*After the American Revolution, the United States began to expand to the west, settling the land once denied to Americans by the Proclamation of 1763.  However, much of this land was still occupied by American Indians who had no desire to give up their ancestral homelands.

*In the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St Clair, with a force of regular soldiers and militia, was attacked by Indians while they were eating breakfast.  Many of the militia broke and ran, and although St Clair tried to rally his men, his force was nearly annihilated.  After several failed attempts to break out with bayonet charges he finally got about a third of his force back to the safety of Fort Jefferson, but over 600 of his soldiers were killed or captured (along with about 200 women camp followers), and almost all the approximately 300 who escaped were wounded.  This 98% casualty rate in a battle in which one fourth of the entire US army was engaged, makes, St Clair’s Defeat, also known as the Battle of the Wabash, the worst (proportional) defeat in the history of the US Army, and prompted the first Congressional investigation (and in response, the first full cabinet meeting) in US history.

*In response, a new unit, the Legion of the United States, was formed under General Mad Anthony Wayne.  They marched into the Ohio Valley and 3,000 of them defeated about 1,500 Indians of various western tribes (primarily Shawnee, Delaware, and Miami, many of them armed with British muskets) at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.  In 1795 the defeated tribes signed the Treaty of Greeneville, giving up claims to Ohio.  However, one Shawnee war leader, Tecumseh, did not sign.

*Tecumseh, and his brother Tenskwatawa (a religious leader known as the Prophet who earned the devotion of his people by successfully predicting a solar eclipse and then urged his people to give up alcohol and European-style clothes, food, and manufactured goods), spent the next fifteen years trying to build an alliance of all the Northwestern tribes (and the Southwestern tribes, too, particularly the Creek) to fight off white encroachment.  Furthermore, they were actively supported by the British, who still had forts on American soil.

*The British had reason to be concerned:  many Westerners (and some Southerners) wanted to expand further, and Canada seemed very convenient.  Some Democratic-Republican congressmen even demanded war, most prominently Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C Calhoun of South Carolina.  Their opponents called them the War Hawks.

*Besides anger over British support for the Indians and occupation of Northwestern forts and besides a desire for land in Canada (which some War Hawks thought might be happy to join the United States—incorrectly, as many Canadians were bitter exiled Loyalists or their children), the United States was also angry over the British policy of impressment. 

*The Royal Navy had highly-trained officers, but many of their sailors were pressed into service.  In British port cities, gangs went through the streets and kidnapped men for service in the Navy.  At sea, British naval vessels could stop other British ships and press sailors on them into service.  Furthermore, the British viewed anyone born as a British subject—even if that meant born in America before the Revolution or born in Britain but since become an American citizen—as eligible for impressments, and as Britain’s wars with Napoleon dragged on, so did her need for sailors.  Consequently, in the 1790s and early 1800s, British ships sometimes stopped American ships and impressed British-born sailors from them (and sometimes others, too, claiming that they were lying about their place of birth).  Many Americans viewed this as a cause for war, too.

*Fighting broke out in 1811.  Tecumseh, after forging an alliance between most of the tribes of the Northwest Territory, assured the Indiana Territory’s Governor William Henry Harrison that he did not mean for his people to fight in Indiana but that he would ally with the British if Harrison attacked the Indians there.  Tecumseh then went south to try to extend his alliance among the Southern Tribes.  Some Creek agreed to follow him, particularly after the sight of a comet and the shock of the New Madrid Earthquake were taken as signs that they should do so.

*Harrison had believed Tecumseh when he said he had no plans for war, and had left for Kentucky.  When he was sent messages that Tecumseh was seeking more allies for an attack, he returned to Indiana and made plans to attack a major settlement under the leadership of Tenskwatawa called Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River.

*As Harrison approached, Tenskwatawa asked for an overnight cease-fire so they could hold peace talks the next morning.  However, Harrison thought this was a trick, and planned a sneak attack for the morning.  One of the tribes in Prophetstown, the Winnebago, did not want to talk peace, and attacked before dawn on the 7th of November, 1811, believing that the Prophet’s magic would protect them. 

*They surrounded Harrison’s men, who only survived because they had been sleeping with their weapons ready for their own attack in the morning.  Although Harrison’s men outnumbered the Indians, they took many casualties before sunrise, when the two sides finally realised who had the larger force and a dragoon charge forced the Indians to retreat.  They subsequently blamed the Prophet because his magic had failed them.  Although Harrison lost more men, it was regarded as an American victory because Prophetstown was subsequently abandoned and burnt, and when Harrison ran for president 29 years later, Tippecanoe was part of his campaign slogan.

*War was officially declared on 18 June, 1812, and America expected to quickly and easily conquer Canada (which many Americans hoped would be happy to join the United States—a false hope, as many Canadians were exiled Loyalists and their descendents who resented the loss of their old homes).  The main fear was that the British Navy would cut off trade and attack the American coast.  At first, though, the exact opposite occurred.

*The United States had a fairly small navy when the War began, with nothing larger than a frigate.  However, America’s frigates were larger than those of the Royal Navy, and American captains sought out opportunities to fight single British ships when they could, and often beat them.

*The first such action came on 19 August, 1812 when USS Constitution sighted HMS Guerriere.  At first they fired at maximum range, with few of their shots hitting each other, and those that hit Constitution bouncing off her thick hull, earning her the name ‘Old Ironsides.’  Eventually they got within pistol-shot and pounded away with their broadsides, until all the Guerriere’s masts were shot away and she was forced to surrender.  Her crew were taken prisoner and she was so badly damaged that she was sunk rather than taken back to America.  This was a great boost to American morale and a great embarrassment to the Royal Navy, although at the subsequent court-martial, the captain (successfully) explained Guerriere’s weakness by reminding the court that she had been built by the French.

*America needed a victory, because the Army had just suffered a great defeat.  On 12 July, 1812, General William Hull had invaded Upper Canada (near modern Windsor), where he was stopped by General Isaac Brock, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.  With the help of Tecumseh (who is viewed as a Canadian hero for helping protect Canada from US invasion) and Canadian militia, Brock pursued Hull into Michigan Territory and on 16 August, 1812, forced Hull to surrender at Detroit despite being outnumbered by American forces almost two to one during most of his counter-attack.

*Shortly afterwards, Stephen van Rensselaer III, a New York politician, planned and led an invasion of Canada near Niagara Falls, although he was let down by two other American commanders who were supposed to support him with two additional invasions elsewhere (but did not).  Brock moved east to stop van Rensselaer, and did so at the Battle of Queenston Heights on 13 August, 1812.

*The British had found out that an American force was coming, and were able to intercept the first group of soldiers who came up the heights as they crossed the Niagara River from the American side.  Brock led a charge to stop them before they could be reinforced, and was killed during the charge—his last words were to the Canadian militia, saying, ‘Push on, brave York Volunteers!’ 

*Van Rensselaer sent more regulars under Winfield Scott to reinforce the Americans on the Canadian side, and he pushed the British back, but when van Rensselaer tried to send militia to support him, they refused to leave American soil.  Scott was forced to withdraw, but found no boats to take him back to America, and was captured (but exchanged a year later).  Although Brock did not live to enjoy it, he had again saved Canada, even though the American forces had outnumbered Canadians 6,000 to 1,300.

*In the West, William Henry Harrison (who replaced Hull, who was found guilty of cowardice and negligence and sentenced to death (but given a reprieve by Madison) was sent to re-take Detroit. 

*One of the first missions he dispatched was commanded by General James Winchester, who was sent to scout along the frontier, but went farther ahead of the main army than he was ordered to, all the way to the River Raisin, where his men were even far ahead of him when they were surprised by British Indian forces (and Winchester was captured while trying to reach them).  Almost half the American force was killed, and many of those who surrendered were massacred by the Indians in the River Raisin Massacre.  Only 33 out of 934 American soldiers (mostly Kentucky militiamen) escaped.  Later, ‘Remember the Raisin’ would be one of America’s battle cries in the War.  Tecumseh and the British continued to push into Michigan.

*Finally, though, the United States’ fortunes began to change.  Late in 1812, the United States had begun building gunboats and other small warships on the Great Lakes.  The British were doing the same, and America made plans to attack and destroy the British shipyards at Kingston, Canada.

*At the last minute, the American general Henry Dearborn changed the plan to attack York, capital of Upper Canada.  Although it had greater symbolic value, its military value was much less than Kingston or other targets in the area.  Dearborn’s men, under the command of explorer Zebulon, reached York on 27 April, 1813.  They outnumbered the British about 1,700 to 700, and the British evacuated the town after a short battle, but blew up their powder stores as they left, killing many soldiers, including General Pike.  Afterwards, American forces burnt the Parliament buildings, government printing office, and many private homes.  A few military supplies were captured, but most had been destroyed in the explosion.  Overall, it was an exciting victory, but a largely useless one, as Dearborn soon withdrew to the United States, and the Canadians and British now demanded revenge.

*So did Oliver Hazzard Perry, recently placed in command of the US Naval Forces on Lake Erie.  His friend, Captain James Lawrence, had been killed in action against a British frigate in June, 1813—his last words were ‘Don’t give up the ship!’  Perry named his flagship on Lake Erie Lawrence in his friend’s honour and flew a flag with ‘DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP’ emblazoned on it.

*Before Perry could fight on Lake Erie, however, he had a problem:  his shipyard had been built by another officer in an area protected by a sandbar.  However, that sandbar also trapped Perry’s ships so they could not get into the main part of Lake Erie. 

*He tried to get them over by taking out all the guns and other equipment, then lifting them up on large boxes that could be sunk underwater, have logs braced against them through holes in the ships, and then pumped out so they floated up with the ships.  This got the ships stuck in the mud of the sandbar.  As the Niagara, the last ship to be moved, was half way across the sand bar, Perry saw the British fleet approaching.  He sent his smaller ships and the Lawrence out to fight, and they fired a few shots and the British sailed away.  Eventually, though Perry got his ships into Lake Erie and went looking for the British.

*The British had long guns, while the Americans had carronades—short-range guns that fired much heavier shot, if they could get close enough to hit their target at all.  When the Americans first found the British on 10 September, 1813, the wind was in the British fleet’s favour, and Perry seemed doomed.  At the last minute, it shifted to Perry’s advantage, and he moved to close in.
 
*Perry’s fleet did a great deal of damage to the British, but the Lawrence itself was badly damaged because the two largest British ships managed to hit it from both the side and the stern, because Niagara was not fighting the ship she was supposed to (because she was trying to keep the same spot in the American line). 

*Finally Niagara moved forward, Perry took a boat over to her, carrying his battle flag with him, and made Niagara his flagship.  He was now able to fire broadsides across the two largest British ships, the ones that had been raking Lawrence.  Soon both Detroit and Queen Charlotte struck their colours.  This was one of the few times an entire British squadron has ever been forced to surrender, and Perry’s message of victory to his commanders began ‘We have met the enemy and he is ours.’  Theodore Roosevelt later said, ‘Our victory was due to our heavy metal.’

*With Lake Erie under American control, William Henry Harrison was ready to advance into Canada again.  He faced a British army under Henry Procter and Indian forces led by Tecumseh.  Procter knew he was outnumbered, so he tried to retreat, putting his men on half-rations and angering Tecumseh, whose warriors were being forced to move farther and farther from their homes.  Their retreat was not swift enough, though, and on 5 October, 1813, Harrison's army caught and defeated them at the Thames River in Upper Canada.

*Among Harrison's troops were 1,000 Kentucky militiamen led by Richard Mentor Johnson.  Their battle cry was 'Remember the Raisin,' and during the battle they had their revenge:  Richard Mentor Johnson killed Tecumseh in the battle (and later used this when running as Martin van Buren's vice-presidential candidate in 1836).  After the Battle of the Thames, the Northwest Territory was safe from Indian and British attacks.

*Tecumseh's allies in the South, the Red Stick Creek, were still on the warpath, however, against whites, against other Creek, and against other Indian tribes.  On 30 August, 1813, they massacred 513 settlers (half of them armed militia) at Fort Mims in Northern Alabama. 

*Fortunately, the Governor of Tennessee, Willie Blount, had called for volunteers to invade Canada the previous year, and placed them under the command of Andrew Jackson.  So many volunteers answered the call (partly, perhaps, because Jackson promised they could see Niagara Falls, which he said would make marching across the continent worth it all by itself) that Tennessee earned a new nickname.  President Madison would not let him invade Canada, though, because he did not trust him, and the President dismissed him and his troops when he went to Mississippi instead.  After the Fort Mims Massacre, though, many of Jackson's militia were still ready to go.

*Jackson marched into Alabama, defeating the Creek at Tallushatchee and Talladega before reaching Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River on 27 March, 1814.  There the Creek had a village in a bend in the river, with the open landward end protected by a breastwork of logs.  Jackson prepared an assault on this breastwork, while John Coffee led militia and Cherokee allies in canoes (stolen by Cherokee who swam across the river ahead of the rest of the force) to attack the village from across the river.

*Among the first men over the wall were Lemuel Montgomery (descendent of the hero of Montreal) who was shot dead (and later had Montgomery, Alabama named in his honour) and Samuel Houston who was shot with an arrow (but lived and was later governor Tennessee and Texas).  Davy Crockett also in the battle.  The Creek were trapped, and almost all of them killed.  The few survivors signed away much of their land, and the Creek were no longer a threat to the United States.

*By 1814, America was ready to invade Canada again (after another failed attempt in 1813).  The initial assault was placed under the command of Winfield Scott, now free from Canadian captivity and soon to truly begin his career as one of the greatest commanders in American history.  He had a highly trained brigade in grey uniforms.  He led his men across the Niagara River in July and jumped out of the boat as the reached the shore, and vanished into an underwater hole.  He was rescued and led his men ashore.  They were joined by other brigades and captured Fort Erie, the marched north towards Fort George.

*On 5 July, Scott's brigade was in the lead when the British attacked at a place called Chippawa.  Because his men were in grey, the British General Riall thought they were just militia and ordered his men to charge.  Scott ordered the men at the centre of his line to pull back, drawing the British in to be fired upon from both sides, forcing them to retreat.  For the first time, Americans had won a major battle against British regulars in Canada, and Scott became a national hero, leading to his eventual command of the entire US Army.

*Scott was sent to scout further ahead, but on 25 July, when he asked for information from a local widow who owned a tavern, he did not believe her true information that a thousand British regulars with two cannon were waiting not far ahead on Lundy's Lane.  They surprised Scott, but rather than retreat, he sent for reinforcements, who arrived at the last minute.

*The Battle of Lundy's Lane was a slaughter for both sides, with much of the fighting being at close quarters and producing such gruesome results that even veterans of the wars in Europe were horrified.  At one point, American troops charged  all the way to the mouths of British cannon, then bayoneted the artillerists as they loaded.

*The fighting continued into the night, and some men fired on other units of their own army in the dark—Scott's forces were fired on by both sides at once at one point.  Eventually, the British were driven back, but the American forces chose to withdraw back to Fort Erie after taking such heavy losses.  This was one of the bloodiest battles of the War:  of 3,500 British soldiers over 800 were lost as were over 800 of 2,500 American soldiers.

*US forces held Fort Erie through a long siege, but after the British withdrew, so did they, on 5 November, blowing up the fort as they left.  During the entire Niagara Campaign, the British lost twice as many men as the US did, despite outnumbering American forces at almost every point.

*As America retreated from Canada again, the British considered invading down Lake Champlain, site of so many earlier battles.  The Governor-General of Canada, George Prevost, assembled 11,000 men, many of them veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, and marched them into New York (feeding them with beef purchased from New York and Vermont farmers).

*The British navy already controlled the northern half of Lake Champlain, so Prevost planned to sail down the lake once the navy got control of the rest.  The British had a larger fleet, but the American fleet could afford to wait for them, while the British sailed out with ships barely finished.  At least the British had plans for both the Army and Navy to attack at once, in what is known as the Battle of Plattsburgh or the Battle of Lake Champlain.

*As the British sailed into Plattsburgh Bay on 11 September, 1814, their first volley only managed one hit on the American flagship, where it smashed a chicken coop, releasing the rooster inside, who crowed, leading the men on the ship to cheer, too.  Then the wind died, leaving the British ships at the mercy of the Americans.  One ship drifted off course, running aground on a small island, while another's sails were so badly damaged that it actually drifted through the American lines.  Only the two largest British ships were able to fight four American ships (both sides had gunboats, too).

*The British flagship, Confidence, had a furnace on it to heat up hot shot, and set the American flagship, Saratoga, on fire twice.  Both the main American ships were so badly damaged on the side facing the British that they could barely fire. 

*At last the Erie cut her anchor cable and turned around, firing her undamaged side at the British while drifting down the line.  Captain Thomas MacDonough on Saratoga then cut her anchor chain, but used another anchor and winches to turn his ship around in place, firing on Confidence. 

*The British commander had already been killed, so his second-in-command surrendered the flagship, which was sinking fast, and soon the only other large British ship in the battle surrendered, too. The British army under Prevost that was supposed to attack American forces at Plattsburgh (but had not) now withdrew.  This was one of two battles that convinced the British to discuss peace on terms acceptable to America.

*Such victories were important, because American had recently suffered a spectacular loss.  On 24 August, 1814, British forces had landed in Maryland and defeated the US Army at Bladensburg, despite being outnumbered 6,900 to 4,500.  Almost all the Americans were inexperience militia, however, while most of the British were veterans from Europe, and one unit were freed American slaves organised as the Second Corps of Colonial Marines (later many settled in Trinidad and some in other parts of the Caribbean).

*Four hundred American sailors and Marines tried to hold off the British forces, but most of the militia broke and ran when they first came under fire, and their commander, William Winder, ran with them. 

*The British now marched the Washington, DC, which they burned in retaliation for the destruction of York they year before.  Dolley Madison managed to preserve the White House portrait of George Washington after breaking the frame to get the canvas out.  She supposedly said, 'If I could have had a cannon through every window, but alas! those who should have placed them there, fled before me, and my whole heart mourned for my country!'

*The British set the Capitol, the White House, and many other public buildings on fire, although the Superintendent of Patents convinced the British that the Patent Office was too valuable to all humanity to be burnt.  Within hours, though, a hurricane and a tornado blew through Washington, putting out many of the fires and killing many British soldiers, who soon withdrew, and began planning an attack on Baltimore.

*To capture Baltimore, the British landed 5,000 troops in Maryland who marched towards the city and fought American forces, but waited for the Navy to destroy Fort McHenry which protected Baltimore Harbour before marching into the city. 

*On 13 September the British began a 25-hour bombardment of the fort, firing mortars and Congreve Rockets at it.  Because both sides fired at extreme long range (mostly beyond Fort McHenry's range completely), neither did the other much damage, but the fighting was fierce nonetheless before the British finally withdrew. 

*The battle is famous because it (along with the Battle of Lake Champlain) allowed American diplomats to negotiate from a position of some strength, but also because it was observed by a local lawyer, Francis Scott Key, who had gone out to negotiate with the British and was kept until the battle was over in case he was also a spy.  He later wrote a poem, 'The Defence of Fort McHenry,' that described the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, and the relief when, at the dawn's early light, the giant star-spangled banner still waved over the city.

*Some Americans were still doubtful American could win the war, and many were tired of it, particularly the merchants of New England.  In  December, 1814, delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island met in Hartford to discuss what New England might do.  The Hartford Convention's discussion were secret, but at least some of them discussed seceding from the Union.  This earned the Federalist Party a reputation as traitors, destroying the party after the war.

*Unbeknownst to the delegates to the Hartford Convention, the war had already ended by the time their meeting did.  On Christmas Eve, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent ended the war with the status quo ante bellum—the way things were before the war.  This was, it is true, essentially three years of fighting for nothing, except that it demonstrated that the young United States could stand up the mightiest empire on Earth.

*The Hartford Delegates were not the only people who did not know the war was over.  Neither did General Edward Pakenham or Andrew Jackson.  Pakenham had been sent to capture New Orleans, and Andrew Jackson to defend it.  During his campaigns against the Creek, Jackson had been so tough that he earned the nickname ‘Old Hickory,’ and now he was going to prove his toughness again.

*Pakenham had 11,000 veterans, while Jackson had 4,000 men, some regular soldiers, some militia (including Tennesseans under future governor William Carroll), some Choctaw under John Coffee, some New Orleans gamblers, and pirates under the leadership of Jean Lafitte, who had turned down British bribes and an offer of a naval commission if he would help them.

*Pakenham marched up the Mississippi River, while Jackson's men built earthworks perpendicular to it, partly out of heavy cotton bales. 

*Pakenham sufferend repeated delays that prevented him making a pre-dawn assault as planned on 8 January, 1815.  He hoped the morning for would cover his movements, but it melted away in the sun.  He then ordered his men to charge Jackson's, but they were cut down by repeated volleys, and when a few finally reached the barricades, they discovered that the men who were supposed to have brought the scaling ladders with them had not done so.  A few British soldiers managed to climb the parapet before being killed. 

*Pakenham was killed leading one of the last charges against the wall.  Over 2,000 British soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured, while Jackson only lost 13 killed and 58 wounded.  Jackson was hailed as a national hero, and two weeks after the peace treaty was signed, the War of 1812 was over.

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