The War of 1812 was one of the longest battles that contained multiple countries in which the main countries were the United States and Britain. This war, like many others before, was tied. The War of 1812 was in fact one of the most underrated wars that was studied in American history.
The War of 1812 lasted over a span of two years and eight months from 1812 to 1815. In late 1814 there were peace negotiations that were about to begin but there were slow communications across the Atlantic which prolonged the war. This began to spread tactical errors for both of the sides who were fighting. A Canadian historian jokingly stated that “The events of the War of 1812 have not been forgotten in England for they have never been known there” (Kingsford 3).
There were many battles but the Capture of the HMS Java, HMS Guerria and the HMS Macedonia were well known. This battle lasted from August through December of 1812. This was a battle about the new United States Frigates Constitution. The United States started this battle with a big bang. After a disappointing beginning on the land Atlantic, engagements boosted American morale. Another battle was the Battle of Lake Erie, this battle took place on September 10, 1813 and Oliver Hazard Perry was recognized for his heroic deeds earning him great fame. This then paved the way for liberation of Detroit. This later started to secure Lake Erie for the rest of the war. “We have met the enemy and they are ours” (Perry 3).
127 our experts are availableright now
July 25, 1814, The Battle of Lundy’s Lane. This battle was known as one of the bloodiest battles of the War during 1812. This was then marked by hand-to-hand fighting. The Americans were finally forced out of Canada for good after the war finally ended. This was indeed a huge victory for Canada. On January 8, 1815, during the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson inflicted about 2,000 casualties when attacking British Troops but he then suffered seven in return. This battle was one of the touchstones of the American pride.
The war was fought in many places including the United States, Canada, and on the High Seas. The Americans fought against the British, Canadia, Native Americans, in Michigan, and in New York. The war was also fought in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Throughout the war the Americans also faced the Native Americans in territories of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. It was during the final stage of the was that the British regulators attempted a seaborne invasion of the Gulf Coast causing a fight in Louisiana. The British later enforced a blockade of American ports mostly in the South along the Atlantic Seaboard. The Naval engagements flared around the Chesapeake Bay but the blockade was a challenge. The lakes, which are known as Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, played a major role in the battles going on in 1812. The war had distinct commercial character raids which carried out against trade ships throughout the Atlantic.
The War of 1812 was part of a larger, global conflict. The empires of France and England spent 1789-1815 locked in constant war for global superiority. The war stretched from North Africa, Europe then to Asia. When the Americans decided to declare war on England, the war engulfed North American as well as England. The United States had grievances against Britain, but yet not that many people felt that Britain had not yet come to respect the United States. The British wanted to ”impress,” or forcibly draft, American sailors at sea because they wanted to block the American trade with France. The British were supporting the Native Americans.
One of the weapons used frequently in the war was the Smoothbore Musket. The musket was carried by most infantrymen during The War of 1812. The musket can reach a range of 50-100 yards when they are fired. The cannons they used were made by Smoothbare as well. The cannons could shoot up to roughly 400 yards. This cannon was used with decisive effects on the battlefield. Some of the calvarymen generally carried pistols and sabers.
They were used to outmaneuver and change the enemy formation. Large ships were later built and put onto the lakes. The ships were engaged in full scale battles for supremacy to move troops and to bomb their rival towns.
The war was fought during the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Technological advancements came together to change how humans lived and worked. Before people knew it, steamships and the steam-powered railroad engine came into profitable use for the first time during the war. There was little effect on North America while these advancements were happening.
During the war years there were machines with interchangeable parts. Those machines became more common during the war. The practice was not applied yet with the military manufacturing. For the common soldier the most advancement was the food storage through packaging.
The war helped establish a fair standing between the United States, Britain, and Canada. This then led to an era of mutually beneficial trade and diplomatic partnership. The War of 1812 had exacerbated tensions between the northern industrialists and southern planters.
Unfortunately, this made them reluctant to go to war with Britain. This was the worldwide model of the Industrial Revolution. Southerners were quick to remember the French assistance that helped win the southern campaign of the American Revolution. American public generally viewed an outcome of war favorably causing an Anti-War Federalist party to cause from the prominence.
In the early years of the 19th century, the United States started to rapidly expand their commercial powers. Historians cited this growth as a key factor in Britains desire to contain America’s expansion. Fortunately the war had helped secure America’s easy access to the sea (which played a major role in the War of 1812) in a post-war. Because of the war, the cost to the government was about 105 million dollars (which equals to 1.5 billion dollars today). There was a strain raising money that drove the legislators to charter the Second National Bank later taking a step to centralization.
We may know that there was not that much of an advancement of medicine during the War of 1812. Diseases was the primary cause of death during the war, not the wounds. When some men were wounded they had little to look forward to in the hospital. We know that sanitation was a huge key during this process. In 1812 sanitation was indeed recognized as being important. Back in 1812 they did not have anesthesia for emergencies or surgeries like we do now because they were still decades away. A British Surgeon and his assistant were responsible for killing about 1,000 men. The British Surgeon remembered this:
There is hardly on the face of the earth a less enviable situation than that of an Army Surgeon after a battle- worn out and fatigued in body and mind, surrounded by suffering pain, and misery, much of which he knows it is not in his power to heal…i never underwent such fatigue as i did the first week at Butler’s Barracks. The weather was intensely hot, the flies myriads, and the lightning on the wounds deposited their eggs, so that the maggots were bred in a few hours. (Dunlop 11)
During the War of 1812 there were many leaders on the American side. For an example Oliver Hazard Perry, who was a young naval officer who went on to win the Battle of Lake Erie. He captured an entire British naval squadron permitting the liberation of Detroit. Jacob Brown was an infantry officer who built up a very impressive service record in the war. He was later promoted to the Commander General of the United States Army. Andrew Jackson defeated the Native Americans in the Southeast and in doing so, the defeat added about 23 million acres to the United states. He was later elected the President of the United States.
Some British leaders during the War of 1812 were also noted as brave and they made great accomplishments. Isaac Brock was popular administer in Canada for many years before the war. He later became a hero for his heroic but yet fatal defense of Queenston Heights. Robert Livingston was a military courier who had been half-blind his whole life from a tomahawk. He was shot in the thigh when he helped lift the siege of Fort Mackinac by smuggling in fresh supplies by using some boats. Edward Pakenham was a respected Napoleonic War veteran. He led the British comum that attacked the Gulf Coast. Later on he was killed in the battle of New Orleans.
There were two leaders on the Native American side. Tecumseh was a leader who organized Tecumseh’s Confederacy. This was a resistance group who allied with the British in Northwest. During the Battle of the Thames he died and his confederacy fell apart. Black Hawk was a Sauk chief who fought against American frontiersmen. Later, after the War of 1812, he organized a new confederacy which led to the Black Hawk War of 1832.
On the Canadian side there were just a few leaders. Gordon Drummond was a Canadian-born officer in the British Army. He played an important role in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and later became a major politician in Lower Canada. Richard Pierpoint was a former slave who won his freedom by fighting for the British in the Revolutionary War. He then organized “The Coloured Corps” which was an organization made up of slaves who escaped to Canada. They ended up fighting in the Battle of Queenston Heights and Fort George.
Who won the war? The peace terms that ended the war were the status-quo of Ante Bellum, the state of things as they were before the war had ever started. While the war was legally a tie in terms of territorial questions, historians now look at its long term effects to judge who won this war. The whole reason why the war ever started is because Americans declared war for the first time to stop British impressment.
This reopened trade with France to remove British support from Native American tribes. This would secure territorial honor and integrity in the face of their old rules. Four of these goals were achieved by time peace broke out. Some British measures scheduled to be repealed before the war had ever begun. During the war the british had gained little to nothing from the war. It did indeed save an honorable friendship with the United States. The resources were diverted from battlefields of Europe for the War of 1812, but it did not bring any land nor treasures to the crown.
The British lost their Native American lodgement against the United States expansion. This expansion unleashed growth of a major global trade competitor. The British ultimately defeated the French in their long war while trying to avoid a fiasco in North America.
This was considered a victory in context of the global conflict they waged. The Native American tribes fought against the United States in the Northwest as a Confederacy led by a Shawnee man named Tecumseh. Many of the tribes allied with the British during the War of 1812. Soon people were reaching peace through the status Quo Ante Bellum. The Native Americans lost their main request of a recognized nation in North America. The British was supported and alaso evaporated in the years after the war. It soon quickened the lost of Native lands.
7,000 men served for the United States military. But when the war broke out more than 35,000 were American regulators. 48,000 were many of those who were mustered in for local defense and served on the sea and the land. There was about 243,885 soldiers for the British who was compromised by 1812. By the end of the war there was about 58,000 regulators, 4,000 militaria and about 10,000 Native Americans that had joined the war. When the war finally ended there was 1500 American soldiers who died, 600 British and Canadian soldiers who sadly died from battle wounds or from a type of disease. But sadly the lost of lives of the Native American tribes were unknown.
The War of 1812 was one of the least studied wars in the history of American history. There was a tie when deciding who actually won the war. The death toll ranged from 1500 deaths to unknown because an accurate count was not possible due to the Native American Tribes.
