On This Day In 1812 ....

From the Globe and Mail, Peter Jones ...

".... But the real legacy of the War of 1812, government claims aside, is simply that there was never a repeat. Tensions remained, small cross-border incursions took place, and fortifications continued to be built and maintained for another half-century, but the primary lesson both sides drew (and which was slowly reinforced) was not to bother again.

This may sound rather uninspiring – it is difficult to gather a group of colourfully dressed re-enactors to flail around in a field but not actually fight each other – but it probably explains much in terms of the incredible success North America's two northern nations have enjoyed since.

For from the War of 1812, and its aftermath of avoiding another conflict, slowly emerged what might be called the North American regional consensus. It is now largely unspoken; most who live here probably couldn't articulate it if they had to, but it has dominated the lives of both countries, and especially Canada, ever since.

Simply put, the North American regional consensus boils down to a realization that the cost of fighting for any possible treasure on the other side of the border is patently ridiculous when it is simply easier and cheaper to exchange these things by trade; that two quite different systems of government can coexist perfectly well; and (for Canadians) that maintaining stability and security in the northern half of the continent ourselves means that the United States will not feel compelled to do it for us.

We may take all of this for granted, but we shouldn't. It took those sophisticated Europeans another 150 years (and two of the bloodiest wars in history) to figure it out. Most regions of the world still haven't ..."

[Peter Jones is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and a 2012 visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.]

On this day ..... Fort Detroit fell:

The capture of Detroit: the forgotten battle of the 1812 war | Full Comment | National Post

" ... The siege of Detroit cemented the alliance between the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh's native confederacy and the British whose forces in Upper Canada were led by Brock.

Brock, British commander, best understood how crucial the alliance with native peoples was if an American conquest of Upper Canada was to be blocked.

In the first days of the war, though they later denied it, top American leaders were intent on making the conquest of Canada one of their war aims. In their thinking, the "addition of Canada to our confederacy", as former president Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1812, would negate "the infamous intrigues of Great Britain" on the western frontier. Right back to the time when he was the principal author of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, Jefferson had regarded British encouragement of native resistance to the Americans as a reason for the colonists to throw off British rule. The Declaration accused the British of whipping up "the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

The American Declaration of War against Britain in June 1812 rehashed the Jeffersonian accusation in the Declaration of Independence that the British were stoking the hostility of native peoples to wage war on the frontiers, "a warfare which is known to spare neither sex nor age, and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to humanity."

As Jefferson wrote in support of the Madison administration's decision to launch this new war against Britain, "the cession of Canada … must be a sine qua non at a treaty of peace." Conquering Canada was essential to ending the native threat to U.S. settlers, American leaders believed.

It was exactly to counter that mindset and the invasion of Canada it had engendered, that Brock traveled west to Fort Malden on Lake Erie in August 1812. Before he set out, he had issued a proclamation to Upper Canadians in response to the proclamation published earlier by U.S. General William Hull the leader of the invading force. To Hull's threat that "no white man found fighting by the side of an Indian" would be taken prisoner, that "instant destruction" would be his lot, Brock fired back that people should not "be dismayed … The Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity… They are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded."

Brock's first priority on reaching Malden was to meet Tecumseh. The two decided to turn the tables on Hull with an immediate assault on Fort Detroit. They counted on the U.S. general's known fear of native warriors. They would use American propaganda about native savagery against the invaders themselves.

What happened over the next three days was as much a coup de theatre as a military triumph. After the native warriors, British regulars and Canadian militia crossed the Detroit River and laid siege to the fort, Tecumseh and Brock put on a show for William Hull. Canadian militiamen dressed in the uniforms of British regulars, whose presence was feared in the American ranks. And Tecumseh's warriors crossed back and forth in front of the fort several times which convinced Hull that their numbers were about three times their real strength.

On Aug. 16, Tecumseh and Brock climbed a small hill outside the fort to plan their next moves when the gate below suddenly opened. Out came a man on horseback carrying a white handkerchief tied to a stick. The rider, who was signaling the surrender of Fort Detroit, was General Hull's son, the only man prepared to undertake the disgraceful act of capitulation.

The capture of Fort Detroit, whose forces outnumbered the attackers two to one, changed the course of the war just weeks after it had begun. It showed the Americans that the conquest of Canada would be no easy matter. At least as important, it convinced wavering Canadians that a U.S. triumph was far from certain and it locked in the military alliance between the British and Tecumseh's native confederacy.

There were only a tiny number of casualties in this drama that altered the history of the continent...."

MM

Old Ironsides Sails Again

"... BOSTON – The U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship will sailed under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides."
The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, was tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise.
The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. It follows a three-year restoration project and is the first time the Constitution has been to sea on its own since its 200th birthday in 1997.
Before that, it hadn't sailed under its own power since 1881."

An eye-opener, a comeuppance for the RN.

h/t toughombre

Great History Television doc on the war and the explosion of the Fort York powder magazine:

History - Videos

Sorry about the commercials

MM

October 13, 1812 - The Battle of Queenston Heights:

Battle of Queenston Heights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My current Avitar is a photo of a CF-100 Canuck over the very spot depicted below ...

Defining moments for Canada.

A very thoughtful, honest accounting of the role First Nations troops played on the British-Canadien side in 1812 -14:

War of 1812: For natives, resisting invaders was the

MM
Proud Canadian

Ah, the War of 1812. The war without a parallel in the annals of American history. The war that began on issues that practically disappeared before the first gun was fired. The war that ended more than two weeks before the most important battle was fought.

All criticism aside, we at least got a National Anthem out of it.

You mean the victory over Fort Bowyer by the British?

Actually that was 3 weeks after the peace was signed...8)

buffnut453 said:

You mean the victory over Fort Bowyer by the British?

Actually that was 3 weeks after the peace was signed...8)

Click to expand...

Then let me change that from "the most important battle" to "the most creditable land battle" of the War, which would be New Orleans, January 8th, just over two weeks out from the treaty.

I forgot how it pays to be precise with you boys.

Actually I was just being snarky. I just find it interesting how few people realise that the Battle of New Orleans was not the final battle of the war...indeed, it rather spoils the "happy ending" to know that the British won the final battle of the conflict.

".... two weeks before the most important battle was fought"

Hardly. But Johnny Horton got a hit.

Johnny Horton

MM

The 'battle' ..we let you think that you won....
But, really we did
Cheers
John

On this Day ...

When Canada was invited to join the United States

On this day: April 27, 1813

Fort York fell to the American invaders and the town (Toronto) was sacked:

War of 1812

We leave you colonials alone for 5 minutes and look what happens....
Who should sit on the 'naughty step' ? Mr America.

Hey, we were just trying to get tickets to go see Rush.

That'd be a better reason for going to war than the actual reason for the war of 1812!

Maybe the real reason was that Ameica fancied Canada as a nicer place to live.
Jealously is a terrible thing....just ask the French

On June 24th, 1813, Laura Secord - a Loyalist - took an historic 30 K walk in the woods to warn the British of a pending US attack. The resulting British and Mohawk ambush at Beaver Dams stopped the invasion of the Niagara Peninsula:

War of 1812

MM

October 5, 1813, great Shawnee warrior and statesman, Tecumseh, died in battle against invading American forces:


Tecumseh