War of 1812

[11][12] Anglo–American tensions stemmed from long-standing differences over territorial expansion in North America and British support for Tecumseh's confederacy, which resisted U.S. colonial settlement in the Old Northwest.

At sea, the Royal Navy imposed an effective blockade on U.S. maritime trade, while between 1812 and 1814 British regulars and colonial militia defeated a series of American invasions on Upper Canada.

[15] The April 1814 abdication of Napoleon allowed the British to send additional forces to North America and reinforce the Royal Navy blockade, crippling the American economy.

[16] In August 1814, negotiations began in Ghent, with both sides wanting peace; the British economy had been severely impacted by the trade embargo, while the Federalists convened the Hartford Convention in December to formalize their opposition to the war.

The Indigenous allies of the British, Tecumseh's confederacy in the west and Iroquois in the east, avoided pitched battles and relied on irregular warfare, including raids and ambushes that took advantage of their knowledge of terrain.

[47][45] Just days after war had been declared, a small number of Federalists in Baltimore were attacked for printing anti-war views in a newspaper, which eventually led to over a month of deadly rioting in the city.

She anchored off Sandy Hook on July 9 and left three days later carrying a copy of the declaration of war, British ambassador to the United States Augustus Foster and consul Colonel Thomas Henry Barclay.

He issued a proclamation alerting citizens to the state of war and urging all military personnel "to be vigilant in the discharge of their duty", so as to prevent communication with the enemy and to arrest anyone suspected of helping the Americans.

The British garrison, aided by fur traders of the North West Company and Sioux, Menominee, Winnebago, Chippewa, and Ottawa, immediately besieged and captured Mackinac.

Massachusetts Congressmen Ebenezer Seaver and William Widgery were "publicly insulted and hissed" in Boston while a mob seized Plymouth's Chief Justice Charles Turner on 3 August 1812 "and kicked [him] through the town".

[65] The proclamation said that Hull wanted to free them from the "tyranny" of Great Britain, giving them the liberty, security, and wealth that his own country enjoyed – unless they preferred "war, slavery and destruction".

He arrived at Fort Mackinac on 18 May with supplies and more than 400 militia and Indians, then sent an expedition which successfully besieged and recaptured the key trading post of Prairie du Chien, on the Upper Mississippi.

[86] The Americans dispatched a substantial expedition to relieve the fort, but Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo warriors under Black Hawk ambushed it and forced it to withdraw with heavy losses in the Battle of Rock Island Rapids.

In September 1814, the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo, supported by part of Prairie du Chien's British garrison, repulsed a second American force led by Major Zachary Taylor in the Battle of Credit Island.

Wilkinson heard that a British force was pursuing him under Captain William Mulcaster and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Wanton Morrison and landed near Morrisburg, Ontario by 10 November, about 150 kilometres (90 mi) from Montreal.

They had occupied southwestern Upper Canada after they defeated Colonel Henry Procter at Moraviantown in October and believed that taking the rest of the province would force the British to cede it to them.

[112] The end of the war with Napoleon in Europe in April 1814 meant that the British could deploy their army to North America, so the Americans wanted to secure Upper Canada to negotiate from a position of strength.

He was recalled to London, where a naval court-martial decided that defeat had been caused principally by Prévost urging the squadron into premature action and then failing to afford the promised support from the land forces.

Peter Burroughs argues that his preparations were energetic, well-conceived, and comprehensive for defending the Canadas with limited means and that he achieved the primary objective of preventing an American conquest.

[139] On 24 August, after the British had finished looting the interiors, Ross directed his troops to set fire to number of public buildings, including the White House and the United States Capitol.

Because some of their ships were held up in the Raid on Alexandria, they delayed their movement allowing Baltimore an opportunity to strengthen the fortifications and bring in new federal troops and state militia units.

A last ditch night feint and barge attack during a heavy rain storm was led by Captain Charles Napier around the fort up the Middle Branch of the river to the west.

The attack on Fort Mims resulted in the horrific death of 400 refugee settlers, all butchered and scalped, including women and children, and became an ideological rallying point for the Americans.

Rodgers' strategy worked in that the Royal Navy concentrated most of its frigates off New York Harbor under Captain Philip Broke, allowing many American ships to reach home.

The terms called for all occupied territory to be returned, the prewar boundary between Canada and the United States to be restored, and the Americans were to gain fishing rights in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

While American maritime rights were not seriously violated in the century of peace until World War I, the defeat of Napoleon made the need for impressment irrelevant and the grievances of the United States no longer an issue.

[t] Despite the Treaty of Ghent not addressing the original points of contention and establishing the status quo ante bellum, relations between the United States and Britain changed drastically.

As construction work progressed through the first half of the 19th century, Bermuda became an Imperial fortress and the permanent naval headquarters the Western hemisphere, housing the Admiralty and serving as a base and dockyard.

[285] British Indian agents however continued to meet regularly with their former allies among the tribes of the Old Northwest, but refused to supply them with arms or help them resist American attempts to displace them.

This was the principal rationale for Britain's long-term policy of rapprochement with the United States in the nineteenth century and explains why they were so often willing to sacrifice other imperial interests to keep the republic happy".

Depiction of a British private soldier (left) and officer (right) of the period
Northern theatre, War of 1812
American surrender of Detroit , August 1812
Oliver Hazard Perry 's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began thus: "We have met the enemy and they are ours". [ 78 ]
The Upper Mississippi River during the War of 1812:
  1. Fort Belle Fontaine , American headquarters
  2. Fort Osage , abandoned in 1813
  3. Fort Madison , defeated in 1813
  4. Fort Shelby , defeated in 1814
  5. Battle of Rock Island Rapids , July 1814; and the Battle of Credit Island , September 1814
  6. Fort Johnson , abandoned in 1814
  7. Fort Cap au Gris and the Battle of the Sink Hole , May 1815
Niagara Peninsula , War of 1812 map
depicting locations of forts, battles, etc.
Fencibles, militia, and Mohawks repel an American attack on Montreal , Battle of the Chateauguay , October 1813
American infantry prepare to attack during the Battle of Lundy's Lane
Unsuccessful British assault on Fort Erie , 14 August 1814
Defeat at Plattsburgh led Prévost to call off the invasion of New York.
Map of the Chesapeake Campaign
An artist's rendering of the bombardment at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore . Watching the bombardment from a truce ship, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the four-stanza poem that later became " The Star-Spangled Banner ".
In 1813, Creek warriors attacked Fort Mims and killed 400 to 500 people. The massacre became a rallying point for Americans.
Creek forces were defeated at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , bringing an end to the Creek War .
American forces repelled a British assault on New Orleans in January 1815. The battle occurred before news of a peace treaty reached the United States.
The Royal Navy's North American squadron was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Bermuda . At the start of the war, the squadron had one ship of the line , seven frigates , nine sloops as well as brigs and schooners . [ 189 ]
USS Constitution defeats HMS Guerriere in a single-ship engagement . The battle was an important victory for American morale.
Baltimore Clippers were a series of schooners used by American privateers during the war.
British naval strategy was to protect their shipping in North America and enforce a naval blockade on the United States.
The only known photograph of a Black Refugee , c. 1890 . During the war, a number of African Americans slaves escaped aboard British ships, settling in Canada (mainly in Nova Scotia) [ 239 ] or Trinidad.
Depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent , which formally ended the war between the British Empire and the United States
The Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
Map showing the general distribution of Indian tribes in the Northwest Territory in the early 1790s
A political caricature of delegates from the Hartford Convention deciding whether to leap into the hands of the British, December 1814. The convention led to widespread fears that the New England states might attempt to secede from the United States.
Independence Day celebrations in 1819. In the United States, the war was followed by the Era of Good Feelings , a period that saw nationalism and a desire for national unity rise throughout the country.