200th anniversary of one of our wars history forgot

[Stan H]

I think this is relevant as it greatly affected our western migration and the survival of early Americans, both red and white.

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, a war all but forgotten in American history books. But what did that war mean for this country’s Indigenous Peoples?

The War of 1812 formally began on June 18, 1812 when President James Madison signed the Declaration of War against the United Kingdom. The war was fought for a number of reasons including trade restrictions, the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, the United States trying to annex Canada, but also because the British were supporting Native Americans in their fight against American expansion.
Let’s face it, many history books miss the main point of the War of 1812 and some even have said the most important thing to come out of the War of 1812 was “The Star Spangled Banner.” The war was in fact a major turning point for Native Americans who were struggling to stop white settlers from encroaching on their land.
More: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/06/18/the-war-of-181...

[Marshal Harting]

What do you mean by Royal Navy? My gr great grandfather was a merchant seaman and signed up in 1813 in VA  the war 1812. I have never been able to find any records of his service.

[Bud "Marshal" Stilwell]

Thanks for posting this.  Very interesting reading.

[Stan H]

Marshal

The British navy. They would stop American ships at sea and take crew members off and put them to work on the British ships. At time if they found an American ship in a foreign port, they would go inot the pubs and hotels and drag our sailors out and put them to work on their ships also.

That was one of the issues that provoked the war. There were others.

[Marshal Harting]

So then my gr gr grandad may have been pressed into service by the Brits? Wow. He was enlisted in 1813 and I have that document.He was an Ensign. Then I don't know what happened to him until 1830 and he died in 1840. He was on 1840 US census and says he was a sailor on the Ocean. I cannot find where he was buried but his brother also served as Ensign and it is said he died in France at a sea port  . Wonder how on earth I can find these records.

[Sue Cauhape]

For whatever it's worth, Marshall, I found some amazing information on my ancestors by googling their names and birth-death dates. If you know what ship he was on in 1840, a record me come up that shows whether or not he died and was buried at sea. Of course, another thing to do is to subscribe to ancestor.com international or worldwide level. They've managed to get hold of international records for all sorts of people. Maybe they have maritime records that would help you find your gr-gr-grandfather's information. Any little clue googled alongside his name will bring up amazing information. We'll probably never hear from you again on this forum because you'll be addicted to chasing your ancestors. Good luck and have fun. I certainly do.

[Gay Mathis]

Marshal, what is your Great-great-grandfather's name?

[Dave McGowan]

This is a war I've found interesting and done some reading about ... not that I come close to being an expert.

In most of the land battles, the Canadian militia and British army did extremely well. However, Andrew Jackson, primarily because of his military abilities and his army's knowledge of local terrain, made up for all those other defeats with the single battle at New Orleans ... even though the war was technically over.

The war on water, however, created the US Navy. Starting out with little more than a half dozen small ships (and no "ships of the line") and facing the largest, most formidable navy in the world at the time, the US Navy lost NO SIGNIFICANT MARINE BATTLE. An astounding accomplishment!

From my countries side of things, all the ground gained (primarily the state of Maine) was returned at the Treaty of Ghent. Not something that would warm the hearts of Canadian Militiamen to "Jolly ol' England."

[Daniel Buck]

"The Warts of 1812: The Unglamorous Truth About a Hyped-Up War," by Adam Chanfler

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/the-warts-of-18...

Excerpt:

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The most ridiculous moment of all featured the United States surrendering the entire city of Detroit without firing a shot in defense. "It was the most colossal screw-up of the war," Alan Taylor, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian explained in an interview. "And it comes at the worst possible time in the first major invasion. The Madison administration was counting on winning a quick victory in invading Upper Canada from the western end via Detroit to render the war popular. And instead, he got a catastrophic defeat."

While the loss of Detroit hardened opposition to the Madison administration and set the war effort back a year, American forces (surprisingly) fared better in crucial naval engagements with the British in the Great Lakes, some of which remain battles of national legend. But the most storied moments in the War of 1812 -- the Battle of Baltimore and the penning of the National Anthem by Francis Scott Key, the British invasion of Washington, D.C., and the Battle of New Orleans -- were almost certainly a product of America's military failures earlier in the war.

"All of those are events that come in the last months of the war when the British were mounting a counterattack against the United States." Taylor explained. "They are all events that lead Americans to think they were on the defensive in the war and that the British were the aggressor. What's lost sight of is that the United States declared the war and conducted the first two years of the war primarily as an invasion of Canada. And so Americans don't remember the battles in Canada because they went so badly for the United States."

But this myopia ultimately served a useful purpose. For a country that was young and divided and lacked a national identity, the legacy of the War of 1812 created heroes like Andrew Jackson and Oliver Perry as well as national symbols and slogans that endure today.

"Those three major events are certainly an important part of the legacy of the war in the public memory," Professor Donald Hickey, author of The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, suggested. "All those symbols of the war have developed an iconic significance. Uncle Sam, the Fort McHenry flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Kentucky rifle -- these all help Americans understand who they are and where they are headed as a nation."

Hickey explained that while the nation soon forgot the follies of the war, the strategic lessons of the war's early setbacks ensured that the United States would establish a peacetime army. The Treaty of Ghent, while not addressing any of America's original grievances in prosecuting the war, ensured that Britain never harassed the United States again. And while to European minds the War of 1812 may always signify a far more epic struggle -- Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Russia -- the draw that the United States managed to eke out in its own war raised its profile among Old World powers.

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And, the Canadian view:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18497113

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-Canada-Celebr...

Dan

[Jim Hatzell]

A sidebar to the War of 1812 is the Battle of Fort Dearborn (or the Fort Dearborn Massacre) Which occured August 15,1812 when the Commander was given orders to abandon the fort....with everyone in it. It took place on what is now the South Side of Chicago....not to far from where my Grandparents are from.Family lore has it that I had relatives killed there. In 1812 this was the Far Western Frontier.

[anthony martin]

 Stan,

    Thanks for starting this.An interesting sidebar stems from the British invasion  of Washington D.C. and their looting and burning of the capitol building and the White House.The latter got it's name because when it was rebuilt it was found that the marble was so discolored by the fire that it has been painted white ever since!

   Some of the liberated items from it are still in England and there was great fanfare when a British subject returned (during the Kennedy administration I believe)Madison's personal medical chest.

  Given that we were still smarting from our earlier war it is not surprising that we acted as we did,rightly or wrongly.In many respects it can be seen as Act II of the Revolutionary War.Family squabbles can be such nasty things!