The War of 1812 is not the only war to be dubbed a “forgotten war.” Others, like the Korean War, the Spanish Civil War, and the Barbary Wars, have also received this title. Such a moniker in all these cases belies the importance and complexity of these events — and by extension the immense value of learning about them. Even though the War of 1812 occurred in the background of the world-changing Napoleonic Wars, its consequences were significant in all kinds of ways. In point of fact, though it may sometimes be thought of as a forgotten war, for Native Americans and Canadians it is not the case that it has fallen off the map of memory. The United States and Great Britain may have been the war’s two biggest players, but it affected many others. For some, it did so in profound and existential ways.
This PBS documentary (2011) on the War of 1812 does a nice job laying out the multiplicity of perspectives in the war (which, for Americans, is sometimes called the Second War of Independence). Generally well-written and well-visualized, the documentary never goes particularly in-depth on any one matter but instead aims to give viewers an encompassing look at what, and who, this war involved. Issues of leadership, weaponry, geography, communication, and national interests are all touched upon as the two-and-half-year war is presented chronologically: June 1812 – February 1815. Along the way it strives to dispel certain legends and inaccuracies. Balancing all of this information is a well-conceived idea to follow a few everyday characters — via narrated diary entries — like a woman named Lydia Bacon and a captured American soldier named William Atherton.
The first quarter or so of the documentary presents the early 19th-century context: a young America, led by Jefferson and then Madison, is still learning and finding its way as its once master Great Britain struggles to contend with Napoleon. The naval superpower had been impressing American sailors for many years, desperate to resupply its diminishing sailors as they fought perilously against France and its allies. In 1807 feelings were heightened when the British Leonard fired upon the American Chesapeake — sitting in its home waters — killing three Americans and wounding many others. In that same year, Great Britain imposed its Orders in Council, thereby derailing what had been tremendous trading success for America as it had stayed neutral in the Napoleonic Wars. In spite of all this, Jefferson did not declare war; instead, he imposed what would turn out to be the utterly useless Embargo Act.
But this strategy wouldn’t remain forever. On June 1, 1812, Madison sent to Congress his war message. A declaration for war passed in the House by a comfortable margin, though in the Senate it was much tighter: 19 – 13. It was “the closest formal war vote in American history.” Madison shortly after declared that the United States would attack Britain by attacking Canada. But the narrow vote echoed the dissonant voices about America’s impending war — a state of disagreement which would remain all the way until the end. Commerce-minded New England strongly opposed it, while the War Hawks and much of the Republican Party were for it. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and William Henry Harrison — a new generation of politicians — would be pivotal figures in the development of the war. The latter, in 1811, had already precipitated — and won — a hard-fought battle at Tippecanoe.
As mentioned, the documentary aims to give a panorama view of the War of 1812, and this includes capturing not just American and British perspectives but also those of the natives and Canadians. As for the former, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh receives critical attention. Both warrior and visionary, Tecumseh sought to unite the native tribes and present a strong front against a land-hungry, expansionist-minded United States (a mentality, in terms of unification, not dissimilar to that of George Washington’s mindset years earlier, as one commentator points out). The British, who wanted to keep a careful eye on how territories were drawn, were happy to have the Native Americans as allies — though of course Great Britain was ultimately concerned with its own interests and not the inherent well-being of Native Americans.
In the first stage of the war — a war which seems to have had no consistent tempo, or even rationale — Great Britain and its allies found easy success. Americans, who at the time “still distrusted the entire idea of a standing army,” relied on rather poorly trained militias and ill-selected generals. Not surprisingly, they were summarily handed three successive and humiliating losses as they attempted to invade Canada. The degree of unpreparedness was congruous with the fact that both Jefferson and Madison believed that Canada would welcome them as liberators. It was due partly to such a gross misperception that America experienced “one blunder after another” in this first part of the war.
But the United States would wise up and the tide change, at least for a time. In April of 1813, the U.S. scored a significant victory at the Battle of Fort Meigs, which spelled “the beginning of the end for Tecumseh and for the British in the Northwest.” But more losses were to come, including at the Battle of Boston Harbor, in June 1813 — where, despite the now famed utterance by James Lawrence of “Don’t give up the ship,” America suffered defeat.
The major turning point of the war came in September of that same year at the Battle of Lake Erie. After a rush on both sides to build ships, Commander Oliver Perry helped give the U.S. a major victory, consequently cutting off crucial supply lines for the British. Just a month later, Tecumseh perished at the Battle of Thames, also an American victory.
But in a war that had many twists and turns, the loss of this major figure and ally did not spell doom for the British. With Napoleon’s power coming nearly to an end by 1814, the British found themselves with much more attention to spare. And so — as the documentary takes us through this surge of greater initiative on the part of the British — we learn of an agitated and frantic Dolly Madison, rushing to remove a portrait of George Washington off the walls of the White House as the British come to (eventually) burn down the capitol. The conflagration was essentially retaliation for what the Americans had done at York the previous year.
The war would continue to drag on for nearly six more months — even, that is, after a peace treaty had been signed on Christmas Eve 1814. If the War of 1812 is full of all sorts of paradoxes and strange battles, surely its coda wins the gold for the most bizarre and uncanny event of them all. In January 1815, Andrew Jackson mounted a defensive front against the British in the area of New Orleans, trying to prevent them from gaining the Mississippi. They were successful in this, winning the battle and — the bewildering part — cementing in the American mind the idea that this battle was why the war had to come an end. News of the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve, did not reach the United States until around this time: thus, the two events became immediately associated with one another. In a war that was bizarre from the very beginning, it was the perfect climax — or anti-climax.
Despite the inherent strangeness of the War of 1812, and despite the absence of certain features which make other wars perhaps more exciting or more noticeably important, its consequences were nonetheless many and great. While the documentary spends most of its two hour run time on battle narratives, it does give attention to many of these outcomes, some of which are not immediately apparent. After all, territorial lines remained virtually the same as they were prior to the war; and many historians consider the outcome to have a been a draw, with no real gains on either side. But psychologically and politically, the War of 1812 had very real implications.
For Americans it produced exuberant feelings of pride, potential, and patriotism, and ushered in an Era of Good Feelings. For Canadians it brought about a sense of identity and independence. For the British it was but a blimp in the much larger context of the Napoleonic Wars — not something that would stay in their minds for long, if at all. But for Native Americans it signaled, in a most visceral way, a continued loss of land and way of life at the hands of others. For a war that could perhaps have been avoided altogether, it is undoubtedly this outcome that is the most dark and lasting.
Spectatio 