The War of 1812

A Forgotten Yet Important

War
Why the War of 1812
• My questions about the War
• Schools of thought on the War
of 1812
• Julius Pratt Expansionists of
1813 (1925) refuted most other
reasons
• Historians still debate his
analysis
• History texts
http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/amh/AMH-06.htm
http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/amh/AMH-06.htm
Forgotten War or Second Independence

Warren H. Goodman argued Southern

expansionism was cause of War. 1941

Donald R. Hickey War of 1812 A Forgotten

Conflict (1989)

David Curtis Skaggs review (William and

Mary Quarterly) 1989 race for military
history
Hickey updates in 2001Journal of Military
History with historiography
More Sources

• War of 1812 by Carl Benn 2002

argues political crisis,
annexation of Canada and
served to deny help to Indians
and open land
South Carolina
• Margaret Kinard Latimer South
Carolina. A Protaganist in the War of
1812 American Historical Review
(1956)
• Argued political shift in congress led
by Southern politicians, John C.
Calhoun, William Lowndes, Langdon
Cheves
• Dedicated to overturning Republican
Foreign and Economic policies
Causes
• Britain impeding trade
• Impressments
• British military support for Indians in
area
• Some argue National Honor
• expansion
• Regional contexts
• Indian Land
Taking of the Chesapeake
Election of 1812
Accepted Reasons
• Napoleonic Wars
• Executive Orders in Council
• Seizure of American ships, insults and
injury to American Seaman by British
• Outrages at Sea took two forms
• Seizure and forced sale of ships entering
blockades areas
• France declared counter blockade and
seized American ships
• Second impressments of American
soldiers-pretext-looking for deserters who
worked on American ships
Atlantic Napoleonic
Wars
• To Britain the war was a
burdensome adjunct to war with
France
• To Canada it was a naked
American attempt at aggression
and expansion
• U.S. entered war with confused
objective and without settling
any issues
• Madison's use of economic pressure
to force England to repeal its
blockade almost worked
• Poor grain harvest in England
• need of American provisions to
supply the British troops fighting the
French in Spain.
• June 16, 1812, the British Foreign
Minister announced that the
blockade would be relaxed on
American shipping
Political Shifts

• Power had shifted to west and south

• Grievances about European
interventions had gained momentum
• Jeffersonian responses-conciliation,
restrictive measures, minimum
armaments and “peace at all price.”
12th Congress

• Prior to this legislation was

merely jockeying of party
strength
• New Englanders voted for Navy
and arming but to antagonize
the administration
• Hartford Convention
War fever

• More in Ohio Valley and

Northwest
• Convinced moving British out of
Canada solve problems
• Western War hawks and
southern war hawks
Not everyone for the
war
• Quakers protest treatment on
moral reasons
• Imprisoned due to protests
• Thomas Rotch abolitionist and
helped with underground railway
• Served on committee of Indian
Concerns
• Before Election 1/3 in Congress
pro
• June 4 79-49 in house
President Jefferson

• Embargo on American trade

with Britain
• Maritime interests ruined
• Seaports enter depression some
never recover
• Eastern interests hate Jefferson
rest of country hate Britain
Country at Large

• Outraged over impressments and

lack of concern by larger interests
• British vessel 1807 attacks the
Chesapeake and impresses seaman
• General public wave of indignation
and maritime interests join this time
• Insult to American flag and Jefferson
chooses not to go to war with Britain
Reactions
• Impressments and seizure of cargo
net different results
• Maritime interests on Eastern
seaboard protest but not want to risk
trade with England-so loose
occasional ship
• Impressments no financial hardship-
so treatment of sailors not important
• Maritime interests minimized it
 Tecumseh

 Village at Tippecanoe (Ind)

 700 people and threat
 William Henry Harrison
 British Battle of Tippecanoe 1811
 Successful until Battle of Thames 1813.
 Western Theatre Secured
 Battle of Ft. McHenry in Baltimore

September 1814 minor battle but F. Scott Key wrote Star Spangled
Banner
1814 Taking of Washington
.
Cartoon depicts President James Madison and King George III boxing.
The artist gloats over naval loss suffered by the British and the defeat of the
warship Boxer to the Enterprise during the War of 1812.
King George III makes a batch of ships and puts them into a bread oven:
This cartoon is a satire on British efforts to recover after major naval
losses on the Great Lakes in 1813 and 1814.
Battle of New Orleans January 18 1815
Treaty of Ghent

• Dec 24, 1814-marks end of War

 “all the rights and privileges they enjoyed

before the war.”

• Madison had looked for diplomatic resolution
• August 20 Dearborn Prevost Armistice lacked
Impressments Issue
• Russian mediation failed
• England not need Sailors
• Only thing settled was boundaries U.S. Canada
• Return to pre war conditions
• Real losers First Nations -
Results

• Historians mixed. General view

was that nothing was settled
• 1990 Canadian Wesley Turner
argued both sides won. U.S.
won by eliminating Indians and
British, Canada won because
fended off invasion and
vindicated existence of nation
However
• Southern Campaign successful
regarding expansionfor Western War
hawks and southern war hawks
• Georgia Tennessee and Mississippi
Valley Territory had designs on
Florida-Spanish possession
• 1812 election year
Early attempts on Spanish
Florida
• 1740 Gov. Oglethorpe GA

• 1763 - Britain gained control of Florida in 1763 in

exchange for Havana, Cuba, which the British had
captured from Spain during the Seven Years' War
(1756-63). Spain evacuated Florida after the
exchange, leaving the province virtually empty. At
that time, St. Augustine was still a garrison
community with fewer than five hundred houses,
and Pensacola also was a small military town.

• 1783 - During the Revolutionary War, Spanish troops

entered Florida and repossessed the land. Settlers
attempted revolution several times against Spain. 
• During War of 1812 Spain allowed
Britain to use Pensacola as a
garrison
• 1814 - American troops captured the
base in Pensacola.
• 1818 - On one of those military
operations, in 1818, General Andrew
Jackson made a foray into Florida.
Jackson's battles with Florida's
Indian people later would be called
the First Seminole War
Creek Indians
• Alliance First Nations Mississippi Territory
• Lower Creeks in east (Georgia)
• Upper Creek West
• White Encroachment leads to division
• Lower Creeks take on more white
characteristics, farming, land
• Lower Creeks and Choctaws neutral
• Spring 1812 Lowers attack whites
• Group of 4000 or so Red Sticks
• Name
Creek National Council
• Stop the Red Sticks-
• Red Stick Chief Little Warrior
• American War heightens the division
• British and Spanish try to ally
• Red Sticks try to stay neutral
• Summer 1813-Tuckabatche
• leads to 9 month war.
Horseshoe Bend
• 1811 Tecumseh
• Red Eagle Attacks garrison kills 300
• Jackson recovering from wound in
Nashville
• 2000 Tennessee Militia and 1000 Creek
• Looses many and executes some
• March 27, 1814
• 550-49
• Women and children allowed to escape
Results

• Power of Upper Creek Broken

• Moved west eventually to Oklahoma
• Land immediately opened to settlers
• Cotton helps flagging slavery
• Jackson-Major General
• Without authorization goes over
International Boundary
• Battle of New Orleans
Conditions in South Ripe

• Escaped Slaves, Defiant Red Sticks,

• Spanish Outposts in Florida and the West
• British in the Caribbean
• French Speaking Louisiana Territory and
the Pirates
• Unstable situation
• New Orleans the only strong American
Outpost in the South-cut off geographically
• British not strong enough until 1814.
My Findings
• Clearly there is a controversy over the
causes and possibly the results of the
War.
• Territory and slavery
• Maps and Timelines
• International Context must include
Spain.
• Treaty of Ghent Marks end however,
the Southern Spanish held area was
not.
• 23 million acres
Conclusions

• End of Federalist control

• The Treaty of Ghent is the one
thing that differentiates the
causes and results
• War to Secure the West
Questions

• War
• Documents
• How to analyze?
• Where would you start?
• visuals
Quiz One due in class Tuesday
Read “Rise of Northern Capitalism”