War of 1812 Campaigns
Canada

This campaign includes all operations in the Canadian-American border region except
the battle of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. The invasion and conquest of western Canada
was a major objective of the United States in the War of 1812. Among the significant
causes of the war were the continuing clash of British and American interests in the
Northwest Territory and the desire of frontier expansionists to seize Canada as a
bargaining chip while Great Britain was preoccupied with the Napoleonic Wars. In the
first phase of the war along the border in 1812, the United States suffered a series of
reverses. Fort Mackinac fell (6 August), Fort Dearborn was evacuated (15 August), and
Fort Detroit surrendered without a fight (16 August). American attempts to invade Canada
across the Niagara Peninsula (October) and toward Montreal (November) failed completely.
Brig. Gen. William Henry Harrison's move to recapture Detroit was repulsed (January
1813), but he checked British efforts to penetrate deeper into the region at the west end
of Lake Erie, during the summer of 1813. Meanwhile, in April 1813, Maj. Gen. Henry
Dearborn's expedition captured Fort Toronto and partially burned York, capital of Upper
Canada. On 27 May, Brig. Gen. Jacob Brown repelled a British assault on Sackett's
Harbor, New York. An American force led by Col. Winfield Scott seized Fort George and
the town of Queenston across the Niagara (May-June 1813), but the British regained
control of this area in December 1813. A two-pronged American drive on Montreal from
Sackett's Harbor and Plattsburg, New York in the fall of 1813 ended in a complete fiasco.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie (10 September
1813), opening the way for Harrison's victory at the Thames River (5 October), which
reestablished American control over the Detroit Area.

Chippewa New York

An American advance from Plattsburg in March 1814, led by Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson,
was checked just beyond the border, but on 3 July 3,500 men under General Brown seized
Fort Erie across the Niagara in a coordinated attack with Commodore Isaac Chauncey's
fleet designed to wrest control of Lake Ontario from the British. In subsequent troop
maneuvers in the Niagara region, Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott's brigade (1,300 men) of Brown's
command was unexpectedly confronted by a large British force while preparing for an
Independence Day parade (5 July 1814) near the Chippewa River. Scott's well-trained troops
broke the enemy line with a skillfully executed charge, sending the survivors into a hasty
retreat. British losses were 137 killed and 304 wounded; American, 48 killed and 227
wounded.

Lundy's Lane

After Chippewa Brown's force advanced to Queenstown, but soon abandoned a proposed
attack on Forts George and Niagara when Chauncey's fleet failed to cooperate in the
operation. Instead, on 24-25 July 1814, Brown moved back to the Chippewa preparatory
to a cross-country march along Lundy's Lane to the west end of Lake Ontario. Unknown
to Brown, the British had concentrated about 2,200 troops in the vicinity of Lundy's Lane
and 1,500 more in Forts George and Niagara. On 25 July, Scott's brigade, moving again
towards Queenstown in an effort to draw off a British detachment threatening Brown's line
of communications on the American side of the Niagara, ran into the enemy contingents
at the junction of Queenstown Road and Lundy's Lane. The ensuing battle, which eventually
involved all of Brown's force (2,900 men) and some 3,000 British, was fiercely fought and
neither side gained a clear cut victory. The Americans retired to the Chippewa unmolested,
but the battle terminated Brown's invasion of Canada. Casualties were heavy on both sides,
the British losing 878 and the Americans 854 in killed and wounded; both Brown and Scott
were wounded and the British commander was wounded and captured. British siege of Fort
Erie (2 August - 21 September 1814) failed to drive the Americans from that outpost on
Canadian soil, but on 5 November they withdrew voluntarily. Commodore Thomas
Macdonough's victory over the British fleet on Lake Champlain (11 September 1814)
compelled Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada, to call off his attack on
Plattsburg with 11,000 troops.

The War of 1812 in Wisconsin Prairie du Chien
Report by State President Charlene Janeczko

Although the fledgling United States took legal possession of Wisconsin at the close of the Revolutionary War, hardly anyone seemed to care. The new government had more important priorities than the remote Wisconsin frontier. And the few white residents here spoke little if any English, and looked not to Philadelphia and Boston for role models but to Montreal and Paris. The vast majority of Wisconsin residents were Native Americans, who needed good relations with both English and American fur companies to survive.

So when in 1812 politicians a thousand miles away began to complain about "freedom of the seas," few Wisconsin residents paid much attention. But when hostilities actually broke out and the British captured Mackinac, both Indians and frontier settlers chose up sides. As a general rule, Wisconsin's French residents and Indians usually sided with the British rather than the Americans, though many struggled to remain neutral. Support for the U.S. tended to come from the few American traders who had straggled up the Mississippi River from Illinois and St. Louis.

In 18l4 these Americans, led by William Clark (U.S. superintendant of Indian affairs at St. Louis and co-commander of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806), built Fort Shelby on St. Feriole Island at Prairie du Chien in the hope of keeping the upper Mississippi fur trade out of British hands. On July 17, with about 60 American soldiers inside the fort, the British arrived from Mackinac via Green Bay and attacked it with a force of about 150 regulars and 400 Indians. For several days the two sides half-heartedly tried to keep beyond reach of each other's guns, until the British managed to take the sole American gunboat out of action and lay siege to Fort Shelby. The Americans capitulated on August 9, the British moved in on August 20 and renamed their captured prize Fort McKay, and so ended Wisconsin's only participation in the war. The fort remained in British hands for only a few months, until December 1814, when both sides agreed to the restoration of territory captured from the other. The retreating British forces burned the fort prior to withdrawing from the Northwest in 1815.

 

Bladensburg

After the surrender of Napoleon, the British dispatched Maj. Gen. Robert Ross from France
on 27 June 1814, with 4,000 veterans to raid key points on the American coast. Ross
landed at the mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland with Washington as his objective on
19 August and marched as far as Upper Marlboro, Maryland (22 August) without meeting
resistance. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. William Winder, in command of the Potomac District,
had assembled a mixed force of about 5,000 men near Bladensburg, including militia,
regulars, and some 400 sailors from Commodore Joshua Barney's gunboat flotilla, which
had been destroyed to avoid capture by the British fleet. In spite of a considerable advantage
in numbers and position, the Americans were easily routed by Ross' force. British losses
were about 249 killed and wounded; the Americans lost about 100 killed and wounded, and
100 captured. British detachments entered the city and burned the Capitol and other public
buildings (24-25 August) in what was later announced as retaliation for the American
destruction at York.

Fort McHenry Baltimore

While the British marched on Washington, Baltimore had time to hastily strengthen its
defenses. Maj. Gen. Samuel Smith had about 9,000 militia, including 1,000 in Fort
McHenry guarding the harbor. On 12 September, the British landed at North Point about
14 miles below the city, where their advance was momentarily checked by 3,200 Maryland
Militiamen. Thirty-nine British (including General Ross) were killed and 251 wounded at a
cost of 24 Americans killed, 139 wounded, and 50 taken prisoner. After their fleet failed to
reduce Fort McHenry by bombardment and boat attack (night of 13-14 September), the
British decided that a land attack on the rather formidable fortifications defending the city
would be too costly and, on 14 October, sailed for Jamaica. Francis Scott Key, after
observing the unsuccessful British bombardment of Fort McHenry, was inspired to compose
the verses of "The Star Spangled Banner."

New Orleans

Song: Battle of New Orleans

On 20 December 1814, a force of about 10,000 British troops, assembled in Jamaica, landed
unopposed at the west end of Lake Borgne, some 15 miles from New Orleans, preparatory
to an attempt to seize the city and secure control of the lower Mississippi Valley. Advanced
elements pushed quickly toward the river, reaching Villere's Plantation on the left bank,
10 miles below New Orleans, on 23 December. In a swift counter-action, Maj. Gen. Andrew
Jackson, American commander in the South, who had only arrived in the city on 1 December,
made a night attack on the British (23-24 December) with some 20,000 men supported by fire
from the gunboat Carolina. The British advance was checked, giving Jackson time to fall back
to a dry canal about five miles south of New Orleans, where he built a breastworks about a
mile long, with the right flank on the river and the left in a cypress swamp. A composite force
of about 3,500 militia, regulars, sailors, and others manned the American main line, with
another 1,000 in reserve. A smaller force—perhaps 1,000 militia—under Brig. Gen. David
Morgan defended the right bank of the river. Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham, brother-in-law
of the Duke of Wellington, arrived on 25 December to command the British operation. He
entrenched his troops and, on 1 January 1815, fought an artillery duel in which the Americans
outgunned the British artillerists. Finally, at dawn on 8 January, Pakenham attempted a
frontal assault on Jackson's breastworks with 5,300 men, simultaneously sending a smaller
force across the river to attack Morgan's defenses. The massed fires of Jackson's troops,
protected by earthworks reinforced with cotton bales, wrought havoc among Pakenham's
regulars as they advanced across the open ground in front of the American lines. In less than
a half hour, the attack was repulsed. The British lost 291 killed, including Pakenham, 1,262
wounded, and 48 prisoners; American losses on both sides of the river were only 13 killed,
39 wounded, and 19 prisoners. The surviving British troops withdrew to Lake Borgne and
reembarked on 27 January for Mobile, where, on 14 February, they learned that the Treaty of
Ghent, ending the war, had been signed on 24 December 1814.

Another Account of Battle for New Orleans by
A. Wilson Green, the former manager of Chalmette National Historical Park

.In late 1814 New Orleans was home to a population of French, Spanish, African, Anglo and Creole peoples dedicated to pursuing economic opportunism and the joys of life. It also occupied a strategic place on the map. Located just 100 miles upstream from the mouth of the Mississippi River, the Crescent City offered a tempting prize to a British military still buoyant over the burning of Washington, D.C. To capture the city, Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane fitted out a naval flotilla of more than 50 ships to transport 10,000 veteran troops from Jamaica. They were led by Sir Edward Pakenham, the 37-year-old brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington and a much-decorated general officer.

For protection, the citizens of southern Louisiana looked to Major General Andrew Jackson, known to his men as "Old Hickory." Jackson arrived in new Orleans in the late fall of 1814 and quickly prepared defenses along the city's many avenues of approach.

Meanwhile, the British armada scattered a makeshift American fleet in Lake Borgne, a shallow arm of the Gulf of Mexico east of New Orleans, and evaluated their options. Two British officers, disguised as Spanish fishermen, discovered an unguarded waterway, Bayou Bienvenue, that provided access to the east bank of the Mississippi River barely nine miles downstream from New Orleans. On December 23 the British vanguard poled its way through a maze of sluggish streams and traversed marshy land to emerge unchallenged an easy day's march from their goal.

Two American officers, whose plantations had been commandeered by the British, informed Jackson that the enemy was at the gates. "Gentlemen, the British are below, we must fight them tonight," the general declared. He quickly launched a nighttime surprise attack that, although tactically a draw, gained valuable time for the outnumbered Americans. Startled by their opponents' boldness, the British decided to defer their advance toward New Orleans until all their troops could be brought in from the fleet.

Old Hickory used this time well. He retreated three miles to the Chalmette Plantation on the banks of the Rodriguez Canal, a wide, dry ditch that marked the narrowest strip of solid land between the British camps and New Orleans. Here Jackson built a fortified mud rampart, 3/5 mile long and anchored on its right by the Mississippi River and on the left by an impassable cypress swamp.

While the Americans dug in, General Pakenham readied his attack plans. On December 28 the British launched a strong advance that Jackson repulsed with the help of the Louisiana, an American ship that blasted the British left flank with broadsides from the river. Four days later Pakenham tried to bombard the Americans into submission with an artillery barrage, but Jackson's gunners stood their ground.

The arrival of fresh troops during the first week of January 1815 gave the British new hope. Pakenham decided to cross the Mississippi downstream with a strong force and overwhelm Jackson's thin line of defenders on the river bank opposite the Rodriguez Canal. Once these redcoats were in position to pour flank fire across the river, heavy columns would assault each flank of the American line, then pursue the insolent defenders six miles into the heart of New Orleans. Units carrying fascines -- bundled sticks used to construct fortifications -- and ladders to bridge the ditch and scale the ramparts would precede the attack, which would begin at dawn January 8 to take advantage of the early morning fog.

It was a solid plan in conception, but flawed in execution. The force on the west bank was delayed crossing the river and did not reach its goal until well after dawn. Deprived of their misty cover, the main British columns had no choice but to advance across the open fields toward the Americans, who waited expectantly behind their mud and cotton-bale barricades. To make matters worse, the British forgot their ladders and fascines, so they had no easy means to close with the protected Americans.

Never has a more polyglot army fought under the Stars and Stripes than did Jackson's force at the Battle of New Orleans. In addition to his regular U.S. Army units, Jackson counted on dandy New Orleans militia, a sizable contingent of black former Haitian slaves fighting as free men of color, Kentucky and Tennessee frontiersmen armed with deadly long rifles and a colorful band of outlaws led by Jean Lafitte, whose men Jackson had once disdained as "hellish banditti." This hodgepodge of 4,000 soldiers, crammed behind narrow fortifications, faced more than twice their number.

Pakenham's assault was doomed from the beginning. His men made perfect targets as they marched precisely across a quarter mile of open ground. Hardened veterans of the Peninsular Campaign in Spain fell by the score, including nearly 80 percent of a splendid Scottish Highlander unit that tried to march obliquely across the American front. Both of Pakenham's senior generals were shot early in the battle, and the commander himself suffered two wounds before a shell severed an artery in his leg, killing him in minutes. His successor wisely disobeyed Pakenham's dying instructions to continue the attack and pulled the British survivors off the field. More than 2,000 British had been killed or wounded and several hundred more were captured. The American loss was eight killed and 13 wounded.

Jackson's victory had saved New Orleans, but it came after the war was over. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 but resolved none of the issues that started it, had been signed in Europe weeks before the action on the Chalmette Plantation.

RIVER RAISIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD, MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN

"Michigan's Tribute to Kentucky."
This monument is dedicated to the memory of the heroes who lost their lives in our country's defense in the battle and massacre of the River Raisin, January 22nd and 23rd, 1813"

From January 18th to January 23rd, 1813, the north bank of the River Raisin became a battleground where the forces of the United States and Great Britain fought each other for the control of all of Michigan and the Lower Great Lakes. At stake was the destiny not only of the 2 countries (United State and Great Britain), but also the future of Frenchtown, (known today as Monroe Michigan) and of Canada, and of Tecumseh's alliance of Native-American tribes.

The British and Indian victory at the River Raisin destroyed an entire American army and upset their campaign to recapture Detroit, which had fallen to the enemy early in the war. It raised Native-American hopes that their alliance with the British would result in the preservation of their lands, while it brought grief to hundreds of families in Kentucky who had lost their sons during the bloody battle and its aftermath.While not a decisive turning point of the war, the Battle of the River Raisin had a significant effect on the campaign for the Great Lakes. It would take a full 9 months for U.S. forces to regain their momentum. In the meantime, Frenchtown was laid waste, and the Ohio frontier was exposed to invasion and raids by the British and Indians.

Out of the battle of the River Raisin, came one of the great American rallying cries of the War of 1812, "Remember the Raisin."379 Americans under the Cols. Allen, Lewis and Wells fought desperately against 3000 British and Allies under Gen. Proctor. Forced to surrender, tho' promised British protection, the prisoners left unguarded were attacked and killed by the Indians."

VIRGINIA

The Battle of Craney Island Craney Island at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, the scene of the American victory that spared Norfolk from being captured by the British during the War of 1812, was originally known as Crayne or Craney Point. The name was derived from the fact that the early settlers on the Elizabeth River were impressed with the great number of what they mistakenly believed to be cranes that inhabited it. Hence the name Crayne or Craney Point, although the birds the settlers thought were cranes were actually white and blue herons, still fairly common birds in the Tidewater area. After an uneventful Colonial history, Craney Island came into its own in 1813 when an American force stationed there successfully repelled a British attack during this country's second war with England. In February of 1813 an impressive British squadron commanded by Admiral Sir George Cockburn sailed through the Virginia Capes to blockade the Chesapeake Bay. This action bottled up the U.S. frigate Constellation in Norfolk harbor. But this was a blessing in disguise as the officers, sailors, marines, guns, and small boats of the frigate proved invaluable in defending Norfolk from the blockaders. The appearance of the British in Norfolk-area waters hurried the preparations for defense, the coordination of which was placed under the command of General Robert Barraud Taylor of Norfolk. Fortifications on the outskirts of Norfolk and Portsmouth were hastily thrown up, but Taylor had no idea of letting the enemy get that close to home if he could help it. Commandeering every vessel he could, Taylor threw a floating barrier across the mouth of the Elizabeth River, while Craney Island was strengthened with a fort and redoubts. These were manned by personnel from the Constellation and two companies of light artillery, one of which was commanded by Captain Arthur Emmerson of Portsmouth. On June 21, 1813, the already formidable British fleet was strengthened by new arrivals, after which the entire squadron moved up to the mouth of the Nansemond River. Early on the morning of June 22, 1813, a long drum roll in the American ranks announced that the British had launched a ground attack on the western side of the island. In the excitement, the defenders realized that they were not displaying a flag, so a pole was hastily hunted up, and American flag was nailed to its top, and it was hoisted over the breastworks. About two thousand British took part in the land attack, but the American fire was deadly that they eventually fell back with heavy losses. In the meantime, an attack was launched on the river side of the island by a double column of fifty British barges, led by the fifty-two-foot barge, Centipede, a handsome craft with a shining brass three-pounder in its bow. Waiting until the floating attack was well within range of his guns, Captain Emmerson finally yelled, "Now my brave boys, are you ready? Fire!" The result was lethal, and the barges were sunk and scattered like so many sitting ducks. In all, the British lost around two hundred men and the defenders not one. The American victory at Craney Island saved Norfolk and Portsmouth from being captured and pillaged by the enemy,. Commenting on the bravery of the defenders, General Taylor wrote the United States Secretary of War: "The courage and constancy with which this inferior force, in the face of a formidable naval armament, not only sustained a position in which nothing was complete, but repelled the enemy with considerable loss, cannot fail to command the approbation of the government and the applause of their country." Chapter 33 Lafayette's Four Visits

 

NAVAL BATTLES

Capture of HMS Boxer