-Early failures and successes
-The rising fortunes of William Henry Harrison
-The ongoing war of Tecumseh
-The Embargo of 1813
-A renewed British commitment
-The culmination of the war
-The Treaty of Ghent

[SLIDE 1]

The nation's military was in a frightful condition for the country to brashly declare war. What is more, despite its saber rattling, Congress didn't want to pay for the endeavor. From the British perspective, the war with America would be a backwater of the larger Napoleonic Wars.

[SLIDE 2]

American performance in the land war was not impressive. A humiliated Congress substantially increased the number of soldiers from 7,000 to 57,000. The naval effort was far more successful. In addition, privateers captured hundreds of British merchant vessels. The dubious American performance put Madison's reelection in jeopardy. The New England Federalists do not support the war, but the South and the West support Madison and the war. He wins reelection in 1812, but with a smaller margin of victory.

[SLIDE 3]

Tecumseh met Harrison again in a battle at Fort Meigs, Ohio. The joint Indian-British forces were repelled when help arrived in the form of Kentucky militiamen. The undisciplined militia lost half its numbers in pursuit of the Indian-British forces. Those forces were able to harass the American forces for a season before retreating back to Canada. Harrison decided to pursue them, which probably would have ended badly for Harrison except for some sea changes in a different area of the war.

[SLIDE 4]

Oliver Perry, older brother of the Commodore Perry involved in opening up Japan to the West, was tasked with gaining control of the Great Lakes for the United States. Britain was in control of the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, which meant they controlled the inland path to the sea. They had an unbroken supply line, while U.S. forces only had poor overland roads, which were easily attacked by enemy troops. Perry's victory encouraged Harrison by tilting the balance in his favor.

[SLIDE 5]

Harrison's army caught up with Proctor and Tecumseh at the Thames River, 50 miles north of Detroit. The cavalry charge was devastating, and no naval help was forthcoming. The British fled, leaving their Indian allies behind. Tecumseh was killed, and the Indians defeated. Also killed was Tecumseh's lieutenant, Roundhead, a Wyandot war leader who had fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers against General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. With the death of these two leaders, the Indian resistance dissolved.

[SLIDE 6]

To the south, the Creek Confederacy had wanted to remain neutral, but a faction called the Red Sticks had joined Tecumseh's Confederacy in 1812 under the leadership of William Weatherford. When Weatherford carried out a massacre of nearly the entire population of Fort Mims, Andrew Jackson harnessed white anger and led the response. Jackson was known as "Old Hickory" because of his toughness. 

[SLIDE 7]

Britain had the strongest navy in the world and was tired of humiliation at the hands of Americans. They sent sufficient ships to blockade the coast so that the American navy and merchant marine could not sail. For America, troops and money were in short supply, and Congress had to get creative to build troop numbers when it had no money to pay the soldiers. At this juncture, Britain offered to begin peace negotiations.

[SLIDE 8]

To this point, America had been allowing neutral ships in American ports to take American commodities to Britain and Canada and to bring British goods to America. It was clear this practice was prolonging the war because Britain was benefiting from American food. The result was the harshest trade restrictions possible, with devastating effects on the economy of every state and territory.

[SLIDE 9]

The war became much more serious after Napoleon's abdication left large numbers of war-hardened veterans free to leave Europe and fight the United States. 

[SLIDE 10]

With a massive onslaught, Washington, D.C., was sacked and burned, although the members of the government managed to escape beforehand. President Madison spent the night in the home of a Quaker in Montgomery County, Maryland. The Presidential Manor and the Capitol were among the buildings burned. This attack represents the only time since the Revolutionary War that a United States capital city has been occupied, and it lasted only a bit more than a day. The troops then moved on to the port city of Baltimore, where the bombardment of Fort McHenry was watched by a prisoner of war on one of the ships. That prisoner, Francis Scott Key, was inspired to write a poem that would be set to music and become the national anthem. 

[SLIDE 11]

A second prong of attack came from troops massed in Canada, but a surprising victory by a small American flotilla caused the invasion force to turn back.

[SLIDE 12]

The third prong of the offensive came from the south. Andrew Jackson, having just brutally ended the Red Sticks resistance, marched to meet it. When he found the local militia of French and Spanish residents to be largely useless, he enlisted the help of free blacks, as well as black refugees from Saint-Domingue. He further accepted help from a band of river pirates under the command of the pirate Jean Lafitte, granting them pardons for their crimes. When the British advance, they are met by a murderous barrage of fire, and the Americans win a decisive and terrible victory.

[SLIDE 13]

Negotiations had begun in Ghent even as the British were attacking Washington. The British believed the Americans would be forced into submission and were simply biding their time, refusing to discuss whatever the United States deemed important. The British wanted an Indian buffer state in the Northwest Territory, which they would sponsor, to block American expansion. The Americans wanted an end to British impressment and for Britain to turn Canada over to them. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain no longer need to impress American sailors. The other demands would be allowed to lapse. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. It simply resumed diplomatic relations and ignored the other issues: British support of Indian resistance, impressment, neutral trading rights, and the rest. And Canada remained with the British. Although the Americans declared victory, the War Hawks had achieved nothing that they had wanted. Many historians view the war as a stalemate. The real losers were the Indians, who lost the last of their foreign supports on the continent. They were now in a position to be forced onto reservations. As one British negotiator put it, "I had no idea of the fixed determination which there is in the heart of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory."