War of 1812

A

American Strengths

The United States government had few military resources with which to fight a major war. Its British opponent ranked as the world’s greatest maritime power, but the U.S. Navy did not possess a single ship of the line, as battleships of the day were called. In fact, the Americans had only eight frigates and eight smaller seagoing warships. In addition, the government had made no naval preparations along the most strategically important of the waterways bordering Canada—Lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie.

The U.S. Navy did have the advantage of a competent officer corps, experienced in command at sea. Its best leaders were veterans of the successful wars of 1801 to 1805 against the Barbary Coast pirates, North African raiders who had preyed on U.S. merchant ships in the Mediterranean. American seamen were of high caliber, and the thorough training they received in handling guns was far ahead of contemporary British standards.

As hostilities loomed, Congress authorized a regular army of 35,000 men, but when the United States officially declared war in June 1812, the actual land force was less than 10,000 and nearly half of these soldiers were raw recruits. The existing troops were also widely scattered in small garrisons. The government planned to supplement this regular force with 50,000 volunteers and 100,000 militiamen, the latter to be provided by the states. However, opposition to the war was so strong in New England that the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to call up their militia in response to President Madison's request for troops.

A number of competent officers served in the army, including 71 graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, established just ten years earlier. However, the majority of the officers on duty were newly commissioned and lacked experience. Early in 1812, in anticipation of hostilities, President Madison hastily appointed two major generals and three brigadier generals to lead the preparations for war. All were veterans of the American Revolution (1775-1783), but most had compiled only mediocre combat records and had long since left military service. The senior brigadier general on the staff, James Wilkinson, had faced accusations of treason along with former vice president Aaron Burr in 1807, but was later acquitted. Wade Hampton of South Carolina, the most competent of the new generals, had developed a contempt for Wilkinson that eventually overshadowed his own military abilities. The three generals who most distinguished themselves in high command during the war, Andrew Jackson, Jacob Brown, and William Henry Harrison, all held state militia commissions in 1812.

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B

British Strength

In June 1812 British naval forces were considerably superior to the forces of the U.S. Navy, but the British were focused on a variety of missions elsewhere, most notably the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. As a result, American warships enjoyed comparative freedom of action during the rest of that year. On Lakes Erie and Ontario the British quickly outfitted available merchant vessels with guns and gained initial command of the waters. The British land force in Canada numbered about 7000 men, with about 1500 of these soldiers stationed in Upper Canada in the region of the Great Lakes. The remainder of the British forces patrolled the Maritime Provinces and the St. Lawrence Valley.

IV

First Phase of the War

The first phase of the fighting began with the declaration of war on June 18, 1812, and continued through the winter of 1812 and 1813. During this time, Britain was preoccupied with its engagements in Europe and tried to end the American war by diplomacy, sending few reinforcements to North America. As a result, the United States decided to invade Canada, and U.S. naval vessels operated effectively to stop British commerce to North America.

A

Attempts to Invade Canada

Soon after the war began, American leaders began to worry about the exposed Western fort of Detroit, a strategic settlement in the Michigan Territory. The U.S. hastily dispatched Brigadier General William Hull with reinforcements to the fort. In July General Hull decided to cross the Detroit River into Upper Canada. Hull's men, many of whom came from the Ohio militia, were poorly equipped, and, except for one small regiment, proved insubordinate and unreliable.

When Hull learned of an approaching force made up of British troops, Canadian militia, and Native Americans, he quickly withdrew to Detroit without fighting a battle. Major General Isaac Brock, an able and energetic officer, led the British unit. He followed the retreating American army with close to 1300 men, nearly half of whom were Native Americans. Brock boldly ordered Hull to surrender Detroit, and on August 16 the American general gave up, never firing a shot. The United States thus lost control of the entire Great Lakes region, and British troops soon invaded northern Ohio.

In October the Americans made a second attempt to invade Canada, this time on the Niagara frontier at the eastern end of Upper Canada. A small force crossed the Niagara River and with great gallantry stormed the key British position on the heights above the city of Queenston (see Queenston Heights, Battle of). The British promptly sent in more troops to counterattack, but the Americans received no additional support. A New York militia officer named Stephen Van Rensselaer, who commanded the reinforcements, could not induce his regiments to cross into Canada to assist the advance unit. The militia, stubbornly maintaining that they could not legally be sent out of the United States, stood on the riverbank and watched the defeat and final surrender of their comrades. In the same engagement British general Brock, who had used his naval command of Lake Erie to transfer troops by water from the Detroit area to the Niagara River, lost his life.

Major General Henry Dearborn led a third American effort to invade Canada. This expedition also ended ingloriously in November north of Plattsburgh, New York. Once again the militia refused to cross into Canada in support of a small advance force, and instead marched back to winter quarters at Plattsburgh.

B

Victories at Sea

Despite initial problems, the U.S. Navy soon won some victories at sea, offsetting the embarrassing defeats on land. A relatively strong American squadron under Commodore John Rodgers made a wide sweep through the Atlantic shortly after the declaration of war. It encountered only one enemy ship, which managed to escape, but later in the year three forays by individual U.S. warships proved far more successful.

On August 19, 1812, the Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, captured the British frigate Guerrière. The Constitution disabled the enemy ship in less than thirty minutes. In the exchange of fire, an American sailor noticed that a British shot actually bounced off the sturdy oak sides of the Constitution, prompting the nickname Old Ironsides. In a late December skirmish the Constitution, this time under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, took the British frigate Java off the coast of Brazil. A third American victory had come in October when the United States, under Captain Stephen Decatur, seized the British frigate Macedonian.

Both the Constitution and the United States were heavy frigates carrying at least 44 guns, considerably superior in firepower to the 38-gun British vessels they fought. Furthermore, in all three actions, the American ships had a decisive advantage in the accuracy and rate of fire of their guns. The success of the Constitution and the United States, along with two other American victories over smaller British warships, did much to lift the spirits of the American people.

American privateering was also successful in the early days of the war. Privateers were privately owned American vessels that the U.S. government commissioned to attack British commercial ships. The privateers were usually small, fast, and maneuverable, making them very effective against larger boats. The owners and crew members of the privateers could split the proceeds from the sale of any captured vessel and its cargo, so this type of authorized piracy was quite lucrative and led to the seizure of hundreds of British merchant ships.

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