Wallenfeldt J. The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

against the enemy; and a reasonable portion of the taxes collected within said states may

be paid into the respective treasuries thereof, and appropriated to the payment of the bal-

ance due said states, and to the future defense of the same. The amount so paid into the

said treasuries to be credited, and the disbursements made as aforesaid to be charged to

the United States.

Resolved, that it be, and hereby is, recommended to the legislatures of the aforesaid

states to pass laws (where it has not already been done) authorizing the governors or

commanders in chief of their militia to make detachments from the same, or to form vol-

untary corps, as shall be most convenient and conformable to their constitutions, and to

cause the same to be well armed, equipped, and disciplined, and held in readiness for

service; and, upon the request of the governor of either of the other states, to employ the

whole of such detachment or corps, as well as the regular forces of the state, or such part

thereof as may be required and can be spared consistently with the safety of the state, in

assisting the state making such request to repel any invasion thereof which shall be made

or attempted by the public enemy.

Resolved, that the following amendments of the Constitution of the United States

be recommended to the states represented as aforesaid, to be proposed by them for

adoption by the state legislatures, and, in such cases as may be deemed expedient, by a

convention chosen by the people of each state.

And it is further recommended that the said states shall persevere in their e orts to

obtain such amendments until the same shall be e ected.

First, representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states

which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers of free

persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years, and excluding Indians not

taxed and all other persons.

Second, no new state shall be admitted into the Union by Congress, in virtue of the

power granted by the Constitution, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses.

Third, Congress shall not have power to lay any embargo on the ships or vessels of

the citizens of the United States, in the ports or harbors thereof, for more than sixty days.

Fourth, Congress shall not have power, without the concurrence of two-thirds of

both houses, to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and any

foreign nation or the dependencies thereof.

Fifth, Congress shall not make or declare war, or authorize acts of hostility against

any foreign nation, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses, except such acts

of hostility be in defense of the territories of the United States when actually invaded.

Sixth, no person who shall hereafter be naturalized shall be eligible as a member of

the Senate or House of Representatives of the United States, nor capable of holding any

civil o ce under the authority of the United States.

Seventh, the same person shall not be elected President of the United States a second

time; nor shall the President be elected from the same state two terms in succession.

The War of 1812: An Overview | 195

196 | The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

Resolved, that if the application of these states to the government of the United

States, recommended in a foregoing resolution, should be unsuccessful and peace

should not be concluded, and the defense of these states should be neglected, as it has

been since the commencement of the war, it will, in the opinion of this Convention, be

expedient for the legislatures of the several states to appoint delegates to another

convention, to meet at Boston . . . with such powers and instructions as the exigency of

a crisis so momentous may require.

after the war a surge of patriotism inspired

Americans to pursue national goals.

Contrary to American expectations,

Canada remained British and eventually

developed its own national identity, partly

from pride over repulsing U.S. invasions.

Meanwhile, Britain’s inﬂ uence among the

northwestern Indians was forever ended,

and American expansion in that region

proceeded unchecked. In the South, the

Creek War opened a large part of that

region for settlement and led to the events

that persuaded Spain to cede Florida to

the United States in 1821.

The most enduring international con-

sequence of the war was in the arbitration

clauses of Ghent, perhaps the treaty’s most

important feature. Its arrangements to set-

tle outstanding disagreements established

methods that could adapt to changing U.S.

administrations, British ministries, and

world events. There lay the seeds of an

Anglo-American comity that would

weather future disagreements to sustain

the longest unfortiﬁ ed border in the world.

the British dropped attempts to change the

Canadian boundary and establish an

Indian barrier state in the Northwest. The

commissioners signed a treaty on Dec. 24,

1814. Based on the situation before the

war, the Treaty of Ghent did not resolve

the issues that had caused the war, but at

that point Britain was too weary to win it,

and the U.S. government deemed not los-

ing it a tolerable substitute for victory.

Nevertheless, many Americans became

convinced that they had won the contest.

Unaware of the treaty, British forces

under Edward Pakenham assaulted New

Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815, and were soundly

defeated by Andrew Jackson’s ragtag army,

an event that contributed to the notion of

a U.S. triumph. The unanimous ratiﬁ cation

by the U.S. Senate of the Treaty of Ghent

and the celebrations that followed cloaked

the fact that the United States had achieved

none of its objectives.

Contention in the United States had

hobbled the war e ort, and domestic dis-

a ection had menaced the Union, but

n many ways the course of the War of 1812 unfolded oddly.

Initially the British, distracted by their ﬁ ght with Napoleonic

France, devoted few resources to ﬁ ght in North America,

while the Americans began the conﬂ ict with grandiose

visions of their own abilities, which were quickly belied by

incompetence on the battleﬁ eld. However, as the list of battles

below shows, over time the Americans showed an increased

ability to win battles. By the end of 1814, after notching sev-

eral major victories, the Americans had fought the British to

a draw despite the latter's clearly superior naval power.

BATTLE OF QuEENSTON hEIGhTS

On Oct. 13, 1812, Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, commanding

a force of about 3,100 U.S. militia, sent advance units across

the Niagara River. They established themselves on the steep

escarpment above Queenston (Queenstown) and at ﬁ rst suc-

cessfully defended their position. The main body of U.S. troops,

however, refused to cross the river in support. The advance party

was then surrounded by the British, who captured 925 Ameri-

cans, thereby temporarily stopping a U.S. invasion into Canada.

BATTLE OF LAkE ERIE

On Sept. 10, 1813, Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry’s

ﬂ eet of nine ships engaged six British warships under Capt.

The Battles of the

War of 1812

The Battles of the

ChAPTER 9

198 | The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

territorial cession in the Northwest to

Great Britain in the peace settlement.

BATTLE OF ThE ThAMES

Fought on Oct. 5, 1813, the Battle of the

Thames (also known as the Battle of

Moraviantown) was a decisive American

victory over British and Indian forces

in Ontario, Can., enabling the United

States to consolidate its control over the

Northwest.

After the U.S. naval triumph in the

Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813,

Robert Heriot Barclay in Lake Erie. After

Perry’s ﬂ agship, Lawrence , had su ered

heavy casualties and had been reduced

to a defenseless wreck, he transferred to

a sister ship, the Niagara , and sailed

directly into the British line, ﬁ ring broad-

sides and forcing its surrender. The

British lost 40 men, with 94 wounded; the

Americans, 27 killed and 96 wounded.

The destruction of the British squadron

on Lake Erie ensured American control

of the lake, reversed the course of the

Northwest campaign, and forced the Brit-

ish to abandon Detroit, precluding any

The heroic U.S. Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry in a rowboat on his way to the U.S. Brig Niagara

during the Battle of Lake Erie. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

The Battles of the War of 1812 | 199

good defensive position in the woods

along the riverbank and, despite their

inferior numbers, managed to stop

Purdy’s advance. After this setback,

Hampton withdrew back across the border.

(At least 90 percent of the British troops

at Châteauguay were French Canadians.)

By forcing the Americans to abandon

their projected attack on Montreal, the

Battle of Châteauguay thus exerted a

decisive inﬂuence on U.S. strategy during

the 1813 campaign.

BATTLE OF CRySLER’S FARM

In October 1813 a U.S. force of more than

7,000 men set out in ships from Sackets

Harbor, N.Y., to attack Montreal. On

November 11, the Americans, encounter-

ing rapids on the St. Lawrence River at

the Long Sault, now in Ontario, disem-

barked on the Canadian shore at that

point. They divided into a main body,

under Gen. James Wilkinson, which

advanced toward Cornwall, and a rear

guard of approximately 1,600 troops

commanded by Gen. John Boyd. The

rear guard made contact with the British

force of about 600 troops under Col. J. W.

Morrison, and Wilkinson ordered Boyd

to attack.

The resulting action was fought on

farmlands beside the river. British casual-

ties numbered 200; American losses were

more than 400, including 100 taken pris-

oner. The battle ended with the withdrawal

of the Americans. Learning that another

U.S. force, under Gen. Wade Hampton,

the British commander at Detroit, Brig.

Gen. Henry A. Procter, found his posi-

tion untenable and began a hasty retreat

across the Ontario peninsula. He was

pursued by about 3,500 U.S. troops under

Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was

supported by the U.S. ﬂeet in command

of Lake Erie. The forces met near

Moraviantown on the Thames River, a

few miles east of what is now Thamesville.

The British, with about 600 regulars and

1,000 Indian allies under Tecumseh, the

Shawnee intertribal leader, were greatly

outnumbered and quickly defeated.

Many British troops were captured and

Tecumseh was killed, destroying his

Indian alliance and breaking the Indian

power in the Ohio and Indiana territo-

ries. After this battle, most of the tribes

abandoned their association with the

British.

After destroying Moraviantown, a vil-

lage of Christian Indians, the U.S. troops

returned to Detroit. The U.S. victory

helped catapult Harrison into the national

limelight and eventually the presidency.

BATTLE OF ChâTEAuGuAy

In the autumn of 1813, an invading

American force of about 4,000 troops

under Gen. Wade Hampton marched

toward Montreal through the Châteauguay

River valley. An American advance party

of 1,500 under Col. Robert Purdy and

some 460 British troops under Col.

Charles de Salaberry met at Châteauguay

on October 26. The British had taken up a

200 | The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

established themselves at Queenston.

On the night of July 24–25, a British force

under Gen. Phineas Riall moved forward

to Lundy’s Lane. On the 25th he was

reinforced by troops from Kingston

under the British commander in chief,

Gen. Gordon Drummond. The U.S. troops

advanced, and the battle began at 6 pm.

For hours on end, each side hurled des-

perate charges against the other in the

dusk and darkness. The losses on both

sides were the heaviest in the entire war.

With fewer than 3,000 men, the British

had 878 casualties, 84 of whom were killed;

the Americans suered 853 casualties,

with 171 killed. Drummond, Riall, Brown,

and the American general Winﬁeld Scott

were all severely wounded, and Riall was

taken prisoner.

By midnight, the U.S. troops, too

exhausted to attack again, fell back, leav-

ing Drummond’s men in possession of

the ﬁeld. The British troops, in turn, were

too exhausted to pursue. Neither side

won a decisive victory, but the action

stopped the advance of the Americans,

who withdrew to Fort Erie the next day.

BATTLE OF PLATTSBuRGh

The Battle of Plattsburgh resulted in an

important American victory on Lake

Champlain that saved New York from

possible British invasion via the Hudson

River valley. A British army of some

14,000 troops under Sir George Prevost

reached Plattsburgh in a joint land and

sea operation. The American defenders

had been turned back at Châteauguay on

October 26, Wilkinson retreated across

the river to St. Regis, N.Y.

Crysler’s Farm Battleﬁeld Memorial

Park was ocially opened in 1961.

BATTLE OF ChIPPEWA

At the beginning of July 1814, an

American army of more than 4,000 men

under Generals Jacob Brown and

Winﬁeld Scott crossed the Niagara River

and took Fort Erie. The Americans

intended to push northward toward Lake

Ontario and on to Burlington and York

(modern Toronto). About 2,000 British

regulars and Canadian militia from Fort

George and along the lower Niagara,

under Gen. Phineas Riall, rushed south-

ward to stem the U.S. advance. On July 5

Riall launched an attack at Chippewa

upon the more numerous U.S. forces and

was badly beaten. British casualties

numbered 604; the Americans, 335.

Although the victory restored American

military prestige, it accomplished little

else, largely because the expected naval

support needed for a U.S. advance to the

north and west failed to materialize.

BATTLE OF LuNDy’S LANE

Fought on July 25, 1814, a mile west of

Niagara Falls, the Battle of Lundy’s Lane

ended a U.S. invasion of Canada. After

defeating the British in the Battle of

Chippewa on July 5, 1814, American

troops under Gen. Jacob Brown

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

In the autumn of 1814 a British ﬂ eet of

more than 50 ships commanded by Gen.

Edward Pakenham sailed into the Gulf of

Mexico and prepared to attack New

Orleans, which is strategically located at

the mouth of the Mississippi River. On

December 1, Gen. Andrew Jackson , com-

mander of the U.S. Army of the Southwest,

hastened to the defense of the city.

Jackson’s army of between 6,000 and

included 1,500 regulars and about 2,500

militia commanded by Gen. Alexander

Macomb, supported by a 14-ship American

naval squadron under Commodore

Thomas Macdonough. The outcome of the

battle was determined on water when

the British ﬂ eet was decisively defeated

on Sept. 11, 1814. Deprived of naval sup-

port, the invading army was forced to

retreat. The victory at Plattsburgh inﬂ u-

enced the terms of peace drawn at the

Treaty of Ghent the following December.

Gen. Andrew Jackson (on the white horse) leading his troops in battle against Gen. Edward

Pakenham’s vanquished British troops in the Battle of New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815. Library of

Congress Prints and Photographs Division

The Battles of the War of 1812 | 201

202 | The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

had fortiﬁed their position that the ﬁght-

ing lasted only half an hour, ending in

a decisive U.S. victory and a British

withdrawal. British casualties numbered

more than 2,000 (289 killed); American,

only 71 (31 killed). News of the victory

reached Washington, D.C., at the same

time as that of the Treaty of Ghent and

did much to raise the low morale of the

capital. The Battle of New Orleans greatly

enhanced the reputation of Jackson as a

national hero.

7,000 troops consisted chieﬂy of militia-

men and volunteers from southern states.

Because of slow communications, news

of the peace treaty between Britain and

the United States that had been signed at

Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814) did not reach the

United States in time to avert the battle,

in which Jackson’s troops fought against

7,500 British regulars who stormed their

position on Jan. 8, 1815. So eective were

the earthworks and the barricades of

cotton bales with which the Americans

ChAPTER 10

on’t give up the ship,” said Capt. James Lawrence as

he lay dying during a sea battle near Boston. The

speaker of this much-quoted rallying cry was just one of the

important American military leaders of the War of 1812.

Others included a “ﬁ ghting Quaker,” an infamous pirate, and

several future presidents who would inﬂ uence events in the

United States long after the war was over.

ThE AMERICAN SIDE

William Bainbridge

(b. May 7, 1774, Princeton, N.J.—d. July 27, 1833,

Philadelphia, Pa.)

American naval o cer William Bainbridge distinguished

himself during the War of 1812 by capturing the British

frigate Java .

Bainbridge commanded merchant vessels from 1793 to

1798, when he became an o cer in the newly organized U.S.

Navy. He served in the war with the Barbary States (1801–05)

and was in command of the frigate Philadelphia when it was

captured by the Tripolitans (1803). Imprisoned for a time, he

returned to the merchant marine upon his release (1805). At

the outbreak of the War of 1812 he was again commissioned

in the U.S. Navy and was given command of the frigate

Constitution. His capture of the Java o the Brazilian coast

Military Figures

of the War of 1812

“

204 | The American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812: People, Politics, and Power

The Americans retreated to Fort Erie,

where they were besieged by the British.

Brown, resuming command, launched a

sortie on September 17 that destroyed so

much of the enemy artillery that the

British abandoned the siege a few days

later. Though the Americans were in no

shape to pursue, Brown’s hard ﬁ ghting

solidiﬁ ed his position as a national hero: a

ﬁ ghting Quaker and the ideal model of a

citizen soldier. As the army’s senior rank-

ing o cer, he became its commanding

was one of the notable American naval

victories of the war and, according to some,

helped his ship earn the sobriquet “Old

Ironsides.”

Jacob Jennings Brown

(b. May 9, 1775, Bucks County, Pa.—

d. Feb. 24, 1828, Washington, D.C.)

American Gen. Jacob Jennings Brown

made his mark in the War of 1812 as “the

ﬁ ghting Quaker.”

Of Pennsylvania Quaker heritage

and upbringing, Brown established him-

self as a prominent New York citizen and

rose to brigadier general in the state

militia before the War of 1812. His suc-

cessful defense of Sackets Harbor, N.Y.,

on May 29, 1813, brought him national

recognition and a general’s commission

in the regular army. He commanded a

brigade under Gen. James Wilkinson in

the abortive campaign against Montreal,

and he succeeded to the command of the

Army of the North in January 1814.

After supervising the further train-

ing of his still-raw troops, Brown crossed

the Niagara River on July 3, 1814. On

July 5, he defeated a British force under

Gen. Phineas Riall at the Battle of

Chippewa , but expected naval support

failed to appear and the British brought

up reserves. Threatened with being cut

o from his base at Fort Erie, on July 25

Brown engaged a slightly larger British

force at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane . A long

day of ﬁ erce ﬁ ghting ended in a draw,

with Brown badly wounded.

Gen. Jacob Jennings Brown. Engraving

created from the original painting by

Alonzo Chappel. Hulton Archive/

Getty Images