I. Impressment of American seamen.
As the country prepared for yet another war with Britain, the United States suffered from internal divisions. The congressional vote to enter the War of 1812 showed that many Americans were unclear about whether to fight and exactly what the war was all about. While the South and West favored war, New York and New England opposed it because it interfered with their commerce. The declaration of war had been made with military preparations still far from complete. There were fewer than 7,000 regular soldiers, distributed in widely scattered posts along the coast, near the Canadian border and in the remote interior. These soldiers were to be supported by the undisciplined militia of the states. At the same time, America had an interest in conquering Florida and annexing Canada. Hostilities between the two countries began with an invasion of Canada.Contents:
I.Backround
II.British Forces
III.American Forces
IV.British Losses
V.American Losses
VI.Conclusion
VII.Important Battles
VIII.Pictures
I.Backround
II. Violation of the three-mile territorial limit.
III. Blockade of American ports.
IV. The British Orders in Council.
II.British Forces
| Country | Troops | Ships |
|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | 5,200 | 866 |
| Loyalist Militia | 11,000 | -- |
| Indian Confederacy | 1,000 | -- |
The British were busy fighting the French when the War of 1812 began and their forces were over stretched. Of the 11,000 militia troops only some 4,000 could be ready in the early parts of the war. The English navy time and again during the preceding twenty years had humbled the navies of France, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, Algeria, Russia and Holland. In the twenty years preceding 1812 the ships of his majesty's navy had fought in over 200 single ship to ship engagements and lost in but five. One consequence of this seemingly unending line of victories was that by 1812 over 170 ships on the English roll were ships captured during combat. This total included 96 French, 39 Danish and 18 Spanish ships.
The British were also helping the American Indians fight the Americans years before the War of 1812. Once the war began some Indian tribes gave direct support to the British. Tecumseh, of the Shawnee tribe, together with his band of some 1,000 warriors fought side by side with the British in Canada and Northern America.
III.American Forces |
American Southern Commander: Gen. Andrew Jackson
| Country | Regular Troops | Volunteer Troops | Ships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 7,000 | 13,000 | -- |
| Navy | 493* | -- | 50 |
The United States was not ready for war, its army was too small and the militias were poorly trained. The Navy would not fare any better. The navy of the United States in 1812 consisted of some 50 ships. A congressional committee in early 1812 had determined that a fleet of 12 ships of the line and 20 frigates would be large enough to protect the U.S. because of how thinly spread the English fleet was stretched blockading France. Ships of the line were reserved for the major military and economic powers, however, and something Congress decided the United States could not afford. Just like in the Revolutionary War, Privateers would play a key role fighting the English Navy.
IV.British Losses |
| Country | Troops Killed | Troops Wounded | Total Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|
| British | 1,600 | 3,679 | 5,279 |
These numbers are low estimates and they do not include deaths by disease. With that included the total casualties for the British army is at around 8,600. That number too is low because it does not include the casualties of the Canadian militias and that is impossible to verify because they did not keep any records of losses.
The Royal Navy was also harrased by the American Privateers. Those privateers captured some 500 British vessels with goods and supplies heading for Canada. The British army and navy were shaken up during the War of 1812, however the Canadians performed much better because they were defending their homeland.
V.American Losses |
| Troops | Dead | Wounded | Total Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 1,950 | 4,000 | 5,950 |
| Navy | 265 | 439 | 704 |
| Marines | 45 | 66 | 111 |
| Total | 2,260 | 4,505 | 6,765 |
These numbers are also low estimates without disease deaths. If they were included American casualties would be at around 11,300. This is also low because it is without militia casualties which is hard to verify.
US troops suffered relatively lighter casualties than during the Revolutionary War even with the poor performance in the beginning of the conflict. This poor performance was due to bad organization and commanding officers. The battles toward the end of the war would not only change that, but also raise American morale in their army and nationalism in their country.
VI.Conclusion |
Hostilities between the two countries began with an invasion of Canada, which, if properly timed and executed, would have brought united action against Montreal. But the entire campaign miscarried and ended with the British occupation of Detroit. The U.S. Navy, however, scored successes and restored confidence. In addition, American privateers, swarming the Atlantic, captured 500 British vessels during the fall and winter months of 1812 and 1813.
The campaign of 1813 centered on Lake Erie. General William Henry Harrison -- who would later become president -- led an army of militia, volunteers and regulars from Kentucky with the object of reconquering Detroit. On September 12, while he was still in upper Ohio, news reached him that Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had annihilated the British fleet on Lake Erie. Harrison occupied Detroit and pushed into Canada, defeating the fleeing British and their Indian allies on the Thames River. The entire region now came under American control.
Another decisive turn in the war occurred a year later when Commodore Thomas Macdonough won a point-blank gun duel with a British flotilla on Lake Champlain in upper New York. Deprived of naval support, a British invasion force of 10,000 men retreated to Canada. At about the same time, the British fleet was harassing the Eastern seaboard with orders to "destroy and lay waste." On the night of August 24, 1814, an expeditionary force burst into Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, and left it in flames. President James Madison fled to Virginia. American morale was at an all-time low when the British captured the City of Washington and burned the White House.
As the war continued, British and American negotiators each demanded concessions from the other. The British envoys decided to concede, however, when they learned of Macdonough's victory on Lake Champlain. Urged by the Duke of Wellington to reach a settlement, and faced with the depletion of the British treasury due in large part to the heavy costs of the Napoleonic Wars, the negotiators for Great Britain accepted the Treaty of Ghent negotiated in Belgium on December 24, 1814. It provided for the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of conquests and a commission to settle boundary disputes. Many people were unhappy about the Treaty of Ghent. They felt the document was weak and would not be honored.
While the British and Americans were negotiating a settlement, Federalist delegates selected by the legislatures of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire gathered in Hartford, Connecticut, in a meeting that symbolized opposition to "Mr. Madison's war." New England had managed to trade with the enemy throughout the conflict, and some areas actually prospered from this commerce. Nevertheless, the Federalists claimed that the war was ruining the economy. Some delegates to the convention advocated secession from the Union, but the majority agreed on a series of constitutional amendments to limit Republican influence, including prohibiting embargoes lasting more than 60 days and forbidding successive presidents from the same state. By the time messengers from the Hartford Convention reached Washington, D.C., however, they found the war had ended. The Hartford Convention stamped the Federalists with a stigma of disloyalty from which they never recovered.
Unaware that a peace treaty had been signed, the two sides continued fighting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Led by General Andrew Jackson, the Americans scored the greatest land victory of the war. General Andrew Jackson's leadership at the Battle of New Orleans changed everything. The battles with British troops at Chalmette on December 28, 1814, and January 1 and 8, 1815, are among the most decisive American military victories in our history. The Treaty of Ghent ending the War was quickly ratified by Congress.
The War of 1812 with Britain was difficult for the new Nation. There were many losses, and the White House in Washington, D.C. was burned by the British. However, the early victory of the U.S. Navy, the leadership of able generals such as Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, and key American victories at Fort McHenry and at New Orleans finally stirred public support for the war. At its close, Americans turned their energies to exploring and settling the American continent in a fury of westward expansion.
VII.Important Battles
Key Battles:
Detroit
Queenston Heights
Lake Erie
Thames River
Chippewa River
Blandensburg
Lake Champlain
Fort McHenry
New Orleans
Detriot
(Aug. 8 - 12, 1812)
A three-pronged invasion of Canada became the first objective of the United States in the war. The first offensive to get under way was in the West, where Gen. William Hull was to invade Canada from Detroit. With 2,200 men, Hull crossed the Detroit River on July 12. He penetrated only to Windsor, Ontario, and then pulled back to Detroit on August 8. When a Canadian force of 2,000 under Gen. Isaac Brock appeared outside Detroit, Hull inexplicably surrendered, on August 16. On the previous day the garrison at Fort Dearhorn, now Chicago, was wiped out after evacuating the post upon Hull's garbled instructions. With the British now in firm control of western Lake Erie and the Michigan country, Brock moved to the eastern end of the lake. Hull was later court-martialed and sentenced to death for cowardice and neglect of duty, but the sentence was remitted.
Queenston Heights
(Oct. 13, 1812)
The western prong of the multiple American offensive against British Canada ended in the craven surrender of Detroit on August 16, 1812. The middle prong got off to a better start when Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer invaded Ontario, across the Niagra River from New York State, on October 13. Van Rensselaer's attack carried Queenston Heights and killed the British commander, Gen. Sir Isaac Brock, who had been knighted for his victory at Detroit. The British, however, rallied some 1,000 men and counterattacked the 600 Americans on the heights. Expected American reinforcements did not appear because the New York militia refused to leave the state. Van Rensselaer, his army shattered, fell back across the border and retired from command. His successor, Gen. Alexander Smyth, made a feeble effort to force the Niagra River on November 28 before he was relieved.
Meanwhile the eastern, and largest, prong of the offensive got under way from Plattsburg, New York. Under the command of Gen. Henry Dearborn, the expedition moved up Lake Champlain with Montreal its objective. But at the Canadian border, on November 19, Dearborn's militia troops balked at going any further, and he was forced to return to Plattsburg.
Lake Erie
(Sep. 10, 1813)
Naval supremacy on Lake Erie safeguarded the British hold on Detroit and kept the Americans on the defensive behind the Maumee River in Ohio. To regain the initiative, in the spring of 1813 the U.S. Navy sent Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry to the mouth of the Sandusky River. Perry hurriedly completed the construction of a 10 vessel flotilla. On September 10 at Put-in-Bay, near the southwestern end of Lake Erie, Perry's little fleet mounting 55 guns, was attacked by 6 British vessels, with a total of 65 guns, under the command of Capt. Robert Barclay. The resulting battle became the bloodiest naval action of the war. Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, was sunk early in the fight. But from the Niagara the 28 year old American commander directed the battle which in three hours led to the capture or destruction of the entire British squadron, whose crews suffered 41 killed and 94 wounded. Perry reported the victory laconically: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." The British naval defeat forced their ground troops to evacuate Detroit on September 18 and later Fort Malden on September 24, across the river in Ontarior.
Thames River
(Oct. 5, 1813)
The American naval victory on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, opened the way for Gen. William H. Harrison to take the offensive against Upper Canada. With 4,500 troops, Harrison crossed the western end of Lake Erie to land in Ontario on September 27. The British commander, Gen. Henry Proctor, evacuating Detroit and Fort Malden, fell back northeast with 880 British regulars, over the protests of his 1,000 Indian allies, who were led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. On October 5 Harrison overtook the British-Indian army on the north bank of the Thames River in southeastern Ontario. In a sharp encounter the Americans won the battle, largely through the attack of a mounted Kentucky regiment led by Col. Richard Johnson, later vice president of the U.S. The Americans suffered 29 casualties, including 7 killed. The British suffered 12 killed, 22 wounded, while the Indians suffered 35 killed including the death of Tecumseh, some 477 British-Indian prisoners were also taken. The death of Tecumseh was a serious blow to the Pro-British Indian Confederacy who would could not survive without him. His death ended the effective Indian alliance with the British. The Old Northwest now stood secure except for Fort Michilimackinac in Michigan Territory, which stayed in enemy hands until the end of the war.
Chippewa River
(July 5, 1814)
In the spring of 1814 both Great Britain and the United States prepared new offensives. The Americans leaped off first. On July 3 Gen. Jacob Brown with 3,500 U.S. troops crossed the Niagara River into Canada and seized Fort Erie, at the junction of the river and Lake Erie. The British army under Gen. Phineas Riall fell back to the Chippewa River, 16 miles to the north. Here Riall, who was serving under the British commander Gen. Gordon Drummond, deployed some 1,500 men on a plain near the river. Brown ordered an attack by a brigade, 1,300 men, of Gen. Winfield Scott. In a half hour battle on July 5, Scott's brigade broke the British line, killing 236, wounding 322, and capturing 46. The Americans lost 61 killed and 255 wounded.
The battle, fought between regular troops on even terms, established the prestige of the U.S. Army in the eyes of the American public. Most of the British soldiers were veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. The officer responsible was Brigadier General Winfield Scott, who had trained his brigade thoroughly. His men had recently been issued with new gray uniforms as none of the regulation blue cloth was available. At first, Riall believed they were militia but, observing their discipline deployment under fire, he exclaimed: "These are regulars, by God!" The full dress uniform of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point commemorates the action. Scott was further to distinguish himself in the US-Mexican War and was active during the early months of the Civil War.
Blandensburg
(August 24, 1814)
The centermost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was an expeditionary force sent against the East Coast. Planned as a diversion in support of the thrust into New York from Canada, this force also had the mission of retaliating for the American burning of York (Toronto) in the previous April. A British fleet under Adm. George Cockburn sailed up Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland on August 19. The American commodore Joshua Barney quickly blew up his flotilla of gunboats on the river to prevent their seizure by the British. At Benedict the fleet landed 4,000 troops, many of them veterans of the Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars, under Gen. Robert Ross. Finding no opposition, Ross marched northward to Washington, D.C. Here the incompetent Gen. William H. Winder, who had been captured earlier at Stoney Creek and then exchanged, hastily organized a mixed force of about 6,000 men, all militia except for a few hundred regulars and Barney's 400 seamen. On August 24 he marched seven miles northeast to block the British route to Washington at Bladensburg. At the first British attack the American army bolted to the rear. Only the sailors and a Marine unit fought well in a futile rearguard action. Total American casualties were 26 killed and 51 wounded. The British suffered 64 killed and 185 wounded.
With the city's only defenders hopelessly scattered, President James Madison and other government officials fled across the Potomac River into Virginia. Detachments from the British army entered Washington and set fire to the Capitol, White House, and other public buildings and some private buildings. On the following day the invaders returned to their transports on the Patuxent and sailed toward Baltimore.
Lake Champlain
(Sep. 11, 1814)
The northernmost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was a joint land and water thrust from Canada down Lake Champlain in New York State. Under the command of Gen. Sir George Prevost, an army of 11,000 men, many of them veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, left the Saint Lawrence frontier on August 31 to march down the west side of the lake. The American army at Plattsburg consisted of only 3,300 regulars and militia under Gen. Alexander Macomb. Rather than risk a battle against such overwhelming odds, Macomb fell back south of the Saranac River below Plattsburg. Prevost occupied the village on September 6 and then waited for his naval support to arrive. This was a fleet of 4 ships and 12 gunboats, mounting a total of 92 guns and carrying 800 men, commanded by Capt. George Downie.
The American naval commander on Lake Champlain, Capt. Thomas Macdonough, had long sensed that the key to the defense of upper New York lay in the control of the waterway. He had therefore built up a fleet of four ships and ten gunboats that mounted a total of 86 guns and carried 850 men. When Downie's ships entered the lake, Macdonough deployed his vessels in a narrow channel across the bay from Plattsburg and ordered anchors be dropped. Here he hoped to neutralize the British long range guns with his own short range pieces. On September 11 the British ships rounded Cumberland Head to open the battle at a range of 500 yards. For two hours a gun duel raged with no market advantage to either side. Then Macdonough in the Saratoga moved out to attack the enemy flagship, Confiance, and forced Downie to strike his flag. Within 30 minutes the battle was over, with the four British ships seized or destroyed, 57 of their crewmen killed, and 72 wounded. American casualties were only slightly less, 52 killed and 58 wounded, but no ships were lost. It was one of the few times in history that ships at anchor won a naval battle.
During the battle Prevost's shore batteries had unaccountably remained silent. Now, with the loss of his naval arm, the British commander was forced to retreat back to Canada.
Fort McHenry
(Sep. 12 - 13, 1814)
After burning part of Washington, D.C., the British fleet of 10 ships under Adm. George Cockburn sailed up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12 Gen. Robert Ross' army of 4,000 men disembarked at the mouth of the Patapsco, about 14 miles from Baltimore. The fleet moved up the river to where Fort McHenry stood guard over the city. Finding the harbor blocked by sunken hulls, the British ships opened a bombardment on the following night. It was this barrage that prompted a witness, Francis Scott Key, to write the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner." Unlike Washington, however, Baltimore was stoutly defended under the direction of Gen. Samuel Smith. The 1,000 man garrison inside the fort held on grimly.
Meanwhile Ross' army marched overland toward the fort. The advance was opposed by a 3,200 man militia force under Gen. John Stricker in Godly Wood. Although the Americans were forced back on September 12, they inflicted 346 casualties on the British, many of whom were veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. One of those killed was Ross. Stricker lost 20 killed, 90 wounded, and 200 captured. It was not until the next day that the invaders reached the strongly held heights at the edge of the city. When the bombardment of Fort McHenry failed to force an opening that night, the attack on Baltimore was abandoned. They re-embarked on their transports and on October 14 they sailed out of Chesapeake Bay for Jamaica.
New Orleans
(Jan. 8, 1815)
The southernmost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was directed toward New Orleans, the chief port on the Gulf of Mexico and the entrance to the strategic Mississippi Valley. A British fleet of more than 50 ships entered Lake Borgne, east of New Orleans, on December 13, to disembark 7,500 troops under Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham. Many of these soldiers were veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. The American commander in this area, Gen. Andrew Jackson, was fortifying Baton Rouge at the time, expecting the British to move up the Mississippi River. Now he hurried to New Orleans at the head of some 5,000 troops. The British advance guard had pushed to within seven miles of the city when Jackson checked the thrust with a night attack on December 23-24. He then fell back two miles to Chalmette where the Americans began building breastworks of logs and cotton bales along dry Rodriguez Canal. The flanks of this position stood anchored in a cypress swamp on the left and the east bank of the Mississippi on the right.
On January 8 Pakenham, with his main body of 5,300 men, made a head on assault against the American line. The British, advancing in close ranks on a narrow front, made an inviting target for Jackson's artillery and his 4,500 infantry, which included expert Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen. Stopped by the withering fire in their faces, the redcoated regulars reorganized for a second assault. This too failed to gain the American position. In 30 minutes the attackers lost 700 men killed and 1,400 wounded. Pakenham and two other generals were killed. Jackson lost 8 men killed and 13 wounded. The British retreated to their ships, where they learned that the war had ended two weeks before with the signing of the Peace of Ghent on December 24.
The battle of New Orleans did have long range results. It was the greatest land victory of the war, and such, restored American military pride. It demonstrated that U.S. troops could hold their own against strong European forces. And it projected Gen. Andrew Jackson into national prominence and eventually into the Presidency. For the British it was the most crushing defeat suffered since Bannockburn (1314) and Castillon (1453).
VIII.Pictures
Map of the United States 1812
Battle of Queen Heights
American Infantry
Battle of Lundy's Lane
Battle of New Orleans
Sources Used
Detriot |
A three-pronged invasion of Canada became the first objective of the United States in the war. The first offensive to get under way was in the West, where Gen. William Hull was to invade Canada from Detroit. With 2,200 men, Hull crossed the Detroit River on July 12. He penetrated only to Windsor, Ontario, and then pulled back to Detroit on August 8. When a Canadian force of 2,000 under Gen. Isaac Brock appeared outside Detroit, Hull inexplicably surrendered, on August 16. On the previous day the garrison at Fort Dearhorn, now Chicago, was wiped out after evacuating the post upon Hull's garbled instructions. With the British now in firm control of western Lake Erie and the Michigan country, Brock moved to the eastern end of the lake. Hull was later court-martialed and sentenced to death for cowardice and neglect of duty, but the sentence was remitted.
Queenston Heights |
The western prong of the multiple American offensive against British Canada ended in the craven surrender of Detroit on August 16, 1812. The middle prong got off to a better start when Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer invaded Ontario, across the Niagra River from New York State, on October 13. Van Rensselaer's attack carried Queenston Heights and killed the British commander, Gen. Sir Isaac Brock, who had been knighted for his victory at Detroit. The British, however, rallied some 1,000 men and counterattacked the 600 Americans on the heights. Expected American reinforcements did not appear because the New York militia refused to leave the state. Van Rensselaer, his army shattered, fell back across the border and retired from command. His successor, Gen. Alexander Smyth, made a feeble effort to force the Niagra River on November 28 before he was relieved.
Meanwhile the eastern, and largest, prong of the offensive got under way from Plattsburg, New York. Under the command of Gen. Henry Dearborn, the expedition moved up Lake Champlain with Montreal its objective. But at the Canadian border, on November 19, Dearborn's militia troops balked at going any further, and he was forced to return to Plattsburg.
Lake Erie |
Naval supremacy on Lake Erie safeguarded the British hold on Detroit and kept the Americans on the defensive behind the Maumee River in Ohio. To regain the initiative, in the spring of 1813 the U.S. Navy sent Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry to the mouth of the Sandusky River. Perry hurriedly completed the construction of a 10 vessel flotilla. On September 10 at Put-in-Bay, near the southwestern end of Lake Erie, Perry's little fleet mounting 55 guns, was attacked by 6 British vessels, with a total of 65 guns, under the command of Capt. Robert Barclay. The resulting battle became the bloodiest naval action of the war. Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, was sunk early in the fight. But from the Niagara the 28 year old American commander directed the battle which in three hours led to the capture or destruction of the entire British squadron, whose crews suffered 41 killed and 94 wounded. Perry reported the victory laconically: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." The British naval defeat forced their ground troops to evacuate Detroit on September 18 and later Fort Malden on September 24, across the river in Ontarior.
Thames River |
The American naval victory on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, opened the way for Gen. William H. Harrison to take the offensive against Upper Canada. With 4,500 troops, Harrison crossed the western end of Lake Erie to land in Ontario on September 27. The British commander, Gen. Henry Proctor, evacuating Detroit and Fort Malden, fell back northeast with 880 British regulars, over the protests of his 1,000 Indian allies, who were led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. On October 5 Harrison overtook the British-Indian army on the north bank of the Thames River in southeastern Ontario. In a sharp encounter the Americans won the battle, largely through the attack of a mounted Kentucky regiment led by Col. Richard Johnson, later vice president of the U.S. The Americans suffered 29 casualties, including 7 killed. The British suffered 12 killed, 22 wounded, while the Indians suffered 35 killed including the death of Tecumseh, some 477 British-Indian prisoners were also taken. The death of Tecumseh was a serious blow to the Pro-British Indian Confederacy who would could not survive without him. His death ended the effective Indian alliance with the British. The Old Northwest now stood secure except for Fort Michilimackinac in Michigan Territory, which stayed in enemy hands until the end of the war.
Chippewa River |
In the spring of 1814 both Great Britain and the United States prepared new offensives. The Americans leaped off first. On July 3 Gen. Jacob Brown with 3,500 U.S. troops crossed the Niagara River into Canada and seized Fort Erie, at the junction of the river and Lake Erie. The British army under Gen. Phineas Riall fell back to the Chippewa River, 16 miles to the north. Here Riall, who was serving under the British commander Gen. Gordon Drummond, deployed some 1,500 men on a plain near the river. Brown ordered an attack by a brigade, 1,300 men, of Gen. Winfield Scott. In a half hour battle on July 5, Scott's brigade broke the British line, killing 236, wounding 322, and capturing 46. The Americans lost 61 killed and 255 wounded.
The battle, fought between regular troops on even terms, established the prestige of the U.S. Army in the eyes of the American public. Most of the British soldiers were veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. The officer responsible was Brigadier General Winfield Scott, who had trained his brigade thoroughly. His men had recently been issued with new gray uniforms as none of the regulation blue cloth was available. At first, Riall believed they were militia but, observing their discipline deployment under fire, he exclaimed: "These are regulars, by God!" The full dress uniform of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point commemorates the action. Scott was further to distinguish himself in the US-Mexican War and was active during the early months of the Civil War.
Blandensburg |
The centermost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was an expeditionary force sent against the East Coast. Planned as a diversion in support of the thrust into New York from Canada, this force also had the mission of retaliating for the American burning of York (Toronto) in the previous April. A British fleet under Adm. George Cockburn sailed up Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland on August 19. The American commodore Joshua Barney quickly blew up his flotilla of gunboats on the river to prevent their seizure by the British. At Benedict the fleet landed 4,000 troops, many of them veterans of the Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars, under Gen. Robert Ross. Finding no opposition, Ross marched northward to Washington, D.C. Here the incompetent Gen. William H. Winder, who had been captured earlier at Stoney Creek and then exchanged, hastily organized a mixed force of about 6,000 men, all militia except for a few hundred regulars and Barney's 400 seamen. On August 24 he marched seven miles northeast to block the British route to Washington at Bladensburg. At the first British attack the American army bolted to the rear. Only the sailors and a Marine unit fought well in a futile rearguard action. Total American casualties were 26 killed and 51 wounded. The British suffered 64 killed and 185 wounded.
With the city's only defenders hopelessly scattered, President James Madison and other government officials fled across the Potomac River into Virginia. Detachments from the British army entered Washington and set fire to the Capitol, White House, and other public buildings and some private buildings. On the following day the invaders returned to their transports on the Patuxent and sailed toward Baltimore.
Lake Champlain |
The northernmost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was a joint land and water thrust from Canada down Lake Champlain in New York State. Under the command of Gen. Sir George Prevost, an army of 11,000 men, many of them veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, left the Saint Lawrence frontier on August 31 to march down the west side of the lake. The American army at Plattsburg consisted of only 3,300 regulars and militia under Gen. Alexander Macomb. Rather than risk a battle against such overwhelming odds, Macomb fell back south of the Saranac River below Plattsburg. Prevost occupied the village on September 6 and then waited for his naval support to arrive. This was a fleet of 4 ships and 12 gunboats, mounting a total of 92 guns and carrying 800 men, commanded by Capt. George Downie.
The American naval commander on Lake Champlain, Capt. Thomas Macdonough, had long sensed that the key to the defense of upper New York lay in the control of the waterway. He had therefore built up a fleet of four ships and ten gunboats that mounted a total of 86 guns and carried 850 men. When Downie's ships entered the lake, Macdonough deployed his vessels in a narrow channel across the bay from Plattsburg and ordered anchors be dropped. Here he hoped to neutralize the British long range guns with his own short range pieces. On September 11 the British ships rounded Cumberland Head to open the battle at a range of 500 yards. For two hours a gun duel raged with no market advantage to either side. Then Macdonough in the Saratoga moved out to attack the enemy flagship, Confiance, and forced Downie to strike his flag. Within 30 minutes the battle was over, with the four British ships seized or destroyed, 57 of their crewmen killed, and 72 wounded. American casualties were only slightly less, 52 killed and 58 wounded, but no ships were lost. It was one of the few times in history that ships at anchor won a naval battle.
During the battle Prevost's shore batteries had unaccountably remained silent. Now, with the loss of his naval arm, the British commander was forced to retreat back to Canada.
Fort McHenry |
After burning part of Washington, D.C., the British fleet of 10 ships under Adm. George Cockburn sailed up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12 Gen. Robert Ross' army of 4,000 men disembarked at the mouth of the Patapsco, about 14 miles from Baltimore. The fleet moved up the river to where Fort McHenry stood guard over the city. Finding the harbor blocked by sunken hulls, the British ships opened a bombardment on the following night. It was this barrage that prompted a witness, Francis Scott Key, to write the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner." Unlike Washington, however, Baltimore was stoutly defended under the direction of Gen. Samuel Smith. The 1,000 man garrison inside the fort held on grimly.
Meanwhile Ross' army marched overland toward the fort. The advance was opposed by a 3,200 man militia force under Gen. John Stricker in Godly Wood. Although the Americans were forced back on September 12, they inflicted 346 casualties on the British, many of whom were veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. One of those killed was Ross. Stricker lost 20 killed, 90 wounded, and 200 captured. It was not until the next day that the invaders reached the strongly held heights at the edge of the city. When the bombardment of Fort McHenry failed to force an opening that night, the attack on Baltimore was abandoned. They re-embarked on their transports and on October 14 they sailed out of Chesapeake Bay for Jamaica.
New Orleans |
The southernmost of the three British offensives against the United States in 1814 was directed toward New Orleans, the chief port on the Gulf of Mexico and the entrance to the strategic Mississippi Valley. A British fleet of more than 50 ships entered Lake Borgne, east of New Orleans, on December 13, to disembark 7,500 troops under Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham. Many of these soldiers were veterans of the successful Peninsular Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. The American commander in this area, Gen. Andrew Jackson, was fortifying Baton Rouge at the time, expecting the British to move up the Mississippi River. Now he hurried to New Orleans at the head of some 5,000 troops. The British advance guard had pushed to within seven miles of the city when Jackson checked the thrust with a night attack on December 23-24. He then fell back two miles to Chalmette where the Americans began building breastworks of logs and cotton bales along dry Rodriguez Canal. The flanks of this position stood anchored in a cypress swamp on the left and the east bank of the Mississippi on the right.
On January 8 Pakenham, with his main body of 5,300 men, made a head on assault against the American line. The British, advancing in close ranks on a narrow front, made an inviting target for Jackson's artillery and his 4,500 infantry, which included expert Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen. Stopped by the withering fire in their faces, the redcoated regulars reorganized for a second assault. This too failed to gain the American position. In 30 minutes the attackers lost 700 men killed and 1,400 wounded. Pakenham and two other generals were killed. Jackson lost 8 men killed and 13 wounded. The British retreated to their ships, where they learned that the war had ended two weeks before with the signing of the Peace of Ghent on December 24.
The battle of New Orleans did have long range results. It was the greatest land victory of the war, and such, restored American military pride. It demonstrated that U.S. troops could hold their own against strong European forces. And it projected Gen. Andrew Jackson into national prominence and eventually into the Presidency. For the British it was the most crushing defeat suffered since Bannockburn (1314) and Castillon (1453).
VIII.Pictures |
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Map of the United States 1812
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Battle of Queen Heights
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American Infantry
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Battle of Lundy's Lane
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Battle of New Orleans
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