History: The War of 1812 Documentary

in June 1812 the young United States declared war on the greatest power in the world Great Britain for two and a half years Americans fought against the British Canadian colonists and Native Nations in a small but bitter war yet in the u.s. today very little of the war of 1812 lives on in the public mind it's the Forgotten War it's the war that we don't know too much about why was it fought where was it fought why is it important it's the war that Americans have largely forgotten but the British don't remember it either for the British 1812 is when Napoleon marched on Moscow they have no idea that was a war going on on the other side of the world but if it's been forgotten in Britain in the United States there is a place where people remember the war of 1812 Canada in our minds the war of 1812 is where we defend our version of freedom and liberty and democracy the Native Nations that fought alongside the British would remember it too but not as a victory there's this sense that we lost because what we lost was the ability to govern ourselves on our own land what lasted on every side was a mythical version of history stories grew up that really departed from the truth these were enshrined in the history books this was a time when legend and myth often substituted for verifiable history even real stories turned into legends in Canada both a frontier housewife and an aristocratic British general became national heroes in the u.s. a Shawnee chief is still much admired though he fought on the other side and a war composed largely of American defeats is now remembered for a victory at New Orleans Old Ironsides the Credo don't give up the ship and a star spangled banner fluttering in the dawn 18:12 is tiny war by world standards both sides are struggling to try and defend their own borders and attack the enemy a total number of people killed in the war it's very small compared to the major Wars of the world and yet it forges the destiny of a continent for 200 years to come [Music] the war of 1812 was a paradox of scale its armies were small and casualties very few yet the battleground stretched across much of North America and beyond but in Europe another war raged the decades-long struggle between Britain and Napoleon's France it was this titanic conflict that touched off the war of 1812 [Music] Britain was in a death struggle with Napoleon Bonaparte on the continent of Europe and on the seven seas at the time it was a world war that was going on the only way that Britain could really curtail Napoleon's empire building was to cut off supplies from reaching Napoleon's troops so they were stopping ships on the high seas this upset the United States a great deal if you carry goods for the French you're on the side of the French you cannot be neutral the Americans had desperately try not to take sides because they can make a lot of money by being neutral and what they're finding is that neutrality has a cost that cost could be high in eighteen seven Britain began to issue a series of decrees to undermine American trade all neutral ships trading with France had to stop in Britain first and pay a duty or else the British would simply regard them as enemy the enormous ly powerful Royal Navy seized hundreds of American ships in fact the British took more than ships and money they seized men as well by 1812 the Royal Navy in a war for nineteen years they had over a hundred and twenty thousand men in service and they're losing ten and fifteen thousand men a year if they run out of sailors they lose the war at sea and they lose the war when they stopped an American ship and discovered a sailor with a British accent if he looked like he was a prime sea hand he would be impressed and into the Royal Navy in the first years of the 19th century Britain impressed over 6,000 sailors from American merchant vessels then one June afternoon in 18:7 just off the Virginia coast the British ship leopard demanded to board the u.s. Navy frigate Chesapeake where for British deserters were serving in the crew the Chesapeake refused the British simply opened fire they cannon aided the ship for 10 minutes killing three sailors wounding 18 more the Chesapeake surrendered the British came on board and took four men away the whole incident led to extremely difficult feelings as you can imagine between Great Britain and the United States it was an example perhaps the most egregious example of this kind of high handedness on the part of Great Britain that clearly the American public were not about to tolerate the British in no way really threatened our independence they did what great powers always do when they're at war they ran roughshod over the rights of a second-rate neutral power no war was declared in 1870 but British impressment and American resentment went on without stopping in 1810 a new breed was elected to Congress men like Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C Callahan of South Carolina both of whom had been born after the Declaration of Independence so what was tolerable for older Americans was insufferable for the new generation war for them was the only answer is pushed by a Republican Party based in the center and south with the support of the Western war hawks their ambition is to seize land the land of the Native Americans the land that is now Canada [Music] expansion into Indian land to the West had been a basic part of US policy for years among the principal architects of that plan was a learned long faced hot-tempered man named William Henry Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison has been slowly but steadily acquiring lands from from Native Americans throughout the Ohio River Valley a number of tribes give him their lands make treaties with him in these treaties tribes had signed away more than 100 million acres of land but one Shawnee Warchief refused to come son was 42 but he'd been through the fire long before he grows up he sees much of his family his father and his older brother died in battles he sees himself as kind of a person who has to kind of take charge because there's really no one else to take charge at his time in his life to come sub became a fierce warrior yet it was his compassion that marked him he refused to make war on women and children he envisioned a confederation of tribes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico a union of Indian nations to come so the great Shawnee leader was really not so different in his thinking from George Washington as Washington had seen the states jealous and fighting with each other Tecumseh saw the tribes doing the same and losing ground to the United States to come sir was way ahead of his time because he realized that the United States was picking tribes off just one by one and a tribe a hundred miles away or 500 miles away thought that was not their problem he was trying to resist the United States with a united front the two protagonists met at Harrison's home in Vincennes in August 1810 the governor wanted to know why Tecumseh refused to accept treaties that others had signed Harrison had expected to meet with 30 native warriors to come sbrick more than twice as many the confrontation soon took on mythic overtones there were many examples of paintings of to come sir raising his hatchet at William Henry Harrison & Harrison has his sword out these may be apocryphal but it's a perfect example of the relationship that these two had to come - goes right out from William Henry Harrison delivers a very bitter speech and denouncing Harrison for being there and denouncing the white settlers to come some the Great Spirit said he gave this great island to his red children he placed the whites on the other side of the big water but they were not content with their own and they came to take ours from us they have driven us from the sea to the lakes we can go no farther my brother I do not see how we can remain at peace with you the thing which Tecumseh and Harrison had in common was their standing as warriors they respected each other as warriors beyond that they had almost nothing in common harrison was a dedicated expansionist he saw the United States as destiny as rolling westwoods and he's so really no place for the Indians in in that future in the fall of 1811 to come to set out to recruit Indian nations in the south to join his Confederacy Harrison seized the chance he gathered an army and marched toward Prophetstown to comes his home base in what is now western Indiana Harrison led a thousand troops towards Prophetstown he was plainly going there to attack it when he thought it was weak when Tecumseh was not there to lead the troops a group of native warriors at Prophetstown decided to strike first before dawn on the morning of November 7th they moved through an oak thicket toward Harrison's army camped on the banks of the Tippecanoe River the attack certainly initially goes extremely well the American soldiers are thrown into complete chaos the natives inflict significant casualties [Music] the Americans organize themselves they start to hit back so before light the natives withdraw [Music] in the real Battle of Tippecanoe the natives inflicted a good deal of damage but Harrison's reports to Washington described a decisive victory a glorious victory a report that became an American legend the day after the battle Harrison's troops burned Prophetstown to the ground his men dug up Indian graves and scalped and mutilated Indian corpses in the village they found British weapons the discovery that outraged the frontier press vengeance one newspaper demanded the news angered the war hawks in washington as well and made life difficult for President James Madison Madison was pressured by the Warhawks he was a brilliant legislative mind as an executive he found her to some degree he was a sensitive man very small he could look one observer said like a withered little apple John his enemies have called him a pygmy acknowledged that he was very smart but he probably wasn't cut out to be what was called in the chief magistrate she lacked a certain decisiveness he lacked an instinct for the jugular where Madison was an introvert his wife dolly was quite the opposite she was 17 years younger a fashion plate politically astute yet blazingly social madison himself was more at home among his books than any human company he's the architect of the Constitution he certainly understands very well that the power to declare war the War Powers are in fact lodged with Congress Madison sent a war message to Congress in June of 1812 what he does in that message is lay out all our grievances against Great Britain and then say Congress may wish to consider what to do next on June 1st 1812 Madison's war message was read before both houses of Congress it listed the reasons for war the British were impressing sailors interfering with trade and stirring up Indian warfare in the northwest three days later the House voted 79 for war 49 opposed but in the Senate debate lasted four weeks and the margin was 19 to 13 it was the closest formal war vote in American history it was the foolish notion to think that the United States could take on Great Britain the world's most powerful naval power it was a nation able to produce everything from muskets to cannon two ships of all sizes shapes and description but in Britain the declaration of war was yet another unwelcome piece of news Napoleon and his allies controlled most of Europe King George the 3rd was insane in May the Prime Minister had been shot and killed in the House of Commons the last thing Britain needed was another war in Canada there was even less enthusiasm for the war people there knew that the declaration would soon be followed by an invasion there were many Americans living in Canada Madison felt that Canada would almost welcome the United States as as the liberator the Madison administration was very confident that this the conquest of Canada would be as Thomas Jefferson said a mere matter of marching I'm glad he said that because British and Canadian historians would be dining out on that quote ever since but there was a misplaced confidence and in that the Canadians would not fight hard that Britain would not fight hard to defend this territory even in the United States the war got a mixed reception in the West the announcement was celebrated but in New England the reaction was quite different this was the best in of the Federalist Party the opposition to Madison's Republican Party here shops closed bells tolled flags hung at half-staff the New England states had a flourishing coastal trade with Great Britain which they weren't interested in losing the effort on the part of the war hawks to paint Great Britain as the great enemy that had to be opposed really didn't find much support in New England any New Englanders were fairly happy with the way things were thank you very much and the reliably hood depended upon it there was quite a bit of opposition to the war probably the most eloquent and forceful of the opposition papers was published by a Baltimore lawyer over the name of Alexander Hansen he was publishing an anti-war newspaper in Baltimore which was decidedly pro-war he denounced President Madison and Congress for declaring war because the country was not ready for it in his newspaper he foresaw the ruin of America as soon as war was declared Henson came out against it many in Baltimore were outraged violently outraged there was a huge mob people gathered outside the house Hansen had a group of his friends inside that were barricaded and so at nighttime they were taken these few people and Hansen himself or taken into protective custody in jail and they were given the assurance that their lives would be protected the mob broke into the jail took the prisoners they were all beaten really beaten Hansen was beaten unconscious nine men were clubbed and stabbed one was tarred and feathered then set afire a general and the Maryland militia was stabbed to death Alexander Hansen was left for dead but he survived what happened in Baltimore in those early days of the war of 1812 is a lesson in how you should not subdued dissent even during warfare because a mob can get out of control and destroy the very values which you are trying to uphold for the United States this was an inauspicious start to a war that would go on for two and a half years the first chapters of the war were a story of American disaster one blunder after another one of the greatest mistakes that the American government makes in declaring the war is the way they go about in forming their own army that war has been declared particularly in the northwest they they make the mistake of sending word out by the common post which could take weeks even months the British commanders in the northwest know that war has been declared before the American commanders do at the western edge of the United States the American fort on Mackinac Island commanded by Lieutenant Porter Hanks controlled the strategic Narrows between Lakes Michigan and Huron one peaceful day in July 1812 a British and Indian force gathered on the heights behind the fort and sent over a messenger lieutenant Porter Hanks is completely unaware that war has been declared until you know this is oversimplifying to a point but he wakes up one morning there's a cannon pointing down the hill and a guy in a red coat knocking on the door saying you know we'd like the keys Lieutenant Hanks surrendered to the British and minutes later the Union Jack flew over the fort the Ford of this magnitude has simply fallen without a fight this is a tremendous blow to American morale to the strategic situation in the northwest in the summer of 1812 James Madison approved the plan that surprised no one the United States would wage war on Britain by invading Canada the Americans would invade in three places one army would plow into Canada from Detroit at the western edge of Lake Erie another force would cross the border at the Niagara River just east of Lake Erie and a third would head directly for Montreal the u.s. plan at the beginning of the war day it's that they were planning to attack everywhere it seems and it was all very disorganized the u.s. plan ignored some basic truths of the era there were no real roads transportation moved well only on water and the British held the st. Lawrence towns on the distant frontier were out of touch with Washington and communication between the three American armies was non-existent at the same time two British who had various much smaller forces in Canada I had the planning was very good the defense planning they knew what they wanted to do and they knew who they wanted to do it the fate of the Canadian colonies rested in the hands of Governor General Sir George prevel a sensible practical administrator his job was to hold on to as much of Canada as he could he faced a big challenge large territory sparse population and what and a territory that wasn't all that well fortified but Provo had an asset in the brilliant general Isaac Brock commander in Upper Canada Brock was proposed and Pythias he was 42 strikingly handsome a wine lover in gourmet a dazzling dancer an omnivorous reader an aggressive willful gambler an aristocrat to his bones he was extremely energetic he was extremely ambitious he did not want to be in Canada he knew the real war was in Europe and he felt that if he distinguished himself here that they would send him over to Europe to where the real war was when he first joined the 49th regiment of foot in the regiment was a famous duelist this man insulted Brock Brock insulted him right back so this man child challenged Brock to duel Brock chose pistols to be fired over a handkerchief not a distance of 30 paces but over the width of a handkerchief the duelists backed down and being disgraced had to leave the regimen in North America Brock and Provo realized that Upper Canada the vast province in the West bordering all five of the Great Lakes might be lost to the invading Americans Isaac Brock my situation is most critical most of the people have lost all confidence I however speak loud and look big looking big might not be enough Brock had a massive area to defend and few men to do it with beyond the Canadian militia he had just 1200 regular soldiers from the British Army but it was an army of veterans it was an army made up basically of the poor the soldiers were there out of economic desperation by and large they joined the army for the food the lodging and the clothes on their back because it beat the devil out of starving to death in the slums of Glasgow one British soldier was shadrach by field a young man from Wilshire a weaver by trade shadrach by field I entered the military service at 18 in the year eighteen seven my mother on hearing I was enlisting was so affected she fell in a fit and never spoke after I was obliged marshal for the next morning the man who understood British soldiers best did you go Wellington said that they were the scum of the earth and listed for drink he also said that he put his life in their hands so they weren't one the same time at the bottom end of the socio-economic scale and they were hugely important these guys are professionals the US Army by contrast had virtually no professionals Americans still distrusted the entire idea of a standing army which might become a threat to their Liberty so the United States would rely heavily on militia many of the militia during this period regarded their training on a monthly basis as an opportunity to get together with friends discuss what's going on and then adjourned for the local tavern to end up the day with a few drinks American militia service was an oddly informal arrangement they often had no uniforms they often elected their own officers their attachment to their home state was as powerful as their feelings for the country and few imagined that invading another nation might be part of the job description the American generals Madison had to choose from were hardly better in fact they were worse the generals he had to pick among were either very young and untried or veterans who were 30 years past their prime he went with the veterans and it was disastrous one such veteran was William Howe William Hall had been a brave soldier in the revolution he was 58 he had eaten and drunk a great deal too well for 30 years and when the war was looming Madison called him back to Washington and offered him a generalship in the fledgling American army they needed him to go and invade Canada so he went off with many misgivings and no possibility of success in July 1812 general Hall assembled an army fort looked to be an invincible invasion sent from Detroit General Brock had only one hope to stop the American invasion help from the native warriors we are committed to a war in which the enemy will always surpass us in numbers equipment and resources it is of primary importance that the confidence and goodwill of the Indians be preserved during the American Revolution most Native Americans had allied themselves with the British a decision that cost them lives and land [Music] the British understood that without native allies they had a very difficult time but because of our losses during the Revolutionary War our people were very hesitant to fight when we put ourselves in the in the moccasins of these fellows back then what big decisions ahead what side to pick what fight to make and where to make that fight they're big big decisions but after the burning of Prophetstown to come so had made his choice late one argost evening he entered Brock's quarters of the Canadian side of the Detroit River the two men liked each other on sight a more sagacious and gallant warrior does not I believe exist to come sir has the admiration of everybody who conversed with him they both been professional full-time soldiers basically in their culture since they've been teenagers Isaac Brock's older brother been killed during the American Revolution as a British officer an Tecumseh's older brother had been killed and his father as well fighting Americans all of Brock's officers urged caution to come sir pushed for an immediate attack Brock agreed this is a man to come sassette of Brock on the morning of August 15th 1812 they crossed the river and took up positions around Fort Detroit the Americans set safely behind walls 11 feet high but the audacious Brock sent a general holla demand I require he wrote your immediate surrender hull was tortured by doubt he had an inordinate fear of the Indians he was convinced that the Indians were savages beyond any recognition as human beings that if they were unleashed on his family or his troops it would be the worst kind of massacre Brock dressed Canadian militiamen in surplus uniforms so they looked like regulars to come some marched his same men passed the fort three times so it looked as if he had thousands of warriors then the British primed the Kadett the British gave notice that they would commence the bombardment of Detroit when it began Lydia bacon who was the wife of an American army officer was actually in the fort she was in the hospital quarters with other women preparing bandages for the wounded the British got the range of the fort so well that Michelle came through the next door room and killed two officers outright Lydia bacon the cannon began to roar a 24 pound shock cut to officers who were standing in the entry directly into the same ball passed through the wall and took the legs off of one man my feelings were brought up to a high pitch but weep I could not complain I would not William how did not have Lydia bacons courage the American general disintegrated in the fort there was Hall slumped on the ground drinking heavily smoking tobacco juice and spittle running down the front of his uniform his men are so angry they haven't fired a shot Paul begged for time he sent a note to brach asking for a three-day ceasefire Shadrach Byfield I was with General Brock at that time and from what we could hear the American general inside the fort wanted three-day cessation to which our general replied that if they did not yield him three hours he would blow up every one of them hull didn't need three hours after a few minutes he ordered a white tablecloth hung out a window it was the only time in history that a white flag was raised over an American city before a foreign army Brock comes he marches thousands of American troops out some of them militia he sends home whole he takes to Canada marches him through the streets and ultimately sends him home I have done what my conscience directed Paul wrote I have saved Detroit from the horrors of an Indian massacre but Hall had lost an entire army and a delta shocking blow to the morale of his own country and holds men are pressed to have him court-martial and he is found guilty and he is sentenced to be shot Madison reviews holes record decides that he was a hero in the revolution and he sustains the sentence but not the execution and Hall goes home in disgrace to Massachusetts but Detroit was only the first of three parts to the American invasion of Canada in October a second American army assembled in New York at Lewiston across the Niagara River from the canadian village of Queenston the general that's in command of the region for the American army is Stephen Van Rensselaer he's one of the richest men in New York Stephen was a fine fellow an effective politician statesman in New York State but he had no military experience at all the British Army by contrast was led by Isaac Brock himself Brock had sailed quickly down Lake Erie to take command of a small army of regulars and irregular nough Queenston Heights Isaac Brock's got black troops following him he's got poor Canadian farm kids when he's also got a couple hundred Grand River warriors is this mishmash of people who all come together and fight and defend our version of North America Brock's forces were assembled along the heights at Queenston yet Van Rensselaer decided to send his army across the Niagara River at Queenston directly into the British troops the Americans had thousands of militia hundreds of regulars that could have crossed the river but they only arranged for 13 boats to carry them now the Niagara River is a difficult piece of water to get across and especially in the middle of night and especially when it's rowed by men who haven't been across the Niagara River before at dawn on October 13th 1812 the Americans began to cross as cannon on both sides roared incessantly a group of Americans reached the shore then found a fisherman's path up the cliff and took the heights overlooking the town brach knew that if the Americans were able to successfully get a toehold and capture Queenston Heights there's a good chance that the British would lose Upper Canada he leads British soldiers up the hill dismounted with a sword drawn in full view of the American troops an American soldier at about 20 paces away with a double shot at musket fired at Brock hit him in the heart and killed him instantly [Music] the British raised the shelf revenge the general but the Americans held a high ground a decisive textbook advantage but the Grand River Iroquois Warriors did not engage in textbook warfare our style of warfare we like to stick close to cover keep stealthy and gain the advantage on the enemy Queenston Heights was a it was basically a flanking maneuver on on the native part the native Warriors worked their way behind the Americans then burst out of the woods screaming their war cries what American remembers I thought hell had broken loose and let her dogs of war upon us I expected every moment to be made of cold Yankee America militia that are still on the American side of the river can hear the whoops and hollers of the Warriors as they are popping in and out of the woods taking shots and so forth once the militia on the American side heard the war cries of our warriors they refused to fight on Canadian soil and they refused to cross to the Canadian side and aid the regulars that were being attacked up on the heights the Americans who had crossed the river were doomed John Beverly Robinson a British artillery men watched them go John Beverly Robinson they had no place to retreat to and were driven to the brink of the mountain which overhangs the river many leak down the side of the mountain to avoid the horrors which pressed on them and were dashed in pieces by the fall many died the rest surrendered giving the British almost a thousand prisoners and one of the most momentous victories in the history of Canada but they had lost one very important man Isaac Brock once called the savior of Western Canada was now gone Brock was one of those rare individuals who has a tremendous amount of charisma a tremendous amount of organizational talent this is a tremendous blow to Upper Canada it's trennis blow two of the British military in that time period yet the British Canadian and native forces and again beaten back an invasion two down one to go there was a third American army heading for Montreal this one was commanded by a general named Henry Dearborn some of the young American officers coined the phrase granny Dearborn because he was like their old granny ageing sickly he needed his hot water bottle at night for the rheumatism he was slow to move conservative in his ideas in November 1812 Dearborn sent his force of 4,000 north toward Montreal but in his two columns confusion was so general that the troops fired on each other at the border a full two-thirds of the militia refused to cross into British territory dearborne's troops never engage the enemy he called off the third American invasion of Canada it was an invasion that never happened at all the first year the war ended in disaster for the Americans every offensive that was undertaken into Canada ended in failure abysmal failure the Americans had been hugely overconfident about conquering the Canadian colonies by land on the other hand the u.s. never had the slightest illusion about being able to defeat the British at sea [Music] in 1812 the Royal Navy has over a hundred ships of the lining commissioned it has 200 frigates the United States Navy has eight frigates no ships-of-the-line few Briggs few salutes some gunboats who's gonna win this war it's obvious but in this war of surprises it was on the waves where the Americans had their first success on August 19th 1812 the American frigate Constitution encountered the British Gary air in the Atlantic during the battle with HMS derriere British gonorrhea of course was brisk and hot one sailor saw the brown shock bounce off the bulwarks of Constitution and the sailors said huzzah resides a meet of hyoeun and in fact the simpie was at the planking was deliberately built thicker at the end of the battle there were over 12 of these round shot cannibals you'd call them in civilian language they were lodged in the whole of of Constitution so she became known as old iron sights which she still is today a few weeks after cutting the garrier to pieces old iron sides but a second British frigate the Java the result was the same surrender and a second frigate the United States had defeated the Macedonian with more guns and more men the Yankee frigates simply overpowered their British counterparts strategically those those victories weren't terribly important but my goodness from a morale sense they really fired up the American nation the Americans won three-straight that was absolutely unprecedented the French hadn't won three-straight frigging actions against the British ever so this caused some concern what was wrong with English ships and English men that they couldn't beat these upstart Yankees the upstart Yankee Navy still had few ships but the US government commissioned hundreds of ships as privateers privateers were merchant vessels built for speed authorized to carry arms and crews against the enemy's commerce in time of war profiteering is state-licensed piracy it's an age-old system it's a cheap kind of militia system as opposed to a regular Navy they were never going to determine the outcome of a war but they did put pressure on the enemy's commerce in the autumn of 1812 the American victories at sea gave people in the United States a sense of hope the invasions of Canada had not gone well but the Americans were willing to try again in the West William Henry Harrison had recruited a sizeable army much of it to crack Kentucky sharpshooters William Atherton the 21 year old farm boy was one of the recruits William Atherton we volunteers from Kentucky left our homes on the 12th of August 1812 we anticipated danger and made arrangements to meet it in late fall 1812 Everton traveled with Harrison's army on a search-and-destroy campaign west of Lake Erie Harrison's plan was to clear the natives from their lands then head for Fort Detroit Harrison was ruthless William Atherton at Fort Wayne we were ordered to march to two Indian towns for the purpose of burning their houses and destroying their corn we accomplished this frontiersman and natives were accustomed to engaging in a very brutal form of warfare they killed women and children they took scalps and other body parts for souvenirs took no prisoners of war that kind of warfare was typical of what occurred on both sides on the frontier but by December Harrison's men were suffering as they struggled toward Detroit William Atherton the men became very sickly the typhus fever raged among us we saw nothing but hunger and cold staring us in the face we scarcely had anything to eat many times the dead march was heard in the camp there was worse to come in early 1813 a portion of Harrison's army encamped at French town near the River Raisin in what is now southeastern Michigan we were accommodated with all the necessaries of life we almost seemed to forget we had an enemy in the world but on a quiet January night an attack force of over 1,100 British and native warriors commanded by Henry Proctor silently made its way through the snowy forest shadrach by field the private from Wilshire was among them under cover of a wood we approached near to the enemy unperceived william atherton i slept soundly until awakened by the startled and cry of to arms to arms and the thundering of cannon and the more terrific yelling of savages the first thing that presented itself to my sight was the fiery tail of a bombshell and these came in quick succession shadrach by field before day like we had charged them several times I was much affected by seeing a lad about 11 or 12 years of age who was wounded in one of his knees the little fellows cries from the pain of his wound he's crying after his dear mother and saying he should die were so affecting and it was not soon forgotten by me then I received a musket ball under my ear and fell my comrade exclaimed Byfield is dead and I thought to myself is this death [Music] but the British and native forces soon overwhelmed the Americans Colonel Proctor who had no combat experience simply marched away leaving 80 wounded prisoners to his Indian allies and the native warriors long enraged by Harrison's brutality were not an immersive full mood there's a number of American wounded that are left behind in some of the cabins and there's only a very small British guard on these folks many of these prisoners are massacred Tecumseh's brother said whenever the Indians win a battle it's called a massacre whenever the whites win a battle it's called a great triumph so political spin was used here about who was committing atrocities well and the holding in Shawnee would take a prisoner it really depends on what happened just prior to that and what that person did if that person had killed somebody on our side then and likelihood they they would be executed or if not you know pretty severely tortured the Indians had very logical reasons for killing prisoners they had no jails to put them in and they had no means of granting them paroles makes changes and they often said well the reason we kill prisoners is that we don't want to fight our enemies twice but William Atherton would not be killed at the Battle of River Raisin william atherton an indian took me to the back of a house with a blanket around me and gave me a hat he brought with him a packhorse and gave me the bridle making signs to march on captives particularly young male captives were very highly prized amongst the Indians they were often integrated into the Indian tribes in in a remarkably close way william atherton from kentucky would now learn to be a Potawatomi than the cold quiet forests of Michigan I have nothing to say against the Indian character they are a brave hospitable kind and honest people but Kentucky my home would rise up before my mind I found among the Indians a scrap of newspaper printed at Lexington this I read over and over again and again for James Madison and his nation 1812 was a year of debacle and defeat the utter collapse of the ambitious three-part invasion of Canada 1813 had begun with the massacre of American troops at River Raisin even worse the British Navy had begun a strangling blockade along the eastern seaboard by the end of March the blockade extended from the Delaware Bay to Florida the American economic system just stalls trade dries up the British were just closed down American shipping as the spring of 1813 arrived British General Henry Proctor was marching his army into Ohio but William Henry Harrison after the disaster at River Raisin would be ready for him he moves part of his army up to the rapids of the maumee river near modern Toledo Ohio he builds what will become fort meigs Meigs is essentially a fortified camp it's about ten acres with the picketed stockade with seven two-story block houses five raised batteries and sheltering embankments 12 feet high fort meigs was built to withstand almost any attack soon it would have to in early May of 1813 the British natives under Proctor and to comes to come to lay siege to the fort up until now the British and the natives have enjoyed an unbroken string of victories in the northwest and humiliations to boot well that's not going to happen at Fort Meigs Harrison understands frontier warfare and he's not going to be scared into surrendering like his predecessors had been Harrison waited inside the fort much to Tecumseh's fury it is hard to fight people who live like groundhogs the Shawnee said about four days through the siege of Harrison receives word that there is a party of reinforcements Kentuckians coming down the river the Kentuckians stormed the British batteries they're cut off and surrounded by the native force once more defeated American soldiers were in the hands of the native warriors as they had been at the River Raisin once more a massacre begins it's not the British that put an end to this Massacre it's - come sit - come sir rides in waving his tomahawk according to the stories and puts an end to this Massacre where the British had stood by and literally done nothing we had a sense of honour he was he was a humane compassionate man he was a man who who didn't believe in gratuitous violence he didn't believe in slaughtering people out of any sense of triumph inside the Fort Harrison and his army were still safe for over four days the British blasted away pounding the fort with cannonballs to no avail proctor refused to make a direct assault on the fort to come so was furious his warriors would not make war by sitting and waiting he later said that Proctor was a fat animal that carries its tail on its back but when affrighted drops it between its legs and runs off this is a really good example of the dynamic between Tecumseh and Proctor versus the dynamic between Tecumseh and Brock in one point supposedly he says to Proctor you are unfit to command go and put on petticoats in the end Proctor simply departed leaving the fort in Harrison's hands for a change as the British ship and turn back fort meigs is the beginning of the end for Tecumseh and for the British in the northwest but the American success at Fort Meigs was not repeated along the Niagara border in the spring of 1813 an American army again crossed the Niagara River as the Americans camped near Stoney Creek a small British force launched the raid at night the British had the advantage of surprise it's pitch black there's only ambient light from the stars so when the British charged into the camp of the American units are trying to figure out where is the entity two American generals got lost and wandered into enemy lines a third American officer led a valiant cavalry charge only to find out that the army he was cutting to pieces was his own the Battle of Stony Creek is in many ways representative of the war of 1812 in microcosm the American commanders are captured the British commander gets lost in the woods the Americans technically are defeated but they retain the field the British are victorious but they retreat [Music] the term the fog of war was coined at that time in the age of muskets because every musket that was fired gave off a cloud of black powder smoked muskets were dreadfully inaccurate they're also slow to load you had to get within about 80 paces of an enemy to shoot your musket at them and hope to hit them so the most effective way of using the muskets was to mass your men together in tight formation and have them fire a volley but I have here's a war club Indian weapon in the war of 1812 even though they had muskets and carbines we actually call it the skull cracker it cracks your skull and I was what its intended to hit a guy hard enough in a head you're gonna knock him out of commission now sometimes they would direct decorate them with their totem animal or your dream animal something of power something I would come to you but you would use this thing in battle you were going right up to a guy crack him in the head with this thing you're going to do some damage during the War of 1812 they began to add sharp deer antler pieces or even knives or blades on here there because they became more powerful to cut through the soldiers uniforms [Music] if the war-club was the most basic weapon the most powerful weapon was the cannon it took a crew of up to 15 men to charge aim and fire these hefty and often inaccurate guns one british captain philip broke of the shannon outfitted his ship with gun sights at his own expense he drilled his crew constantly gunnery it paid off in short order in a memorable duel with the American ship the Chesapeake the British won the Shannon Chesapeake action of Boston the USS Chesapeake and space of 11 minutes flat and from a fighting ship to a complete wreck with a British crew on board this was the shortest sharpest and bloodiest frigate battle in the history of war say under sail but in America the bloody battle would be remembered for a slogan the dying words of the American Captain James Lawrence before he died he uttered the words don't give up the ship and that became a watchword for the United States Navy from then on the irony is that not long after Lawrence urged his crewmen and his officers don't give up the ship that's exactly what they did they had no choice the British boarded the Chesapeake and the Americans had to surrender the ship so in the end it was given up James Lawrence died in battle at sea but the naval battles that would really matter in this war were fought inland on the lakes it was important for the British to maintain naval power of some kind on Lake Erie and equally important for the americans to obtain the power on they kiri if you can control the lake you can control the flow of supplies you can control the logistics of the area that both armies are operating at the end of a very tenuous supply line the commander in charge of the small British squadron on Lake Erie was Robert Harriet Barclay a 27 year old veteran who had already lost an arm in battle his opposite number was commander Oliver Hazard Perry of the u.s. Navy both men were overseeing the feverish construction of ships on Lake Erie both countries have to build fleets out of local timber with imported ship rights imported materials its competition who can build the biggest ships the fastest the coming naval battle would decide the fate of the entire Great Lakes region on the morning of September 10th 1813 the u.s. fleet sailed toward the British Perry and his flagship the Lawrence flying a flag that paid homage to Lawrence's last words not a word was spoken an American seaman remembered it seemed like the awful silence that precedes an earthquake this was the time to try the stoutest heart Perry sailed into the British squadron with his flagship the Lawrence and just started trading broadsides with the two principal British ships on both sides the first cannonball tore through the lords the biggest risk to the sailors who were not direct hits by the balls themselves the biggest damage was caused by the splinters when the cannonballs penetrated the occult it sent huge splinters out that would be like flying Lance's the scuppers who would actually run with blood Lawrence was soon reduced to a wreck cavities strewn across the deck it was customary if your investor was incapable of new ring you would strike the colors Perry wasn't about to do that miraculously he had survived a cannon ad he had those ships long will bra DeLong side and he jumped down into the longboat was shot quizzing around his ears the famous painting shows him standing in the boat he probably didn't stand in the boat but he certainly was under fire the British realized what he was doing and they tried to target him there were cannonballs and round chop and great shot you canister raining down but he made it safely to the second ship the Niagra he hoisted his colors in the degra and pressed on with the attack after three hours the British gave up their ships all of them an entire squadron of the world's most powerful Navy had been captured at the end of the battle Peary sits down and he writes a very simple note we have met the enemy and they are ours two ships to Briggs on schooner and one sloop Barclay had been wounded in his other arm and when the officers of both sides who had died were being buried ashore here was Perry who held Barclay to his side two young men and really the one of the most poignant scenes I think from a war that many say should never have happened watched the burial take place there was gallantry on both sides there was honor on both sides the u.s. controlled Lake Erie and the British supply line was severed immediately general Proctor withdrew from his position on the Detroit River pulling his troops far back into Canada the British retreated eastward along the Thames River to come sir urging proctor to stand and fight to cumson we are very much astonished to see our Father preparing to run away the Americans have not yet defeated us by land we wish to remain here and fight our enemy we are determined to defend our lands we wish to leave our bones upon them finally at a place called Moravian town a Harrisons advance guard of mounted Kentuckians came up with Proctor's retreating force Proctor prepared to make a stand in a swampy wooded ground along the River Thames he established two thin lines of defense Harrison's Kentucky Horseman cut right through them Shadrach Byfield after exchanging a few shots our men gave way I was retreating when one of our sergeants exclaimed but God's sake helped me stand and fight I stood by him applied one shot but the line was broken and the men were retreating crackers riding away from the battle the company will not give ground he's not going to retreat any more at already years had passed we had rebuilt his army to come see and his Warriors are really kind of left to fight by themselves he's gonna stay in fight even if they cost him his life and it does he's wounded in the chest and mortally he dies in the pitch of the battle there's Kentucky men who wrote him down and killed him they were desperate to see the end of him and everything he stood for the death of that one iconic leader took one of America's really dangerous enemies out of the war after that the Native Americans were no longer a force in this conflict imagine for a minute if we had rallied Westar come sir if we had gotten the native nations together if we drew this thin red line on the border and say that's it enough is enough at that time we would have had the balance of power to change American history Tecumseh's death marked the end of an era never again what Indian nations help decide who had power in North America soon 62 native Chiefs signed an armistice with William Henry Harrison himself immediately after the Battle of Thames William Henry Harrison started building Tecumseh up into a larger figure referred to him as the Napoleon of the West America seems to love dead Indians not only is there is that a historic line the only good Indians I saw her the dead ones but in reality the killing of des comes is one of a series of victories that fuel the American spirit you go to Annapolis at the Naval Academy there's a statue of to come soon apparently they paint him up every time they're gonna have final exams are heading off to war that somehow he's this this symbol this living symbol for the military even though he was defeated by that fall William Atherton was no longer a Potawatomi after months in the Michigan forests he told his native family that he wanted to go home William Atherton every eye was fixed upon me some seemed astonished and others angry because I would think of leaving after being adopted into the family but they soon made signs that I could go but he was still not home free he had to be handed over to the British and he became their prisoner of war on both sides military prison life was a matter of survival at best when I was delivered to the British I was placed in the guardhouse and during our confinement we suffered from hunger I had the floor for a bed and a log for a pillow in the fall of 1813 william atherton would be marched from michigan to a military prison in quebec but there were other Americans marching north as well with Lake Erie secure the United States was free to try again to conquer the eastern part of the Canadian colonies Montreal and even Quebec in the fall of 1813 Canada faced the most serious threat to its continued existence as a British colony the Americans sent one large army of 7,000 men down the st. Lawrence towards Montreal and another army of 5,000 men marching up the Champlain Valley to then rendezvous with them at Montreal with a total of 12,000 soldiers this was the largest American operation of the war but once again the Americans put an invasion into the hands of incompetent officers the larger Army was commanded by James Wilkinson a somewhat strange corrupt Revolutionary War veteran commanding the other army coming up the Champlain Valley was a Carolina planter named Wade Hampton of whom it could be said his most salient feature was that he lured Wilkinson neither men could stand each other the two forks of America's 1813 invasion would never be in tune Wilkinson and Hampton each carried out his own private war on October 25th Hampton led his army to the Chateauguay River just inside the Canadian border there he engaged the enemy but not the British there were no British troops there it was a Canadian force that was at shadowgate and mostly French Canadian the French Canadian population basically sided with the British because as one British officer put it they trusted the Americans even less than the British the French Canadian regiment did Chateauguay the voltage or was commanded by Lieutenant Charles Michel De Salaberry the Americans hoped that he and his volunteers wouldn't have their heart in the battle Hampton send an officer Ford on horseback who could speak French and asked him to to harangue the Canadians tell them to surrender so this officer doofy rode for it and said brave Canadians give yourselves up we have no argument with you we come to bring your liberty and freedom the Salaberry took a musket from one of his men and fired a long-range shot was dropped the American officer in mid speech they formed they attacked the Americans repelled west side of the river and on the east side of the river they tried to surround the Canadian force they were beaten there too by an ambush in the woods the Canadians were outnumbered five-to-one still Hempton had the American forces retreat across the border half the invasion of 1813 was finished the battle chateau Galen very large and Canadian mythology the battle is fought primarily by Canadians and their Aboriginal allies that and and so that one is rightfully claimed as a great Canadian victory there were principally French Canadians there but they were also Scottish Irish even German Canadians who took part all of whom used French as kind of a a a common language at the time and who fought well together in defense of their of their farms it was perhaps one of the first times in Canadian history that the disparate populations our Canada had ever fought together in a common cause Hamptons wing of the invasion had been beaten back but General James Wilkinson was still sailing his 7,000 man American army toward Montreal Wilkinson is heading east along the st. Lawrence River but it's estimated that a log would float down the Saint Lawrence River faster than Wilkinson's fleet went almost from the day they set out general Wilkinson began dosing himself a lot of them to fight off dysentery well consider piers from witnesses to have miscalculated his dosage and from time to time he was want to break into song and tell funny stories about previous experience when he should maybe have kept his nose to the grindstone Wilkinson had never commanded even a regiment in battle and expected the worst in case of misfortune he decided the army must surrender when his forces met up with the British at Chrysler's farm Wilkinson stayed behind his army outnumbers the British three-to-one the vast numerical superiority he enjoys is completely negated by the fact that he doesn't even show up to conduct the battle himself the Americans attacked through the mud of the fields at Chrysler's farm and were driven back by volley after volley of accurate gunfire the Americans were forced to retreat wilkinson simply withdraws and abandons the the entire attempt his army hasn't been destroyed he just doesn't have the stomach to continue Wade Hampton resigned his commission and returned to South Carolina James Wilkinson faced the court-martial but was acquitted in the United States the invasion of 1813 was forgotten as quickly as possible in Canada the militias role in the battles of Chateauguay and Chryslers farm would be remembered forever Canadians weren't quite sure who they were before the war of 1812 but after the war of 1812 the key populations knew who they weren't and he weren't American in Canada we have the emergence following the war of something known as the militia myth which would plague the Canadian military right up until the first world war and this was the idea that the farmer the clerk the ordinary individual could be called up given a weapon sent to the field and to feed whomever opposed because after all in the Canadian mind it was these people who had won the war of 1812 Laura Secord was another ordinary Canadian who came to britain's aid in the war of 1812 a 37 year old housewife from Queenston she became famous for struggling through 20 miles of wilderness alone to warn the British about an impending attack there has been debate about the usefulness of her Trek but over time she became a legend on the 100th anniversary of her journey a Canadian chocolate company adopted her name and image as its logo by 1992 she was put on a postage stamp as a true national hero modern historians look at her representing the pioneer woman's experience a lot of courage a lot of fortitude was necessary for many Parr near women to survive in the Canada's in those days and I think in a sense she has become representative of that collective experience it's indicative also of the post-war thinking process that both nations have coming out of the war both Canada and the United States have this grasping for national heroes by late 1813 it was the American side that was running short of heroes they'd secured the Great Lakes only to launch another invasion that crumbled in the face of smaller British forces morale for the American army was at rock bottom just as it was for young william atherton freezing in quebec it was an uninterrupted scene of suffering from beginning to end for a company of cold ragged and starved Kentucky boys often people came to see us in the prison an idea prevailed that we were wild men or an order of beings that scarcely belonged to this earth Atherton would spend another year trying to survive the horror of military prison and on the Niagara border it would be a winter of horror on all sides warfare at the time between Christian nations there were certain conventions that one followed at the time and one of those conventions is that you did not disturb the civilian populace if possible so that you could capture an enemy village but you would not plunder the houses in that village you would not burn civilian property but earlier in the year poorly disciplined American troops had burned the public buildings in the capital of Upper Canada York the tiny town that eventually would become Toronto the burning of York was just a prologue the first in a string of actions that would make this war a milestone in the growing history of brutality on the 10th of December 1813 the Americans set fire to the town of Newark which is now niagara-on-the-lake it was a very cold snowy day and by you know the middle of the afternoon the town was virtually a smoking room and people were homeless and left to try and fend for themselves in the bitter winter conditions there was one woman who was ill in bed they moved her bed outside the house and just left her in the snow when they set fire to her house the British called for an immediate retaliatory strike this kicks off a rash of a burning that really lay waste of the entire Niagara Frontier by the end of the year [Applause] in one day the British burned three towns to the crown in Lewiston what Americans said our neighbors were seen lying dead in the fields and roads some horribly cut and mangled others eaten by the Hogs then it was Buffalo's turn Shadrach Byfield was there we took possession of the place orders were given so that no dwelling was to be spared except one but the dead body of a child Leigh who had been shot in the street this was in compassion towards the sorrowful mother the people of Buffalo gathered at the river and watched the smoke rise burning cinders from their homes sailed toward them borne on the wind and the sound of wailing and sobbing to Rosa fire had bread fired people are being not only put out of their houses by the burnings but they're being killed and maimed in some very atrocious ways people are being scalped people are being tortured carried off separated from the rest of their families it's really a tragic scene of affairs on both sides when the war broke opium officers from the American garrison at Fort Niagara were at church across the river with British officers in st. Mark's Church in New York they were friends and neighbors they traded across the border they married across the border by the end of 1813 it was the scene of desolation the Canadian and American side of that River were just desolation [Music] by the end of 1813 President James Madison was hoping hard for peace on December 30th word arrived that Britain would negotiate and Madison Sentra's entity' --vs off to Europe but negotiations would not begin for over seven months [Music] as the United States hoped for peace the country finally began to become proficient at Bohr this is not the American army that went to war in the fall of 1812 what you have is a new younger aggressive breed of American officer men like Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott have done a tremendous amount of drilling and training of the troops under their command this really represents the coming of age of the American army the improved American army would show its mettle in the summer of 1814 in July Jacob Browns troops battled British regulars twice on the Niagara Peninsula on July 5th in a field near the Chippewa River Winfield Scott led his Brigade right through a hail of artillery fire causing the British to retreat three weeks later by a Canadian cemetery with an earshot of Niagara Falls the two armies met again this time in one of the bloodiest battles of the war a desperate encounter at Lundy's Lane it's the worst kind of battle you could want to fight it's an unplanned meeting engagement with continuous reinforcement on both sides and highly unusual for the time it goes on into the night one American participant called that a conflict obstinate beyond description stuck into each other and they weren't gonna let go [Music] soldiers were firing their muskets at each other at only a few feet away they flash and the musket fire might scorch their clothes as the musket ball went flying by Jedrek by field hour bugles sounded for the company to drop a volley was then fired upon us which killed two corporals and wounded a sergeant and several of the men the company then arose fired and charged units the American army performed very well and a battles like chipper and Lundy's Lane you know the British oh you know grudgingly respecting of the American performance they stand on the field of battle under gun fire and they don't flinch at this point the Americans the British say well yeah these guys have actually learned how to do this by the end of five and a half hours of fighting most do a third of both armies are dead or wounded or brought off in the night Browne was badly wounded during the battle Scotland seriously on the British side general Drummond was wounded major-general Ryle was not only badly wounded was also captured it was a bad night for generals Lundy it's lame that's a fact was a bad night for everybody Shadrach Byfield xlix suffered severely in this engagement in the morning we collected the wounded and received orders to burn the dead Shadrach Byfield had escaped unscathed from what had been one of the bloodiest battles in the war two weeks later in a much smaller fight Byfield was hit by a musket ball below the elbow there was no ability to repair that kind of damage so on any limb that was hit the typical treatment would be to amputate this is done without anesthetic the surgeons were quite good at what they were doing and they were quick you've got the the so-called loblolly x' that are standing by with the surgeons who are ready to hold you down as he takes off a limb with things that we would normally find at a hardware store how doctor told me that my arm must be taken off they had men to hold me but I told them there was no need of that the operation was painful and tedious I fee had his forearm amputated and still had enough presence of mind half the operation was over the attendant was gonna take it out and throw it in the pile of limbs ease no no no bring that back I want to give that arm a decent burial and he did a few balls were nailed together for a coffin my hand was put into it and buried on the rabbits the stump of my arms soon healed and three days after I was able to play a game of cards for a quart of rum [Music] the Niagara Theatre was the setting for much of the bloodiest fighting of the war over and over the Americans tried to push into Canada but these battles ended in stalemate however the year 1814 did see one clear victory the British and their allies defeated the French marched into Paris and captured Napoleon a world war that had lasted nearly twenty years was apparently over President Madison and his cabinet realized that the troops that were now fighting against Napoleon upwards of 60,000 could be redirected elsewhere if the world's largest power turned all their forces against the United States there could be serious territorial losses with the fall of Napoleon the British could expand their operations on the East Coast by now they were a familiar presence at the Chesapeake Bay the year before the dashing an aggressive Admiral George Coburn and cruised relentlessly up and down the bay burning homes and inflicting damage wherever he could the very mention of his name instilled fear into people's hearts by this time his remit really was to Harris the the people of the area to gain intelligence and to capture and destroy trade and shipping the British actually launched raiding parties on the western shore of that's just a peek Bay they went to get off of their larger boats coming on smaller boats on the land they would raid plantations they would steal silverware cattle burn the farms and take away the slaves over the course of the war the British freed over 4,000 American slaves a number of those slaves didn't just run away they fought on the British side the colonial Marines were ex slaves who enlisted in a special Corps of Marines in British service from about April 1814 well navy captains were more than happy to help slaves escape there was a long legacy of slaves trying to find any means necessary to have freedom and the British offered that the British really wanted to show that America was really a hypocrite we had a President of the United States that was holding slaves at the time the nation's capital Washington DC was a slave holding district George Coburn although he was initially very dismissive from the notion of recruiting the the refugee saves after a few weeks he had nothing but praise for them and he found that they were they they determined they were infinitely more dreaded than any of the British troops black men in red coats really gives a powerful edge to this war it's something that scares the living daylights out of the American South the idea of large numbers of disciplined armed black men what's going to happen actually in August 1814 4,500 British regulars sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and landed in Maryland the British were just a day's march from the nation's capital Washington as a capital has really only been in place for less than far less than 15 years it's really just dirt streets mud a few government buildings Washington was a swampy mosquito infested malarial town of just 8,000 people full of tree stumps and refuse even John Armstrong the American Secretary of War called Washington a sheep's meadow he insisted that it would not be a target for the British but Admiral Coburn pushed hard for the british to strike against the capital within 48 hours he said the city of washington might be possessed without difficulty and in fact the capital was virtually undefended Madison had this obsession with the northern theater this leads to the situation where a British Army moves on Washington and the best troops from the United States Army her thousand miles away the British first faced American militia Bladensburg near the Capitol the Americans had the advantage of numbers but the well-trained British regulars advanced steadily the militia had quickly broke and ran we made a fine scamper of it to what private said it was at that battle when we found out that we couldn't keep on depending on militia when they were routed so severely and opened the path to the destruction of Washington from that time on the country understood it needed a professional Army and Navy but the American militia were not the only ones running away the citizens of Washington were hastily gathering up all their movable possessions and leaving the city in all safe directions dolly had remained in the president's house with instructions from her husband to be ready to flee at a moment's notice Dolly Madison since sunrise I have been turning my spyglass in every direction hoping to discern the approach of my dear husband but alas mr. Madison comes not two messengers covered with dust come to bid me fly Dolly Madison had been deserted by her honor guard that we're supposed to keep her safe Dolly was a Quaker although not a fanatical one she slept with a sword beneath her bed and said that she believed in giving as good as you got I was so unfamiliar to be free from fear and willing to remain in the White House if I could have had a cannon from every window but alas those who should have placed them there fled before me two hours before the enemy entered the city I sent out the silver the velvet curtains the cabinet papers and General Washington's picture one thing she wouldn't give away on was the portrait of George Washington it was one of the standing portraits mounted in the entrance hall she knew that to the British who still considered Washington one of history's great traitors that portrait would be the greatest trophy of the war and she was determined that they wouldn't have it it was actually screwed to the wall there wasn't time to unscrew it so she gave the order to break the frame and take the painting out which was then given to as she put it two gentlemen of New York for safekeeping Dali set off in her coach and made for the country it was Twilight on the 24th of August 1814 when the red-coated troops were at the city and marching up Pennsylvania Avenue when they arrived in Washington they burned the Capitol then and tramped more than a mile down Pennsylvania Avenue before they got into the White House they found a table laid for forty because Dolly Madison the first lady had been expecting the military in the cabinet for dinner so they feasted in elegant we tested the health of a prince regent they even ranked peace with America and down with Madison and when one of the men found the ceremonial hat belonging to the president he raised it by the tip of his band and he said if they could not capture the little Preston they would parade his hat in England he had two doors or window frames they got all the furniture together that night they burned the White House that night people in Washington could read by the light of the fires from a distance the President of the United States riding away kept stopping to look at the flames coming from his city Washington was a city in the making before the war it was still evolving a work in progress if you like and that had all been destroyed the American press was outraged at the burning and even London newspapers were shocked the Cossacks pared Paris but we spared not the capital of America is it certain that this is a legitimate method of warfare [Music] the Americans had torched the public buildings of York now Toronto capital of Canada and this was just straightforward payback there was a feeling in Britain in 1814 that America deserved some punishment America stabbed Britain in the back while we were fighting Napoleon and Britain looked on the fight against them the French in Napoleon as everybody's battle not just Britain's battle we were trying to confront tyranny in Europe and while we were doing that here's the United States Stabbin is in the back and trying to invade Canada the British occupied Washington for just one day soon president Madison wrote back into his charred scarred City this was the darkest hour of his presidency the capital city was destroyed and much worse seemed to be coming the government simply did not have in a way of financing the war in the fall of 1814 and one of the byproducts of that was it had defaulted on the national debt public credit and collapsed and I think it's fair to say the US government was on the verge of bankruptcy we are bankruptcy wrote one Massachusetts newspaper our good sitting in warehouses our ships rotting at the wharves our commerce did people didn't have hard cash in the United States at that time and people preferred to trade where they could get hired money the British took advantage of this by paying American farmers and hard money a tremendous amount of American produce and provisions was flowing into Canada and actually feeding the British army and prisoners of war as well william atherton locked away in a quebec prison tasted new england's opposition to the war william atherton in prison the british tauntingly told us that we were eating Yankee beef most of their supplies came from the states these things occur very frequently and men who profess great patriotism are sometimes found to be engaging in it such patriotism as this would scarcely be found in Kentucky that autumn of 1814 James Madison sent two regiments to an unusual destination Hartford Connecticut where there were in theory no enemies but force might be needed to quash a rebellion against the United States itself for a group of New England leaders had announced the convention to be held in Hartford in the fall and the New Englanders were bitter about the war many were openly defiant Madison like most Republicans feared that the Hartford Convention was part of a larger secessionist plot but the Union be severed wrote one Massachusetts leader the United States seemed to be on the eve of destruction from within and without America's badly beaten capital cities been torched the British upon the war that's just a question of what terms they'll they're prepared to accept at the negotiations and Ghent Belgium the British were prepared to accept large areas of American territory for themselves including parts of what would become Maine in Minnesota and they demanded that a massive Indian state be created around the Great Lakes in other words they were determined to end American expansion into the West and there was muscle behind these demands in September 1814 the Governor General of Canada George preval led a British Army into northern New York it was the largest force ever to invade the continental United States [Music] this is going to be a killing stroke if it's carried out effectively against relatively small American garrison the English can win a decisive battle here and force the Americans to concede terms provoked plan to attack and occupy the American forts at Plattsburgh to keep his troops supplied there he needed to control Lake Champlain as well what stood in his way was a small American squadron on the lake commanded by a young officer named Thomas MacDonagh [Music] McDonough chooses to anchor the American flagship Saratoga and fight from an anchorage in Plattsburgh Bay he was going to assembly turned his ships into floating gun platforms idea was that since there was overwhelming force coming by land and possibly an equal sized forced to McDonough's own fleet coming by sea he was going to back himself into a corner and fight like a badger and not come out until he won on September 11th the British fleet sailed up to engage mcdonoughs ships the British have to sail up the lake against the wind they struggle into the to the bay begin to exchange some fire these ships are relatively lightly built they carry heavy guns in any kind of firefight they'll be knocked to pieces and the guns on one side will be taken out baffle McDonagh is ready for this when his ships are so badly battered they can't fight he simply holes on the cables turns the ship round and presents a fresh broadside to an enemy who is already badly beaten up the english commander cannot do this he's only anchored one way he can't turn his ships around so he's going to lose after almost three hours of fighting the British struck their colors any chance for their control of the lake was gone with a single naval battle the largest invasion of the continental United States had been brought to an abrupt halt Prevost calls off the attack and orders the division to move back to Canada to destroy the excess stores and off they go and everybody from the soldiers the NCOs the junior officers senior officers could not understand why he did that he had had to operate a defensive campaign up to that time and when the Navy was defeated on Lake Champlain in his opinion it was no point in risking British lives by taking plasma which he could well have done so he withdrew the army for the detection of Canada in the future premise is a tragic figure a sad figure the man is told to hold the line hold the line and he does that he followed orders that finished his military career when he got back to Montreal a cabal of disgruntled officers began a letter-writing campaign back to London basically criticizing Provo for his command his conduct on the Plattsburgh campaign and that leads to his being sent back to England and disgrace Provo's retreat went the end of britain's killing stroke invasion into New York State but just two days after mcdonoughs victory British forces launched another bold attack this time against the Baltimore the British went through blatant burg they ransacked Washington DC but the brick prize was Baltimore it was an international community it was a deep port it was the cellar of Commerce and it's a home of a lot of the privateers that are causing them problems Baltimore big shipbuilding town so it would be really nice to gain to downtown Baltimore and burn these shipyards destroy the privateers the star-shaped fort called mchenry at the top of the bay was the linchpin destroy the fort and the city would fall on the morning of September 13th the British Navy attacked the fort bombs began bursting in air the British Herald 1,400 cast-iron exploding shells at the fort within a 48-hour period that's a total of about 133 tons of exploding metal over Baltimore Harbor that could be heard by the way 100 miles away in downtown Philadelphia for all the explosions what Americans would remember from that night was the work of a lawyer Francis Scott Key he watched the bombardment from a ship just eight miles away he had seen over Fort McHenry this gigantic flag flying before sunset and throughout the night he paced the deck of his ship in the darkness hoping the explosions would continue because if there was silence it might be in the Fort Hood capitulated as the morning mist clears as he says in his him he saw the American flag and he had never looked with such reverence upon the symbol of his country he took a letter out of his pocket on the back of it jotted down thoughts words phrases anything that tunneled through his mind while the intensity of the moment lasted that poem was crafted and polished and it was said to no English drinking song called when a Korean in heaven within a week after the battle for Baltimore the songs is published it is four stanzas long within a month every newspaper in the United States has published it the star-spangled banner' didn't become America's national anthem for 116 years but the Battle of Fort McHenry had an immediate effect the fort did not fall than the British withdrew the results from Plattsburgh in Baltimore changed the emotional and political climate even in New England the Hartford Convention did meet in three weeks of secret sessions its report denounced the war but the word secession was not used the two American victories also changed the tone at another meeting the peace negotiations at Belgium Britain's demand for an Indian state no longer had the force of victory behind it England tried to demand that America leave an Indian buffer zone between American settlements and Canada the United States rejected this vigorously they said this is a property right we possess the treaties that resolve both Revolutionary War and war of 1812 in many ways ignored us as primary participants we're not Nations in the final resolution of the peace but they're still talking about us they're the ones deciding our rights and then when the war is over they divide up our land [Music] no one at the get talked scared about impressment anymore with Napoleon and exile the British no longer needed to impress sailors the key question now was where should the borders be drawn negotiations dragged on into December while a massive British fleet headed for New Orleans [Music] New Orleans is the door to half a continent it sits astride the mouth of the Mississippi River the British really want to capture New Orleans as the strategic location to control not only the mouth of the Mississippi River but all of its drainage including Louisiana territory the Battle of New Orleans would occupy an odd place at this wars history the Canadians were not involved in the fighting the British quickly forgot it but this battle or rather the legend of this battle is still remembered in the United States over the years a story was told a story of a heroic Tennessee General of Kentucky rifleman sitting behind cotton bales of a slaughter that won a war the story began on December 1st 1814 when Andrew Jackson arrived to take command of the city's defenses Andrew Jackson is probably as brave a man as we've ever had in our American history physically brave very rash orphaned early ill educated but filled with ambition at 13 Jackson carried messages for the Americans in the revolution his mother and his two brothers died during that war he was captured by the British and put in prison there an officer's struck him with a sword for refusing to clean the officers boots ever after he harbored a great hatred for the British and he hated he had a real capacity for hatred he was not a reflective man he liked action jackson's most recent action had been a brutal campaign a massacre of the Red Stick Creek Indians in Alabama and Georgia as he took command in New Orleans the entire city knew that the British were coming they weren't well prepared in any way for an invasion they knew it so when Jackson arrived with his militia and his Regular Army troops he imposed martial law the Louisiana Legislature discussed surrendering to the British Jackson talked about blowing up the legislature instead and put one lawmaker in jail he used threats and forced or croute soldiers and entered into a highly unusual alliance with the Pirates from nearby Barataria Bay he even accepted black men into his army although he himself owned slaves Jackson is able to assemble an army there to oppose the British that combines all of these various factions and I think that that's one of the reasons why that battle really says so much about forging a new American identity and a new American nation in fact Jackson had assembled an army so diverse that orders had to be issued in English French Spanish and Choctaw most of his forty seven hundred men were militia lawyers privateers farmers shopkeepers the British were just one thing soldiers 5,300 professional soldiers [Music] the British had to advance up the river they had to clear Andrew Jackson's three defensive positions and reach the city pretty straightforward tasks at dawn on January 8th 1815 the British General Edward Pakenham marched his troops across a field at Shell Metz plantation Jackson has got his largely undertrained troops behind strong position so they're not gonna be quite so nervous in the open field they wouldn't have lasted five minutes against British regulars the British advanced in just the absolute best of old-world tactics in terms of rank-and-file and and Fife and drama and on across the fog draped field they came and smack into the American line and volley after volley just just tore the British troops to pieces from start to finish the attack was a shambles the British were perfect targets on the open field and Jackson saw his chance give it to them boys he called and his artillery thundered the British pause to return the fire mistake Edward Pakenham tried to rally his troops he was shot from killed for a time no one knew who was in command so no one called off the attack the battle was brief and stunningly one-sided the Americans had only 70 casualties the British over 2,000 all in less than 25 minutes [Music] most British people didn't really remember this war at all and in 1959 there was a surprising ballot the Battle of New Orleans which still took most British by surprise was by Johnny Horton a country-western star at least I think it was and it went something like this in 1814 we took a little trip down by New Orleans and the mighty Mississip we took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we fought the blooming British in the Battle of New Orleans the song was part of a general twisting of the truth the New Orleans legend the British did not run through the briars of the brambles they simply died the ramparts weren't made of cotton bales and it was the American artillery not the Kentucky riflemen that did the damage but the details did not matter nearly a month later in early February the news reached Washington and the town went wild glorious news and newspapers shouted nine days after the news came from New Orleans a ship finally reached the western side of the Atlantic peace a treaty had been signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve 1814 two weeks before the Battle of New Orleans but most people in the United States heard about the victory at New Orleans before they heard about the end of the war and so it seemed to Americans that Jackson's resounding victory and somehow brought peace it's a great propaganda coup for the Republican Party it helps to keep them in power for another an election or two so really very useful and it will be told as the the core story of the American victory in the war of 1812 that's how you end the Great War of 1812 story the terms of the treaty of ghent were crystal clear the war had been a stalemate the boundary lines would be exactly as they had been at the start people had died in the United States had gained nothing but in the u.s. euphoria reigned the Senate ratified the treaty unanimously and James Madison was suddenly a popular president in Canada too the piece was celebrated the colonies were saved in part because Canadians had helped to fight off repeated invasions in time Canada would become a sovereign nation the seeds of that sovereignty were sown in the war of 1812 of course Canadians will say they won because they avoided invasion and in fact repelled the invaders and that wasn't that used to be in the schoolbooks Americans can proudly say they won the the war of 1812 and then they'll bump into a Canadian who will then remind them that no in fact Canadians won the war of 1812 but I think it's generally agreed that it's the the First Nations people of North America who lose the war of 1812 in July of 1815 the British left Mackinac the fort they had captured in the first battle of the war their native allies watched in shock chief Sasa Maui of the Winnebago raged at the British officers you promised us repeatedly that this place would not be given up it would be better that you would kill us at once rather than expose us to a lingering death we lost a land base we lost our culture they no longer needed us to fight to fight their Wars any more than they are allies slowly try to make us children under the supervision of a parent our land suddenly getting smaller and smaller and smaller so that set in motion a kind of social political cultural spiritual decay people get depressed broken and spirit broken heart the Warriors and the soldiers who survived the war of 1812 went home brew old and died in the end what lived on was a story about history how its glories are enshrined in the heart of a nation how its failures are forgotten how it's inconvenient truths are twisted to suit or ignored forever people asked me who won the war of 1812 a say the British Army won the war VG - I don't say Britain I say the British army because the British soldier always did what he was asked to do shadrach by Fields returned to England in late 1814 he and his family lived in poverty until he designed a tool that would allow him to weave with just one arm I went to a blacksmith and he made an instrument for me I am happy to say that I have been able to labor for my family and keep them comfortably for nearly 20 years both sides can claim obviously clear areas of victory both sides won certain battles and lost certain battles I think I share the view of a young British officer in the war of 1812 leftenant John lacouture of the one hundred and fourth foot who when he was writing about the end of the war said how pleased he was that this was over as far as he was concerned it was a hot and unnatural war between kindred people [Music] young William Atherton was finally released from his Quebec prison in May 1814 he started back to his hometown in Kentucky on foot we had been for so long in prison and suffering that we seemed to have reached a new world almost I was barely able to walk in more than 1,000 miles from home without money clothes or friends yet my spirit did not quail for a moment I have told a plain unvarnished tale it may not be without its use to my young countrymen to know what their fathers have suffered [Music] [Music] to find out more about the war of 1812 and other PBS programs visit pbs.org [Music] the war of 1812 is available on DVD the companion book the war of 1812 guide to battlefields and historic sites is also available to order visit shoppbs.org or call us at one eight hundred TBS [Music] the uniform of the American army and the British army were very similar they both wore wool jackets cut away at the waist with high standing collars which serve no function other than fashion they had one uniform they wore all year in the winter they could put on a great coat to keep warmer but the great coats were incredibly heavy and a real restriction to their movement in night battles they looked so similar there was a great confusion and that frequently troops were firing on their own side the red coat in the blue coat and bell light looked almost identical the battle experience for a soldier was a horrifying one although the weapons weren't particularly accurate there were so many hundred musket balls whizzing forward it was the effect of a giant shotgun

Channel: The History Guy

Views: 1,869,293

Rating: 4.6815648 out of 5

Keywords: war of 1812, the war of 1812, 1812 war, war 1812, highschool book report, highschool test, book report, college book report, history thesis, online book report, School Essay

Id: lZrOCvkZxq4

Length: 114min 10sec (6850 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/letsgoraps]

As someone who grew up in the US and in Canada, it's interesting how differently this war is taught in both countries. As this documentary mentions, it's a much bigger deal in Canada.

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In the US, we were barely taught this war. I remember learning that the British were capturing American sailors and making them serve in their military, and that provoked the war. We learned about the British burning the White House down, which then had to be painted white, hence the name. It wasn't really considered a loss for the Americans. I don't remember learning about the invasion of Canada at all.

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In Canada, the war is a big deal. The story goes, the US felt Britain was distracted by the Napoleonic wars, and decided to invade Canada, and felt that the Canadian population would welcome them. They didn't, and the War of 1812 is when Canada fought off an American invasion, despite the fact Canada didn't exist yet. And the British burned down the white house. They never really mentioned the British capturing American soldiers. And the war is considered a victory for Canada.

[u/pigpeyn]

No mention of the airports. Thumbs down.

[u/DrFugputz]

The trailer for the war really sums it all up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2AfQ5pa59A

[u/winterfellwilliam]

The War of 1812: The Empire Strikes Back.

[u/MaritimerNB]

The war was a win for the British in that the Americans did not succeed in annexing the British colonies into their union. In 1812-13 the British successfully repelled American attacks and captured the the fort at Detroit. But in 1814-15, when the British attempted to take the war to the Americans, including the burning of the White House, the Americans won a series of battles, and a truce was eventually declared. Basically, it was the defending armies that were successful throughout the war, for the most part.

[u/danethecook]

If you like this you should look up "The Civil War on Drugs"

[u/andyhenault]

Does this include historical footage?

[u/dinngoe]

Canada won that war

[u/cliff99]

The War of 1812 is also covered in Presidents of War by Michael R. Beschloss, recommended.