War of 1812

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
War of 1812, (June 18, 1812–February 17,
Introduction
1815), conflict fought between the United
Major causes of the war
States and Great Britain over British
War
violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended
Final stages of the war and the
with the exchange of ratifications of the aftermath

Treaty of Ghent.

Major causes of the war

The tensions that caused the War of 1812 arose from

the French revolutionary (1792–99) and Napoleonic
Wars (1799–1815). During this nearly constant

zoom_in conflict between France and Britain, American

1812, War of interests were injured by each of the two countries’
Battle between the frigates HMS
Shannon and USS Chesapeake off endeavours to block the United States from trading
Boston during the War of 1812; detail
of a lithograph by J.C. Schetky.
with the other.
The National Maritime Museum, London
American shipping initially prospered from trade with
the French and Spanish empires, although the British countered the U.S. claim that “free
ships make free goods” with the belated enforcement of the so-called Rule of 1756 (trade
not permitted in peacetime would not be allowed in wartime). The Royal Navy did enforce
the act from 1793 to 1794, especially in the Caribbean Sea, before the signing of the Jay
Treaty (November 19, 1794). Under the primary terms of the treaty, American maritime
commerce was given trading privileges in England and the British East Indies, Britain
agreed to evacuate forts still held in the Northwest Territory by June 1, 1796, and the
Mississippi River was declared freely open to both countries. Although the treaty was
ratified by both countries, it was highly unpopular in the United States and was one of the
rallying points used by the pro-French Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison, in wresting power from the pro-British Federalists, led by George Washington
and John Adams.
After Jefferson became president in 1801, relations with Britain slowly deteriorated, and
systematic enforcement of the Rule of 1756 resumed after 1805. Compounding this
troubling development, the decisive British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (October
21, 1805) and efforts by the British to blockade French ports prompted the French emperor,
Napoleon, to cut off Britain from European and American trade. The Berlin Decree
(November 21, 1806) established Napoleon’s Continental System, which impinged on U.S.
neutral rights by designating ships that visited British ports as enemy vessels. The British
responded with Orders in Council (November 11, 1807) that required neutral ships to
obtain licenses at English ports before trading with France or French colonies. In turn,
France announced the Milan Decree (December 17, 1807), which strengthened the Berlin
Decree by authorizing the capture of any neutral vessel that had submitted to search by the
British. Consequently, American ships that obeyed Britain faced capture by the French in
European ports, and if they complied with Napoleon’s Continental System, they could fall
prey to the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy’s use of impressment to keep its ships fully crewed also provoked
Americans. The British accosted American merchant ships to seize alleged Royal Navy
deserters, carrying off thousands of U.S. citizens into the British navy. In 1807 the frigate
H.M.S. Leopard fired on the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake and seized four sailors, three of
them U.S. citizens. London eventually apologized for this incident, but it came close to
causing war at the time. Jefferson, however, chose to exert economic pressure against
Britain and France by pushing Congress in December 1807 to pass the Embargo Act,
which forbade all export shipping from U.S. ports and most imports from Britain.

The Embargo Act hurt Americans more than the British or French, however, causing many
Americans to defy it. Just before Jefferson left office in 1809, Congress replaced the
Embargo Act with the Non-Intercourse Act, which exclusively forbade trade with Great
Britain and France. This measure also proved ineffective, and it was replaced by Macon’s
Bill No. 2 (May 1, 1810) that resumed trade with all nations but stipulated that if either
Britain or France dropped commercial restrictions, the United States would revive
nonintercourse against the other. In August, Napoleon insinuated that he would exempt
American shipping from the Berlin and Milan decrees. Although the British demonstrated
that French restrictions continued, U.S. Pres. James Madison reinstated nonintercourse
against Britain in November 1810, thereby moving one step closer to war.

Britain’s refusal to yield on neutral rights derived from more than the emergency of the
European war. British manufacturing and shipping interests demanded that the Royal Navy
promote and sustain British trade against Yankee competitors. The policy born of that
attitude convinced many Americans that they were being consigned to a de facto colonial
status. Britons, on the other hand, denounced American actions that effectively made the
United States a participant in Napoleon’s Continental System.

Events on the U.S. northwestern frontier fostered additional friction. Indian fears over
American encroachment coincidentally became conspicuous as Anglo-American tensions
grew. Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet) attracted followers
arising from this discontent and attempted to form an Indian confederation to counteract
American expansion. Although Maj. Gen. Isaac Brock, the British commander of Upper
Canada (modern Ontario), had orders to avoid worsening American frontier problems,
American settlers blamed British intrigue for heightened tensions with Indians in the
Northwest Territory. As war loomed, Brock sought to augment his meagre regular and
Canadian militia forces with Indian allies, which was enough to confirm the worst fears of
American settlers. Brock’s efforts were aided in the fall of 1811, when Indiana territorial
governor William Henry Harrison fought the Battle of Tippecanoe and destroyed the Indian
settlement at Prophet’s Town (near modern Battle Ground, Indiana). Harrison’s foray
convinced most Indians in the Northwest Territory that their only hope of stemming further
encroachments by American settlers lay with the British. American settlers, in turn,
believed that Britain’s removal from Canada would end their Indian problems. Meanwhile,
Canadians suspected that American expansionists were using Indian unrest as an excuse for
a war of conquest.

Under increasing pressure, Madison summoned the

zoom_in U.S. Congress into session in November 1811. Pro-
Tecumseh
Tecumseh. war western and southern Republicans (War Hawks)
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(LC-USZC4-3616 )
assumed a vocal role, especially after Kentucky War
Hawk Henry Clay was elected speaker of the House
of Representatives. Madison sent a war message to the U.S. Congress on June 1, 1812, and
signed the declaration of war on June 18, 1812. The vote seriously divided the House (79–
49) and was gravely close in the Senate (19–13). Because seafaring New Englanders
opposed the war, while westerners and southerners supported it, Federalists accused war
advocates of expansionism under the ruse of protecting American maritime rights.
Expansionism, however, was not as much a motive as was the desire to defend American
honour. The United States attacked Canada because it was British, but no widespread
aspiration existed to incorporate the region. The prospect of taking East and West Florida
from Spain encouraged southern support for the war, but southerners, like westerners, were
sensitive about the United States’s reputation in the world. Furthermore, British
commercial restrictions hurt American farmers by barring their produce from Europe.
Regions seemingly removed from maritime concerns held a material interest in protecting
neutral shipping. “Free trade and sailors’ rights” was not an empty phrase for those
Americans.

The onset of war both surprised and chagrined the British government, especially because
it was preoccupied with the fight against France. In addition, political changes in Britain
had already moved the government to assume a conciliatory posture toward the United
States. Prime Minister Spencer Perceval’s assassination on May 11, 1812, brought to power
a more moderate Tory government under Lord Liverpool. British West Indies planters had
been complaining for years about the interdiction of U.S. trade, and their growing
influence, along with a deepening recession in Great Britain, convinced the Liverpool
ministry that the Orders in Council were averse to British interests. On June 16, two days
before the United States declared war, the Orders were suspended.

Some have viewed the timing of this concession as a lost opportunity for peace because
slow transatlantic communication meant a month’s delay in delivering the news to
Washington. Yet, because Britain’s impressment policy remained in place and frontier
Indian wars continued, in all likelihood the repeal of the Orders alone would not have
prevented war.

War

Neither the British in Canada nor the United States were prepared for war. Americans were
inordinately optimistic in 1812. William Eustis, the U.S. secretary of war, stated, “We can
take the Canadas without soldiers, we have only to send officers into the province and the
people…will rally round our standard.” Henry Clay said that “the militia of Kentucky are
alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.” And Thomas Jefferson
famously wrote

The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter
of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final
expulsion of England from the American continent.

The British government, preoccupied with the European conflict, saw American hostilities
as a bothersome distraction, resulting in a paucity of resources in men, supplies, and naval
presence until late in the event. As the British in Canada conducted operations under the
shadow of scarcity, their only consolation was an American military malaise. Michigan
territorial governor William Hull led U.S. forces into Canada from Detroit, but Isaac Brock
and Tecumseh’s warriors chased Hull back across the border and frightened him into
surrendering Detroit on August 16, 1812, without firing a shot—behaviour that Americans
and even Brock’s officers found disgraceful. The Northwest subsequently fell prey to
Indian raids and British incursions led by Maj. Gen. Henry Procter. Hull’s replacement,
William Henry Harrison, could barely defend a few scattered outposts. On the northeastern
border, U.S. Brig. Gen. Henry Dearborn could not attack Montreal because of
uncooperative New England militias. U.S. forces under Stephen van Rensselaer crossed the
Niagara River to attack Queenston on October 13, 1812, but ultimately were defeated by a
stiff British defense organized by Brock, who was killed during the fight. U.S. Gen.
Alexander Smyth’s subsequent invasion attempts on the Niagara were abortive fiascoes.

In 1813, Madison replaced Dearborn with Maj. Gens. James Wilkinson and Wade
Hampton, an awkward arrangement made worse by a complicated invasion plan against
Montreal. The generals refused to coordinate their efforts, and neither came close to
Montreal. To the west, however, American Oliver Hazard Perry’s Lake Erie squadron won
a great victory off Put-in-Bay on September 10, 1813, against Capt. Robert Barclay. The
battle opened the way for Harrison to retake Detroit and defeat Procter’s British and Indian
forces at the Battle of the Thames (October 5). Tecumseh was killed during the battle,
shattering his confederation and the Anglo-Indian alliance. Indian anger continued
elsewhere, however, especially in the southeast where the Creek War erupted in 1813
 between Creek Indian nativists (known as Red Sticks) and U.S. forces. The war also took
an ugly turn late in the year, when U.S. forces evacuating the Niagara Peninsula razed the
Canadian village of Newark, prompting the British commander, Gordon Drummond, to
retaliate along the New York frontier, leaving communities such as Buffalo in smoldering
ruins.

Early in the war, the small U.S. navy boosted sagging

zoom_in American morale as officers such as Isaac Hull,
Battle of the Thames
U.S. troops battling the British and Stephen Decatur, and William Bainbridge
their Indian allies along the Thames
River in what is now Ontario, Canada,
commanded heavy frigates in impressive single-ship
during the War of 1812. actions. The British Admiralty responded by
© North Wind Picture Archives
instructing captains to avoid individual contests with
Americans, and within a year the Royal Navy had
zoom_in
Johnson, Col. Richard; Tecumseh blockaded important American ports, bottling up U.S.
Artist's re-creation of the death of frigates. British Adm. George Cockburn also
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh at the
Battle of the Thames, Oct. 5, 1813, conducted raids on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. In
lithograph 1833.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1814, Britain extended its blockade from New
England to Georgia, and forces under John
keyboard_arrow_left keyboard_arrow_right Sherbrooke occupied parts of Maine.

By 1814, capable American officers, such as Jacob

zoom_in Brown, Winfield Scott, and Andrew Jackson, had
United States
U.S. frigate United States capturing replaced ineffective veterans from the American
the British frigate Macedonian,
October 25, 1812. Colour lithograph
Revolution. On March 27, 1814, Jackson defeated the
by Currier & Ives. Red Stick Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in
Currier & Ives/Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZC2- Alabama, ending the Creek War. That spring, after
3120)
Brown crossed the Niagara River and took Fort Erie,
Brig. Gen. Phineas Riall advanced to challenge the
American invasion, but American regulars commanded by Scott repulsed him at the Battle
of Chippewa (July 5, 1814). In turn, Brown retreated when Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s
Lake Ontario squadron failed to rendezvous with the army, and during this retrograde the
war’s costliest engagement occurred at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane (July 25). Riall,
reinforced by Drummond, fought the Americans to a bloody stalemate in which each side
suffered more than 800 casualties before Brown’s army withdrew to Fort Erie.

In 1814, Napoleon’s defeat allowed sizable British forces to come to America. That
summer, veterans under Canadian governor-general George Prevost marched south along
the shores of Lake Champlain into New York, but they returned to Canada after Thomas
Macdonough defeated a British squadron under Capt. George Downie at the Battle of
Plattsburgh Bay (see Plattsburgh), New York (September 11, 1814). British raids in
Chesapeake Bay directed by Adm. Alexander Cochrane were more successful. British Gen.
Robert Ross captured Washington (August 24) and burned government buildings, including
the United States Capitol and the Executive Mansion (now known as the White House).
The British justified this action as retaliation for the American destruction of York (modern
Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, the previous year. The British assault on Baltimore
(September 12–14) foundered when Americans fended off an attack at Northpoint and
withstood the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry, an action that inspired Francis Scott
Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Ross was killed at Baltimore, and the British left
Chesapeake Bay to plan an offensive against New Orleans.

Meanwhile, New England Federalists, angry about

zoom_in the war’s effect on commerce, gathered at Hartford,
Battle of Plattsburgh Bay, Sept. 11,
1814, in which a British squadron Connecticut, to propose ways of redressing their
under George Downie was turned
back by American forces led by grievances. Convening from December 15, 1814 to
Thomas Macdonough. January 5, 1815, the Hartford Convention adopted
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
moderate resolutions, but its mere existence prompted
other parts of the country to question New England’s
zoom_in
War of 1812: Executive Mansion patriotism and Federalist loyalty, spelling eventual
on fire doom to the party.
The Executive Mansion (White House)
in Washington, D.C., after being set on
fire by British troops during the War of Final stages of the war and the
1812. aftermath
George Munger/Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-DIG- Immediately after the war started, the tsar of Russia
ppmsca-23757)
offered to mediate. London refused, but early British
efforts for an armistice revealed a willingness to
zoom_in
 G. Thompson's wood engraving of negotiate so that Britain could turn its full attention to
“The Burning of the City of
Washington” during the War of 1812. Napoleon. Talks began at Ghent (in modern Belgium)
At about 8
in August 1814, but, with France defeated, the British
PM
on the evening of Aug. 24, 1814, stalled while waiting for news of a decisive victory in
British troops under the command of America. Most Britons were angry that the United
Gen. Robert Ross marched into
Washington, D.C., after routing hastily States had become an unwitting ally of Napoleon, but
assembled American forces at
even that sentiment was half-hearted among a people
Bladensburg, Md., earlier in the day.
Encountering neither resistance nor who had been at war in Europe for more than 20
any U.S. government officials—
President Madison and his cabinet years. Consequently, after learning of Plattsburgh and
had fled to safety—the British quickly Baltimore and upon the advice of the Duke of
torched government buildings,
including the Capitol and the Wellington, commander of the British army at the
Executive Mansion (now known as the
Battle of Waterloo, the British government moved to
White House).
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. make peace. Americans abandoned demands about
(neg. no. LC-USZ62-1939)
ending impressment (the end of the European war
keyboard_arrow_left keyboard_arrow_right meant its cessation anyway), and the British dropped
attempts to change the Canadian boundary and establish an Indian barrier state in the
Northwest. The commissioners signed a treaty on December 24, 1814. Based on the status
quo antebellum (the situation before the war), the Treaty of Ghent did not resolve the issues
that had caused the war, but at that point Britain was too weary to win it, and the U.S.
government deemed not losing it a tolerable substitute for victory. Nevertheless, many
Americans became convinced that they had won the contest.

Unaware of the treaty, British forces under Edward Pakenham assaulted New Orleans on
January 8, 1815, and were soundly defeated by Andrew Jackson’s ragtag army, an event
that contributed to the notion of a U.S. triumph. The unanimous ratification by the U.S.
Senate of the Treaty of Ghent and the celebrations that followed cloaked the fact that the
United States had achieved none of its objectives.

Contention in the United States had hobbled the war

zoom_in effort, and domestic disaffection had menaced the
New Orleans, Battle of
Battle of New Orleans, 1815. Union, but after the war a surge of patriotism inspired
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(LC-DIG-pga-01838)
Americans to pursue national goals. Contrary to
American expectations, Canada remained British and
eventually developed its own national identity, partly from pride over repulsing U.S.
invasions. Meanwhile, Britain’s influence among the northwestern Indians was forever
ended, and American expansion in that region proceeded unchecked. In the South, the
Creek War opened a large part of that region for settlement and led to the events that
persuaded Spain to cede Florida to the United States in 1821.

The most enduring international consequence of the war was in the arbitration clauses of
Ghent, perhaps the treaty’s most important feature. Its arrangements to settle outstanding
disagreements established methods that could adapt to changing U.S. administrations,
British ministries, and world events. There lay the seeds of an Anglo-American comity that
would weather future disagreements to sustain the longest unfortified border in the world.

David S. Heidler Jeanne T. Heidler

Citation Information
Article Title: War of 1812
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 05 June 2021
URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-1812
Access Date: August 24, 2021