The One Legacy of the War of 1812

The War of 1812, in the historical annals, is one of the least known in our day. This war came a mere 29 years after the end of the American Revolution and only 23 years after the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America and the election of George Washington as our first president. James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, among the Founding Fathers, were still very much alive during the War of 1812. Jefferson and Adams would die on the same ironic day, July 4, 1826.

The European world had been at war for some time, with much of Europe allied against the France of Napoleon. It was known as the Napoleonic Wars. This would prove to be one of the reasons for what would break out in America as the War of 1812. We were allied with France at the time, for one good reason; the French had been our strongest ally during our War for Independence. Without their aid on land and sea, the outcome of the Revolutionary War might have turned out differently.

The war here in the United States would be fought on two frontiers from 1812 to 1815. On the western frontier, that is, west of the Appalachian Mountains, the British had troops that were supporting Native American tribes with weapons, supplies, and military forces against the massive flow of Americans migrating across the Appalachians for new land to farm. The other frontier was the Atlantic Ocean, where British warships were forcing American merchant ships into British ports to pay unlawful taxes. They were also forcing many American merchantmen into service on the British warships.

American warships were sent out to stop and prevent these efforts by the British. This is where the USS Constitution would earn her nickname, “Old Ironsides,” as she and other ships were successful in blunting much of the British high seas piracy against American trade.

The Napoleonic Wars were taking a turn against Bonaparte, which freed up the British Army to send more forces to the Americas. Canada was still a British colony, and, as a result, the United States sent troops into Canada, ostensibly to free that country from British rule. These incursions had mixed, mostly unsuccessful, results.

As a result, the British landed some 30,000 troops in Canada to defend that colony. In 1814, they would land troops near Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. They would succeed in taking Washington and would burn down the White House in the effort. But their attack would be blunted by Marines outside of Baltimore, and the British forces would not have another success. The one legacy that would come out of that attack at Baltimore, especially at Fort McHenry, would be the “Star-Spangled Banner” lyrics that would become our National Anthem. It was written by Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the attack on the fort from the deck of a prisoner ship he was being held on at the time.

The war would end with the 18-day long Battle of New Orleans in January of 1815, where a ragtag militia of 4,732 men was made up of 968 Army regulars, 58 Marines who held the center of the defensive line, 106 Navy seamen, 1,060 Louisiana militia, and volunteers, including 462 Black men, 1,352 Tennessee militia, and 52 Choctaw warriors, among others, all under the leadership of Andrew Jackson. The irony here was that the treaty of Ghent, which officially ended the War of 1812, was signed on December 24, 1814. Because of the nature and speed of communications at that time in history, almost the entire span of the Battle of New Orleans was fought, ending in an American victory on January 8, 1815, some two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, ending the war.

To quote the eminent Paul Harvey: “Now you know the rest of the story.”