The War of 1812: Opinions

It's a little out of the norm for me to give opinions as I regularly deliver only purely factual information (historical stuff doesn't give me all that many opinions anyways). However, 1812 brings up a number of questions that I would like to answer. So, if you're in for moderately informed opinions from someone on the internet, you're in for a treat.

So, who actually won the war?

"They have killed our drummer! All is lost! Sound the
retreat!"

I think this one is fairly simple; the British/Canadians won. I know it sounds very kindergarten-y to say "yeah, well, they started it" but the core of it is true here. The Americans did start the war. They engaged with the intention of expelling the British from North America, taking the land as their own, and ending impressment. They went 0/3 on those goals. Canada, at the onset of the war, was hoping simply to keep their stuff. Yes, those goals may have changed throughout the campaign when the British started to push back, but I feel that's mostly irrelevant; the goals of the war were completed for the British and not at all for the Americans. Had the British only done well enough to just barely stymie the American assault, it would have never been a question. However, with their success in pushing into American territory, those goals changed and suddenly it wasn't as clear cut. But, we have to remember how it started out - the British defended their territory, completing what they sought to do in the war.

The Americans didn't lose too much either, but more so maintained a status quo. Impressment started to pass by the wayside, but that was due to circumstances oversees rather than anything they did personally. They may have defended valiantly at the end but their purpose in entering the war was to take territory, not prevent losses.

The only one who really lost in this case were the native tribes in the area surrounding the fighting (Ohio and so forth). The native state was not established, they lost what they held previously, and many were sent to reserves or continued being kicked off the land they previously held.

Why do Americans think they won it?
Americans believe they won the war because of a number of decisive battles close to the end that all went the way of the stars and stripes. However, these battles were used as leverage when peace talks were already occurring. The British hoped to continue pushing into American territory to have a greater say in how the treaty went, planning to score a few extra points by saying "hey, we can still blow up your crap if we want to". Losing in New Orleans (and losing in a rout, at that), a defeat in a major naval battle, and failing to take Baltimore culminated in a strong end for the Americans - but the final score still weighed in favour of the British North Americans.

Can we say Canada won?
This is a tricky one.

The argument for no:

One could easily say it was all the Brits. The generals, military leaders, and backbone of the army (the British regulars, the highly trained military) were all British. It was, without question, British territory. Canada wasn't even a country at that point, and wouldn't be for another half century - and even then, it would still be under British command for some time. Even now we love hearing about the Royal Family for reasons beyond my understanding (I'm a touch confused why the British care either). Everything about it screams Britain since the spoils of war went to them, the command came from across the ocean, the best soldiers were British born, and ultimately it was America vs. Britain. If it's Britain, it's not officially Canadian, no matter how linked it may be.

Brock, thinking the battle a lock, found shock in the shot
from the glock that pierced his smock. He took his knock
on his walk to squawk at the War Hawk, alongside the Mohawk,
wielders of the tomahawk.  

The argument for yes:

No, Canada wasn't a country - but it's called Upper and Lower Canada. It's the same territory and while many of the British regulars would have gone on home, many of those that fought were those settling into that territory. Their children (well, grandchildren mostly) would be those that would grow up there and later become, unequivocally, Canadian.  And while the British regulars and generals may have been leading the fights, a massive number of soldiers were militiamen of Canada - meaning those that had settled into the lands around there and signed up to defend. These were Canadian militiamen who were British subjects.

In my mind, this absolutely was Canada, just the same as it was Britain. It was a shared victory through and through. Through the occupation of towns by the States (and, in truth, harbouring an anti-Americanism that still shines through at times today) we began to develop our own cultural identity. 1812 was one of the first steps to move from being British living overseas to true Canadians, and because of that, we can find a part in it. It was those fighting on behalf of Upper and Lower Canada who won the war, and many of whom were the basis for the country as it stands. Without them the face of Canada would be littered with American flags instead of the maple leaf.

Were the British the "good guys"?

"Oh man oh man oh man we've got to get that piece back
before the President noticed or we are so dead."

This isn't Star Wars. There's no Dark Side, pure good or evil, or Jar Jar Binks (there's only Manley Power). Everything here is rather muddled. Both sides, in a sense, are underdogs. America is the young upstart, but with the British across the ocean, they outnumbered them - making them the heavyweight in this fight if not the world. America may have declared war, but it was the British who goaded them into it with impressment and disrupting their trade. Neither side really wanted to enter the war, but felt they had to. So, all in all, the answer is clear.

Maybe?

Lasting Legacy:
With a lack of territory change, would things really have been that different if the War of 1812 didn't happen? Well, that's all conjecture. But... It showed that Canada wasn't a pushover. We may have been fewer in number, but that doesn't mean we would allow outsiders to come into our territory and set up camp. Through shirking American influence we chose to be uniquely ourselves, rather than another State, or America's hat. (Yes, still a British colony, but sort of unique.) In fact, both sides seemed to find some new identity through it - the Americans describe it as their Second War of Independance (finding independence through attacking another, but still) and it pushed us one step closer to Confederation years down the line.

The War of 1812: Part 3 - Back to Normal

With Brock's death, Tecumseh's dream of a native state largely went with him. Brock was ever the supporter of Tecumseh, both having a mutual respect through the fact that both men were, objectively speaking, awesome. However, without Brock in his corner, he lacked the cohesion he once had with the British forces.

Some time after Brock's death, a fierce battle raged between River Raisin and Frenchtown, a Canadian settlement. After a number of skirmishes back and forth, the Canadian forces (along with their native allies) retaliated and defeated the American force. They killed many Americans, some of which were surrendering. Worried about the consequences of staying too long and having American reinforcements turn the tide, the British retreated. With them, they took any able bodied prisoners and left the wounded, unable to bring them along. The native force, however, stayed behind and massacred the remaining Americans, leaving severed heads on sticks as a warning. This served to fuel resentment (and recruitment) for the Americans, furious at the treatment of their wounded. 

Afterwards, the American forces settled themselves and pressed forwards towards a new land, in Fort Meigs. If they succeeded in holding the fort and repelling any assaults in the times ahead, it would serve as a landing point to attack Upper Canada. Therefore, Tecumseh and the British knew that taking the fort, and quickly, would be of the utmost importance. Over two thousand were part of the assault, and... well, it started OK. Tecumseh brilliantly lured out a  large number of Americans under a false retreat, making the soldiers believe they were poorly prepared. The result was a large scale capture. A number of native warriors, with the British sitting idly by, began killing some of the prisoners. Fortunately, Tecumseh, ever the high-moraled hero, returned and put a stop to it. He did this with many of the warriors not speaking the same language as him - bear in mind they came from a number of tribes - making the feat all the more impressive. The British likely pulled on their collars a little and felt a wee bit embarrassed.

Fort Meigs reenactors firing time appropriate
muskets. The Americans in the background
are so comfortable with guns they declined to turn
around.

In the end it wasn't enough. The fight resulted in an American victory, pushing back the Canadians 'n' Friends contingents. They tried again - and failed. Then they tried taking a smaller position and failed there as well, which is kind of like flunking out of university, going to community college, and picking up a C-. Worse yet, they followed up with losing a major naval battle at Lake Erie (which equates to losing your job at Safeway after your failed stints at post secondary, if we're continuing with the metaphor). The failures caused the British commander, Henry Proctor, to panic and plan a hasty retreat. Proctor had such a terrible run that his wikipedia states he's "best known as the commander who was decisively defeated in 1813 by the Americans and left western Ontario in American hands." Poor Proctor. As inconsequential as my life may be, at least I don't have a wikipedia entry dedicated to how bad I suck. And it only gets worse. Tecumseh got word of this proposed retreat (Proctor didn't tell him) and Tecumseh began shaming him in front of the rest of his officers and officials. He compared him to a "fat animal, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted, it drops between its legs, and runs off." It was the early 1800s equivalent of a mic drop. To further press the point, Tecumseh highlighted his own fearless nature, claiming he was "determined to defend our lands, and if it is his [the Great Spirit's] will, we wish to leave our bones upon them."

Sadly for Tecumseh, he got his wish. Sorely disappointed by the preparations Proctor had made in preparing to defend against the Americans, he fought on anyways. He was soon killed in battle, dying the way he lived; fiercely fighting for his cause, he himself a rallying cry for all the native tribes he had under his command. Unfortunately, he was so integral to holding them all together his death dealt a massive blow to the Native Confederacy, effectively ending the hope of native territory in the Ohio area.

The war, however, wasn't over. With Fort Meigs defended the U.S. was free to make their push into Canada. The Americans moved to attack the critical point of Montreal in the predominantly French Lower Canada. The attack there would cut off the St. Lawrence River, and without that Canada would be thrown into disarray. The defense of Montreal was absolutely critical to success, and both sides amped up the numbers of military forces. The Americans planned to attack with Major General Wade Hampton at the helm, with a pincer movement by General James Wilkinson attacking from the south. Hampton began the assault with attacking a defensive position he believed was only sparsely defended. While attempting to sneak up in the dead of night, they got lost in the trees and came out in broad daylight. The resulting attack hardly made a dent, and they retreated with many casualties and an equal amount of shame due to losing a battle on the grounds of getting lost in the woods. Better yet for Canada, it showed that the French would not only stand with them, but would hold their own. Wilkinson, not getting word of this, attacked a short time later and found no support when he had planned to have a flanking American fighting force. They bid a retreat, burning villages along the way, and the Canadians followed in pursuit.

This depiction of the death of Tecumseh was later used as the
Facebook cover art of the American generals. It averaged eight 'likes'.

With the Americans defeated in their advances into Canadian territory, the British entered into negotiations. Hoping to win some favour in the proceedings, they hoped to put the Americans on their heels and attacked into their territory. In the summer of 1814 they made their way into Chesapeake Bay, and found themselves with two options - meaning the Americans had to defend two routes. One, they could take the large and important city of Baltimore, or they could move on Washington and get revenge for York. They chose the later, and while there were American defenses along the way they couldn't hold off the powerful Canadian advance (you don't hear that often anymore except for perhaps from a hockey announcer with a flair for grandiose language). They set fire to the White House and other government buildings along the way, as an eye for an eye sounds a whole lot better than an eye for a diplomatic negotiations to be held in response. 

That was, however, the last major success of the campaign. They moved on Baltimore, but upon the death of their general, the advance slowed and the city held. From there, the States' national anthem was born out of the fighting, so... you're welcome, America.

This British military leader was named - and
I'm not joking here - Manley Power.
His name was Manley Power! How did
the British not win the war instantly?
He was even knighted, making him Sir
Manley Power!

The Americans continued their victories at Lake Champlain where Prevost, outnumbering his opponents, lost due to bad decision making and military tactics. Prevost was later court martialed, but died ten days before it occurred which saved him the humiliation. This helped the Americans in their negotiations greatly, with the British realizing that the shoddy tactics and poorly trained soldiers of the Americans was a thing of the past. They found their way as the war progressed, and became a honed, successful fighting force where once the British were defeating them, outnumbered, with fair frequency.

The Treaty of Ghent was signed shortly after. The boundaries between the two countries effectively didn't change. Impressment stayed (although was not as necessary due to Napoleon's war ending). The British gave up on the idea of a native state. After all the war, the bloodshed, the taking of territories and the burnings of towns and villages and government buildings, the two sides pretty well broke even and packed their bags. That is, of course, except for the natives - they got the short end of the stick. America was free to take their lands, and no territory was really anything they could call home. After all of this, pretty much nothing changed.

Oh, and one more thing happened. 

While I'm confused as to how or why this occurred (perhaps they didn't get the memo? maybe we can blame a lack of email?) the British attacked New Orleans after the treaty was signed. The casualties were about as one-sided as you would imagine; about twenty to one. It was a disastrous, shameful defeat - and one that occurred when all was said and done anyways. So if you're wondering why the Americans so strongly believe they won 1812, you're looking at it. A decisive win in a pointless battle.

______________

The information for this blog was taken from the book Tecumseh and Brock: The War of 1812 by James Laxer. It's a fairly quick read and covers what you want to know. If you're interested in 1812 and this blog series just didn't do it for you, give it a go.

The War of 1812: Part 2 - War Declared

We left off with emotions running high, and shortly after the president declared war on the British, claiming they were taking their men from their very ships, and inciting the natives to go to attack. This they were mostly correct on, and justifiably upset about it. However, they weren't right about everything; Thomas Jefferson believed that taking Canada would be a "mere matter of marching". They were thinking they would bring their ideals to the oppressed citizens of a British colony and tell them how lovely life is in America, and the inhabitants would throw out their tea sets, grab a beer, and settle into being American for the rest of their lives. It's to be noted that it wasn't called "Operation Enduring Freedom", but at times eerily familiar.

Meanwhile, Canada was preparing to defend itself under the watchful eyes of Isaac Brock (our aggressive, 6'2" hero) and governor general and military commander George Prevost. Their army consisted of well-trained British regulars serving as the backbone of the army, a number of militiamen, and a large number of native warriors. They didn't really want to fight this war, but the Americans didn't really want to either; the States only passed the decision to go to war with a win of 19-13 votes, making it the least popular war in American history. Even as far as wars go, people barely wanted to fight.

Prevost was a little dumpier than I expected.

Leading the advance into Canada was 59 year old William Hull, striking out from Fort Detroit. He walked into Sandwich - yes, the town of Sandwich - and asked for the British subjects to join. To be fair, many of them did. It seemed like the Americans might just be the winning side, and it would be wise to be on the right side of history. However, once the American soldiers started taking provisions from the town, many of them no longer saw them in a positive light. At best, they were poor quality guests; at worst, they were considered thieves.

Once Tecumseh arrived to really bring the fight to them (at this point resistance was pretty much nothing thus far, at least in this segment of land) Hull began to worry. Fighting small skirmishes with hit-and-run tactics, the native force showed that the inevitable takeover of Canada just might not be so. With a number of advantages in the field (a fast, mobile force allowing them to skirt around the larger American army and take shots at their supply lines and stymie their advance with skirmishes and other such tactics that don't involve a large scale assault) Hull stopped moving quickly and adopted a much more cautious approach. Not only was he frightened about his supply lines being hit, but he was worried about what the natives would do if they captured his forces. They had a reputation of scalping and torturing their prisoners, and his fears of being overcome by them played heavily in the events to come.

The fast moving native army meant that open terrain and ambushes weighed heavily in their favour, and they used them to great effect. One such ambush carried out by Tecumseh's men found a note written by Hull detailing his fears of a large scale native attack. Not only was this of critical importance to supporting the morale of the warriors, but it would play into the strategy of the British in the weeks to come. However, lacking artillery meant that approaching a fort would be certain death. If they were to truly break defensive fortifications, that would require a combined effort of British and native armies, rather than simply one or the other. A critical part of the War of 1812 is the degree in which the two sides utilized their native allies - the British particularly well, and the Americans not so much.

Brock arrived a short time later to bring the British into the fight for the land around Niagara. His first meeting with Tecumseh seems like something out of an action movie; two very different soldiers, both leaders, meet and unite against a common foe, sizing each other up and developing a mutual level of respect. Tecumseh saw him as a brave, respectable man, and Brock saw his counterpart as both critical to his success and a wise leader. Brock would say this about Tecumseh:
"A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist. He was the admiration of everyone who conversed with him. From a life of dissipation he is not only become in every aspect abstemious but likewise prevailed on all his Nation, and many other Tribes, to follow his example." After some dictionary searching, I was pleased to see it was very complimentary.   I assume it went something like when Arnold and Carl Weathers met in Predator - you can watch the scene here.

Both believed that an aggressive assault on the American fort would be necessary, in spite of their inferior numbers. They had just above half the forces of the enemy, and they were also playing with the defender's advantage of sitting in a fort. What won the battle for Tecumseh and Brock was nothing short of brilliant military deception. Playing on the fears of Hull, he sent warning of a native force coming to the fort and advising them to surrender or prepare for war. Upon arrival, he moved his native warriors just within eyesight of the fort, and having them double back through the trees and pass the same stretch of land time and time again to make them appear like there was a much larger force than there actually was. He also gave old British regular uniforms to his militiamen to, again, deceive the enemy into thinking they were a more daunting fighting force than they actually were. Had they attacked they would have been slaughtered, but fearing for the lives of not only the men of Fort Detroit, but the nearby village of Detroit itself, 2,500 Americans under Hull surrendered. The surrender was so shameful Hull was  forced to attend a court martial and was nearly convicted of treason. A newspaper hilariously titled the National Intelligencer described the event as such: "The nation had been deceived by a gasconding booby."

Portrait of William Hull. Not pictured:
white flags of surrender.

America, filled with anger over the surrender of Fort Detroit, sought to quickly retaliate in the Battle of Queenston Heights at the foot of Niagara. Large forces came to battle on both sides: 2,300 regulars and 4,000 militia for the U.S., and 1,200 regulars, 800 militia and 600 native warriors for the British North Americans. The Americans took the offensive but poor coordination and a lack of respect between the first and second in command resulted in the forces not attacking in conjunction with each other. The British held, and nearly a thousand U.S. soldiers deserted, resulting in a victory for the defenders. However, the British lost a key component of their military force - the man of the hour, the inspiring, tactically strong Isaac Brock was shot in the chest and killed during the battle. Brock was knighted before he died, but the word didn't reach him in time.

After licking their wounds the Americans attacked again, and this time took the capital (albeit the lowly populated and not-of-critical-strategic-importance capital) of York. The British, in retreat, set off an explosion of their gunpowder that killed a few of the invaders, including their beautifully named commander Zebulon Pike. That same commander had been the one demanding his forces refrain from pillaging and looting the town, so upon his death, that order seemed to pass by the wayside. Government buildings and parliament were burned, and the government's ceremonial mace wasn't returned until 1934. It does make me wonder what the Americans were doing with that mace for so long. Did they have it in a museum? Did they crack walnuts with it? Perhaps they returned it thinking that we might need a weapon for the war in a few years time.

Meanwhile, one of Canada's great women, Laura Secord (now lovingly associated with being chocolatastic) overheard discussions of a surprise attack by some American soldiers and warned of the coming assault. The news allowed for a rout of the attacking American force, making her one of Canada's first heroines. She's Canada's Paul Revere!

"Blimey! The Yankees want a scuffle? We'll give them
the what for, we will!" the British soldiers said to Laura Secord.

In spite of a number of battles, for the next while the fighting seemed to reach a stalemate. Land was taken, then returned, taken again, and pressed further elsewhere. However, an event oversees that could very well change the tide. Napoleon had, as the French say, screwed le pooch, attacking Russia and losing pretty darn close to his whole army. This meant that the British no longer had to worry about the French as much as they had, freeing up their forces for overseas interests. That means you, North America! Bring a sweater, British soldiers. You'll be moving to Canada.