The War of 1812- Understudied, Misunders by W illiam H. W hi te he War of 1812 is certainly one all of these are m ost likely valid interpreta- agree on what type of military it needed : of the most obscure-if not the tions, the broad spread of the causes seems wo uld it be regulars? Short term volunteers? most obscure-wars in American to confuse and confo und today'sAmericans. Militia? And what about a navy? Why on earth would we need a navy? history. While there ., are those who will ¡ Of course, another faction favo red a standing army and a recognize some of the major highli ghts of the war- the powerful navy-and that was burning of Washington, the just in the Republican Party! Bartle of New O rleans, and The Federalists (then in the possibly the writing of what mino rity) offered virtually became o ur N a tion al Anno resistance to the wishes of them-few could offer opintheir colleagues o n the other side of the aisle and, indeed , ions on exactly what the war was about, what the o utcome even favo red the idea of fightwas, or, in many cases, even ing the English on the high who the antago nists were! seas, which of course would M any histo rians refer to require a strong navy. the war as the "Seco nd War of But like almos t any Independence;" others relate conflict, the War of 18 12 it to a desire on the part of prod uced its share of heroes Am ericans to expand their and notables whose nam es The Taking of the City ofWashington in America, 1814, published bo rders, bo th to the no rth by co ntinue to reson ate, even by G. Thompson, 14 October 1814. In the evening hours of 24 August annexing Canada and to the with those who might not be 1814, British expeditionary forces under the command of Vice Admiral wes t by rem oving the British able to recall any detail of the Sir A lexander Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross set fire to the and their Na tive Am erican war itself: Andrew Jackson, unfinished Capitol Building in Washington, D C The engraving depicts alli es fro m what are now the Jam es M adison , H enry Clay, Washington, D C, under attack as viewed from the Potomac River. mid-western states. Still others Isaac Hull , Stephen D ecatur, mention "free trade and sailors' rights," the The outcome of the War of 18 12, which and Jam es Lawrence. There were others as right they claimed of a free nation to trade did not officially end until February of 18 15 well, and we will meet them (maybe with in peace upon the oceans of the world. The (even though the treaty was signed o n 24 a sm ack to the fo rehead and an uttered merchant and naval interests of the time D ecember 181 4) , was equally confounding; commentlike "Oh yeah, I rem ember him! ") were sick and tired of the British practice no land or territory was gained by either as we look at some of the events of the war of stopping American ships to press sailors side and, acco rding to many, none of the later on . into the Royal Navy, a right, the British lofty aims of the United States was achieved. So, who wo n? Many Ameri cans w ho claim ed , stemming from their ass umption Indeed, the Treaty of Ghent, which end ed have studied the confl ict will say "We did!" that Ame ricans were still, in spite of gaining the war, returned the two countries to the and point to som e of th e great naval battles their independence, British citizens. While status quo ante bellum, the state of affairs as fo ught by USS Constitution, USS United it existed before the hostilities broke o ut. States, and other ships of our o riginal navy. In many cases, the actual prosecution And indeed , while in many cases o ur navy of the war was horribly mismanaged by did thras h the vessels of th e Royal Navy, inept senior officers well past their prime we also suffered som e humiliating defeats and a populace unwilling to fight, especially such as Chesapeake vs. Shannon. Those sam e if it impacted their pocketbooks. Even the advocates of an American victory tend to proponents of the war seem ed in constant mumble under their breath and turn away disagreement with each other over how it when the subj ect of land battles-D etroit, should be prosecuted. And the politicians the effort to conquer Canada, and the invawere jus t as bad as the people they governed! sion of our capital-comes up . Bur these Consider that the government could not failures were as much a part of the war as th e triumphs at sea; indeed, m aybe m ore so, as (left) The Star Spangled Banner by Percy the general populace was on hand to witness Moran, c. 19 13. Francis Scott Key standing the crushing defeats and the newspapers to at the rail aboard H MS Tonnant. It was editorialize on them. So the British won , right? No, most from this vantage point that Key witnessed the Battle ofFort McH enry and was insp ired would agree they didn't either. They gained to write what became our National Anthem. no land (they weren't looking for any),
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SEA HISTORY 133 WIN TER 2010-11