pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
from the viewpoint here you lost War of 1812 one of the goals was freeing us poor Canadians from the Brits and at that you failed, also recall that Britain was fighting the French at the same time
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With respect to the British they got beaten twice (war of independence and 1812) and only won once (7 years war). .
Hickey, Donald R., The War of 1812: A Short History (Urbana, Ill., 1995)The year 1813 saw a more sober US strategy of winning control of the Great Lakes, the key to their defeats of the previous year. A US force took York (modern Toronto) and Newark, looted them, and burned the government buildings, something they were to regret. In September under Cdre Perry they won by far the most significant naval engagement of the war against a British flotilla of equal strength on Lake Erie, enabling them to reverse the land results of the previous year. Two British invasions of Ohio failed and at the battle of the Thames east of Detroit, the Americans caught up with the retreating Anglo-Indian army and trounced it, killing (and skinning) Tecumseh, who had earlier suggested that the British commander should wear petticoats. Elsewhere skirmishing characterized by incompetence when not treasonable corruption left the British controlling much of the frontier.
In the south, with little assistance from the British save for the use of Pensacola as a base of operations for escaped slaves and Indians, later to be called Seminoles, some of the Creek people fought their own war 1813-14 until Andrew Jackson instilled some order in the militia rabble under his command by executing one of them, and destroyed the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. Among those under his command were Crockett and Sam Houston, later heroes of Texas independence.
But 1813 had witnessed the turning point at sea, with the British sailing in convoys and sending several new squadrons, one of which ravaged the Chesapeake Bay area. The blockade began to bite and unleashed violent inflation in the USA, while the commander of the USS Chesapeake chose to accept a challenge to single combat by HMS Shannon, which unknown to him had been up-gunned, and was defeated and killed in a 15-minute engagement. The USS Essex was also tracked down and captured in the Pacifics after a very successful year of commerce-raiding, but it was the privateers who kept the stars and stripes on the high seas, boldly sailing around the British Isles and capturing merchant ships by the hundred and even defeating the occasional small warship.
With the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, the British were able to release more ships and regular troops for the war in America, their numbers rising to about 40, 000. But the US army was able to match these numbers and, under the pressure of war, had shed incompetent commanders and promoted able ones such as Winfield Scott who, although he was nearly killed at Lundy's Lane in July, had drilled his men so well that they fought the British regulars to a standstill. Things went less well elsewhere, with a punitive amphibious operation in the Chesapeake returning the favour for Newark and York by burning Washington and then bombarding Baltimore. More significant was the capture of eastern Maine and the unilateral surrender of a number of New England islands and ports, which were delighted to be able to resume trade in exchange for swearing an oath of allegiance to the crown or otherwise betraying their country. US public finance had collapsed and the Royal Navy, paying in cash, was better able to supply itself from American farmers and merchants than were the US forces offering promissory notes.
The peace negotiations at Ghent that ran from August until Christmas Eve 1814 were a game of bluff and counter-bluff. Wellington, asked to command the forces in America, put his finger on the loss of control of the Great Lakes as the Achilles' heel of the British position, so naturally the British mounted their last big offensive in the south under the command of his brother-in-law Pakenham, who launched a frontal attack across a river and into field fortifications manned by men who could shoot, and was killed along with 1, 500 of his men (a further 500 surrendered) at the battle of New Orleans on 8 January 1815. On 21 February the last men to die in the war were the ringleaders of a mutiny by Tennessee militia in September the previous year, shot by the implacable Jackson, although by that time Congress had hastily ratified the Treaty of Ghent, which restored the status quo ante bellum.
Yes he was but is better known for his failure on the Queenston Heights where had a superior force on top of the heights which is about a 140 ft very steep incline , going to see the reanactors next week at Fort Erie doing a recreation of the siegePB, in some ways I envy you. That must be beautiful country you live in and with your interests, there must be a sense of history everywhere in your neighborhood. I now live in country where General Crook campaigned against the Apache but of course it is much more recent history and not nearly as momentus in terms of world history. Was not Winfield Scott present at Lundy's Lane?
From WikiWinfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866) was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig party in 1852. Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" and the "Grand Old Man of the Army", he served on active duty as a general longer than any other man in American history and many historians rate him the ablest American commander of his time. Over the course of his fifty-year career, he commanded forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil War, conceiving the Union strategy known as the Anaconda Plan that would be used to defeat the Confederacy. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army for twenty years, longer than any other holder of the office.
A national hero after the Mexican-American War, he served as military governor of Mexico City. Such was his stature that, in 1852, the United States Whig Party passed over its own incumbent President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, to nominate Scott in the United States presidential election. Scott lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in the general election, but remained a popular national figure, receiving a brevet promotion in 1856 to the rank of lieutenant general, becoming the first American since George Washington to hold that rank.
During the War of 1812 in Canada, Lieutenant Colonel Scott took command of an American landing party during the middle of the Battle of Queenston Heights (in today's province of Ontario in Canada) in October 1812, but was forced to surrender after New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion.
He was better known for his failure in your area but not ours.
From Wiki
"During the War of 1812 in Canada, Lieutenant Colonel Scott took command of an American landing party during the middle of the Battle of Queenston Heights (in today's province of Ontario in Canada) in October 1812, but was forced to surrender after New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion."
Hell with troops, we'd have won if the Brit Navy had broken the blockade and given the South food and weapons. All we had to do was abolish slavery, a thing we didn't really need. Clinging to the past cost us European recognition, that cost us the war and our freedom.I must confess I know very little about the ACW (or whichever term you prefer for it). I have relatives in NC and have visited Richmond and Petersburg while staying with them (in fact, I walked a large part of the battlefield), and I have read a grand total of four books on the conflict. Short of that (and playing a couple of PC strategy games on the subject), I know nothing
I do get the impression though that the Confederate infantry were a force to be reckoned with in the early days of the war, and they progressively lost this edge as casualties and the worsening conditions in the south took thier toll. The 'what-if' of the British Army joining the CSA forces fascinates me, a boost to the numer and quality of the infantry facing the USA could well have changed the course of the war.
Just for your info where Scott picked to cross the Niagara River in my mind was a fools choice
That would be cool, pb!...I think I''ll try and make up a pic album on the Fts and Battlefields
Anybody is a better General with hindsight and research taking the place of foresight and intelligence.Are you saying that you are a better general then Winfield Scott? Sometimes I just have to chuckle at some of the things said on forums these days by armchair generals. General Scott was captured and paid the price for his "fools choice". But that is war, no?