The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain from June 1812 to the spring of 1815, although the peace treaty ending the war was signed in Europe in December 1814. The main land fighting of the war occurred along the Canadian border, in the Chesapeake Bay region, and along the Gulf of Mexico; extensive action also took place at sea. |
War of 1812 Honor Roll |
Background From the end of the American Revolution in 1783, the United States had been irritated by the failure of the British to withdraw from American territory along the Great Lakes; their backing of the Indians on America's frontiers; and their unwillingness to sign commercial agreements favorable to the United States. American resentment grew during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), in which Britain and France were the main combatants. In time, France came to dominate much of the continent of Europe, while Britain remained supreme on the seas. The two powers also fought each other commercially: Britain attempted to blockade the continent of Europe, and France tried to prevent the sale of British goods in French possessions. During the 1790s, French and British maritime policies produced several crises with the United States, but after 1803 the difficulties became much more serious. The British Orders in Council of 1807 tried to channel all neutral trade to continental Europe through Great Britain, and France's Berlin and Milan decrees of 1806 and 1807 declared Britain in a state of blockade and condemned neutral shipping that obeyed British regulations. The United States believed its rights on the seas as a neutral were being violated by both nations, but British maritime policies were resented more because Britain dominated the seas. Also, the British claimed the right to take from American merchant ships any British sailors who were serving on them. Frequently, they also took Americans. This practice of impressment became a major grievance. The United States at first attempted to change the policies of the European powers by economic means. In 1807, after the British ship Leopard fired on the American frigate CHESAPEAKE, President Thomas Jefferson urged and Congress passed an EMBARGO ACT banning all American ships from foreign trade. The embargo failed to change British and French policies but devastated New England shipping. Later and weaker economic measures were also unsuccessful. Failing in peaceful efforts and facing an economic depression, some Americans began to argue for a declaration of war to redeem the national honor. The Congress that was elected in 1810 and met in November 1811 included a group known as the War Hawks who demanded war against Great Britain. These men were all Democratic-Republicans and mostly from the West and South. Among their leaders were John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Henry Clay of Kentucky, and Felix Grundy of Tennessee. They argued that American honor could be saved and British policies changed by an invasion of Canada. The FEDERALIST PARTY, representing New England shippers who foresaw the ruination of their trade, opposed war. Napoleon's announcement in 1810 of the revocation of his decrees was followed by British refusals to repeal their orders, and pressures for war increased. On June 18, 1812, President James MADISON signed a declaration of war that Congress with substantial opposition had passed at his request. Unknown to Americans, Britain had finally, two days earlier, announced that it would revoke its orders.
Campaigns of 1812-13 American frigates won a series of single-ship engagements with British frigates, and American privateers continually harried British shipping. The captains and crew of the frigates CONSTITUTION and United States became renowned throughout America. Meanwhile, the British gradually tightened a blockade around America's coasts, ruining American trade, threatening American finances, and exposing the entire coastline to British attack. American attempts to invade Canada in 1813 were again mostly unsuccessful. There was a standoff at Niagara, and an elaborate attempt to attack Montreal by a combined operation involving one force advancing along Lake Champlain and another sailing down the Saint Lawrence River from Lake Ontario failed at the end of the year. The only success was in the West. The Americans won control of the Detroit frontier region when Oliver Hazard PERRY's ships destroyed the British fleet on Lake Erie (Sept. 10, 1813). This victory forced the British to retreat eastward from the Detroit region, and on Oct. 5, 1813, they were overtaken and defeated at the battle of the Thames (Moraviantown) by an American army under the command of Gen. William Henry HARRISON. In this battle the great Shawnee chief TECUMSEH, who had harassed the northwestern frontier since 1811, was killed while fighting on the British side.
Campaigns of 1814 The British appeared near success in the late summer of 1814. American resistance to the diversionary attack in Chesapeake Bay was so weak that the British, after winning the Battle of Bladensburg (August 24), marched into Washington, D.C., and burned most of the public buildings. President Madison had to flee into the countryside. The British then turned to attack Baltimore but met stiffer resistance and were forced to retire after the American defense of FORT MCHENRY, which inspired Francis Scott KEY to write the words of the "Star-Spangled Banner." In the north, about 10,000 British veterans advanced into the United States from Montreal. Only a weak American force stood between them and New York City, but on Sept. 11, 1814, American Capt. Thomas MACDONOUGH won the naval battle of Lake Champlain (Plattsburg Bay), destroying the British fleet. Fearing the possibility of a severed line of communications, the British army retreated into Canada.
Peace Treaty and the Battle of New Orleans Because it was impossible to communicate quickly across the Atlantic, the British attack on New Orleans went ahead as planned, even though the war had officially ended, and isolated naval actions continued for a few months. In January 1815, Gen. Andrew JACKSON won a decisive victory at New Orleans over the attacking British forces: the British suffered more than 2,000 casualties; the Americans, fewer than 100. The accidental linking of the peace treaty with Jackson's victory at New Orleans convinced many Americans that the war had ended in triumph. The Hartford Convention was discredited, and a surging nationalism swept the country in the postwar years.
See History, Source and Bibliography:
NATIONAL ARCHIVES RECORD SERVICE (NARS)
NATIONAL ARCHIVES RECORD SERVICE (NARS)) The War of 1812 series Pension application files relates to claims based on service of veterans between the years of 1812 to 1815 include applications if veterans still living after 1871, (Act 03 March 1871, 16 Stat.) when Congress authorized pensions to veterans only those who had been cited by Congress for a specific service and if they did NOT later support the Confederate cause during the Civil War, and to Widows of such veterans, if the marriage had taken place before the treaty of peace in 1815. Applications for death, disability, regular service, widows, and other claimants are included in this collection. (NOTE: If the soldier was 18 years old at the time he entered the War in 1812, he would have been 77 years old in 1871 when the first pension act was established...prs) A second act of Congress in 1878 (20 Stat. 27) authorized pensions on a more liberal term for veterans who saw as few as 14 days of active service, qualified for a pension as well as the Widows of such veterans. (NOTE: Even with this Act the 18 year old soldier in 1812 would have been 84 years old in 1878..prs The Pension file must be ordered from the NATF on their form 80 (11-87), and they will send you (if found) the veterans's name, age, and place of residence. If he was married, the marriage date and the maiden name of his wife. The unit in which he served, date and place of enlistment, and the date and placement of discharged. The Widow's Pension file will provide her name, age, and place of residence, their pertinent marriage information, the date and place of the veteran's death, his enlistment date and place, and the date and place of his final discharge. NOTE: There are numerous other records for the War of 1812 in the NARS which are unindexed, unarranged, and thus inaccessible to Genealogists. A volunteer project, sponsored by the National Genealogical Society, is currently indexing them.
LAND WARRANTS for WAR OF 1812) |
GENERAL SOURCE REFERENCE: | Title | Subject | Index to War of 1812, Pension Files | Transcribed by VIRGIL D. WHITE; Publ. by the National Historical Pub. Co.; 209 Greenson Hollw Rd.; Waynesboro,; TN 38485; Ed. 1989 | Index to Certified Copy of List of: | American Prisoners of War, 1812-1815; by DEBORAH EDITH WALLDRIDRIDE CAR; Pub. U. S. Daughters of 1812; Ed. 1924 | The Pension Office to: | Congressman ANDREW JOHNSON: A list 1843-1853; by East Tenn. Historical Society Pub #38; Ed. 1966, Pages 97 - 108 |
The War of 1812 Papers: | State Department Records for Genealogy & Local History by SARAH LAWSON; Pub. in "Prologue", Summer 1981, pp. 115-26 |
Muster Rolls of Soldiers of the War of 1812: | Detached from the Militia of North Carolina in 1812 & 14 by NC ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE; Pub. by Barber Pub. Co., Winston-Selem, NC.; Ed. 1969 | Kentucky Soldiers of the War of 1812 | by MINNIE S. WILDER; Pub. by Baltimore Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore; Ed. 1969 |