere. After a thirty five-minute battle, Guerriere had been dismasted and captured and was later burned. Hull returned to Boston with news of this significant victory. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 23 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM On October 25, the USS United States, commanded by Captain Decatur, captured the British frigate HMS Macedonian, which he then carried back to port. At the close of the month, Constitution sailed south under the command of Captain William Bainbridge. On December 29, off Bahia, Brazil, she met the British frigate HMS Java. After a battle lasting three hours, Java struck her colours and was burned after being judged unsalvageable. In January 1813, the American frigate USS Essex, under the command of Captain David Porter, sailed into the Pacific in an attempt to harass British shipping. Many British whaling ships carried letters of marque allowing them to prey on American whalers, nearly destroying the industry. Essex challenged this practice. She inflicted considerable damage on British interests before she was captured off Valparaiso, Chile, by the British frigate HMS Phoebe and the sloop HMS Cherub on March 28, 1814. In all of these actions—except the one in which Essex was taken—the Americans had the advantage of greater size and heavier guns. However, the United States Navy's sloops and brigs also won several victories over Royal Navy vessels of approximately equal strength. While the American ships had experienced and well-drilled volunteer crews, the cream of the over-stretched Royal Navy was serving elsewhere, and constant sea duties of those serving in North America interfered with their training and exercises. The capture of the three British frigates stimulated the British to greater exertions. More vessels were deployed on the American seaboard and the blockade tightened. On June 1, 1813, off Boston Harbor, the frigate USS Chesapeake, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, was captured by the British frigate HMS Shannon under Captain Sir Philip Broke. Lawrence was mortally wounded and famously cried out, "Don't give up the ship!". Blockade The blockade of American ports had tightened to the extent that most American merchant ships and naval vessels were confined to port. The American frigates USS United States and USS Macedonian ended the war blockaded and hulked in New London, Connecticut. Some merchant ships were based in Europe or Asia and continued operations. Others, mainly from New England, were issued licenses to trade by Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, Commander in Chief on the American station in 1813. This allowed Wellington's army in Spain to be supplied with American goods, as well as maintaining the New Englanders' opposition to the war. Because of the utilization of heavy squadrons and the blockade, the Royal Navy was able to transport British Army troops to American shores, paving the way for their attack on Washington D.C., which became known as the burning of Washington in 1814. Following their earlier losses, the British Admiralty had instituted a new policy that the three American heavy frigates should not be engaged except by a ship-of-the-line or smaller vessels in squadron strength. An example of this was the engagement between USS President and a heavy British squadron in January 1815. The British engaged with four ships versus one: HMS Endymion, HMS Majestic, HMS Pomone, and HMS Tenedos. In practice, however, the engagement was fought on the British side by the Endymion alone.[4][5] The operations of American privateers, some of which belonged to the United States Navy but most of which were private ventures, were extensive. They continued until the close of the war and were only partially affected by the strict enforcement of convoy by the Royal Navy. An example of the audacity of the American cruisers was the depredations in British home waters carried out by the American sloop USS Argus, which was eventually captured off St David's Head in Wales by the British brig HMS Pelican, on August 14 1813. A total of 1,554 vessels were claimed captured by all American naval and privateering vessels, 1300 of which were captured by privateers.[6][7][8] However, according to the insurer Lloyd’s the true number was only 1,175 British ships counted as taken by the Americans during the war, less 373 recaptured for a total loss of 802. (Hansard, vol 29, pp.649-50.) http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 24 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Halifax was the Royal Navy base that supervised the blockade and it profited greatly during the war. British privateers based there seized many French and American ships, selling their prizes in Halifax, Nova Scotia. One such ship that was seized was that of Commander Alexander Edelman, an American naval officer. He was in command of a small ship carrying supplies to American forces in Canada. He bravely ordered his men to defend the ship at all costs, and held off British attackers for several hours before they overwhelmed his exhausted crew. Commander Edelman was killed in the final stage of the attack, but not before taking down several British soldiers with him. The war was likely the last time the British allowed privateering, since the practice was coming to be seen as politically inexpedient and of diminishing value in maintaining its naval supremacy. It was certainly the swansong of Bermuda's privateers, who returned to the practice with a vengeance after American lawsuits had put a stop to it two decades earlier. The nimble Bermuda sloops captured 298 enemy ships (the total captures by all British naval and privateering vessels between the Great Lakes and the West Indies was 1,593 vessels). Great Lakes and Canadian theatre Invasions of Upper and Lower Canada, 1812 Major General Sir Isaac Brock skillfully repulsed an American invasion of Upper Canada, but his death was a severe loss for the British cause. America's leaders had assumed that Canada could be easily overrun. Former President Jefferson optimistically referred to the conquest of Canada as "a matter of marching." Many Americans had migrated to Upper Canada and it was assumed (by both sides) they would favor the American cause, but they did not. In pre-war Upper Canada General Prevost found himself in the unusual position of purchasing much of the provisions for his troops from the American side, and this peculiar trade persisted throughout the war in spite of an abortive attempt by the American government to curtail it. In Lower Canada, much more populous, support for Britain came from the English elite with strong loyalty to the Empire, and from the French elite who feared American conquest would destroy the old order by introducing Protestantism, anglicization, republican democracy, and commercial capitalism. The French habitants feared the loss to potential American immigrants of a shrinking area of good lands. [4] http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 25 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM In 1812-13 British military experience prevailed over inexperienced American commanders. Geography dictated that operations would take place in the west principally around Lake Erie, near the Niagara River between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and near Saint Lawrence River area and Lake Champlain. This was the focus of the three pronged attacks by the Americans in 1812. Although cutting the St. Lawrence River through the capture of Montreal and Quebec would make Britain's hold in North America unsustainable, the United States began operations first in the Western frontier because of the general popularity there of a war with the British, who had sold arms to the American Indians opposing the settlers. The British scored an important early success when their detachment at St. Joseph Island on Lake Huron learned of the declaration of war before the nearby American garrison at the important trading post at Mackinac Island in Michigan did. A scratch force landed on the island on July 17, 1812, and mounted a gun overlooking Fort Mackinac. The Americans, taken by surprise, surrendered. This early victory encouraged the Indians, and large numbers of them moved to help the British at Amherstburg. American Brigadier General William Hull invaded Canada on July 12, 1812, from Detroit with an army mainly composed of militiamen. Once on Canadian soil, Hull issued a proclamation ordering all British subjects to surrender, or "the horrors, and calamities of war will stalk before you." He also threatened to kill any British prisoner caught fighting alongside an Indian. The proclamation helped stiffen resistance to the American attacks. Despite the threats, Hull's invasion turned into a retreat after receiving news of the British victory at Mackinac and when his supply lines were threatened in the battles of Brownstown and Monguagon. He pulled his 2,500 troops back to Fort Lernoult (commonly referred to as Fort Detroit at the time). British Major General Isaac Brock advanced on Fort Detroit with 1,200 men. Brock sent a fake correspondence and allowed the letter to be captured by the Americans, saying they required only 5,000 Native warriors to capture Detroit. Hull feared the Indians and their threats of torture and scalping. Believing the British had more troops than they did, Hull surrendered at Detroit without a fight on August 16. Brock promptly transferred himself to the eastern end of Lake Erie, where American General Stephen Van Rensselaer was attempting a second invasion. An armistice (arranged by Prevost in the hope the British renunciation of the Orders in Council to which the United States objected might lead to peace) prevented Brock from invading American territory. When the armistice ended, the Americans attempted an attack across the Niagara River on October 13, but suffered a crushing defeat at Queenston Heights. Brock was killed during the battle. While the professionalism of the American forces would improve by the war's end, British leadership suffered after Brock's death. A final attempt in 1812 by American General Henry Dearborn to advance north from Lake Champlain failed when his militia refused to advance beyond American territory. In contrast to the American militia, the Canadian militia performed well. French-Canadians, who found the anti-Catholic stance of most of the United States troublesome, and United Empire Loyalists, who had fought for the Crown during the American Revolutionary War, strongly opposed the American invasion. However, a large segment of Upper Canada's population was recent settlers from the United States who had no obvious loyalties to the Crown. Nevertheless, while there were some who sympathized with the invaders[5], the American forces found strong opposition from men loyal to the Empire. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 26 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM American northwest, 1813 After Hull's surrender, General William Henry Harrison was given command of the American Army of the Northwest. He set out to retake Detroit, which was now defended by Colonel Henry Procter in conjunction with Tecumseh. A detachment of Harrison's army was defeated at Frenchtown along the River Raisin on January 22, 1813. Procter left the prisoners with an inadequate guard, who were unable to prevent some of his North American Indian allies from attacking and killing perhaps as many as sixty Americans, an event which became known as the "River Raisin Massacre." The defeat ended Harrison's campaign against Detroit, and the phrase "Remember the River Raisin!" became a rallying cry for the Americans. Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." This 1865 painting by William H. Powell shows Perry transferring to a different ship during the battle. In May 1813, Procter and Tecumseh set siege to Fort Meigs in northern Ohio. American reinforcements arriving during the siege were defeated by the Indians, but the fort held out. The Indians eventually began to disperse, forcing Procter and Tecumseh to return to Canada. A second offensive against Fort Meigs also failed in July. In an attempt to improve Indian morale, Procter and Tecumseh attempted to storm Fort Stephenson, a small American post on the Sandusky River, only to be repulsed with serious losses, marking the end of the Ohio campaign. On Lake Erie, the American commander Captain Oliver Hazard Perry fought the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. His decisive victory ensured American control of the lake, improved American morale after a series of defeats, and compelled the British to fall back from Detroit. This paved the way for General Harrison to launch another invasion of Upper Canada, which culminated in the U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed. Tecumseh's death effectively ended the North American Indian alliance with the British in the Detroit region. The Americans controlled Detroit and Amherstburg for the duration of the war. Niagara frontier, 1813 Because of the difficulties of land communications, control of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River corridor was crucial. When the war began, the British already had a small squadron of warships on Lake Ontario and had the initial advantage. To redress the http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 27 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM situation, the Americans established a Navy yard at Sackett's Harbor, New York. Commodore Isaac Chauncey took charge of the large number of sailors and shipwrights sent there from New York. They completed the second warship built there in a mere 45 days. Ultimately, 3000 men worked at the shipyard, building eleven warships, and many smaller boats and transports. Having regained the advantage by their rapid building program, Chauncey and Dearborn attacked York (now called Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, on April 27, 1813. The Battle of York was an American victory, marred by looting and the burning of the Parliament Buildings and a library. However, Kingston was strategically more valuable to British supply and communications along the St Lawrence. Without control of Kingston, the American navy could not effectively control Lake Ontario or sever the British supply line from Lower Canada. On May 27, 1813, an American amphibious force from Lake Ontario assaulted Fort George on the northern end of the Niagara River and captured it without serious losses. The retreating British forces were not pursued, however, until they had largely escaped and organized a counter-offensive against the advancing Americans at the Battle of Stoney Creek on June 5. On June 24, with the help of advance warning by Loyalist Laura Secord, another American force was forced to surrender by a much smaller British and Indian force at the Battle of Beaver Dams, marking the end of the American offensive into Upper Canada. Meanwhile, Commodore James Lucas Yeo had taken charge of the British ships on the lake, and mounted a counter-attack, which was nevertheless repulsed at the Battle of Sackett's Harbor. Late in 1813, the Americans abandoned the Canadian territory they occupied around Fort George. They set fire to the village of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) on December 15 1813, incensing the British and Canadians. Many of the inhabitants were left without shelter, freezing to death in the snow. This led to British retaliation following the Capture of Fort Niagara on December 18, 1813, and similar destruction at Buffalo on December 30, 1813. In 1814, the contest for Lake Ontario turned into a building race. Eventually, by the end of the year, Yeo had constructed HMS St Lawrence, a first-rate ship of the line of 112 guns which gave him superiority, but the overall result of the Engagements on Lake Ontario had been an indecisive draw. St. Lawrence and Lower Canada 1813 Sakawarton (John Smoke Johnson), John Tutela, and Young Warner, three Six Nations War of 1812 veterans. The British were potentially most vulnerable over the stretch of the Saint Lawrence where it also formed the frontier between Upper Canada and the United States. During the early days of the war, there was much illicit commerce across the river, but over the winter of 1812 - 1813, the Americans launched a series of raids from Ogdensburg on the American side of the river, hampering British supply traffic up the river. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 28 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM On February 21, Sir George Prevost passed through Prescott on the opposite bank of the river, with reinforcements for Upper Canada. When he left the next day, the reinforcements and local militia attacked. At the Battle of Ogdensburg, the Americans were forced to retire. For the rest of the year, Ogdensburg had no American garrison and many residents of Ogdensburg resumed visits and trade with Prescott. This British victory removed the last American regular troops from the Upper St Lawrence frontier and helped secure British communications with Montreal. Late in 1813, after much argument, the Americans made two thrusts against Montreal. The plan eventually agreed upon was for Major-General Wade Hampton to march north from Lake Champlain and join a force under General James Wilkinson which would embark in boats and sail from Sackett's Harbour on Lake Ontario and descend the Saint Lawrence. Hampton was delayed by bad roads and supply problems and an intense dislike of Wilkinson, which limited his desire to support his plan. On October 25, his 4,000-strong force was defeated at the Chateauguay River by Charles de Salaberry's smaller force of French-Canadian Voltigeurs and Mohawks. Wilkinson's force of 8,000 set out on October 17 but was also delayed by bad weather. After learning that Hampton had been checked, Wilkinson heard that a British force under Captain William Mulcaster and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Wanton Morrison was pursuing him, and by November 10, he was forced to land near Morrisburg, about 150 kilometers (90 mi) from Montreal. On November 11, Wilkinson's rearguard, numbering 2,500, attacked Morrison's force of 800 at Crysler's Farm and was repulsed with heavy losses. After learning that Hampton was unable to renew his advance, Wilkinson retreated to the U.S. and settled into winter quarters. He resigned his command after a failed attack on a British outpost at Lacolle Mills. Niagara and Plattsburgh Campaigns, 1814 By the middle of 1814, American generals, including Major Generals Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott, had drastically improved the fighting abilities and discipline of the army. Their renewed attack on the Niagara peninsula quickly captured Fort Erie. Winfield Scott then gained a decisive victory over an equal British force at the Battle of Chippewa on July 5. An attempt to advance further ended with a hard-fought drawn battle at Lundy's Lane on July 25. The outnumbered Americans withdrew but withstood a prolonged Siege of Fort Erie. The British raised the siege, but lack of provisions eventually forced the Americans to retreat across the Niagara. Meanwhile, following the abdication of Napoleon, 15,000 British troops were sent to North America under four of Wellington’s most able brigade commanders. Fewer than half were veterans of the Peninsula and the remainder came from garrisons. Along with the troops came instructions for offensives against the United States. British strategy was changing, and like the Americans, the British were seeking advantages for the peace negotiations. Governor-General Sir George Prevost was instructed to launch an invasion into the New York-Vermont region. He had a large invasion force which was much more powerful than the Americans. On reaching Plattsburgh New York, however, he delayed the assault until the belated arrival of a fleet led by Captain George Downie in the hastily completed 36-gun "Confiance." Prevost forced Downie into a premature attack, but then unaccountably failed to provide the promised military backing. Downie was killed and his naval force defeated at the naval Battle of Plattsburgh in http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 29 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Plattsburgh Bay on September 11, 1814. The Americans now had control of Lake Champlain; Theodore Roosevelt later termed it the greatest naval battle of the war. To the astonishment of his senior officers, Prevost then turned back, saying it would too hazardous to remain on enemy territory after the loss of naval supremacy. Prevost's political and military enemies forced his recall. In London a naval court martial of the surviving officers of the Plattsburgh Bay debacle decided that defeat had been caused principally by Prevost’s urging the squadron into premature action and then failing to afford the promised support from the land forces. Prevost died suddenly, just before his own court martial was to convene. Prevost's reputation sank to new lows, as Canadians claimed their militia under Brock did the job and he failed. Recently, however, historians have been more kindly, measuring him not against Wellington but against his American foes. They judge Prevost’s preparations for defending the Canadas with limited means to be energetic, well conceived, and comprehensive, and against the odds he had achieved the primary objective of preventing an American conquest. [6] American West, 1814 Little of note took place on Lake Huron in 1813, but the American victory on Lake Erie isolated the British there. During the winter, a Canadian party under Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall established a new supply line from York to Nottawasaga Bay on Georgian Bay. When he arrived at Fort Mackinac with supplies and reinforcements, he sent an expedition to recapture the trading post of Prairie du Chien in the far West. The Battle of Prairie du Chien ended in a British victory on July 20, 1814. In 1814, the Americans sent a force of five vessels from Detroit to recapture Mackinac. A mixed force of regulars and volunteers from the militia landed on the island on July 4. They did not attempt to achieve surprise, and at the brief Battle of Mackinac Island, they were ambushed by Indians and forced to re-embark. The Americans discovered the new base at Nottawasaga Bay and on August 13, destroyed its fortifications and a schooner which they found there. They then returned to Detroit, leaving two gunboats to blockade Michilimackinac. On September 4, these gunboats were taken unawares and captured by enemy boarding parties from canoes and small boats. This Engagement on Lake Huron left Mackinac under British control. The British garrison at Prairie du Chien also fought off an attack by Major Zachary Taylor. In this distant theatre, the British retained the upper hand till the end of the war because of their allegiance with several Indian tribes that they supplied with arms and gifts. Atlantic coast When the war began, the British naval forces had some difficulty in blockading the entire U.S. coast, and they were also preoccupied in their pursuit of American privateers. The British government, having need of American foodstuffs for its army in Spain, benefitted from the willingness of the New Englanders to trade with them, so no blockade of New England was at first attempted. The Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay were declared in a state of blockade on December 26 1812. This was extended to the coast south of Narragansett by November 1813 and to all the American coast on May 31 1814. In the meantime, much illicit trade was carried on by collusive captures arranged between American traders and British officers. American ships were fraudulently transferred to neutral flags. Eventually the U.S. Government was driven to issue orders to stop illicit trading. This put http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 30 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM only a further strain on the commerce of the country. The overpowering strength of the British fleet enabled it to occupy the Chesapeake and to attack and destroy numerous docks and harbors. Additionally, commanders of the blockading fleet, based at the Bermuda dockyard, were given instructions to encourage the defection of American slaves. Many black slaves came over to the Crown, with their families, and were recruited into the (3rd Colonial Battalion) Royal Marines on occupied Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake. A further company of colonial marines was raised at the Bermuda dockyard, where many freed slaves, men women and children, had been given refuge and employment, and was kept as a defensive force in case of an attack. These former slaves fought for Britain throughout the Atlantic campaign, including the attack on Washington D.C.and the Louisiana Campaign, and most were later re-enlisted into British West India regiments, or settled in Trinidad in August, 1816, where seven hundred of these ex-marines were granted land (they reportedly organised themselves in villages along the lines of military companies). Many other freed American slaves had been recruited directly into existing West Indian regiments, or newly-created British Army units. From the probing of the British Colony of New Brunswick, Maine was an important conquest by the British. The line of the border between New Brunswick and the District of Maine had never been adequately agreed after the American Revolution. A military victory in Maine by the British could represent a large gain in territory for New Brunswick, but more immediately it assured communication with Lower Canada via the St John River and the Halifax Road. The war did not settle the border dispute, and when Maine became a state in 1820, it led to a border crisis called the Aroostook War. The border between Maine and New Brunswick was not be settled until 1842 and the "Webster-Ashburton Treaty". In September 1814, Sir John Coape Sherbrooke led a British Army into eastern Maine and was successful in capturing Castine, Hampden, Bangor, and Machias. The Americans were given the option of swearing allegiance to the king or quitting the country. The vast majority swore allegiance and were even permitted to keep their firearms. This is the only large tract of territory held by either side at the conclusion of the war and was given back to the United States by the Treaty of Ghent. The British did not leave Maine until April 1815, at which time they took large sums of money retained from duties in occupied Maine. This money, called the "Castine Fund", was used in the establishment of Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Chesapeake campaign and "The Star-Spangled Banner" http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 31 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM The strategic location of the Chesapeake Bay near the nation's capital made it a prime target for the British. Starting in March 1813, a squadron under Rear Admiral George Cockburn started a blockade of the bay and raided towns along the bay from Norfolk to Havre de Grace. On July 4 1813, Joshua Barney, a Revolutionary War naval hero, convinced the Navy Department to build the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, a squadron of twenty barges to defend the Chesapeake Bay. Launched in April 1814, the squadron was quickly cornered in the Patuxent River, and while successful in harassing the Royal Navy, they were powerless to stop the British campaign that ultimately led to the "Burning of Washington". This expedition, led by Cockburn and General Robert Ross, was carried out between August 19 and August 29 1814, as the result of the hardened British policy of 1814 (although British and American commissioners had convened peace negotiations at Ghent in June of that year). As part of this, Admiral Warren had been replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Admiral Alexander Cochrane, with reinforcements and orders to coerce the Americans into a favourable peace. Governor-General Sir George Prevost of Canada had written to the Admirals in Bermuda calling for a retaliation for the American sacking of York (now Toronto). A force of 2,500 soldiers under General Ross, aboard a Royal Navy task force composed of the Royal Oak, three frigates, three sloops and ten other vessels, had just arrived in Bermuda. Released from the Peninsular War by British victory, it had been intended to use them for diversionary raids along the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. In response to Prevost's request, it was decided to employ this force, together with the naval and military units already on the station, to strike at Washington D.C. [9] On August 24, Secretary of War Armstrong insisted that the British would attack Baltimore rather than Washington, even when the British army was obviously on its way to the capital. The inexperienced American militia, which had congregated at Bladensburg, Maryland, to protect the capital, were destroyed in the Battle of Bladensburg, opening the route to Washington. While Dolley Madison saved valuables from the White House, President James Madison was forced to flee to Virginia. The British commanders ate the supper which had been prepared for the president before they burned the President's Mansion; American morale was reduced to an all-time low. The British viewed their actions as in retaliation for destructive American raids into Canada, most notably the Americans' burning of York (now Toronto) in 1813. Later, that same evening a furious storm swept into Washington D.C. sending one or more tornadoes into the city, decimating the British army and extinguishing the fires with torrential rains.[10] The British left Washington D.C. as soon as the storm subsided. Having destroyed Washington's public buildings, including the White House and the Treasury, the British army next moved to capture Baltimore, a busy port and a key base for American privateers. The subsequent Battle of Baltimore began with a British landing at North Point, but withdrew when General Ross was killed at an American outpost. The British also attempted to attack Baltimore by sea on September 13 but were unable to reduce Fort McHenry, at the entrance to Baltimore Harbor. The Battle of Fort McHenry was no battle at all. British guns had range on American cannon, and stood off out of U.S. range, bombarding the fort, which returned no fire. Their plan was to coordinate with a land force, but from that distance coordination proved impossible, so the British called off the attack and left. All the lights were extinguished in Baltimore the night of the attack, and the fort was bombarded for 25 hours. The only light was given off by the exploding shells over Fort McHenry, which gave proof that the flag was still over the fort. The defense of the fort http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 32 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM inspired the American lawyer Francis Scott Key to write a poem that would eventually supply the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner". Creek War Main article: Creek War In March 1814, Jackson led a force of Tennessee militia, Cherokee warriors, and U.S. regulars southward to attack the Creek tribes, led by Chief Menawa. On March 26, Jackson and General John Coffee decisively defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend, killing 800 of 1,000 Creeks at a cost of 49 killed and 154 wounded of approximately 2,000 American and Cherokee forces. Jackson pursued the surviving Creeks until they surrendered. Most historians consider the Creek war as part of the War of 1812, because the Indians were a cause and the British supported them. Treaty of Ghent and Battle of New Orleans "New Orleans" 1815 by Herbert Morton Stoops On December 24 1814, diplomats from the two countries, meeting in Ghent, United Kingdom of the Netherlands (present Belgium), signed the Treaty of Ghent. This was ratified by the Americans on February 16 1815. Unaware of the peace, Jackson's forces moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in late 1814 to defend against a large-scale British invasion. Jackson decisively defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, with over 2000 British casualties and fewer than 100 American losses. It was hailed as a great victory, making Andrew Jackson a national hero, eventually propelling him to the presidency. The British gave up on New Orleans but moved to attack the town of Mobile. In the last military action of the war 1000 British troops won the battle of Fort Bowyer. When news of peace arrived on February 13 they sailed home. The campaign was to be the last time the United States was directly attacked by another country until the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 during World War II. The terms of the treaty stated that fighting between the United States and Britain would cease, all conquered territory was returned to the prewar claimant, the Americans received fishing rights in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and that both the United States and Britain agreed to recognize the prewar boundary between Canada and the United States. The Treaty of Ghent, which was promptly ratified by the Senate in 1815, said nothing at all about the grievances that led to war. Britain made no concessions concerning impressment, blockades, or other maritime differences. Thus, the war ended in a stalemate with no gain for either side. [7] http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 33 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Consequences Main article: Results of the War of 1812 This was a war in which no territory was lost nor gained by either side. None of the points of contention were addressed by the Treaty of Ghent, yet it was a war that changed much between the United States of America and Great Britain. Never again would the U.S. think that it could always beat Great Britain nor did Great Britain ever again fail to treat the U.S. as a national power in its own right. The Treaty of Ghent established the status quo ante bellum; that is, there were no territorial changes made by either side. The issue of impressment was made moot when the Royal Navy stopped impressment after the defeat of Napoleon. Excepting occasional border disputes and the circumstances of the American Civil War, relations between the United States and Britain remained generally peaceful for the rest of the nineteenth century, and the two countries became close allies in the twentieth century. Border adjustments between the United States and British North America were made in the Treaty of 1818. (A border dispute along the Maine-New Brunswick border was settled by the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty after the bloodless Aroostook War, and the border in the Oregon Territory was settled by the 1846 Oregon Treaty.) United States The US ended the Indian threat on its western and southern borders. The nation also gained a psychological sense of complete independence as people celebrated their "second war of independence." [8]. Nationalism soared after the victory at the Battle of New Orleans. The opposition Federalist Party collapsed and an Era of Good Feelings ensued. Three of the war heroes used their celebrity to win national office: Andrew Jackson (elected president in 1828 and 1832), Richard Mentor Johnson (elected vice president in 1836), and William Henry Harrison (elected president in 1840). The Hartford Convention was a held during the war. This group of New England Federalists met to send a letter to Washington threatening secession if the war did not end soon. The Treaty of Ghent was signed before the letter reached Washington and the Federalists were seen as out of touch. This further contributed to the decline of the Federalist Party. [citation needed] British North America The War of 1812 was seen by the people in British North America, and later Canada, as a reprieve from an American takeover. The outcome gave Empire-oriented Canadians confidence and, together with the postwar "militia myth" that the civilian militia had been primarily responsible rather than the British regulars, was used to stimulate a new sense of Canadian nationalism [9]. A long-term implication of the militia myth that remained popular in the Canadian public at least until World War I was that Canada did not need a regular professional army.[10] The Battle of York demonstrated the vulnerability of Upper and Lower Canada. In the 1820s, work began on La Citadelle at Quebec City as a defence against the United States. The fort remains an operational base of the Canadian Forces. In the 1820s, work began on the Halifax citadel to defend the port against American attacks. This fort remained in operation through World War II. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 34 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM In the 1830s, the Rideau Canal was built to provide a secure waterway from Montreal to Lake Ontario avoiding the narrows of the St. Lawrence river where American cannon could block traffic. The British also built Fort Henry at Kingston to defend the Rideau Canal. This fort remained operational until 1891. Bermuda Bermuda had been largely left to the defences of its own militia and privateers prior to American independence, but the Royal Navy had begun buying up land and operating from there in 1795 as its location was a useful substitute for the lost American ports. It originally was intended to be the winter headquarters of the North American Squadron, but the war shoved it into a new prominence. As construction work progressed through the first half of the century, Bermuda became the permanent naval headquarters in Western waters, housing the Admiralty, and serving as a base and dockyard. The military garrison was built up to protect the naval establishment, heavily fortifying the archipelago that came to be described as the Gibraltar of the West. Defence infrastructure would remain the central leg of Bermuda's economy until after the Second World War. Great Britain The war is scarcely remembered in Britain [11] because it was overshadowed by the far larger conflict against Napoleon Bonaparte. Britain's goals of impressing seamen and blocking trade with France had been achieved and were no longer needed. The Royal Navy, however, was acutely conscious that the United States Navy had won most of the singleship duels during the early stages of the War.[11] The main cause of this however was down to the fact that the US Frigates heralded more guns and the crew of unemployed US sailors than a regular British Fifth Rate Frigates with their crews rounded out by impressment and landsman making the match up uneven.[12] When two ships of almost equal strength did meet (USS Chesapeake and HMS Shannon) resulted in the HMS Shannon's victory (note that the captain of the Shannon practiced a relentless gun drill). The Army had performed admirably on the Niagara, defeating multiple US invasions that far outnumbered them. By 1815, Britain, through the Royal Navy, was the dominant nautical power in the world. [12] See also Chronology of the War of 1812 War of 1812 Campaigns Battle of New Orleans Further reading See List of books about the War of 1812 References 1. ^ See http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Camp/7624/Warof1812.htm - sources at bottom. British and American forces also suffered 3,679 and 4,505 wounded, respectively. It is noteworthy that these "official" figures do not include losses to http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 35 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 7/20/08 4:17 PM disease, casualties among American or Canadian militia forces, or losses among allied native tribes. ^ American Military History, Army Historical Series, Ch. 6, p. 123, states "While the western "war hawks" urged war in the hope of conquering Canada, the people of Georgia, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory entertained similar designs against Florida, a Spanish possession".[1] ^ American Military History, Army Historical Series, Ch. 6, p. 123. [2] ^ Peter Burroughs, "Prevost, Sir George" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online online ^ See "Mallory, Behajah" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online online and "WILLCOCKS (Wilcox), JOSEPH" in ibid online ^ Peter Burroughs, "Prevost, Sir George" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online online ^ b. John J. Newman, and John M. Schmalbach. United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. AMSCO School Publications, Inc.: New York. 2006, 2004, 2002, and 1998. Page 131 ^ Stagg (1983) ^ Erik Kaufman, "Condemned to Rootlessness: The Loyalist Origins of Canada's Identity Crisis", Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, vol.3, no.1, (1997), pp. 110-135 online at [3] ^ CMH, "Origins of the Militia Myth" (February 2006) online ^ Caffery, Kate; p290 ^ See http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3848 - In 1812 war broke out with America after disputes made worse by the blockade. After some reverses in minor frigate actions, Britain was able to deploy sufficient maritime strength along America's eastern seaboard to bring peace in 1814. By 1815 Britain, through the Royal Navy, was the unchallenged mistress of the oceans. External links Library of Congress Guide to the War of 1812 POTSI: American War of 1812. Partial list of Bermudian-built Royal Naval vessels. From The Andrew and the Onions, by Lt. Cmdr. I. Strannack. American Military History - The War of 1812 The War of 1812 Website Casebook: The War of 1812 President Madison's 1812 War Message, with lesson plans and numerous primary documents from US and Britain regarding the causes of the war Treaty of Ghent and related resources on the War of 1812 at the Library of Congress Galafilm's War of 1812 website Key Events of the War of 1812 War of 1812 from the James Madison Center of the James Madison University militaryheritage.com Large collection of articles Historycentral.com War of 1812 Origins of the Militia Myth War of 1812 — online exhibit at the Archives of Ontario The journal of Major John Norton (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1970) The War of 1812 Niagara Region New York State Military Museum:Black Americans in the US Military from the American Revolution to the Korean War: The War of 1812 The War of 1812 Battle of Plattsburgh & War of 1812 American Privateers in The War Of 1812 Bermuda Online: Bermuda's Royal Navy base at Ireland Island. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 36 of 37 War of 1812: Definition and Much More from Answers.com 7/20/08 4:17 PM Armed Conflicts involving the United States World War I · World War II · Korean War · Vietnam War · Gulf War · Somalia · International Bosnian War · Kosovo War · War in Afghanistan · Iraq War Indian Wars · Quasi-War · First Barbary War · War of 1812 · Second Barbary External War · Mexican-American War · Spanish-American War · Philippine-American War · Invasion of Grenada · Invasion of Panama Revolutionary War · Shays' Rebellion · Whiskey Rebellion · Seminole Wars · Internal Toledo War · Mormon War · Honey War · Bleeding Kansas · Utah War · Civil War · Brooks-Baxter War List of conflicts in USA · List of wars involving USA · List of US military history Related articles events · Overseas expansion of the United States pdc:Grieg vun 1812 This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer) Donate to Wikimedia Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "War of 1812" at WikiAnswers. Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar! Click here to download now. Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products. http://www.answers.com/topic/war-of-1812 Page 37 of 37