On August 27, 1776, British Redcoats routed General George Washington and his fledgling Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island, paving the way for the seizure of New York City which the British would hold until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. The battle was the first major engagement for the Continental Army following its creation on June 14, 1775 and its inexperience and lack of discipline showed. The scale and scope of the defeat raised serious doubts about whether Washington was the right person to command the army and nearly ended the American experiment in independence and self-governance before it began
In the Spring of 1776, optimism and patriotic fervor was on the rise throughout the thirteen colonies. British military forces had been forced to vacate Boston and given the blood spilled at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, it was clear there was no turning back. Political discourse no longer centered around a redress of colonial grievances but increasingly focused on full-fledged independence from Great Britain. The will for independence was certainly there, as evidenced by the promulgation of a Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4. The question remained, however, whether the colonist could win their freedom, let alone keep it, for Great Britain was not about to let them go without a fight.
After British troops were forced to withdraw from Boston to Nova Scotia, all eyes turned to New York City, where it was expected that British would try to return and occupy the crucially important city, with its strategic location and deep sheltered harbor. In April, Washington raced his 19,000 man Continental Army to New York City ahead of the British. However, he quickly recognized that defending the city was nearly impossible. The city consisted of three islands—Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island— and all of their shorelines were suitable for an amphibious landing which made it difficult to predict where exactly the British might land. Moreover, the Royal Navy’s ability to control the rivers and water ways that cut through New York City would allow British warships to bring their heavy guns to almost any fight. Writing to his brother John, Washington offered a blunt assessment of the situation: “We expect a very bloody summer at New-York … and I am sorry to say that we are not, either in men or arms, prepared for it.”
The first British warships were sighted near Sandy Hook, New Jersey, on June 29, 1776, and within hours, 45 ships would drop anchor in Lower New York Bay. One American soldier was so awed by the fleet, he declared that it looked like “all London afloat.” Of these ships were some of the most powerful in the Royal Navy such as the 64-gun Asia and the 50-gun Centurion and Chatham. The guns on these ships alone outnumbered the combined firepower of all American shore batteries. On July 2, British troops began to land on Staten Island. By mid-August, the British fleet numbered over 400 ships large and small, including 73 warships and 8 ships of the line, while the army had grown to 32,000, more than the entire population of New York City.
On August 22, 20,000 British and Hessian troops departed Staten Island and made an amphibious landing at Gravesend Bay on the southwestern shore of Long Island. Washington had built fortifications and deployed half his army here in anticipation of a British landing. General William Howe was in overall command of all British troops. However, the battle plan was conceived of by his second in command, General Henry Clinton. Clinton’s plan was to split the army into three divisions. Two divisions would make feints directly against the Americans entrenched on the wooded hills of the Gowanus Heights. The largest division, 10,000 men personally under Clinton’s command, would make an overnight march through an unguarded pass on the left of the American line and turn their flank by surprise.
As the battle commenced in the early morning hours of August 27, the British executed their plan flawlessly and with great success. One division of British regulars under General James Grant and one of Hessian mercenaries under General Leopold Phillip von Heister kept the American defenders fixed and distracted as Clinton maneuvered to turn their flank. Around 9 am, the British sprung their trap as Clinton’s Division reached Bedford village behind the American line and engaged the defenders. At the same time, the two other divisions now turned their feints into full-fledged attacks. With bayonets fixed, the Hessians charged the American left under General John Sullivan and fighting descended into vicious hand to hand combat as the Hessians ruthlessly butchered the Americans. The inexperienced Continentals were now caught between a hammer and an anvil and in danger of being cut off from their route of retreat. Recognizing the danger of their situation, Sullivan’s men panicked and fled pell-mell towards their fortifications at Brooklyn Heights.
With the American left flank disintegrating before their eyes, the American right now began to feel the full weight of Grant’s attack. General William Alexander and his brigade put up stiff resistance for two hours, but the collapse of the American left put his brigade’s position increasingly in peril. Threatened with encirclement, Alexander ordered his brigade to fall back. He personally led 250 Marylanders in a bayonet charge against an overwhelming British force creating a crucial window of time for more of his soldiers to escape to their fortifications in Brooklyn Heights. Alexander was eventually taken prisoner and only nine of the original 250 made it to the safety of Brooklyn Heights. Watching the battle on the right unfold, Washington remarked “Good God, what brave fellows I must lose.”
By noon, the battle had largely ended. But when the dust cleared the total number of Americans killed, captured, and wounded reached nearly 2200. Although Washington managed to survive a catastrophic day, he wasn’t out of danger yet. His army remained divided between Manhattan and Long Island and the portion that remained on Long Island was exhausted and penned up, with Howe’s army in front of it and the East River at its back. On August 29th, Washington made the unavoidable decision to withdraw his troops from Brooklyn Heights. That evening, under a cover of darkness and fog, a Massachusetts regiment composed of mostly sailors and fishermen ferried the endangered troops back across the East River on flat bottom boats to the temporary safety of Manhattan.
Washington’s defeat opened the door to a series of equally disastrous losses that ultimately allowed the British to seize full control of New York City. On September, 15, the Americans were routed again at the Battle of Kipp’s Bay as British troops established a foothold on Manhattan Island. Washington would score a minor victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights the next day but suffer another ignominious and demoralizing defeat at White Plains on October 28. Three weeks later American forces were driven from Forts Washington and Lee giving the British full control of New York City. Washington and his army retreated into New Jersey and were chased across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The almost uninterrupted progression of defeats in the summer and fall of 1776 squelched much of the optimism from earlier in the year and cast grave doubt on the viability of the revolution and George Washington’s competency as a military commander. Only Washington’s bold decision to cross the icy Delaware River on Christmas night and wage a surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton would restore faith and optimism in the cause and tamp down doubts about his suitability uas a military commander.
On October 21, 1805, a British naval fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson, destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, permanently ending Napoleon’s plans for invading Great Britain and ensuring that England would remain the world’s dominant naval and commercial power for the next century. Trafalgar is one of the most famous naval battles in history and it is remembered as Nelson’s greatest victory, but it would come at great personal cost, his life. After the French defeat at Trafalgar, Napoleon would forgo any immediate efforts to rebuild the French Navy. Instead, he sought to destroy Great Britain’s capacity to make war by closing off Europe’s markets to British trade through a European wide embargo, known as the Continental System. These actions would put in motion a series of events that eventually would lead to his disastrous invasion of Russia seven years later and his subsequent defeat and exile to the isle of Elba.
By 1805 Nelson was already a national hero and regarded as one of Great Britain’s bravest and most able military officers. From 1793 until his death at Trafalgar, Nelson was involved in battle after battle, risking life and limb for king and country. In 1794, he lost sight in his right eye at the Battle of Calvi in Corsica. Three years later he lost his right arm, slightly above his elbow, leading a doomed assault on the Spanish island of Tenerife in which his arm was hit by a musket ball. At the battle of the Nile in 1798 his daring and courage completely decimated the French fleet, destroying all but two ships. He scored another impressive victory against the Danes at the Battle of Copenhagen, where he defied orders to break off the engagement. Nelson famously put his telescope to his blind eye, claiming he did not see the signal. A charismatic, born leader, Nelson was beloved by both his men and the British public, and it was said that wherever he went the air was filled with huzzahs.
In the Spring of 1803, Great Britain and Napoleon once again found themselves at war after the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens which provided a brief 14-month respite after almost a decade of constant war. From roughly 1792-1802, Great Britain and its coalition partners, Austria and Russia, wagged a continuous struggle to contain the pernicious Jacobin influences of revolutionary France. By the time the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802, both Britain and France were in desperate need of peace. Each side’s finances were in complete disarray—Napoleon would be compelled to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States during this period—and domestic challenges in both countries had become more pressing. Nonetheless, in an effort to achieve a mutually acceptable peace, certain contentious issues were papered over, and neither side was ever quite able give up the suspicion that the other was simply using the peace as an interregnum to gather strength and resume hostilities.
Napoleon recognized that he could never fully realize his grandiose ambitions without defeating Great Britain or at least crippling its war fighting capacity. With the onset of war, he began to expand the port at Boulogne, assemble a new 200,000-man army and build a fleet of barges all specifically for the invasion of England. Napoleon boasted, “With God’s help I will put an end to the future and very existence of England.” He then proceeded to construct a monument in Boulogne to commemorate his anticipated victory. Any successful invasion, however, required control over the English Channel and both the French fleet and their Spanish allies remained bottled up in their ports by a British blockade.
In March of 1805, Napoleon was ready to move against the British and he devised an elaborately complex plan to lure Nelson and the British fleet away from the Channel by threatening Britain’s valuable sugar plantations in the West Indies. The Franco-Spanish fleet under Vice Admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve would slip the British blockade in Toulon; race across the Atlantic; double back and rendezvous with another smaller French fleet before clearing the Channel for the invasion. At first his plan looked like it might succeed as Nelson took off in pursuit, but it soon unraveled. On his return, Villeneuve missed his rendezvous and in late July he was intercepted by a smaller British fleet and forced into a fierce but inconclusive battle. Instead of linking up with the French fleet at Brest and driving off the British Channel squadrons as Napoleon insisted, he elected to sail his damaged fleet back to the port of Ferrol in Northern Spain before moving south to Cadiz. At the same time. Napoleon’s position on the continent took a turn for the worse. Austria and Russia once again joined Great Britain in a coalition against France and an angry and frustrated Napoleon was now compelled to put his invasion plans on indefinite hold. On August 25, his invasion force broke camp near Boulogne and marched into Germany, ending any immediate threat of invasion.
Although the threat of invasion receded, Nelson was determined to destroy the Franco-Spanish fleet once and for all. With Villeneuve ensconced in Cadiz, Nelson and his flagship the HMS Victory left the Royal Navy dockyard at Portsmouth on September 14 and sailed towards the Spanish coastline. Hoping to lure the combined Franco-Spanish force out from Cadiz harbor and engage it in a decisive battle, Nelson kept his main force out of sight approximately 50 miles (80 km) offshore and sent a squadron of frigates to keep watch on the harbor. Villeneuve previously fought Nelson in 1798 at the disastrous Battle of the Nile and he wanted no part battling him again. He also knew, from first-hand experience, that the British possessed better guns, better gunpowder, and their crews were far quicker and more accurate with those guns than the French. But he also faced competing pressures to leave Cadiz. The port city was in the midst of a Yellow Fever outbreak and its food stocks and other supplies were dwindling. Most importantly, he was quickly losing favor with Napoleon because of his inaction. On 16 September, Napoleon directed Villeneuve to put to sea at the first favorable opportunity, go to Naples and land the soldiers his ships carried to reinforce his troops there, then fight decisively if they met a numerically inferior British fleet. Villeneuve hesitated to deploy once again further infuriating Napoleon.
Two developments served to convince Villeneuve that the time had come to depart Cadiz and bring this prolonged drama to its inevitable climax. In early October, Nelson dispatched six of his ships to Gibraltar to gather supplies for the fleet. When Villeneuve was informed that Nelson’s fleet now numbered only 21 ships, he surmised that his increased quantitative advantage might be enough to compensate for his crews’ inferior training. More importantly though, Villeneuve received word on October 18, that Napoleon intended to replace him with his old service rival, Admiral Francois Etienne Rosily. Rosily was already in Madrid and reportedly was on his way to Cadiz to relieve him. Rather than submit to such indignity and humiliation Villeneuve hastily sped up the work of readying his fleet for sea — he would slip out port before Rosily arrived. Villeneuve’s goal was not Napoleon’s, but a personal quest that might win him glory in France. He would seek out Nelson’s fleet, which he knew to be nearby, and destroy it. On the morning of October 19, the Franco-Spanish fleet departed Cadiz and by the evening of the next day the two fleets cautiously were moving towards each other and an inevitable battle.
At dawn on 21 October the British observed Villeneuve’s Combined Fleet eleven miles away, approaching Cape Trafalgar and Nelson gave the order to ‘prepare for battle’. The French were sailing in line off Cape Trafalgar, while the British came in from the west, gradually forming two columns. The first led by Nelson himself aboard his flagship Victory and the second led by his close friend, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood aboard the Royal Sovereign. Although the British Fleet was outnumbered, the enemy totaling nearly 30,000 men and 2632 guns to Nelson’s 18,000 men and 2148 guns, Nelson was confident that his strategy and the superior skill of his crews would lead to victory.
Nelson didn’t simply want to defeat the enemy, he wanted to annihilate it so that Great Britain, its colonies, its trade, and its commercial interests would never come under threat from France ever again. Nelson’s battle plan was simple if not unconventional for the day. Naval battles of the time traditionally were fought with the two opposing fleets drawing themselves up to form two parallel lines of battle. Nelson instead intended to sail his ships perpendicular into the enemy line, pierce it in two spots, create massive confusion, and bing about what he called a “pell-mell battle,” of individual ship-to-ship actions where superior British gunnery, seamanship, and morale would destroy the enemy in detail before the unengaged ships could come to their aid. The main drawback of this strategy was that the leading British attackers would be subjected to direct raking broad side fire at their bows, to which they would be unable to reply.
The British fleet was closing on its French and Spanish foes around 11:45 am when Nelson issued his immortal call to arms, “England expects every man to do his duty.” Shortly thereafter Nelson belayed his final signal to engage the enemy and with that he and Collingwood advanced their respective columns toward the enemy fleet. Nelson’s strategy worked almost perfectly but at great cost. Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, outpaced Nelson and was the first to come under enemy fire. Multiple blasts from the French and Spanish ships ripped through the Royal Sovereign’s sails and rigging but failed to stem its advance. Aiming for a gap between the French ship Fougueux and the Spanish Santa Anna, the Royal Sovereign pierced the enemy line and poured a devastating broadside side through the stern of the Santa Anna inflicting terrible damage on the ship and her crew. After the Royal Sovereign delivered its first salvo against the Santa Anna, the two ships became intertwined trading shot for shot until both ships were little more than splintered wrecks. Just before 1:30, the Spanish ship surrendered.
Meanwhile, Nelson’s advance was slowed by diminishing winds, leaving the Victory even more exposed to French fire and unable to respond. Approaching the enemy line, the Victory began to take on serious damage. Her mizenmast was shot away. Her wheel was smashed as well, blown to pieces by a lucky shot. Her foremast was riddled, and her sails were pockmarked with holes. Nevertheless, the Victory pressed on severing the enemy line between Villeneuve’s flagship Bucentaure and the Redoutable Passing behind the Bucentaure, Victory unleashed a devastating double shot broadside through its stern, disabling the ship and killing or wounding almost half the crew. After delivering its attack, the largely unnavigable Victory ran its bowsprit into the rigging of the 74-gun Redoutable ensnaring the two ships.
Bound together the two ships pounded away at one another from a few yards away. Superior British firepower — a 26-gun advantage — and a faster rate of fire gave Victory a decided edge as it inflicted significant structural damage on the French warship. At the same time, the tangled ships also formed a single battlefield where a fierce melee broke out between British sailors and marines and their French counterparts, with the French proving far more effective at small arms combat than anticipated. French sharpshooters firing from the rigging of the Redoutable. laid down a murderous fire on the crew of the Victory with muskets and grenades, drenching the deck with blood. Around 1:15 pm, tragedy struck the British fleet when Nelson, who defiantly paced the deck directing the battle, was shot by a French sniper and fell mortally wounded. He was rushed below deck with his face covered to hide his identity and prevent the spread of demoralizing rumors. As Nelson lay dying below deck, the battle with the Redoutable was reaching a climax. Sensing that the battle was moving his favor, the French Captain was preparing a boarding party to overwhelm the Victory, when another British ship – the 98 gun Temeraire—came up on the other side of the Redoutable, close enough to almost touch the French ship, unleashing a thunderous volley from from her 32-pounder carronades massacring the French crew. With his ship taking on water and barely afloat and his crew decimated, the captain of the Redoutable struck his colors and surrendered his ship around 1:40pm. When the Redoutable surrendered it was more a shattered hulk than a warship, with 522 of his 670 men dead or wounded.
As more and more of the British fleet entered the frey, the battle largely proceeded according to Nelson’s plan. French and Spanish ships of the enemy center and rear were isolated and defeated in detail. By the time the battle ended around 4 pm, the British took 22 vessels of the Franco-Spanish fleet and lost none. The combined French and Spanish fleet suffered roughly 4,400 men kiled in action, 2,500 wounded and up to 8,000 captured. Among those taken prisoner, was the French commander,Vice Admiral Villeneuve, who was later paroled, returned to France, and committed suicide the following April after his requests to return to military service were denied. The British lost 458 killed and about 1,200 wounded, with most of these casualties occurring on the Victory and the Royal Sovereign. Nevertheless the death of Nelson eclipsed the entire combined total of French and Spanish casualties in terms of importance. On receiving the news of Nelson’s death, King George III is alleged to have said, in tears, “We do not know whether we should mourn or rejoice. The country has gained the most splendid and decisive victory that has ever graced the naval annals of England; but it has been dearly purchased.””We have lost more than we have gained.”
Great Britain’s victory at Trafalgar ensured British naval supremacy for the next century and beyond. The Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by the French Navy or any other coalition of naval forces and Napoleon never revived his plans to invade England. Napoleon would remain in power for another 10 years but the French defeat at Trafalgar would put him on the path that would lead to his ultimate downfall.
Unable to defeat Great Britain with military force Napoleon turned to economic warfare in an attempt to impoverish her. By 1806, Napoleon was once again in control of much of continental Europe and in November of that year he issued a series of decrees essentially closing European ports to British trade, an embargo that would become the “Continental System.” Napoleon calculated Britain depended completely upon trade with Europe for its prosperity, so cutting off trade with continental Europe would ruin the British economy and force it to sue for peace. Since Napoleon had no navy with which to blockade Britain’s ports, his embargo would only work if every European nation participated in closing their ports to British commerce. Napoleon’s intent to enforce the embargo led to a series of ruinous military campaigns, most consequentially his 1812 invasion of Russia, after Tsar Alexander I left the blockade and reopened his ports to British trade. The invasion proved disastrous, resulting in the destruction of his Grande Armée, and marking the start of Napoleon’s downfall that would result in his defeat and his first exile to the island of Elba in 1814.
On the misty Spring morning of April 19, 1775, a band of rebellious New England colonists gathered in the small village of Lexington 12 miles outside of Boston to challenge a column of 400 British soldiers secretly dispatched to confiscate a large cache of gun powder and muskets rumored to be stored in the villages of Lexington and Concord. Unbeknownst to the Redcoats, the colonists had been warned of their approach the night before by Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott.
As the British neared Lexington, they were confronted by 80 militiamen under Captain John Parker, a French and Indian War veteran gathered on the village common to prevent their advance toward Concord. What happened next was sheer confusion. Neither side was really spoiling for a fight. Parker knew he was outnumbered and his poorly trained militia were no match for British regulars. He had hoped that this small demonstration of resistance would compel the British to return to Boston. The British commander equally preferred to avoid all the troubles that would come with a bloody confrontation with the colonials.
When the vanguard of the British force advanced toward them across the town green, they ordered the militia to lay down their arms and disperse. Parker immediately orders his company to fall out but to keep their muskets.Both commanders also ordered their men not to fire their weapons. Nevertheless, in what Ralph Waldo Emerson would call “the shot heard around the world” a musket shot rang out—and its still not clear who fired it—prompting the Redcoats to fire a deadly volley into the ranks of the retreating rebels leaving eight dead.
After this unintended altercation the British Redcoats reformed and resumed their advance. Around 8:00 am the British arrived in Concord and occupied the town. They found very little in the town after searching exhaustively. The armaments which were previously stored in Concord were relocated. As the British awaited the arrival of expected reinforcements, an American force of about 400 militiamen assembled and began moving toward the village. During the advance, a brief firefight at the Old North Bridge resulted in two American deaths. When reinforcements did not arrive as expected, the British decided to evacuate Concord, and make their way back toward Boston. On the return march back to Boston, the British were harassed and ambushed by sniping militiamen, firing from behind trees and fences resulting in casualties of 73 killed, 174 wounded and 23 missing soldiers. American losses were 49 killed, 39 wounded and five missing. While not a major victory in military terms, the overall success of the events on April 19, 1775 embarrassed the British army and provided a significant morale boost for Americans as the American Revolution had begun.
In the summer of 1814, the fledgling U.S. republic was on the brink of a catastrophe, one that would test its resiliency as a nation and its ability to sustain its sovereignty and independence for the long haul. The war that it declared on Great Britain two years earlier, with considerable enthusiasm, was proving to be a debacle. Many of the strategic assumptions that underpinned the U.S. march to war were erroneous, while poor military leadership, a lack of professional soldiers and an overall shortage of supplies and equipment led to defeat after defeat. With each passing setback, opposition to the war increased and there was growing talk of secession amongst the New England states who were always opposed to what they called “Mr. Madison’s War.”
By July 1814, American fortunes had taken another turn for the worse. For two years the British regarded the conflict with the United States as a side show while they battled Napoleon for mastery of Europe. Consequently the American war was fought with whatever money, manpower and naval force that could be spared. With Napoleon’s defeat and subsequent exile in May, the British were now able to shift their focus. Thousands of battle-hardened redcoats began arriving in the Chesapeake ready to strike a decisive blow. By the end of August, the American capital of Washington D.C. would be in flames and the entire American experiment under siege.
August 30, 1814, British Troops Burn the White House
The March to War
The War of 1812 is perhaps one of the least known and least understood wars in American history. It is the United States first war, post-independence, and one the country was ill-prepared to fight. It is a conflict that seems as if it could have and should have been avoided. Understanding the reasons and rationale for the war and how and why the decision to declare war was made are critical for appreciating how the United States found itself in such a terrible predicament in the Summer of 1814.
The United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. Anti-British sentiment in the country had reached a fevered pitch by this time and there were strong voices, including that of President James Madison, clamoring for war. Other officials, mostly Federalists from New England that benefited from trade with Britain, were less enthusiastic. In his call to arms, Madison presented a detailed summary of hostile British conduct towards the United States denouncing the practice of impressment and Great Britain’s continued harassment of U.S. shipping. He also accused the British of inciting Indian attacks on frontier settlements in the Great Lakes region and Mississippi territories. In the end Madison and the War Hawks argued that Great Britain forced the United States to either surrender its independence or maintain it by war. One prominent War Hawk, Congressman Felix Grundy from a Tennessee declared that he would rather have war than further “submit” to British insults.
President James Madison
Of all the causes of the war, the British practice of impressment was the most important and most vexing for America. Great Britain’s ongoing war with Napoleon put increased manpower demands on the Royal Navy. Unable to meet these quotas through voluntary enlistments, the Royal Navy resorted to impressment. For almost a decade the United States suffered the ignominy of having its neutral merchant ships boarded by the Royal Navy and crew members suspected of being British subjects removed and forced to serve on British ships of war. According to estimates, between 5,000-10,000 seamen were taken from U.S. ships from 1806-1812 with approximately 1,300 of them born in America. Although American politicians rattled their sabers in public, in private they admitted that fully half of the sailors on American merchant ships were actually British subjects who had either abandoned or avoided service in the Royal Navy, which was often cruel and harsh. Nonetheless, many Americans continued to view these actions as an insult to the young nation, a challenge to its honor, and evidence that Great Britain did not accept the independence of the United States.
A British Press Gang at work
Many of the War Hawks in Congress were also driven by territorial ambitions and viewed war with Great Britain as on opportunity to seize all or at least part of Canada. Since 1775, when Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold led a military expedition across the frozen wilderness of Maine to seize Quebec, American politicians dreamed of acquiring Canada. Speaker of the House Henry Clay, a Kentuckian, argued that Canada was so vulnerable that an attack on the British colony would force Britain to make concessions. At the same time, he claimed that the conquest of Canada would remove a longstanding threat to America’s security on the North American continent and restore national honor. “I believe that in four weeks from the time a declaration of war is heard on our frontier, the whole of Upper Canada and a part of Lower Canada will be in our power,” bragged South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun.
A Not Ready for Prime Time Military
In June of 1812, the United States had neither the army nor the navy to fight and win a war against Great Britain, despite the bravado of American politicians. In the years following independence, the creation and maintenance of a large standing professional army was not a priority for the young republic and there was little interest in investing in one. The prevailing assumption was that state militias would form the basis of any army in times of need, so at the outbreak of the war the regular army consisted of less than 12,000 men. Congress authorized the expansion of the army to 35,000 men as war sentiment increased but service was voluntary and unpopular because it paid poorly. Moreover, because of the heavy reliance on state militias there were few professional and experienced officers. President Thomas Jefferson authorized the establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802 but it’s primary purpose early on was to produce a corps of engineers to drive infrastructure improvements.
The U.S. Navy was in just as poor shape as the army. Never large to begin with, the navy consisted of less than a dozen ships at the outbreak of the war and included only three frigates. Rather than appropriate funds for a Navy capable of defending U.S. maritime interest, Congress preferred to go the cheaper route and rely on privateers during wartime. In terms of manpower, the U.S. Navy had roughly 5,000 sailors and 1000 marines. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, had 130 ships of the line with 60-120 guns and 600 frigates and smaller vessels as well as 140,000 sailors and 31,000 well trained marines. However, the British had only a fraction of their fleet for use against the United States in the summer of 1812 — one ship of the line, seven frigates, and a dozen smaller vessels — because most of their navy was focused on fighting the French.
U.S.S Constitution, “Old Ironsides”
War Along the Borderlands
During the first two years of the war, the primary theater of combat was the border lands between the United States and Canada. That fighting would center in this area was hardly surprising. American politicians and military leaders had long coveted Canada and many of the War Hawks in the country were quite transparent about their territorial ambitions. They believed American forces would be welcomed by the Canadians as liberators. Canada was also the closest and easiest place to strike at Britain. On paper, the United States had a clear advantage. The U.S. population totaled roughly 7.5 million compared to about 500,000 Canadians, which included 300,000 of French descent that were not considered reliable. The United States had about 10,000 men under arms at the start of the war with thousands more available for call-up compared to 4,500 British troops spread along the border. Nonetheless, the British were better led, better trained, and better equipped which the Americans would soon realize.
Less than a month after declaring war on Britain, the United States carried out a three pronged invasion of Canada that would ultimately end in failure. The entire operation was marred by gross military incompetence, an over reliance on militia, and poor coordination. On July 12, 1812, a combined force of 2,000 U.S. Army regulars and militia, under the command of General William Hull, a 59 year old veteran of the Revolution crossed into Canada from Detroit. Hull lost his nerve after a series of attacks by Britain’s Indian allies and retreated back to Detroit. Hull later surrendered Detroit to a small British force after being deceived into believing he was surrounded by a larger army. He was later court-martialed and convicted of cowardice and neglect of duty.
In October, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, an inexperienced political appointee, and 3,5000 men, crossed the Niagara River into Canada and attacked a much smaller force of British Redcoats, and their Indian allies at Queenston Heights. The attack was foiled by political infighting amongst the army commanders, a refusal by a large body militia to cross into Canada, and the exploits of a more capable and adept British commander.
In November, General Henry Dearborn, another older veteran from the Revolution, led a 6,000 man force from Albany to the north shore of Lake Champlain. Their goal was to capture Montreal but once again the militia refused to leave the United States. The force retreated without ever entering Canada. The results of the entire Canadian operation were best summed up by a Vermont newspaper, it produced nothing but “disaster, defeat, disgrace, and ruin and death.”
The United States regrouped the following year and with the help of new commanders and more experienced troops attacked Canada again with better results. However, it was still unable to score that decisive victory that would force Britain to the negotiating table. In April, the Americans capture York (now Toronto) and burned several government buildings, an act that later would be avenged when the British burned Washington D.C. in 1814. In September, Admiral Oliver Hazzard Perry destroyed the British fleet on Lake Erie, famously declaring “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” The following month, American troops re-captured Detroit and defeated a combined British-Indian force at the Battle of the Thames, which drove the British from southwestern Ontario. American troops ended the year with the capture of the strategically important Fort George near the mouth of the Niagara River. More fighting took place along the Niagara River in 1814, but the conflict’s center of gravity shifted southward to the Chesapeake by August 1814.
Admiral Oliver Hazzard Perry on Lake Erie
The Chesapeake Shuffle
Following Napoleon’s defeat in April 1814, Britain was now free to focus all its military might on the United States and the target of that focus would be the Chesapeake Bay where American defenses were weak and the British could exploit their greatest advantage, their navy. The previous year, British naval forces under the command of Rear Admiral George Cockburn instituted a naval blockade of the Chesapeake Bay and began raiding coastal towns up and down the Bay in an effort to relieve pressure along the US-Canadian border. Cockburn’s raids made him the scourge of the Chesapeake, and the target of much animus from the U.S. press but they did little to draw large numbers of American troops from the Canadian border.
Cockburn resumed his raids on the coastal Chesapeake towns in early 1814 but he believed the only way to force the Americans to see that the war they were fighting wasn’t worth pursuing was to lead a large force against the US capital itself. In August, an army of 4,500 veteran British troops who’d fought the French for the last 20 years, anchored in the lower Chesapeake under the command of Major General Robert Ross. The arrival of Ross’ army in the Chesapeake unnerved the American leadership prompting heated debate over where the army was likely to strike. Secretary of War John Armstrong strongly believed that the British would most likely try to attack Baltimore because of its commercial importance and did little to strengthen the defense of the capital. In 1814, Washington, DC, had roughly 8,200 residents and many of its major structures, including the Capitol Building, were still works in progress. Nevertheless, it presented an appealing means of retaliation for an American attack against the Canadian Capital of York a year earlier.
British Commanders: Rear Admiral George Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross
On August 19, Ross’ army landed at Benedict, Maryland on the shores of the Patuxent River and began their 35 mile march north toward Washington D.C. In less than a week, they would be at the gates of the capital. A hastily cobbled together force of 6,500 soldiers, sailors, marines, and militia, under the command of General William Winder, engaged the British at Bladensburg, Maryland just five miles from the capital. Although Winder’s men outnumbered their British foes, they were mostly poorly trained militia and no match for the battle-hardened British. Under heavy British pressure, the left flank of the American line of defense crumbled. With their left flank enveloped, the Americans fell back in chaos and a rout that would become known as the “Bladensburg Races” ensued. By 4:00 pm the battle was over and the door to Washington wide open.
Winder’s defeat put the capital in a panic. President Madison, who was at the battle with Winder retreated back to Washington. In his absence his wife supervised the evacuation of the White House. Foregoing their personal items, Mrs. Madison gathered important papers and some national treasures, such as Gilbert Stuart’s revered portrait of George Washington and left the city that evening just before the arrival of the British.
Dolly Madison directing the evacuation of the White House.
The British Army entered Washington only to find the city largely abandoned. Under orders from General Ross and Admiral Cockburn the British troops proceeded to burn Washington. One British officer described how the British soldiers “proceeded, without a moment’s delay, to burn and destroy every thing in the most distant degree connected with government.” The Capitol was the first building set aflame followed by the White House. Around midnight Ross and Cockburn entered the White House to find that the president’s dinner was still on the table undisturbed. The men proceeded to enjoy their first hearty meal since departing their ships with Cockburn facetiously offering a toast “Peace with America, Down with Madison.” After finishing their meal, the chairs were placed atop of the table and lit on fire. Before the British were done, the Treasury, State Department, and other federal buildings were on fire as well as the Navy Yard. One British officer remarked that if it hadn’t been for Ross, who urged caution, Cockburn would have burned down the whole city. In what can only be viewed as an act of divine providence, Washington was saved from further destruction when a very heavy thunderstorm and tornado passed over the city the following day and put out many of the flames. President Madison returned to the city two days later. Congress briefly considered abandoning Washington to make a capital somewhere else but the city was eventually rebuilt.
On to Baltimore
After the storm had passed, the British army returned to their ships and prepared to contemplate their next move. Following intense debate within the British command over their next course of action, the British fleet sailed north to Baltimore. Baltimore, unlike Washington, had formidable defenses, including Fort McHenry which guarded entry to the city’s inner harbor. Its 13,000 defenders were not just militia but U.S. Army Regulars, Dragoons, sailors, and marines. They were also more ably led by Major General Samuel Smith, a sitting U.S. Senator, who commanded the Maryland militia before the outbreak of the war.
The British plan was to land troops on the eastern side of the city while the navy reduced the fort, allowing for naval support of the ground troops when they attacked the city’s defenders. Encountering no opposition, the British landed a combined force of soldiers, sailors, and Royal Marines at North Point, a peninsula at the fork of the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay, on September 12. Determined to conduct an active defense of the city, Major General Smith, sent Brigadier General John Stricker and his 3rd Brigade to Patapsco neck to delay the British advance. Stricker’s brigade numbered about 3,000 and was one of the most capable of all Baltimore’s defenders. Around 1:00 pm Stricker deployed 250 skirmishers and engaged the advanced guard of the British army at North Point. Upon hearing the sounds of battle, the British commander, General Ross, rode forward to evaluate the situation and to order his men to drive the Americans from the field. In the midst of battle, Ross was shot in the chest by an American marksman and fell to the ground mortally wounded.
U.S. Army Infantry at the Battle of North Point.
Command of the British land forces now passed to Colonel Arthur Brooke who gathered the main body of the British army and pressed the attack. Expecting the American forces to flee as they did at Bladensburg, the British were surprised when they held strong and inflicted heavy casualties on their ranks. By the late afternoon the Americans began to give way after repeated assaults by the British and retreated back to Baltimore in good order. The British were forced to pause their advance and regroup allowing U.S. time to prepare better defensive positions. The next day the British would find their advance blocked by 10,000 American troops and 100 cannon. Outnumbered 2 to 1 the British would need naval support to dislodge the defenders and Fort Mc Henry would have to be neutralized.
The Rockets Red Glare…
The British began their bombardment of Fort McHenry early in the morning of September 13. For the next 27 hours British warships hammered the fort with cannon balls, shells, and the relatively new Congreve rockets, seeking to pulverize the fort into submission. Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer, who was held on board a British warship, negotiating a prisoner release, watched the nighttime attack on the fort from the ship’s deck. At that moment he would compose the famous words, “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” that would go on to become our national anthem in 1931. Over 1,500 pieces of ordnance were fired but it inflicted only minor damage to the fort. The shelling ceased by 7:00 am and an enormous American flag was raised over the fort, signaling victory. Following the failed bombardment of Fort McHenry, Colonel Brooke was forced to abandon the land assault on Baltimore. The British troops returned to their ships, defeated, and set sail, leaving the Chesapeake Bay.
The Bombardment of Fort McHenry.
Give Peace a Chance!
Great Britain’s defeat at Baltimore and the United States’ inability to make greater headway in Canada served as great impetus for both sides to sit down at the negotiating table and hammer out a peace agreement. Peace talks between the two sides had started in early August in the Belgian city of Ghent, even before the British attacks on Washington and Baltimore. However, negotiations hit an immediate impasse because of the maximalist positions of each side. British representatives demanded that the United States give control of its Northwest Territory to its Indian allies. They also asked that the United States give part of the state of Maine to Canada, and make other changes in the border. The Americans made equally tough demands. The United States wanted payment for damages suffered during the war. It also wanted the British to stop seizing American sailors for the British navy. And the United States wanted all of Canada. The British representatives refused to even discuss the question of stopping impressment of Americans into the British navy. And the Americans would surrender none of their territory.
Word that the British attacks on Baltimore and Plattsburgh, NY failed, combined with the financial strain that the war was putting on both sides brought a new flexibility to the negotiations. Both Great Britain and the United States struggled to finance the war. The British Prime Minister was aware of growing opposition to wartime taxation and the demands of merchants in Liverpool and Bristol to reopen trade with America. He realized that Britain had little to gain and much to lose from prolonged warfare. On the American side, the country’s finances were in shambles and national debt was ballooning because of the war. In the Spring, Congress had authorized Madison to borrow $32.5 million to pay for the war but by summer the investment climate for U.S. Treasury bonds was dismal, and the government’s inability to borrow money hampered its ability to pay for the defense of Washington. In addition, opposition to the war was growing and the New England states were organizing a convention in Hartford Connecticut to discuss the possibility of secession.
After four months of difficult negotiations the two sides agreed to a peace on December 24, 1814. Remarkably, the treaty said nothing about two of the key issues that started the war–the rights of neutral U.S. vessels and the impressment of U.S. sailors. There were also no territorial concessions. In the end, all the treaty did was establish a return to the antebellum status quo. They simply agreed to end what both sides had come to view as a colossal mistake.
The Republic Lives On!
Even though the War of 1812 ended in a stalemate with no territorial concessions or other prizes, just a return to the antebellum status quo, it doesn’t mean the war was without importance. In the simplest terms, the United States proved it could survive. The war also taught the young republic valuable lessons and opened the door to future territorial expansion.
The United States went toe to toe with arguably the strongest military power of the day and fought it to a draw. In doing so, it demonstrated it could and would fight to preserve its sovereignty and independence. It confirmed the separation of the United States from Great Britain once and for all and forced the British to accept United States as a legitimate national entity.
In the military sphere, it proved that a well funded professional military was necessary and that the young nation could no longer rely on state militias and privateers for its security. Future President John Quincy Adams would write, “The most painful, perhaps the most profitable, lesson of the war was the primary duty of the nation to place itself in a state of permanent preparation for self-defense.”
Lastly, the war opened the door to further territorial expansion. For decades, the British strategy had been to a create a buffer to block American expansion and incited Indian attacks along the United States Western frontier. With the smashing of the Tribal Confederacy, Britain’s Indian allies, a major obstacle to further U.S. expansion West was eliminated.
Tragedy and Farce 