By Maria Magidenko. The War of 1812 lasted from1812 to1815. America declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war,

By Maria Magidenko

The War of 1812 lasted from1812 to1815. America declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, was signed on December 24, 1814 but news about the peace treaty took two months to reach the U.S., so the fighting

continued until 1815. The war was fought between the United States and Great Britain and her North American colonies in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Québec), New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and Bermuda. Most of the war was fought on the Atlantic Ocean and

the land, coast, and waterways of America. The war was fought on the oceans where warships and privateers attacked the other side's merchant shipping; along the

Atlantic coast of the U.S. which was blockaded by the British; along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence river (which separated the U.S. from Canada); and along the

coast of the Gulf of Mexico. During the war, both the British and Americans invaded each others' territories, but were unsuccessful or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British had parts of Maine and some outposts in the West and the Americans held Canadian territory by Detroit, but these territories were restored at the end of the war. America declared war on Britain because of trade restrictions Britain enforced to stop America’s trade with France, the impressment of American

sailors into the Royal Navy (American seamen were accused of being British deserters and they were forced to join the Royal Navy), and because the British

offered military support to the Native Americans who were resisting the expansion of the American frontier.

At the start of the war, America had only state-raised militias (which had poor training) and America had financial and logistical problems. Military and civilian leadership was the biggest weakness until 1814. Since New England was against the war, it refused to provide troops or financing. America failed to take control of Canada, the capital was burnt, and the navy was swept off the seas. But in the end, peace has gotten them much farther than war has.

Britain was at war with Napoleon during the time so the War of 1812 was sort of like a sideshow and Britain was less affected by the fighting. Britain was more focused on Napoleon but after the war with the French was over, they could send more troops to the Americas.

In 1807, Thomas Jefferson passed the embargo act which forbade Americans to leave for foreign ports. But instead of helping America, the embargo act hurt America, so in 1809, it was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act which reopened trade with all nations except for Britain and France. But in this act, the President had the power to renew the trade with either of those two nations if and when either should stop their violations of American rights on the seas. Soon after this act came into effect, James Madison became president. He received a promise from the British Minister that England would revoke the Orders in Council (which forbade neutral ships to go to a French port without stopping at a British one). But the British Minister was replaced, and Madison failed to bring about peace with England.

Ever since the Revolution, American settlers had been pushing into the West. In 1794, General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Also, in the same year, Britain gave up their control of the western forts. It seemed that the Indians would no longer be a threat to American settlers. But instead, Chief Tecumseh united the Indians and encouraged them to fight back. Together, the Indians organized a great confederacy of Indian tribes to block the westward push of America. In 1811, William Henry Harrison gathered a military force to break up the Indian Confederacy. He wanted to destroy the town Tippecanoe Creek so he led his men to camp about a mile from the Indian village. The Indians made a surprise attack at dawn, but the Americans drove the Indians back and set fire to the village. The men found that the Indians were being supplied with weapons from the British and they were outraged. The British foolishly gave America another reason to go to war when they refused to revoke their Orders in Council. Congress voted on going to war and the vote was close. In the Senate it was 19 to 13 and in the House 79 to 49. The West and South voted for the war and New England voted against it. But two days after Congress acted, Britain announced that she had suspended the Orders in Council. But it was too late.

The war didn't start well for the U.S. when an attempt to invade Canada in August 1812 was unsuccessful. A second invasion (but this time in the Niagara Peninsula) was defeated in October 1812 at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Then, Detroit fell to British General Isaac Brock. The American territory north and west of Ohio had fallen to the enemy. But even though the battles fought on land in 1812 were unsuccessful, the war at sea brought glory to the navy. Captain Isaac Hull’s Constitution outfought and sank the British frigate Guerriére by Nova Scotia. And Captain Jacob Jones’s Wasp bested the Frolic. The frigate United States commanded by Captain Stephen Decatour captured the Macedonian. And the Hornet sank the Peacock. Five one-sided victories in a row shocked the British but kept the outlook good for the American navy. At the end of 1812, the British tried to blockade the Atlantic coast from New York to Savannah. But they did not blockade New England because they hoped that New England would separate from the rest of the country because the Americans there were against the war. But when New England did not do so, the British blockaded New England as well. They used Chesapeake Bay as a naval station and made it difficult to import goods into the United States. The blockade encouraged Americans to make their own goods and once the war was over, New England became a large industrial region. The Americans dispatched cruisers which captured British merchant convoys and whalers and many American privateersmen roamed the seas. But even this did not force the British to loosen their blockade of the American coast. In 1813, the Chesapeake of the U.S. Navy and the British frigate Shannon fought thirty miles outside of Boston Harbor. Both ships fired at the same time and were hit hard, but the Chesapeake suffered most. Captain Lawrence was shot through the lungs and as he heard the British board the ship, he cried out “Don’t give up the ship!” The British still took the Chesapeake into Halifax as a prize and Lawrence’s dying words became the rallying cry of the American navy.

Hull had lost Detroit in 1812, and Harrison had made little headway in getting it back the following year. These failures made it clear that the Americans had to gain control of Lake Erie before they could recapture the city. Captain Perry assembled a fleet, guns, and crews. In August 1813, he sailed up the lake and anchored in Put-In-Bay. There, on September 1813, he met the British fleet. His ship was battered and all of his officers were killed but he refused to give up. He took a small boat and was rowed over to the Niagara and kept on fighting. Soon the entire British fleet surrendered. In fifteen minutes Perry had gained control of Lake Erie.

With Lake Erie cleared of the British, Harrison sailed against Fort Malden. A regiment of Kentucky mounted riflemen moved along the shore of the lake toward Detroit. The British tried to retreat eastward but Harrison caught up to them about eighty-five miles from Malden. Most of the British surrendered and the Indians fled into the woods but the Kentuckians fought with them hand-to-hand. Chief Tecumseh was killed and this battle shattered the Indian Confederacy.

One of the biggest failures of the United States in the war was the expedition launched in 1813 against Montreal. This group of 6,000 men was led by Wilkinson. A second force led by General Hampton was supposed to move north against Montreal from Lake Champlain. Hamilton and Wilkinson despised each other and it was clear that they couldn’t work together. Wilkinson’s men were driven back about ninety miles from the city and Hamilton never even started. At the end of the year, the British seized Fort Niagara and burned Buffalo.

In early 1814, Napoleon was overthrown so England was now able to throw all of her strength into the war with America. The British planned to go south into New York through Lake Champlain, against Washington and Baltimore from the Chesapeake Bay, and to seize New Orleans and get control of the Mississippi River. The British tightened the blockade of the American coast. But Wilkinson and other incompetent generals were removed and better people were chosen to lead the U.S. fighting forces.

Before the British could start their invasion, Americans crossed the Niagara River into Canada and took control of Fort Erie. The British and Americans fought the Battle of Chippewa and the British lines crumbled. Still, the invasion of Canada got nowhere. Americans tried to fight a battle at Lundy’s Lane but were pushed back to Fort Erie. The British attacked the fort but Americans held out and forced the British to withdraw. Then the Americans destroyed the fort and gave up the drive to Canada. In September 1814, the big British land and water attack along Lake Champlain got under way. The British outnumbered the Americans at Plattsburg, New York, by about four to one. The Americans anchored in the narrow channel between Crab Island and Cumberland Head. The Battle of Lake Champlain lasted two hours and twenty minutes. The Americans were victorious and took control of Lake Champlain and forced the British back into Canada.

In August 1814, the British fleet landed at the mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland and marched on to Washington. The Americans tried to stop them at Bladensburg but they were outnumbered. As the British entered the capital, government officials fled from the city. The British burned the White House, the Capitol, the Navy Yard, and other public buildings. This attack was called the "Burning of Washington.“ The British marched on to Baltimore.

The British marched to Baltimore but the men there were already prepared. A force of a thousand men held Fort McHenry, where a line of sunken hulks barred enemy ships from entering the harbor. The enemy on land was opposed by 3,200 militiamen. The Americans fell back but not before mortally wounding General Ross who was commanding the British. Because they failed to take Baltimore by land, the British bombarded Fort McHenry, which blocked the approach to Baltimore. Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer, had been sent to rescue William Beanes who was being held hostage by the British. Key got Beanes released but the men couldn’t leave the ship until the fighting was over. The next morning, the British ceased their fire. The American flag still waved over Fort McHenry and Francis Scott Key took some notes for a song that he completed later in Baltimore. It was originally written as a poem and was printed at first as the “Defense of Fort McHenry.” And so the patriotic song was born.

In August 1813, the Creeks, an Indian tribe, attacked Fort Mims, located about thirty-five miles above Mobile, Alabama. Of the 550 people in the fort, the Creeks massacred 250 and burned to death many more. When news of this reached Andrew Jackson, major general of the Tennessee militia, he gathered 2,000 volunteers. They went to Alabama and defeated the Creeks and their Cherokee allies at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. He made the Creeks agree to give up part of their lands to the U.S. and get out of western and southern Alabama. At the same time, William Henry Harrison made peace with the Northwest Indians who now declared war on the British. At the end of November, a large British fleet sailed from Jamaica to attack New Orleans and seize control of the Mississippi River. In December 23, 1814, Jackson withdrew his men five miles from New Orleans and waited for the enemy. On January 8, 1815, the British attacked. The Americans fought back and in half an hour, 2,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded compared to the 71 casualties the Americans sustained. Even though the Battle of New Orleans was America’s greatest land victory of the war, it had no effect on the outcome of the conflict. Two weeks earlier, peace had been signed, but it took so many weeks for the news to travel overseas that the war was over at the time of the Battle of New Orleans. But it still made the

Americans proud at last of their fighting men.

Peace talks had begun in August 1814, at Ghent in Flanders. The American commissioners were told to insist that the British stop impressment and cease the blockade and other actions on the seas that Americans considered illegal. The British commissioners were told to demand that a neutral Indian state be set up in the Northwest. But the Duke of Wellington told them that they couldn’t demand for territory from the United States when Britain didn’t control the Great Lakes and the English were tired of the war.

The result was the each side gave up its claims against the other. The treaty ended the war and provided for the release of prisoners and the turning back of all territory conquered by either side. The treaty also provided for the naming of a commission to settle the dispute between the United States and Canada over the northeastern boundary.

News of the signing of the treaty reached New York on February 11, 1815. The Senate quickly approved the treaty and a new era of peaceful relations between the two English-speaking countries had begun.

Even though the War of 1812 did not settle a single issue that had caused the war, when the war was over, Britain and America were better friends than they had been since the

U.S. had become an independent nation. After the war, the two countries entered an era of true peace. The War of 1812 was also very important because after the war, the United States had become a strong nation

that the whole world respected.

The USS Constitution vs. the Guerriére

The Burning of Washington