War of 1812

The battle of Lake Erie began on Sept. 10, 1813. The Americans were led by Oliver Hazard Perry, the British by Robert Barclay. In the course of the battle Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, was severely punished. Perry himself, assisted by the purser and Chaplain, fired the last effective shot. Four-fifths of his crew were either dead or wounded. After four hours of desperate fighting, the battle resulted in an American victory; the British were forced to surrender six vessels.

On September 27th, Harrison's army landed in Canada. He had almost 5,000 men, composed of regulars and Kentucky militia. Harrison's mobility was greatly enhanced by mounted Kentucky riflemen, led by Richard M. Johnson. Johnson and his men quickly pursued Procter's army and on October 5th, overtook them a few miles from Moraviantown along the Thames River.
The whole engagement lasted less than an hour and few casualties were sustained. The British suffered a loss of 12 and the Indians lost 33 warriors. The Americans lost seven, and 22 were wounded. Americans took over 600 prisoners.

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, was fought during the War of 1812 in central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under Major General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe who opposed American expansion, effectively ending the Creek War. The Creek warriors refused to surrender, though, and the battle lasted for more than five hours. At the end, roughly 800 of the 1000 Red Stick warriors present at the battle were killed. In contrast, Jackson lost fewer than 50 men during the fight and reported 154 wounded.

The Battle of Lundy's Lane was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and one of the deadliest battles ever fought on Canadian soil. On July 25th 1814, the Battle of Lundy's Lane, near Niagara Falls, took place. In the course of the battle, 2,000 men, commanded by General Gaines for the Americans and General Drummond for the British, exchange in intense fire. Eight hundred and fifty men on both sides are casualties.
On July 25, after the American victory in the Battle of Chippewa, the troops advanced along the Niagara River past the falls towards Lake Ontario. Along the Niagara River was Lundy Lane, which commanded a view of the surrounding area. Brigadier General Winfield Scott led the American forces. He ordered his men to attack the British positions even though they were outnumbered. Scott felt that if he were to retreat his forces would be vulnerable to attack. Scott attacked and requested reinforcements. When the reinforcements arrived, American and British forces were about equally matched with 3,500 men each. The battle continued for many hours and neither side made much progress, Finally the American forces decided to withdraw. At the end of the battle, 867 British were killed, wounded or captured, while the Americans lost 861 men.

The British army entered Washington in the late afternoon, and General Ross and British officers dined that night at the deserted White House. Meanwhile, the British troops, ecstatic that they had captured their enemy's capital, began setting the city aflame in revenge for the burning of Canadian government buildings by U.S. troops earlier in the war. The White House, a number of federal buildings, and several private homes were destroyed. The still uncompleted Capitol building was also set on fire, and the House of Representatives and the Library of Congress were gutted before a torrential downpour doused the flames.

In September of 1814, fifteen thousand British regulars fresh from victories in the Napoleonic Wars invaded New York from Canada, along ships on Lake Champlain. Their intent was to reach New York City and divide the infant nation in two. Twenty five miles south lay the village of Plattsburgh and Cumberland Bay defended by 32 year old General Macomb’s 1500 regulars and a small hastily built fleet of out-gunned vessels commanded by Commodore Thomas Macdonough, only 30 years old himself.
On the morning of September 11th the armies clashed in tiny Plattsburgh with Sir George Prevost in command of the British. At the same hour the British fleet rounded Cumberland Head where they met the anchored Americans poised and ready. A fierce battle ensued on land and water devastating both sides. A dying wind left the British unable to maneuver giving the Americans the advantage. Within three hours the British colors were struck and their commander Captain Downie lay dead. Seeing his fleet defeated, General Prevost withdrew his troops back to Canada.

Beginning at 6:00 A.M. on 13 September 1814, British warships continuously bombarded the fort for 25 hours. The American defenders had 18, 24, and 38 pound cannons with a maximum range of 1.5 miles. The British guns had a range of 2 miles, and their rockets had a 1.75-mile range, but neither guns nor rockets were accurate. The British ships were unable to pass Fort McHenry and penetrate Baltimore Harbor because of its defenses, including a chain of 22 sunken ships, and the American cannons. They were, however, able to come close enough at maximum range to fire rockets and mortars on the fort. Due to the poor accuracy of the British weapons at maximum range, and the limited range of the American guns, very little damage was done on either side before the British ceased their attack on the morning of 14 September due to a lack of ammunition.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The Treaty of Ghent, signed on 24 December 1814, in Ghent (modern-day Belgium), was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. It had three main terms: 1) War ended in a cease-fire. 2) Terms of peace: status quo ante bellum, meaning neither side gained or lost land. 3) Certain issues were given to commissions to settle later.

American victory in a battle that never had to happen. American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated British forces on January 8, 1815, several weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which had officially ended the war. Neither group of troops had gotten the news by the time the battle began. This battle is also interesting in that the British lost more than 700 dead and 1,400 injured while the Americans lost only 8 dead and 13 wounded.