THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
%263. Fighting on the Frontier.%--"Mr. Madison's War," as the
Federalists delighted to call our war for commercial independence,
opened with three armies in the field ready to invade and capture
Canada. One under Hull, then governor of the territory of Michigan, was
to cross the river at Detroit, and march eastward through Canada. A
second, under General Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara River,
take Queenstown, and join Hull, after which the two armies were to
capture York, now Toronto, and go on eastward toward Montreal. Meantime,
the third army, under Dearborn, was to go down Lake Champlain, and meet
the troops under Hull and Van Rensselaer before Montreal. The three were
then to capture Montreal and Quebec, and complete the conquest
of Canada.
The plan failed; for Hull was driven from Canada, and surrendered his
army and the whole Northwest, at Detroit; Van Rensselaer, defeated at
Queenstown, was unable even to get a footing in Canada; while Dearborn,
after reaching the northern boundary line of New York, stopped, and the
year 1812 ended with nothing accomplished.
The surrender of Hull filled the people with indignation, aroused their
patriotism, and forced the government to gather a new army for the
recapture of Detroit. The command was given to William Henry Harrison,
who hurried from Cincinnati across the wilderness of Ohio, and in the
dead of winter reached the shores of Lake Erie. General Winchester, who
commanded part of the troops, was now called on to drive the British
from Frenchtown, a little hamlet on the river Raisin, and (in January,
1813) tried to do so. But the British and Indians came down on him in
great numbers, and defeated and captured his army, after which the
Indians were allowed to massacre and scalp the wounded.
[Illustration: The Canadian Frontier and Vicinity of Washington]
And now the British became aggressive, invaded Ohio, and attacked the
Americans under Harrison at Fort Meigs, and then at Fort Stephenson,
where Major Croghan and 160 men, with the aid of one small cannon,
defeated and drove off 320 Canadians and Indians.
%264. Battle of Lake Erie.%--Again the Americans in turn became
aggressive. Since the early winter, a young naval officer named Oliver
Hazard Perry had been hard at work, with a gang of ship carpenters, at
Erie, in Pennsylvania, cutting down trees, and had used this green
timber to build nine small vessels. With this fleet he sailed, in
September, in search of the British squadron, which had been just as
hastily built, and soon found it near Sandusky, Ohio. His own ship he
had named the _Lawrence_, in honor of a gallant American captain who had
been killed a few months before in a battle with an English frigate. As
Perry saw the enemy in the distance, he flung to the breeze a blue flag
on which was inscribed, "Don't give up the ship" (the dying order of
Lawrence to his men), sailed down to meet the enemy, and fought the two
largest British ships till the _Lawrence_ was a wreck. Then, with his
flag on his arm, he jumped into a boat, and amidst a shower of shot and
bullets was rowed to the _Niagara_. Once on her deck, he again hastened
to the attack, broke the British line of battle, and captured the entire
fleet. His dispatch to Harrison is as famous as his victory: "We have
met the enemy, and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner,
and one sloop."
%265. Battle of the Thames.%--Perry's victory was a grand one. It
gave him command of Lake Erie, and enabled him to carry Harrison's
soldiers over to Canada, where, on the Thames River, Harrison defeated
the British and Indians. These two victories regained all that had been
lost by the surrender of Hull.
Along the New York border little was done during 1813. The Americans
made a raid into Canada, and to their shame burned York. The British
attacked Sacketts Harbor and were driven off. The Americans sent an
expedition down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, but the leaders got
frightened and took refuge in northern New York.
%266. Campaign of 1814.%--In 1814 better officers were put in
command, and before winter came the Americans, under Jacob Brown and
Winfield Scott, had won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, and
captured Fort Erie. But the British returned in force, burned Black Rock
and Buffalo in revenge for the burning of York, and forced the Americans
to leave Canada.
The fighting along the Niagara River, by holding the army in that place,
prevented the Americans from attacking Montreal, and enabled the
British to gather a fleet on Lake Champlain, and send an army down from
Quebec to invade New York state just as Burgoyne had in 1777. But the
land force was defeated by General Macomb at Plattsburg, while Thomas
McDonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay. This was one of
the great victories of the war.
%267. The Sea Fights.%--While our army on the frontier was
accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after victory
on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was the subject of
English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen ships; she had 1200. She
laughed at ours as "fir-built things with a bit of striped bunting at
their mastheads." But before 1813 came, these "fir-built things" had
destroyed her naval supremacy.[1] With the details of all these
victories on the sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be
mentioned because the fame of them still endures, and because they are
examples of naval warfare in the days when the ships fought lashed
together, and when the boarders, cutlass and pistol in hand, climbed
over the bulwarks and met the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During
1812 the frigate _Constitution_, whose many victories won her the name
of "Old Ironsides," sank the _Guerrière_; the _United States_ captured
and brought to port the _Macedonian_; and the _Wasp_, a little sloop of
eighteen guns, after the most desperate engagement of the whole war,
captured the British sloop _Frolic_.
[Footnote 1: One reason for the success of the American navy was the
experience it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war
with Tripoli in 1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose
ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute
to Tripoli and other piratical states on the north coast of Africa,
under pain of having their ships seized and their sailors reduced to
slavery. A dispute with the United States led to a war which gained for
our ships the freedom of the Mediterranean.]
When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the _Wasp_ opened
with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed into fury by a two days'
cyclone, was running mountain high. The vessels rolled till the muzzles
of their guns dipped in the water. But the crews cheered lustily and
the fight went on. When at last the crew of the _Wasp_ boarded the
_Frolic_, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and
three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was
visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the
_Wasp_. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate
_Poictiers_ bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of
the _Frolic_, and took the _Wasp_ in addition.
During 1813 the _Constitution_ took the _Java_; the _Hornet_ sank the
_Peacock_; the _Enterprise_ captured the _Boxer_ off Portland, Maine.
These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there
were British victories also. The _Argus_, after destroying twenty-seven
vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the _Pelican_; the _Essex_,
after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two
frigates. The _Chesapeake_ was forced to strike to the _Shannon._
The _Chesapeake_ was at anchor in Boston harbor, in command of James
Lawrence, when the British frigate _Shannon_ ran in and challenged her.
Lawrence went out at once, and after a short, fierce fight was defeated
and killed. As his men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he
cried, "Don't give up the ship!" words which Perry, as we have seen,
afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have never since
forgotten.[1]
[Footnote 1: On the naval war read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Part
Third; Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70-108.]
%268. The British blockade the Coast.%--Never, in the course of her
existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats as we inflicted
on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record of those years caused a
tremendous excitement in Great Britain, all the vessels she could spare
were sent over, and with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the
United States was declared to be in a state of blockade.[1] In New
England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island quickly fell. A
British force went up the Penobscot to Hampden, and burned the _Adams_.
The eastern half of Maine was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut,
was bombarded.
[Footnote 1: All except New England had been blockaded since 1812; and
in 1813 the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged.]
%269. Burning of Washington.%--Further down the coast a great fleet
and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, came up
the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Maryland, and marched to Washington. At
Bladensburg, a little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a
feeble show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an August
night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached Washington, marched to
the Capitol, fired a volley through the windows, entered, and set fire
to the building. When the fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn
led the troops to the President's house, which was sacked and burned.
Next morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building and to the
Departments of State and War. Several private houses and a printing
office were also destroyed before the British began a hasty retreat to
the Chesapeake.[1]
[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6; McMaster's
_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 135-148; _Memoirs of Dolly Madison_, Chap. 8.]
%270. Baltimore attacked.%--Once on the bay, the army was hurried on
board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where for a day and a night
they shelled Fort McHenry.[2] Failing to take it, and Ross having been
killed, Cockburn reëmbarked and sailed away to Halifax.
[Footnote 2: Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the
British ships, composed the words of _The Star-Spangled Banner_ while
watching the bombardment.]
%271. The Victory at New Orleans.%--The army was taken to Jamaica in
order that it might form part of one of the greatest war expeditions
England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the finest ships her navy could
furnish, mounting 1000 guns and carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran
soldiers and sailors, had been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the
autumn of 1814, and in November sailed for New Orleans.
News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he had given the
duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, one of the
most extraordinary men our country has produced. The British landed at
the entrance of Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks
of the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them.
Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he hastened from the
city and with all possible speed threw up a line of rude earthworks, and
waited to be attacked. This line the British under General Pakenham
attacked on January 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful
loss of life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army.
The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. Jackson lost
seventy-one men. Five British regiments which entered the battle 3000
strong reported 1750 men killed, wounded, and missing.[1]
[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol.
IV., pp. 182-190]
%272. Peace.%--For a month after this defeat the British lingered in
their camp. At last, in February, the army departed to attack a fort on
Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two days later the news of peace put
an end to war. The treaty was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it
did not reach the United States till February, 1815.
In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of our sailors,
nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders in Council, nor
about inciting the Indians to attack our frontier, all of which Madison
had declared to be causes of the war. Yet we gained much. Our naval
victories made us the equal of any maritime power, while at home the war
did far more to arouse a national sentiment, consolidate the union, and
make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred.
SUMMARY
1. The land war may be divided into:
A. War along the frontier.
B. War along the Atlantic coast.
C. War along the Gulf coast.
2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side.
In 1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and failed
to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at Frenchtown, but
defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephenson, and at the Thames
River, and recovered Detroit. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie. The
Americans failed in the attempt to take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of
Chippewa and Lundys Lane were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the
British burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of
Canada. McDonough won the battle of Lake Champlain.
3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of
Long Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded till
1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washington was taken
and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked.
4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went
south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans.
5. The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were about
half as numerous as the victories.
6. Peace was announced in February, 1815.
[Illustration]
/ / / / 1812. Hull surrenders Detroit.
| | | | 1812. Harrison attempts to recover it.
| | | Detroit . . < 1813. Frenchtown.
| | | | Battle of Lake Erie.
| | The | | Harrison invades Canada and wins
| | expeditions | \ the battle of the Thames.
| | against |
| | Canada. < / 1812. Van Rensselaer repulsed.
| War | | | 1813. York taken and burned.
Second | on < | Niagara . . < 1814. Battles of Chippewa and Lundys
War for | land | | | Lane, and capture of Fort Erie.
Independence < | | \ Americans driven from Canada.
| | |
| | | / 1813. Expedition against Montreal.
| | | St. Lawrence < 1814. British come down from Canada.
| | \ \ Defeated on Lake Champlain.
| |
| | / 1812. Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island.
| | War on | 1813. Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay.
| | the | 1814. Entire coast blockaded.
| | Seaboard. < New England attacked.
| | | Washington taken and partly burned.
| | | Baltimore attacked.
| \ \ 1815. Victory at New Orleans.
|
| War on / The ship duels.
\ the sea. \ The fleet victories on the Lakes.