War of 1812

The war of 1812 was a very important, yet overlooked war that had a great affect on the history of early America. The clash was between the United States, and the British forces. The War was unique in many ways; Britain was currently involved in another struggle called the Napoleonic Wars at the same time. And, In December of 1814, a peace treaty to end the war was established and signed. Interestingly, the last battle of the war, the Battle of New Orleans, was not fought until spring of 1815.

Ever since the United States won its independence in 1783, the status of relations between the United States and Britain had been steadily decaying. As a result of the war between England and France in 1793, the British set up blockades of European ports to prevent American neutral shipping from helping the French commerce. Consequently, the American economy was damaged, and this quickly brought demands for retaliation in the United States. Until the 19th century however, tensions eased as the administrations of George Washington and John Adams attempted to keep peace with the British to avoid a war that the Americans were not prepared to fight.

Beginning in 1805 the British developed much stricter maritime blockades; in addition, British navy claimed the right to stop neutral vessels on the high seas to look for deserters. During the search of American ships, many American seamen were impressed into the British navy, angering the Americans. Britain claimed that all of the American men impressed were by complete accident. In June of 1807 the British vessel, the Leopard ordered the American vessel, the Chesapeake to stop and allow a search. Upon refusal, the Leopard used force, wounding 18 Americans and killing 3. These actions by the British enraged the Americans, and many more people began demanding retaliation.1

From 1807 to 1811 the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison attempted to change British policies by hurting their economy. They planned to do this by restricting British imports as well as American exports to Great Britain. The Embargo Act was passed in December 1807, and banned all exports and confined American shipping to the coastal trade. This act was later repealed and replaced with the Nonintercourse Act, prohibiting trade with Britain and France. When neither economic oppression nor negotiation sparked change in British policies, it made the government look foolish, and motions for war arose in the United States.2

The Congress that was elected in 1810 and met in November 1811 included a group of politicians known as the War Hawks who demanded war against Great Britain. These men were all Democratic-Republicans and mostly from the West and South. Among their leaders were John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Henry Clay of Kentucky, and Felix Grundy of Tennessee. Some argued that American honor could be saved and British policies changed by an invasion of Canada, and others hoped that if Canada was conquered it could be retained after the war. The Federalist Party, representing New England shippers who believed the war would ruin trade, opposed the war. On June 18, 1812, President James Madison signed a declaration of war that despite some opposition, congress had passed at his request. An online article portrays some events of the war in as follows:

“U.S. forces were not ready for war, and American hopes of conquering Canada collapsed in the campaigns of 1812 and 1813. The initial plan called for a three-pronged offensive: from Lake Champlain to Montreal, across the Niagara frontier; and into Upper Canada from Detroit. The attacks were uncoordinated, however, and all failed. In the West, General William Hull surrendered Detroit to the British in August 1812; on the Niagara front, American troops lost the Battle of Queenston Heights in October; and along Lake Champlain the American forces withdrew in late November without seriously engaging the enemy. American frigates won a series of single-ship engagements with British frigates, and American privateers continually harried British shipping. The captains and crew of the frigates Constitution and United States became renowned throughout America. Meanwhile, the British gradually tightened a blockade around America's coasts, ruining American trade, threatening American finances, and exposing the entire coastline to British attack.

American attempts to invade Canada in 1813 were again mostly unsuccessful. There was a standoff at Niagara, and an elaborate attempt to attack Montreal by a combined operation involving one force advancing along Lake Champlain and another sailing down the Saint Lawrence River from Lake Ontario failed at the end of the year. The only success was in the West. The Americans won control of the Detroit frontier region when Oliver Hazard Perry’s ships destroyed the British fleet on Lake Erie (Sept. 10, 1813, “The Battle of Put-in-Bay”).