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Revision as of 19:56, 31 January 2006 by SarekOfVulcan (talk | contribs) (rv blanking)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)- This page refers to the war between the United States of America and Great Britain. For Napoleon's 1812 Invasion of Russia, see Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
| The War of 1812 | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 1812—1815 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Result | Treaty of Ghent (status quo ante bellum) | ||||||||||||||||||
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The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and British Empire from 1812 to 1815, on land in North America and at sea around the world. Some history books refer to this war as the "War of 1812-14", using the date of the peace treaty as the ending date of the war.
Overview
On the Great Lakes border, more than half of the British forces were made up of Canadian militia. Additionally, many North American Indian peoples (today most often called "Native Americans" in the United States and "First Nations" in Canada) fought on both sides of the war for reasons of their own. In the Northwest Territory, the War was, in a sense, a continuation of Tecumseh's War after his defeat in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
The war formally began on June 18 1812 with the U.S. declaration of war. The United States launched invasions of the Canadian provinces in 1812 and 1813, but the borders were successfully defended by British and North American Indian forces. The United States gained the upper hand in the North American Indian part of war with victories at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813 and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, but, by this time, the United Kingdom had successfully concluded the Napoleonic wars and the British were finally able to divert more resources to North America. British invasions of American territory resulted in the burning of Washington, D.C. and the capture of part of the District of Maine, but the British counteroffensive was turned back at Lake Champlain, Baltimore, and New Orleans. The Treaty of Ghent (ratified in 1815) restored the status quo ante bellum between the combatants.
The War of 1812 ended as a stalemate and it is often only dimly remembered in Britain. It had many effects on the futures of those involved. The war created a greater sense of nationalism in both Canada and the United States. The successful defense of the Canadian provinces against American invasion ultimately ensured the survival of Canada as a nation, and the end of the war marked the decline of a longstanding desire of many Americans to see the British Empire expelled entirely from North America. Peace between the United States and British North America also meant that North American Indians could no longer use conflicts between the two powers to defend native lands against the expansion of white settlement.
Origins of the War of 1812
Main article: ]The war was a result of two major causes: a dispute over repeated violations of American sovereignty by Great Britain, and American expansionism, a desire by some Americans to expand their territory and population by conquering Great Britain's Canadian colonies.
The British Canadian colonies were lightly populated and poorly defended compared to the crowded American states to their south, and many of the settlers were Americans by birth and believed to remain sympathetic to the United States. Some Americans argued that the majority of the population in the British colonies would rise up and greet an American invading army as liberators, and that, as Thomas Jefferson suggested in 1812, "the acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us the experience for the attack on Halifax, the next and final expulsion of England from the American continent." The belief that the United States was destined to control all of the North American continent would later gain the name Manifest Destiny, but that term was not yet in use at the time of the war. However, the British did have certain advantages, such as having twice as many people and better infrastructure on the north bank of the upper St Lawrence River than the Americans had along the southern bank. Indeed for those living in upstate New York, it was easier for people and goods to travel to Kingston and Montreal, rather than New York City and other points south.
Meanwhile, the United States had grievances against Great Britain for sovereignty violations in three areas:
- Britain's refusal to surrender western forts promised to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War of Independence, together with allegations that Britain was arming North American Indians fighting against them on the western frontier;
- The stopping of American ships by the Royal Navy on the high seas to search for deserters, and the impressment of seamen who had been born as British subjects but later naturalized as American citizens; and
- The trade embargos by France and Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, which resulted in the seizing of hundreds of American merchant ships.
In 1795, the Jay Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Greenville with the North American Indians temporarily resolved the conflict on the Northwestern frontier; however, the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty of 1806 dealt only with trade, not impressment, and was not ratified by the United States Congress. Continuing embargos and the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807 (which resulted in the deaths of three American seamen under attack by a British ship) further aggravated tensions between the two countries.
In 1811, in the United States House of Representatives, a loose political faction called the War Hawks, under the leadership of speaker Henry Clay, began agitating for a declaration of war against Britain, both as a response to real grievances and as an opportunity to acquire the British Canadian colonies. After a speech by President James Madison to Congress, on June 18, 1812, Congress voted to declare war. Interesting enough, Great Britain had revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war, but the news of this arrived only after war was declared.
Some historians, such as Robin Reilly, have argued that the declaration of war on Great Britain by the United States was a victory for French diplomacy, forcing Britain to divert its attention and some resources from continental matters.
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. The United Kingdom was still hard pressed by the Napoleonic Wars, and was compelled to retain the greater part of her forces and her best crews in European waters. The British Commander-in-Chief in North America was instructed to limit offensive action in order to limit the expansion of any conflict that would require the movement of forces from Britain, Europe or other British colonies. The total number of British regular troops present in Canada in July 1812 was officially stated to be 5,004, supported by some Canadian militia. During the war, successes against Napoleon left the United Kingdom free to send an overwhelming force of ships to American waters.
The United States was also unready to prosecute a war. 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 and unpopular, and there was an almost total lack of 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.
The war was conducted in four theatres of operations:
- The Atlantic Ocean
- The Great Lakes and the Canadian frontier
- The coast of the United States
- The Southern States
Operations on the oceans
Britain had long been the world's preeminent naval power, confirmed by its victory over the French (and their Spanish allies) at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1812, the Royal Navy had ninety-seven vessels in American waters. Of these, eleven were ships of the line and thirty-four were frigates. In contrast, the United States Navy, which was not yet twenty years old, had only twenty-two commissioned vessels, the largest of which were frigates, though a number of the American ships were 44-gun frigates and very heavily built compared to the usual British 38-gun frigates.
The strategy of the British was to protect its own merchant shipping to and from Canada, and enforce a blockade of major American ports to restrict American trade. Due to their numerical inferiority, the Americans aimed to cause disruption through hit-and-run tactics, such as the capture of prizes and only engaging Royal Navy vessels under favourable circumstances.
The Americans experienced much early success. On June 21, 1812, three days after the formal declaration of war, two small squadrons left New York. The ships included 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.
Two days later, Hornet gave chase to the British frigate HMS Belvidera. Belvidera eventually escaped to Halifax, after discarding all unnecessary cargo overboard. Hornet returned to Boston, Massachusetts by August 31. Meanwhile, USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, sailed from the Chesapeake, on July 12, without orders so as to avoid being blockaded. On July 17, a British squadron gave chase. Constitution evaded its pursuers after two days, and later retired at Boston. 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.
On October 25, the USS United States, commanded by Captain Decatur, captured the British frigate HMS Macedonian, which he carried back to port. At the close of the month, Constitution sailed south under the command of Captain William Bainbridge. On December 20, off Bahia, Brazil, it met the British frigate HMS Java, which was carrying General Hislop, the governor of Bombay, to India. 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 an estimated $3,000,000 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. Despite the greater experience in naval combat of the British, a large proportion of their seamen had been impressed. This contrasted with the Americans who were all volunteers, which may have given the Americans an edge in morale and seamanship.
The capture of three British frigates was a blow to the British and stimulated them to greater exertions. More vessels were deployed on the American seaboard and the blockade tightened. On June 1 1813, the frigate USS Chesapeake was captured by the British frigate HMS Shannon as it attempted to leave Boston Harbor. This somewhat offset the blow to morale caused by previous disasters. The blockade of American ports had tightened to the extent that the United States ships found it increasingly difficult to sail without meeting forces of superior strength. Because of this 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, D.C. in 1814.
The operations of American privateers 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 capture of the American sloop USS Argus at St David's Head in Wales by the more heavily armed British sloop HMS Pelican, on August 14, 1813.
Operations on the Great Lakes and Canadian border
Invasions of Canada, 1812
While they had expected little from their tiny navy, the American people had assumed that Canada could be easily overrun. Former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson dismissively referred to the conquest of Canada as "a matter of marching." However, in the opening stages of the conflict, 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 would be 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 Canada unsustainable, operations in the West began first due to the general popularity of war with the British there.
The British scored an important early success, when their detachment at Saint 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 the fort. The Americans, taken by surprise, surrendered. This early victory encouraged the Indians, and large numbers of them moved to help the British at Amherstburg.
The American Brigadier General William Hull had invaded Canada on July 12, 1812 from Detroit, with an army mainly composed of militiamen, but turned back after his supply lines were threatened in the Battles of Brownstown and Monguagon. British Major General Isaac Brock sent false correspondence and allowed it to be captured by the Americans, saying they required only 5,000 Native warriors to capture Detroit. Hull was deathly afraid of North American Indians and some tribes' practice of scalping. Hull surrendered at Detroit on August 16.
Brock promptly transferred himself to the eastern end of Lake Erie, where the American General Stephen Van Rensselaer was attempting a second invasion. Brock fell in action on October 13 at the Battle of Queenston Heights, where the Americans were defeated largely because the militia refused to reinforce the regulars, citing Constitutional reasons. 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 the American General Henry Dearborn to advance north from Lake Champlain failed ingloriously when his militia too 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 and had settled primarily in Upper Canada, strongly opposed the American invasion. However, a large segment of Upper Canada's population were recent settlers from the United States who had no such loyalties to the Crown, but American forces found, to their dismay, that most of the colony took up arms against them.
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 in custody of a few North American Indians, who then proceeded to execute perhaps as many as sixty American prisoners, 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.
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 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 would control Detroit and Amherstburg for the duration of the war.
The Niagara Frontier, 1813
Because of the difficulties of land communications, control of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River corridor was crucial, and so both sides spent the winter of 1812-13 building ships. The Americans, who had far greater shipbuilding facilities than the British, nevertheless had not taken advantage of this before the war, and had fallen behind. By September 1814, the British would launch the largest ship built during the war, HMS St Lawrence.
On April 27, 1813, American forces attacked and burned York (now called Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, including the Parliament Buildings. However, Kingston was strategically more valuable, and vital 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 Quebec.
On May 27, 1813, an American amphibious force from Lake Ontario assaulted Fort George on the northern end of the River Niagara 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 bluffed into surrender by a much smaller British and Indian force at the Battle of Beaver Dams, marking the end of the American offensive into Central Canada.
On Lake Ontario, Sir James Lucas Yeo took command on May 15, 1813 and created a more mobile though less powerful force than the Americans under Isaac Chauncey. An early attack on Sackett's Harbour by Yeo and Governor General Sir George Prevost was repulsed. Three naval engagements in August and September led to no decisive result.
By 1814, Yeo had constructed the HMS St. Lawrence, a first-rate ship of the line of 102 guns which gave him superiority, and the British became masters of Lake Ontario. The burning by the American General McClure, on December 10, 1813, of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake), led to British retaliation and similar destruction at Buffalo, on December 30, 1813.
The St. Lawrence and Lower Canada
The Americans made little attempt to bar the Saint Lawrence to British traffic at the point where it was also the frontier between Canada and the United States. British supplies and reinforcements were able to move to Upper Canada with little difficulty.
Early in 1813, there was a series of raids and counter-raids between Prescott in Canada and Ogdensburg on the American side of the river. On February 21, Sir George Prevost passed through Prescott with reinforcements for Upper Canada. When he left the next day, the reinforcements attacked and looted Ogdensburg. For the rest of the year, Ogdensburg had no American garrison and the British freely obtained goods there, while many residents of Ogdensburg recommenced visits and trade with Prescott. More importantly, the 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 with a force under General James Wilkinson which would sail from Sacket'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 force of less than 500 French-Canadian Voltigeurs and Mohawks.
Wilkinson's force of 8,000 sailed on October 17, but was also held up by bad weather. After learning that Hampton had been checked, Wilkinson heard that a British force under Captain William Mulcaster and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Morrison was pursuing him, and by November 10 he was forced to land near Morrisburg, Ontario, about 150 kilometers 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 subsequently retreated back to the U.S. and settled down into winter quarters.
Niagara Campaign, Battle of Lake Champlain, 1814
By 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 Americans withdrew but withstood a prolonged Siege of Fort Erie. The British raised the siege, but lack of provisions forced the Americans to retreat across the Niagara.
Meanwhile, following the abdication of Napoleon, British troops no longer needed in Europe began arriving in North America. Less than half were veterans of the Peninsula and the remainder came from various garrisons. Along with the troops came instructions for a number of offensives against the United States. British strategy was undergoing a fundemental change, and like the Americans, the British were seeking leverage for the peace negotiations underway in Ghent. Governor-General Sir George Prevost was instructed to launch an offensive into the United States. However, his invasion was repulsed by the naval Battle of Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh Bay on September 11, 1814 which gave the Americans control of Lake Champlain. Theodore Roosevelt later termed it the greatest naval battle of the war.
The West, 1814
Little of note took place on Lake Huron in 1813, but the American victory on Lake Erie cut off the British from their supplies. 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 Michilimackinac with reinforcements, he sent an expedition to recapture the trading post of Prairie du Chien in the far West.
In 1814, the Americans sent a force of six vessels from Detroit to recapture Fort 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 while marching to attack the fort, were ambushed by Indians and forced to re-embark.
The Americans now discovered the new base at Nottawasaga Bay, and, on August 13, they destroyed its fortifications and a schooner 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. These prizes now re-established the British supply line from Nottawasaga Bay.
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, due mainly to the allegiance of several Indian tribes they supplied with arms and gifts.
The American coast
When the war began, the British naval forces had some difficulty in blockading the whole 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, and 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 whole coast south of Narragansett by November 1813, and to the whole 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 United States government was driven to issue orders for the purpose of stopping illicit trading. This only helped to further ruin 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.
One of the most forgotten battles on the American coast was the occupation of the District of Maine. From the proding of the British Colony of New Brunswick, Maine was an important conquest by the British. The border between New Brunswick and the United States had never been adequately settled 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 assured communication with Lower Canada via the St John River and the Halifax Road. The war would not settle this border dispute and, when Maine became a state in 1820, would lead to a border crisis, called the Aroostook War. The border between Maine and New Brunswick would not finally 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 sucessful in capturing Castine, Hamden, Bangor, and Machais. The Americans were given the option of swearing alegiance 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, back to Nova Scotia. This money, called the "Castine Fund", was used in the establishment of Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a lasting reminder of the War of 1812.
Chesapeake campaign, The Star-Spangled Banner
The best known of the destructive British raids was the "Burning of Washington" (the burning of public buildings, including the White House, in Washington) by Admiral Sir George Cockburn and General Robert Ross. This expedition was carried out between August 19 and August 29, 1814. On the 24th, the inexperienced American militia, who had collected at Bladensburg, Maryland to protect the capital, were soundly defeated, opening the route to Washington. While Dolley Madison saved valuables from the White House, President James Madison was forced to flee to Virginia; American morale was reduced to an all-time low. The British viewed their actions as fair retaliation for the Americans' burning of York (later renamed Toronto) in 1813, although there are suggestions that the burning was in retaliation of destructive American raids into other parts of Upper Canada.
Having destroyed Washington's public buildings, 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 the attack was repulsed and General Ross was killed. 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 defense of the fort inspired the American lawyer Francis Scott Key to write a poem that would eventually supply the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States.
The American South
As one historian wrote:
- We speak of the War of 1812, but in truth there were two wars. The war between the Americans and the British ended with the treaty of Ghent. The war between the Big Knives and the Indians began at Tippecanoe, and arguably did not run its course until the last Red Sticks were defeated in the Florida swamps in 1818.Template:Fn
In March of 1814, General Andrew Jackson led a force of Tennessee militia, Cherokee warriors, and U.S. regulars southward to attack the Creek tribes, led by Chief Menawa. While some of the Creeks had been British allies in the past, the fighting was related to control of Creek land in Alabama rather than the British-American conflict. On March 26, Jackson and General John Coffee fought 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 to Wetumpka, near present-day Montgomery, Alabama, where they surrendered.
- For a more detailed discussion, see the article Creek War.
The Treaty of Ghent and the Battle of New Orleans
Jackson's forces moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in November 1814. Between December 1814 and January 1815, he defended the city against a force led by Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, who was killed in an assault on January 8, 1815. The Battle of New Orleans was hailed as a great victory in the United States, making Andrew Jackson a national hero, eventually propelling him to the presidency.
Meanwhile, diplomats in Ghent, Belgium signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, paving the way for the official end of the war. News of the treaty had not reached New Orleans, because of the slow nature of international communications. On February 17, 1815, President Madison signed the American ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, and the treaty was proclaimed the following day.
By the terms of the treaty, all land captured by either side was returned to the previous owner, the Americans received fishing rights in the gulf of the St. Lawrence River, and all outstanding debts and property taken was to be returned or paid for in full. Later that year, John Quincy Adams complained that British naval commanders had violated the terms of the treaty by not returning American slaves captured during the war, since the British did not recognize slaves as property .
Consequences
The Treaty of Ghent established the status quo ante bellum; there were no territorial concessions made by either side. Relations between the United States and Britain would remain peaceful, if not entirely tranquil, throughout the nineteenth century. Border adjustments between the United States and British Canada would be made in the Treaty of 1818. (A border dispute between the state of Maine and the province of New Brunswick was settled in the bloodless Aroostook War in the 1830s.) The issue of impressing American seamen was made moot when the Royal Navy subsequently stopped impressment after the defeat of Napoleon.
This war was also the first and only time since the American Revolution that the US capital was invaded and occupied.
Effects on the United States
The United States did gain a measure of international respect for managing to battle the British Empire to a standstill. The morale of the citizens was high because they had fought one of the great military powers of the world and managed to survive, which increased feelings of nationalism; the war has often been called the "Second War of Independence." The war also contributed to the demise of the Federalist Party, which had opposed the war.
A significant military development was the increased emphasis by General Winfield Scott on improved professionalism in the U.S. Army officer corps, and in particular, the training of officers at the United States Military Academy ("West Point"). This new professionalism would become apparent during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). After the Texas annexation by the US, the term Manifest Destiny became a widely used political term for those who propagated American expansionism and military pride, and despite not having taken over Canadian territory during the war, this fact kept political debate alive in the decades to follow about re-visiting exapansionism into British North America territory.
In a related development, the Army Corps of Engineers (which at that time controlled West Point), began building fortifications around New Orleans, as a response to the British attack on the city during the war. This effort then grew into numerous civil river works, especially in the 1840s and 1850s under General Pierre Beauregard. The Corps continues to be the authority over Mississippi (and other) river works to this day.
The War of 1812 had a dramatic effect on the manufacturing capabilities of the United States. The British blockade of the American coast created a shortage of cotton cloth in the United States, leading to the creation of a cotton-manufacturing industry, beginning at Waltham, Massachusetts by Francis Cabot Lowell.
The Southwestern campaign led to increasing contact and conflict with the Seminole tribes in Florida. The subsequent Seminole Wars eventually lead to American annexation of Florida in 1819.
Effects on Canada
The War of 1812 had little impact in Great Britain but this was not the case in Canada, where the war had been a matter of national survival. The war united the French-speaking and English-speaking colonies against a common enemy and some pride of being largely successful in repulsing the invaders, giving many inhabitants a sense of nationhood as well as a sense of loyalty to Britain. At the beginning of the War of 1812 it is estimated that perhaps one third of the inhabitants of Upper Canada were American born. Some were United Empire Loyalists but others had simply come for low-cost land and had little loyalty to the British Crown, however many felt the common threat of invasion. For instance, Laura Secord was originally an American immigrant to Upper Canada, but did not hesitate to make her arduous trek to warn the British forces of a pending attack by her former country.
This nationalistic sentiment also caused a great deal of suspicion of American ideas like democracy and republicanism which would frustrate political reform in Upper and Lower Canada until the Rebellions of 1837. However, the War of 1812 also started the process that ultimately led to Canadian Confederation in 1867. Although later events such as the rebellions and the Fenian raids of the 1860s were more directly pivotal, Canadian historian Pierre Berton has written that if the War of 1812 had never happened Canada would be part of the United States today, as more and more American settlers would have arrived, and Canadian nationalism would never have developed.
A related idea that developed out of the war was that Canadian militiamen had performed admirably while the British officers were largely ineffective. Jack Granatstein has termed this the "Militia Myth", and he feels it has had a deep impact on Canadian military thinking, which placed more stress on a citizen's militia than a professional standing army — the U.S. suffered from a similar Frontiersman Myth at the start of the war, believing falsely that individual initiative and marksmanship could be effective against a well-disciplined British battle line. Granatstein feels that the militia was not particularly effective in the war and that any military success the British Empire had was by British regular forces and through British dominion over the sea (Isaac Brock, for example, was reluctant even to trust the militia with muskets); likewise, the U.S. army won most of its land victories late in the war, only after it trained its troops to fight in disciplined lines like the British and other European armies.
During the war, British officers constantly worried that the Americans would block the St. Lawrence River, which is narrow and forms a large part of the border with the U.S. If the U.S. military had done so, there would have been no British supply route for Upper Canada (where most of the land battles took place), and British forces would likely have had to withdraw or surrender all western British territory within a few months. British officers' dispatches after the war show astonishment that the Americans never took such a simple step, but the British were not willing to count on the enemy making the same mistake a second time; as a result, Britain commissioned the Rideau Canal, an expensive project connecting Kingston on Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River, providing an alternate supply route bypassing the part of the St. Lawrence River along the U.S. border. The settlement at the northeastern end of the canal, where it joins the Ottawa River, later became the city of Ottawa, Canada's fourth-largest city and its capital (placed inland to protect it from U.S. invasion - known then as the 'defensible backcountry'). Because population away from the St. Lawrence shores was neglible, in the years following the war, the British took great lengths in ensuring backcountry settlement was increased. They settled regiment soldiers and initiated assisted immigration schemes offering free land to farmers, mostly tenants of land estates in the south of Ireland. The canal project was not completed until 1832 and was never used for its intended purpose.
It is interesting to note that the Americans had drafted a plan in late 1814 for severing the Upper St Lawrence River during 1815 and it is interesting to speculate what may have occured had the war continued through 1815.
Effects on Great Britain
In contrast to Canada, the War is scarcely remembered in Britain today. Chiefly, this is because it was overshadowed by the dramatic events of the contemporary Napoleonic wars, and because Britain herself neither gained nor lost by the peace settlement.
The Royal Navy was acutely conscious that the United States Navy had won most of the single-ship duels during the War, sometimes by a humiliating margin. Also, American privateers and commerce raiders had captured large numbers of British merchant ships, sending insurance rates up and embarrassing the Admiralty. On the other hand, the Royal Navy had been able to deploy overwhelming strength to American waters, annihilating rather than denting American maritime trade. The Royal Navy made some changes to its practices in construction and gunnery, but did not change its methods of manning.
The British Army also regarded the conflict in Canada and America as a sideshow, and was content with the lessons of the Peninsular War. The few reverses in Canada and at New Orleans could be attributed to poor leadership or insuperable physical obstacles. Due to the success and pre-eminence of the Duke of Wellington, the British army was to make no change to its systems of recruitment and commissioning for more than half a century.
See also
- Chronology of the War of 1812
- Creek War
- Indian Wars in the United States
- Military history of Canada
- Military history of the United Kingdom
- Military history of the United States
- Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes
- Tecumseh's War
References
Overviews
- Benn, Carl. The War of 1812 (2003)
- Borneman, Walter R. 1812: The War That Forged a Nation (2004), popular
- Heidler, Donald & J, (eds) Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 (1997)
- Hickey, Donald. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. ISBN 0252016130 (hardcover); ISBN 0252060598 (1990 paperback).
Causes and Diplomacy
- Brown, Roger H. The Republic in Peril: 1812 1964.
- Goodman, Warren H. "The Origins of the War of 1812: A Survey of Changing Interpretations," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXVIII (September, 1941), 171-86. in JSTOR
- Hacker, Louis M. "Western Land Hunger and the War of 1812," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, X (March, 1924), 365-95. in JSTOR
- Horsman, Reginald. The Causes of the War of 1812. 1962. ISBN 0374939608 (1972 printing); ISBN 0498040879 (2000 printing).
- Perkins, Bradford. Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805-1812. 1961.
- Pratt, Julius W. Expansionists of 1812. 1925.
- Pratt, Julius W. "Western War Aims in the War of 1812," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XII (June, 1925), 36-50. in JSTOR
- Risjord, Norman K. "1812: Conservatives, War Hawks, and the Nation's Honor," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., XVIII ( April, 1961), 196-210. in JSTOR
- Marshall Smelser. The Democratic Republic 1801-1815 (1968).
- Rutland, Robert A. The Presidency of James Madison (1990)
- Stagg, John C. A. Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American republic, 1783-1830. (1983).
- Stagg, J. C. A. "James Madison and the 'Malcontents': The Political Origins of the War of 1812," William and Mary Quarterly (Oct., 1976)
- J.C.A. Stagg, "James Madison and the Coercion of Great Britain: Canada, the West Indies, and the War of 1812," in The William and Mary Quarterly(Jan., 1981) in JSTOR
- Taylor, George Rogers, ed. The War of 1812: Past Justifications and Present Interpretations (1963)
Military and Naval
- Berube, Claude G. and Rodgaard, John R., A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution. (2005)
- Elting, John R. Amateurs, To Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812. 1991. ISBN 0945575084 (hardcover); ISBN 0306806533 (1995 Da Capo Press paperback).
- Hickey, Donald. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. 1989. ISBN 0252016130 (hardcover); ISBN 0252060598 (1990 paperback).
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The influence of sea power upon the War of 1812 2 vols (1905)
- Owsley, Frank. Struggle for the Gulf borderlands: the Creek War and the battle of New Orleans 1812-1815 (1981)
- Quimby, R., The US Army in the War of 1812: an operational and command study 2 vols (1997)
- Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Empire, 1767-1821 (1998)
- Remini, Robert V. The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory (1999)
- Roosevelt, Theodore. eText at Project Gutenberg. The Naval War of 1812 (1882). Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN 0306809109 (paperback)
- Skelton, William. 'High army leadership in the era of the War of 1812: the making and remaking of the officer corps,' William and Mary Quarterly 51 (1994) in JSTOR
- Stagg, J., 'Enlisted men in the United States Army 1812-1815,' William and Mary Quarterly 43 (1986) in JSTOR
- Stagg, J., 'Between Black Rock and a hard place: Peter B. Porter's plan for an American invasion of Canada in 1812,' Journal of the Early Republic 19 (1999) in JSTOR
- Stagg, J., 'Soldiers in peace and war: comparative perspectives on the recruitment of the United States Army, 1802-1815,' William and Mary Quarterly 57 (2000) in JSTOR
Canadian-US-Indian
- Allen, Robert S. "His Majesty's Indian Allies: Native Peoples, the British Crown, and the War of 1812" in The Michigan Historical Review, 14:2 (Fall 1988), pp 1-24.
- Benn, Carl. The Iroquois in the War of 1812. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. ISBN 0802043216 (hardcover); ISBN 0802081452 (paperback).
- Berton, Pierre. The Invasion of Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980. ISBN 0316092169.
- ———. Flames Across the Border. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981. ISBN 0316092177
- Burt, Alfred L. The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812. (1940)
- Calloway, C. Crown and calumet: British-Indian relations, 1783-1815 (1987)
- Carter-Edwards, Dennis. "The War of 1812 Along the Detroit Frontier: A Canadian Perspective", in The Michigan Historical Review, 13:2 (Fall 1987), pp. 25-50.
- ———. "On to Canada: Manifest Destiny and United States Strategy in the War of 1812" in The Michigan Historical Review, 13:2 (Fall 1987), pp. 1-24.
- Collins, G. Guidebook to the historic sites of the War of 1812 (1998)
- Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York: Holt, 1997. ISBN 0805041389 (hardcover); ISBN 0805061215 (1999 paperback).
- Turner, W. British generals in the War of 1812: high command in the Canadas (1999)
- Zaslow, Morris (ed), The Defended Border. (1964). ISBN 0770512429
Primary Sources
- Dudley, W., (ed.) The naval War of 1812: a documentary history , 4 vols (1985-)
- Gellner, J. (ed), Recollections of the War of 1812: three eyewitnesses' accounts (1964)
- Graves, D. (ed), Merry hearts make light days: the War of 1812 journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th Foot (1993)
- Graves, D. (ed), Soldiers of 1814: American enlisted men's memoirs of the Niagara campaign (1996)
- Klinck, C. & Talman, J. (eds), The journal of Major John Norton, 1816 (1970)
- Wood, W. (ed), Select British documents of the Canadian War of 1812, 4 vols (1920-28)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
External links
- 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
- Journal of the Senate, June 1, 1812, with President Madison's war message to Congress
- War of 1812 from the James Madison Center of the James Madison University
- militaryheritage.com Large collection of articles