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 Report: War of 1812 Veterans
         Description: The War of 1812 (June 18, 1812 – March 23, 1815)

The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire (particularly Great Britain and British North America), was fought from 1812 to 1815.

There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S. declaration of war. First, a series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war; the U.S. contested these restrictions as illegal under international law.[3] Second, the impressment (forced recruitment) of U.S. citizens into the Royal Navy. Third, the alleged British military support for American Indians who were offering armed resistance to the United States.[4]

The war was fought in three major theatres: on the oceans, where the warships and privateers of both sides preyed on each other's merchant shipping; along the American coast, which was blockaded with increasing severity by the British, who also mounted large-scale raids in the later stages of the war; and on the long frontier, running along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, which divided the U.S. from Upper Canada (now the province of Ontario) and Lower Canada (now the province of Quebec). The United States could directly attack British territory and armies only in this last theatre. During the course of the war, both the Americans and British launched invasions of each other's territory across this frontier, most of which were unsuccessful or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British held parts of Maine and some outposts in the sparsely populated West while the Americans held Canadian territory near Detroit, but all occupied territories were restored at the end of the war.

In 1813, the Americans gained one of their main goals by breaking a confederation of Native American tribes. By taking control of Lake Erie, they cut them off from British aid, and Tecumseh, the Indian leader, was killed at the Battle of the Thames. While some Natives continued to fight alongside British troops, they subsequently did so only as individual tribes or groups of warriors and where they were directly supplied and armed by British agents.

After two years of warfare, the major causes of the war had disappeared. Neither side had any reason to continue or any chance of gaining a decisive success which would compel their opponents to cede territory or advantageous peace terms. As a result of this stalemate, the two nations signed the Treaty of Ghent on 24 December 1814. News of the peace treaty took two months to reach the U.S., during which fighting continued. In this interim, the Americans won a major victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

In the United States, battles such as New Orleans and the earlier successful defence of Baltimore (which inspired the lyrics of the U.S. national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner) produced a sense of euphoria over a "second war of independence" against Britain. It ushered in an "Era of Good Feelings," in which the partisan animosity that had once verged on treason practically vanished. Canada also emerged from the war with a heightened sense of national feeling and solidarity. This was later expressed as the "Militia Myth," the notion that locally recruited militia rather than British regular troops bore the major burden of the fighting in Canada and the adjoining parts of the United States. Britain, which had regarded the war as a sideshow to the Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe, was less affected by the fighting; its government and people subsequently welcomed an era of peaceful relations with the United States.

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