The immediate causes of the War of 1812 were a series of economic sanctions
taken by the British and French against the US as part of the Napoleonic
Wars and American outrage at the
British practice of
impressment, especially after the Chesapeake incident of 1807. In
response to the 1806 British Orders in Council, which crippled American
trade, the US (under Jefferson) first tried various retaliatory
embargoes. These embargoes hurt the US far more than they did
Britain,
angering American citizens and providing support to War Hawks in Congress
like Henry Clay. In 1812, with President Madison in office, Congress declared war against the British.
The war began with an attack on Canada, both as an effort to gain land and to
cut off British supply lines to Tecumseh's Indian confederation, which had
long troubled the US. The initial battles in Canada were not as easy as the War
Hawks hoped, and the inexperienced American soldiers were pushed back rapidly.
In fact, only by virtue of clutch naval victories by Oliver Hazard Perry on
Lake Erie and Thomas Macdonough on Lake Champlain was a serious northern-
front invasion of the United States, including New York, prevented. General
William Henry Harrison's forces did manage to kill Tecumseh at the Battle
of the Thames in 1813, in the midst of a decisive victory against the British
General Isaac Brock's smaller force.
On the Mid-Atlantic Coast, British troops landed in the Chesapeake Bay area in
1814, and marched towards Washington. US General William Winder made an
attempt to stop the British forces, commanded by General Robert Ross, at
Bladensburg. The US troops were badly routed. The city of Washington was
evacuated, and the British burned the Capitol and the White House, along with
most of nonresidential Washington.
The British pressed onward, and Admiral Cochrane sought to invade Baltimore.
General Ross was killed as his forces advanced towards the city, and their
movement stalled. Cochrane's forces bombarded Fort McHenry, which guarded
Baltimore's harbor, but were unable to take it. This event inspired Francis
Scott Key, an American lawyer detained on one of Cochrane's ships, to write
the Star-Spangled Banner. Unsuccessful at Baltimore, Cochrane's damaged
fleet limped to Jamaica for repairs, and made preparations for an invasion of
New Orleans, hoping to cut off American use of the Mississippi River.
By mid 1814, the War of 1812 was turning out to be tougher fighting than either
side expected. Britain, caught up in the costly Napoleonic Wars, began to look
for a way to extricate itself from its American commitment. In the Belgian city
of Ghent, American negotiators (including John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay)
met with British diplomats. After considerable bickering, the negotiators signed
the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, officially ending the war. The
treaty returned US-Britain relations to the same status as they had been before
the war. The US neither gained nor lost any territory. Impressment went
unaddressed.
The war was officially over, but news traveled slowly across the Atlantic Ocean.
In New Orleans, Cochrane landed the British troops, who were still waiting for
their replacement commander for Ross, General Packenham, to arrive from
Britain. On January 8, 1815, Andrew Jackson's ragtag army soundly defeated
the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Even though this battle had been
fought unnecessarily (the treaty was already signed) the US celebrated wildly,
manifesting an upsurge in American
nationalism.
Although the war had sheltered New England manufacturing from British
competition, New England merchant shipping had been seriously hurt, and a group
of Federalists met at the Hartford Convention in late 1814 to discuss
their grievances. A few talked of secession from the Union, but most just
wanted to make it hard for the US to declare war or impose embargoes in the
future. When the news of the treaty from Ghent arrived, it made the Federalists
look silly, or even treasonous. The Hartford Convention spelled the end of the
Federalist Party.
