Encyclopedia of American Studies

War of 1812

The War of 1812, although named for the year the U.S. Congress declared war, lasted two years and eight months: from June 18, 1812, until the U.S. and British governments proclaimed the Treaty of Ghent on February 18, 1815. The war played out both on land and on the high seas and is often credited as having established the credibility of the U.S. Navy. Although the war left the territorial boundaries of the United States virtually unchanged, it did provide the young republic with an expanded canon of war heroes, including William Bainbridge, James Lawrence, Oliver Hazard Perry, Winfield Scott, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and the frigate Constitution. While the young republic suffered many disastrous defeats, such as those at Detroit and Bladensburg, the loss of the Chesapeake, and the burning of the national capital, the country found solace in both its significant victories�the Battle of the Thames, the Battle of Lake Erie, and the Battle of New Orleans�and comforting emergent legends, such as James Lawrence's supposed last words "Don't give up the ship!"

The War of 1812 had a number of causes, some dating back to the end of the American War for Independence; others were the result of the concurrent Napoleonic Wars. Prior to the outbreak of war in 1812, the British, unable to fill their enlistment quotas, impressed American sailors in an effort to correct shortages of manpower in the Royal Navy. Britain's unwillingness to allow the United States to trade freely with Napoleonic France threatened the well-being of the nation's second largest industry. Most famously, however, this policy resulted in the HMS Leopard firing upon the U.S. frigate Chesapeake in 1807. Although the war hawks in America would argue the war was over "free trade and sailor's rights," territorial disputes, Native American interests, and the failure of both sides failure to follow through on treaty obligations from the previous Anglo-American war contributed to the outbreak of hostilities.

American studies scholars differ on the significance of the war to the new nation. It was the first major war of the new republic against a European power, and some histories refer to it as the second war of independence. Yet historian Walter Bornemann considered its outcomes minor and called it a "silly little war." To Troy Bickham, the War of 1812 was, ultimately, an avoidable conflict that garnered neither side much in the way of victory. Other interpretations, such as those by Alfred Thayer Mahan and John Cusick, posit that the war resulted in important, less immediate changes for the young nation: a test of union, a proven navy, and the first steps in the annexation of Spanish Florida. A consensus view is that the war contributed to the immediate identity of the young nation and its long-term development. Yet the American public at large has rejected large-scale, ritualized remembrance of the war in favor of wars with clearer outcomes.

While various cults of memory exist surrounding the War of 1812, the result of the war, serving more to confirm what was already established rather than gain for the young republic significant territory or treasure, has prevented the American public from engaging in the same kind of culture of victory that has accompanied other wars. The war gave the country its watchwords and its national anthem growing out of the siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, but public historians often comment on the lack of awareness or muddled understanding of the war's events. Former park rangers at Fort Sumter have been known to describe how visitors to the Civil War historic site confuse Fort Sumter for Fort McHenry and ask guides about the writing of the "Star Spangled Banner." Nor is this limited to battlefield pilgrims. On the popular television comedy The Big Bang Theory (Episode 101, 2012) the brainy character of Dr. Sheldon Cooper committed the same error, saying "like the flag over Fort Sumter, I will still be there." Had the war been more successful or even if it had been more deadly, these misidentifications would not exist in American popular memory.

The signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1815 formally ended hostilities, although tensions would remain in the British-American relationship for decades. The treaty returned the warring nations to a status quo relationship during the antebellum period. This accord appeared acceptable to the Americans as Napoleon's downfall meant the British ceased to intrude into American trading efforts. The most significant results of the war were the recognition that the United States would not fall under the British sphere of influence and that no Native American state would be established in the American West. In short, it asserted American sovereignty once and for all.

Zachary S. Kopin

Bibliography

Altoff, Gerard T., Amongst My Best Men: African Americans in the War of 1812 (Perry 1996).

Bickham, Tony, The Weight of Vengeance: The United States the British Empire and the War of 1812 (Oxford 2013).

Bornemann, Walter R., 1812: The War That Forged a Nation (HarperCollins 2004).

Cusick, James G., The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida (Univ. Press of Fla. 2003).

Eustace, Nicole, 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism (Univ. of Penn. Press 2011).

Ferguson, Gillum, Illinois in the War of 1812 (Univ. of Ill. Press 2012).

Gilje, Paul A., Free Trade and Sailors' Rights in the War of 1812 (Cambridge 2013).

Hickey, Donald R., Don't Give Up the Ship! Myths of the War of 1812 (Univ. of Ill. Press 2007).

Hickey, Donald R., The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (University of Ill. Press 2012).

Mahan, Alfred Thayer, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812 (Little, Brown 1905).

Roosevelt, Theodore, The Naval War of 1812 (Putnam 1882).

Taylor, Alan, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Vintage 2011).