The War of 1812 was an effort by the United States to further separate from its former colonial master. During the French Revolution and ensuing Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815), Great Britain, enemy to France, sought to limit all trade in or out of French ports. Further, Britain, its navy extended across the world and with few volunteers for naval service, aggressively populated its ships with sailors taken from American vessels. More than six thousand American sailors were “impressed” from 1808-1811.
On the 1st of June, 1812, goaded by an aggressive Congress led by (among others) Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, President James Madison declared war on Great Britain. His war message cited impressments, the British seizure of some American ships, and incitement of Native Americans in the west. The war was highly unpopular in the regions of the country whose economies were most tightly based on international trade, particularly New England and New York.
The war began badly for the United States. An invasion of Canada in 1812 was easily repulsed, as was another attempt in 1813. In 1814, a lull in the Napoleonic Wars allowed England to send some of its best, battle-hardened troops to North America, and in August a British invasion force easily landed near Washington, marched on and burned Washington, D.C., including the Capitol, the White House, and other government buildings. The only military bright spots for America in 1814 were a series of naval victories, including a crucial one on Lake Champlain, and the successful defense of Baltimore, protected by Fort McHenry (which prompted Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.”)
The military failures led some sections of the country to near-insurrection, particularly in New England. A meeting of the Federalists at Hartford (the “Hartford Convention”) even allegedly considered secession in late 1814. But Great Britain, stumbling under the weight of fifteen years or more of war, was ready for peace. On 24 December, 1814, a treaty was signed. It did not address the maritime problems that had started the war, but with France defeated they were no longer relevant. (Napoleon had surrendered in early 1814; he would return in 1815, but only for three months). Word of the treaty, naturally, did not immediately arrive in the United States. As a result, the smashing victory by Andrew Jackson at New Orleans (8 January 1815), the only major U.S. victory of the war, happened after the treaty had been signed.
Although the United States essentially lost the war, it emerged from it stronger and in a better position than before. The country’s trade relationship with Great Britain, still its major trade partner, was strengthened with new treaties signed after the war, and the clarification of the border with British Canada allowed settlement along formerly disputed border lands.
The war cost 2,500 American lives in combat, along with another 20,000 dead. It cost around $158 million.
