Stranger than fiction was the contrast between the leaders and between the armies that fought this extraordinary battle of New Orleans when, after the declaration of peace, the United States won its one famous but belated victory on land. On the northern frontier such a man as Andrew Jackson might have changed the whole aspect of the war. He was a great general with the rare attribute of reading correctly the mind of an opponent and divining his course of action, endowed with an unyielding temper and an iron hand, a relentless purpose, and the faculty of inspiring troops to follow, obey, and trust him in the last extremity. He was one of them, typifying their passions and prejudices, their faults and their virtues, sharing their hardships as if he were a common private, never grudging them the credit in success.

In the light of previous events it is probable that any other American general would have felt justified in abandoning New Orleans without a contest. In the city itself were only eight hundred regulars newly recruited and a thousand volunteers. But Jackson counted on the arrival of the hard-bitted, Indian-fighting regiments of Tennessee who were toiling through the swamps with their brigadiers, Coffee and Carroll. The foremost of them reached New Orleans on the very day that the British were landing on the river bank. Gaunt, unshorn, untamed were these rough-and-tumble warriors who feared neither God nor man but were glad to fight and die with Andrew Jackson. In coonskin caps, buckskin shirts, fringed leggings, they swaggered into New Orleans, defiant of discipline and impatient of restraint, hunting knives in their belts, long rifles upon their shoulders. There they drank with seamen as wild as themselves who served in the ships of Jackson's small naval force or had offered to lend a hand behind the stockades, and with lean, long-legged Yankees from down East, swarthy outlaws who sailed for Pierre Lafitte, Portuguese and Norwegian wanderers who had deserted their merchant vessels, and even Spanish adventurers from the West Indies.

The British fleet disembarked its army late in December after the most laborious difficulties because of the many miles of shallow bayou and toilsome marsh which delayed the advance. A week was required to carry seven thousand men in small boats from the ships to the Isle aux Poix on Lake Borgne chosen as a landing base. Thence a brigade passed in boats up the bayou and on the 23d of December disembarked at a point some three miles from the Mississippi and then by land and canal pushed on to the river's edge. Here they were attacked at night by Jackson with about two thousand troops, while a war schooner shelled the British left from the river. It was a weird fight. Squads of Grenadiers, Highlanders, Creoles, and Tennessee backwoodsmen blindly fought each other in the fog with knives, fists, bayonets, and musket butts. Jackson then fell back while the British brigade waited for more troops and artillery.

On Christmas Day Pakenham took command of the forces at the front now augmented to about six thousand, but hesitated to attack. And well he might hesitate, in spite of his superior numbers, for Jackson had employed his time well and now lay entrenched behind a parapet, protected by a canal or ditch ten feet wide. With infinite exertion more guns were dragged and floated to the front until eight heavy batteries were in position. On the morning of the 1st of January the British gunners opened fire and felt serenely certain of destroying the rude defenses of cotton bales and cypress logs. To their amazement the American artillery was served with far greater precision and effect by the sailors and regulars who had been trained under Jackson's direction. By noon most of the British guns had been silenced or dismounted and the men killed or driven away. "Never was any failure more remarkable or unlooked for than this," said one of the British artillery officers. General Pakenham, in dismay, held a council of war. It is stated that his own judgment was swayed by the autocratic Vice-Admiral Cochrane who tauntingly remarked that "if the army could not take those mud-banks, defended by ragged militia, he would undertake to do it with two thousand sailors armed only with cutlases and pistols."

Made cautious by this overwhelming artillery reverse, the British army remained a week in camp, a respite of which every hour was priceless to Andrew Jackson, for his mud-stained, haggard men were toiling with pick and shovel to complete the ditches and log barricades. They could hear the British drums and bugles echo in the gloomy cypress woods while the cannon grumbled incessantly. The red-coated sentries were stalked and the pickets were ambushed by the Indian fighters who spread alarm and uneasiness. Meanwhile Pakenham was making ready with every resource known to picked troops, who had charged unshaken through the slaughter of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and San Sebastian, and who were about to justify once more the tribute to the British soldier: "Give him a plain, unconditional order—go and do that—and he will do it with a cool, self-forgetting pertinacity that can scarcely be too much admired."

It was Pakenham's plan to hurl a flank attack against the right bank of the Mississippi while he directed the grand assault on the east side of the river where Jackson's strength was massed. To protect the flank, Commodore Patterson of the American naval force had built a water battery of nine guns and was supported by eight hundred militia. Early in the morning of the 8th of January twelve hundred men in boats, under the British Colonel Thornton, set out to take this west bank as the opening maneuver of the battle. Their errand was delayed, although later in the day they succeeded in defeating the militia and capturing the naval guns. This minor victory, however, was too late to save Pakenham's army which had been cut to pieces in the frontal assault.

Jackson had arranged his main body of troops along the inner edge of the small canal extending from a levee to a tangled swamp. The legendary cotton bales had been blown up or set on fire during the artillery bombardment and protection was furnished only by a raw, unfinished parapet of earth and a double row of log breastworks with red clay tamped between them. It was a motley army that Jackson led. Next to the levee were posted a small regiment of regular infantry, a company of New Orleans Rifles, a squad of dragoons who were handling a howitzer, and a battalion of Creoles in bright uniforms. The line was extended by the freebooters of Pierre Lafitte, their heads bound with crimson kerchiefs, a group of American bluejackets, a battalion of blacks from San Domingo, a few grizzled old French soldiers serving a brass gun, long rows of tanned, saturnine Tennesseans, more regulars with a culverin, and rank upon rank of homespun hunting shirts and long rifles, John Adair and his savage Kentuckians, and, knee-deep in the swamp, the frontiersmen who followed General Coffee to death or glory.

A spirit of reckless elation pervaded this bizarre and terrible little army, although it was well aware that during two and a half years almost every other American force had been defeated by an enemy far less formidable. The anxious faces were those of the men of Louisiana who fought for hearth and home, with their backs to the wall. Many a brutal tale had they heard of these war-hardened British veterans whose excesses in Portugal were notorious and who had laid waste the harmless hamlets of Maryland. All night Andrew Jackson's defenders stood on the qui vive until the morning mist of the 8th of January was dispelled and the sunlight flashed on the solid ranks of British bayonets not more than four hundred yards away.

At the signal rocket the enemy swept forward toward the canal, with companies of British sappers bearing scaling ladders and fascines of sugar cane. They moved with stolid unconcern, but the American cannon burst forth and slew them until the ditch ran red with blood. With cheers the invincible British infantry tossed aside its heavy knapsacks, scrambled over the ditch, and broke into a run to reach the earthworks along which flamed the sparse line of American rifles. Against such marksmen as these there was to be no work with the bayonet, for the assaulting column literally fell as falls the grass under the keen scythe. The survivors retired, however, only to join a fresh attack which was rallied and led by Pakenham himself.

He died with his men, but once more British pluck attempted the impossible, and the Highland brigade was chosen to lead this forlorn hope. That night the pipers wailed Lochaber no more for the mangled dead of the MacGregors, the MacLeans, and the MacDonalds who lay in windrows with their faces to the foe. This was no Bladensburg holiday, and the despised Americans were paying off many an old score. Two thousand of the flower of Britain's armies were killed or wounded in the few minutes during which the two assaults were so rashly attempted in parade formation. Coolly, as though at a prize turkey shoot on a tavern green, the American riflemen fired into these masses of doomed men, and every bullet found its billet.

On the right of the line a gallant British onslaught led by Colonel Rennie swept over a redoubt and the American defenders died to a man. But the British wave was halted and rolled back by a tempest of bullets from the line beyond, and the broken remnant joined the general retreat which was sounded by the British trumpeters. An armistice was granted next day and in shallow trenches the dead were buried, row on row, while the muffled drums rolled in honor of three generals, seven colonels, and seventy-five other officers who had died with their men. Behind the log walls and earthworks loafed the unkempt, hilarious heroes of whom only seventy-one had been killed or hurt, and no more than thirteen of these in the grand assault which Pakenham had led. "Old Hickory" had told them that they could lick their weight in wildcats, and they were ready to agree with him.

Magnificent but useless, after all, excepting as a proud heritage for later generations and a vindication of American valor against odds, was this battle of New Orleans which was fought while the Salem ship, Astrea, Captain John Derby, was driving home to the westward with the news that a treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent. With a sense of mutual relief the United States and England had concluded a war in which neither nation had definitely achieved its aims. The treaty failed to mention such vital issues as the impressment of seamen and the injury to commerce by means of paper blockades, while on the other hand England relinquished its conquest of the Maine coast and its claim to military domination of the Great Lakes. English statesmen were heartily tired of a war in which they could see neither profit nor glory, and even the Duke of Wellington had announced it as his opinion "that no military advantage can be expected if the war goes on, and I would have great reluctance in undertaking the command unless we made a serious effort first to obtain peace without insisting upon keeping any part of our conquests." The reverses of first-class British armies at Plattsburg, Baltimore, and New Orleans had been a bitter blow to English pride. Moreover, British commerce on the seas had been largely destroyed by a host of Yankee privateers, and the common people in England were suffering from scarcity of food and raw materials and from high prices to a degree comparable with the distress inflicted by the German submarine campaign a century later. And although the terms of peace were unsatisfactory to many Americans, it was implied and understood that the flag and the nation had won a respect and recognition which should prevent a recurrence of such wrongs as had caused the War of 1812. One of the Peace Commissioners, Albert Gallatin, a man of large experience, unquestioned patriotism, and lucid intelligence, set it down as his deliberate verdict:

The war has been productive of evil and of good, but I think the good preponderates. Independent of the loss of lives, and of the property of individuals, the war has laid the foundation of permanent taxes and military establishments which the Republicans had deemed unfavorable to the happiness and free institutions of our country. But under our former system we were becoming too selfish, too much attached exclusively to the acquisition of wealth, above all, too much confined in our political feelings to local and state objects. The war has renewed and reinstated the national feeling and character which the Revolution had given, and which were daily lessening. The people have now more general objects of attachment, with which their pride and political opinions are connected. They are more Americans; they feel and act more as a nation; and I hope that the permanency of the Union is thereby better secured.

After a hundred years, during which this peace was unbroken, a commander of the American navy, speaking at a banquet in the ancient Guildhall of London, was bold enough to predict: "If the time ever comes when the British Empire is seriously menaced by an external enemy, it is my opinion that you may count upon every man, every dollar, and every drop of blood of your kindred across the sea."

The prediction came true in 1917, and traditional enmities were extinguished in the crusade against a mutual and detestable foe. The candid naval officer became Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, commanding all the American ships and sailors in European waters, where the Stars and Stripes and the British ensign flew side by side, and the squadrons toiled and dared together in the finest spirit of admiration and respect. Out from Queenstown sailed an American destroyer flotilla operated by a stern, inflexible British admiral who was never known to waste a compliment. At the end of the first year's service he said to the officers of these hard-driven vessels:

I wish to express my deep gratitude to the United States officers and ratings for the skill, energy, and unfailing good nature which they have all so consistently shown and which qualities have so materially assisted in the war by enabling ships of the Allied Powers to cross the ocean in comparative freedom.

To command you is an honor, to work with you is a pleasure, to know you is to know the finest traits of the Anglo-Saxon race.

The United States waged a just war in 1812 and vindicated the principles for which she fought, but as long as the poppies blow in Flanders fields it is the clear duty, and it should be the abiding pleasure, of her people to remember, not those far-off days as foemen, but these latter days as comrades in arms.



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Of the scores of books that have been written about the War of 1812, many deal with particular phases, events, or personalities, and most of them are biased by partisan feeling. This has been unfortunately true of the textbooks written for American schools, which, by ignoring defeats and blunders, have missed the opportunity to teach the lessons of experience. By all odds the best, the fairest, and the most complete narrative of the war as written by an American historian is the monumental work of Henry Adams, History of the United States of America, 9 vols. (1889-91). The result of years of scholarly research, it is also most excellent reading.

Captain Mahan's Sea Power in its Relation to the War of 1812, 2 vols. (1905), is, of course, the final word concerning the naval events, but he also describes with keen analysis the progress of the operations on land and fills in the political background of cause and effect. Theodore Roosevelt's The Naval War of 1812 (1882) is spirited and accurate but makes no pretensions to a general survey. Akin to such a briny book as this but more restricted in scope is The Frigate Constitution (1900) by Ira N. Hollis, or Rodney Macdonough's Life of Commodore Thomas Macdonough (1909). Edgar Stanton Maclay in The History of the Navy, 3 vols. (1902), has written a most satisfactory account, which contains some capital chapters describing the immortal actions of the Yankee frigates.

Benson J. Lossing's The Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812 (1868) has enjoyed wide popularity because of his gossipy, entertaining quality. The author gathered much of his material at first hand and had the knack of telling a story; but he is not very trustworthy.

As a solemn warning, the disasters of the American armies have been employed by several military experts. The ablest of these was Bvt. Major General Emory Upton, whose invaluable treatise, The Military Policy of the United States (1904), was pigeonholed in manuscript by the War Department and allowed to gather dust for many years. He discusses in detail the misfortunes of 1812 as conclusive proof that the national defense cannot be entrusted to raw militia and untrained officers. Of a similar trend but much more recent are Frederic L. Huidekoper's The Military Unpreparedness of the United States (1915) and Major General Leonard Wood's Our Military History; Its Facts and Fallacies (1916).

Of the British historians, William James undertook the most diligent account of them all, calling it A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of the Late War between Great Britain and the United States of America, 2 vols. (1818). It is irritating reading for an American because of an enmity so bitter that facts are willfully distorted and glaring inaccuracies are accepted as truth. As a naval historian James undertook to explain away the American victories in single-ship actions, a difficult task in which he acquitted himself with poor grace. Theodore Roosevelt is at his best when he chastises James for his venomous hatred of all things American.

To the English mind the War of 1812 was only an episode in the mighty and prolonged struggle against Napoleon, and therefore it finds but cursory treatment in the standard English histories. To Canada, however, the conflict was intimate and vital, and the narratives written from this point of view are sounder and of more moment than those produced across the water. The Canadian War of 1812 (1906), published almost a century after the event, is the work of an Englishman, Sir Charles P. Lucas, whose lifelong service in the Colonial Office and whose thorough acquaintance with Canadian history have both been turned to the best account. Among the Canadian authors in this field are Colonel Ernest A. Cruikshank and James Hannay. To Colonel Cruikshank falls the greater credit as a pioneer with his Documentary History of the Campaign upon the Niagara Frontier, 8 vols. (1896-). Hannay's How Canada Was Held for the Empire; The Story of the War of 1812 (1905) displays careful study but is marred by the controversial and one-sided attitude which this war inspired on both sides of the border.

Colonel William Wood has avoided this flaw in his War with the United States (1915) which was published as a volume of the Chronicles of Canada series. As a compact and scholarly survey, this little book is recommended to Americans who comprehend that there are two sides to every question. The Canadians fought stubbornly and successfully to defend their country against invasion in a war whose slogan "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights" was no direct concern of theirs.



INDEX

Adair, John, 215 Adams, Henry, quoted, 20, 117 Adams (ship), 141 Alabama, Indians aroused in, 201 Alabama raids compared with those of Essex, 154 Albany, militia at Sackett's Harbor from, 77 Alexandria, British fleet at, 197 Allen, Captain W. H., 142, 143 Amherstburg, Canadian post, 11; Hull plans assault, 11, 14, 16; Brock at, 17; defeat of British, 21, 42; Harrison against, 24, 25; Procter commands, 26; British advance from, 27 Anderson, James, of the Essex, 162 Annapolis, British fleet at, 187 Argus (brig), 94; and the Pelican, 142-44 Ariel (brig), 57, 62 Armstrong, John, Secretary of War, 37, 175; plans offensive, 72, 80, 84; and Wilkinson, 81-82; orders winter quarters, 82 Army, in 1812, 5-8; state control, 6-8; incapable officers, 10-11; at Niagara, 14-15; Hull's forces, 15; mutiny, 17; failure to supply, 24; forces under Winchester, 25; at New Orleans, 210-11 Astrea (ship), 218 Avon (British brig), fight with Wasp, 146-47 Bainbridge, Captain William, 90, 95, 117, 121, 127, 136-137, 138 Baltimore, British fleet at, 187; attack on, 197-99, 219 Bangor (Me.), British land at, 187 Barclay, Captain R. H., British officer, 52, 53, 54, 56, 60, 61 Barney, Commodore Joshua, 92, 189, 193, 194; account of battle of Bladensburg, 195 Barrancas, Fort, 208 Barron, Commodore James, 91 Belfast (Me.), British at, 187 Belvidera (British frigate), 96; fight with President, 94-95 Benton, T. H., and Jackson, 202 Betsy (brig), 104 Biddle, Lieutenant James, on the Wasp, 111-12 Biddle, Captain Nicholas, 92 Black Rock, navy yard at, 39, 48; Elliott at, 49; invasion of Canada from, 70; Indians against, 88 Bladensburg, battle, 191-96 Blakely, Captain Johnston, 137, 144, 145, 146, 147 Blockade, 124-25, 148, 185 Blyth, Captain Samuel, 140 Boerstler, Colonel, 76 Bonne Citoyenne (British sloop-of-war), 126 Bowyer, Fort, 206, 207 Boxer, duel with Enterprise, 189-40 Boyd, General J. P., 74, 76, 83 Brewster (Mass.), war levy, 188 Brock, Major General Isaac, British commander, 12-13, 14; against Hull, 15, 17; Hull surrenders Detroit to, 18-19; on Elliott's victory, 40; on Niagara River, 65; killed, 66 Broke, Captain P. V., of the Shannon, 96, 128-29, 130, 134, 138-39 Brown, General Jacob, at Sackett's Harbor, 77, 78, 79; at Chrystler's Farm, 82-83; Niagara campaign, 167, 168, 169, 170; at Lundy's Lane, 171-72, 191 Budd, George, second lieutenant on Chesapeake, 134 Buffalo, Elliott at, 38; difficulty of taking supplies to, 47; American regulars sent to, 65; base of operations, 70, 72; Indians against, 88 Burrows, Captain William, of the Enterprise, 139

Cabinet advises General Winder, 192

Caledonia (British brig), 38-39; Elliott captures, 39; in American squadron, 49-50, 56 Canada, "On to Canada!" slogan of frontiersmen, 4; vulnerable point in War of 1812, 9, 10; population and extent, 10; plans for invasion of, 13-14; Hull abandons invasion of, 16; Niagara campaign, 64 et seq., 167-77 Canning, George, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 92 Carden, Captain J. S., of the Macedonian, 114, 115, 116 Cass, Colonel Lewis, 18 Castine, British land at, 187 Champlain, Lake, Dearborn on, 71; Hampton in command, 80, 81; Macdonough's victory, 166 et seq. Chandler, General John, 74, 75 Chateauguay River, Hampton on, 84, 85 Chauncey, Captain Isaac, leads sailors from New York to Buffalo, 39; in command of naval forces on Lakes Erie and Ontario, 47, 48; extreme caution, 49, 55, 56, 170-71; on Lake Ontario, 49, 50, 63; and Perry, 50-51, 55, 56; and Niagara campaign, 72, 73, 74, 77, 82, 170-71 Cherub (British sloop-of-war), 157, 159, 160, 161 Chesapeake (frigate), and Leopard, 91; Lawrence on, 96, 127-28; defeated by Shannon, 128-39; Allen on, 142 Chesapeake Bay, blockade of 185; Cockburn in, 186; British army comes to, 189; British fleet in, 197 Chippawa, Brock's forces at 65, 67; battle, 168-70 Chrystler's Farm, battle, 83 Chub (British schooner), 180 Clay, Brigadier General Green, 31 Clay, Henry, on conquest of Canada, 9 Cleveland, Harrison's headquarters at, 33 Cochrane, Vice Admiral Alexander, 198, 218 Cockburn, Rear Admiral George, 186, 195, 196 Cod, Cape, British raids on, 188 Coffee, General John, 211, 215 Confiance (British frigate), 179, 180 Congress, declares war on Great Britain (1812), 4; and the navy, 90; votes prize money for Constitution, 107; prize money for Wasp, 113; and maritime trouble with France, 152; refuses to sanction Jackson's expedition, 201 Congress (frigate), 94, 141 Connecticut, attitude toward War of 1812, 7 Constellation (frigate), 92, 141, 187 Constitution (frigate), 2, 125; Hull and, 95, 116, 128; now in Boston Navy Yard, 95-96; encounter with British squadron, 96-99; and Guerriere, 100-07, 108, 122-23; "Old Ironsides," 101; under Bainbridge, 116-17; health conditions on, 117-18; encounter with Java, 118-21, 123-24, 154; Lawrence and, 126; influence, 139; in 1813, 141; gains open sea in 1814, 147 Creek Indians, 201 Creighton, Captain J. O., 137 Crockett, David, 202 Croghan, Major George, at Fort Stephenson, 34-35, 36, 38, 46 Crowninshield, Captain George, 136 Cyane (British frigate), 147

Dacres, Captain John, of the Guerriere, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 Dayton (O.), Hull takes command at, 12 Dearborn, Major General Henry, plans invasion of Canada, 13, 73; commander-in-chief of American forces, 14; incompetency, 14; and Niagara campaign, 64, 65, 74-75, 76; campaign against Montreal, 71-72; wishes to retire, 72, 75; Armstrong and, 72; Brown reports battle of Sackett's Harbor to, 78-79; retired, 80; age, 117 Dearborn, Fort (Chicago), burned, 19; massacre, 20 Decatur, Captain Stephen, 138; and the Philadelphia (1804), 92; squadron commander, 94; on the United States, 114, 115; on the President, 148, 149; Defiance, Fort, 24 Delaware Bay, blockade of, 185 Derby, Captain John, 218 Detroit, 64; first campaign from, 11, 14; Hull at, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; mutiny at, 15; surrender of, 17-18, 19, 20, 22, 106-07; in British hands, 31; Procter abandons, 42; Harrison returns to, 45 Detroit (brig), taken from Hull, 38; Elliott captures, 39-40 Detroit (British ship), 54, 56, 57, 60 Downes, Lieutenant John, 155, 156 Downie, Captain George, British officer, 178, 183 Drummond, General Sir George Gordon, 172

Eagle (brig), 180 Eastham (Mass.), war levy, 188 Eastport (Me.), captured, 187 Elliott, Lieutenant J. D., builds fleet on Lake Erie, 38, 48; captures Caledonia and Detroit, 39-40; with Perry, 54, 58 Endymion (British frigate), 150 Enterprise (brig), encounter with Boxer, 139-40 Epervier (British brig), fight with Peacock, 144 Erie, Barclay off, 52; see also Presqu' Isle Erie, Fort, Elliott captures ships near, 39; Brock at, 65; Americans capture, 168; Scott and Brown occupy, 173 Erie, Lake, Hull's schooner captured on, 12; Perry on, 21, 40 et seq.; Harrison on shores of, 24, 30; Chauncey in command on, 47, 48 Essex (frigate), 141, 147; last cruise, 151 et seq.; building of, 153; capture by Hillyar, 161-65 Essex, Junior (cruiser), 156, 159 Eustis, William, Secretary of War, 24

Faneuil Hall, banquet for Hull at, 106 Farragut, Admiral D. G., 181; motto, 46; cited, 59; midshipman on Essex, 161-62 Finch (British schooner), 180 Florida, West, Jackson and, 200 France, American feeling toward, 3; as maritime enemy, 151-52, 154 Fredericktown burned, 186 "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," 3, 91, 137 Frenchtown, see Raisin River Frolic (British brig), encounter with Wasp, 108-13

Galapagos Islands, Essex at, 155 Gallatin, Albert, quoted, 219-220 George, Fort, British fort, 67; evacuated by British, 74-75; retaken, 87 Georgia, Indians aroused in, 201 Georgiana (British whaling ship), Essex captures, 155; renamed Essex, Junior, 156 Great Britain, and free sea, 2-3; Indian wars, 4; war declared on (1812), 4; and Indians, 10; and Napoleon, 124; blockading measures, 124-25 Great Lakes, British on, 38 Guerriere (British frigate), 2, 96; encounter with Constitution, 100-07, 108, 122-23; celebration of capture, 116

Hamilton, Alexander, Izard aide to, 175 Hampton, General Wade, in campaign against Montreal, 80, 81, 83-84, 86; and Wilkinson, 80-81; cause of failure, 86; age, 117 Hampton, British foray on village of, 187 Haraden, Captain Jonathan, 153 Harrison, General W. H., campaign, 22 et seq.; report to Secretary of War, 29-30; Croghan and, 35; Armstrong on, 37-38; and Perry's victory, 41, 63; resumes campaign, 42; becomes President of United States, 45 Havre de Grace burned, 186 Hazen, Benjamin, of the Essex, 162 Henry (brig), 186, 187 Hermes (British sloop-of-war), 207 Hillyar, Captain James, British officer, 157, 158, 159-60, 161, 164-65 Hornet (sloop-of-war), 48, 94; Lawrence on, 126; and Peacock, 127; in South American waters, 154 Horseshoe Bend, battle, 204 Houston, Samuel, 202 Hull, Captain Isaac, of the Constitution, 95, 128, 138; and British squadron, 96, 97, 98, 99; and Guerriere, 101, 102, 103, 106; and Dacres, 104; victory celebrated, 106, 107, 108; gives up command of Constitution, 116-17; at Lawrence's funeral, 136 Hull, General William, 34, 68, 71, 88, 98; Detroit campaign, 11 et seq.; troops, 15, 17; surrender, 19; court-martial, 19-20; Harrison and, 22; age, 117

Impressment of seamen, 90 Indian wars, enmity toward Great Britain because of, 4 Indians, British and, 10, 55; against Americans, 16, 67, 76; in Canadian army, 17; Procter and, 26; abandon British cause, 44; ravage frontier, 88; massacre at Fort Mims, 202 Izard, General George, 175, 176

Jackson, Andrew, at New Orleans, 17-18, 208 et seq.; and Florida expedition, 200-03; at Horseshoe Bend, 204; at Pensacola, 207-08 Jacob Jones (destroyer), 109 Java (British frigate), encounter with Constitution, 118-20, 154 Jefferson, Thomas, and gunboats, 8-9; on conquest of Canada, 9-10 Johnson, Allen, Jefferson and his Colleagues, cited, 2 Johnson, Colonel R. M., 41, 43, 44, 46; Jones, Captain, Jacob, of the Wasp, 109, 110, 111, 113; Jones, John Paul, cited, 59; American naval officers serve with, 92; on the Ranger, 141

Kentucky, defends western border, 22; militia, 24, 31 Key, F. S., Star-Spangled Banner, 198-99 Kingston, plan to capture, 72, 73; Prevost embarks at, 77

Lady Prevost (British schooner), 56 Lafitte, Jean, 206 Lafitte, Pierre, 206, 211, 215 Lambert, Captain Henry, of the Java, 118 Lang, Jack, sailor on the Wasp, 111 La Vengeance (French ship) and Constellation, 93 Lawrence, Captain James, of the Chesapeake, 96, 127-28, 129-30; on the Hornet, 126, 127; fights Shannon, 130-136; death, 131, 133, 135; account of funeral, 136-37 Lawrence (brig), 49, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58 Leopard and Chesapeake, 91, 142 Levant (British sloop-of-war), fight with Constitution, 147 Lewis, General Morgan, 75-76, 83 Linnet (British brig), 180 L'Insurgente (French ship) and Constellation, 92 Long Island Sound, British fleet in, 188 Ludlow, Lieutenant A. C, of the Chesapeake, 133,136, 137 Lundy's Lane, battle, 2, 171-173

McArthur, Colonel, 18 Macdonough, Commodore Thomas, on Lake Champlain, 166, 167, 171, 178, 179-84 Macedonian (British frigate), Decatur captures, 114-16, 142; as American frigate, 141 McHenry, Fort, 197, 198 Mackinac, fall of, 19, 20 Mackinaw, see Mackinac M'Knight, Lieutenant, S. D., of the Essex, 163 Macomb, Brigadier General Alexander, 177 Madison, James, and Hull, 12, 19; reviews troops, 191; at battle of Bladensburg, 192; policy as to West Florida, 200 Mahan, Captain A. T., quoted, 128 Maine, British raids, 187 Malden (Amherstburg), 43; see also Amherstburg Massachusetts, attitude toward War of 1812, 7, 91 Maumee Rapids, Harrison at, 30 Maumee River, Hull at, 12 Meigs, Fort, massacre at, 20, 32; built, 30; Procter besieges, 31-32, 36; Harrison again at, 33 Merchant marine, 93 Miller, Captain, at battle of Bladensburg, 195 Miller, Colonel John, 17, 33 Mims, Samuel, 202 Mims, Fort, massacre, 202 Mississippi Valley and invasion of Florida, 200 Mobile, Jackson at, 204, 206-207, 208 Montreal, plan of attack, 14; campaign against, 71, 82-87 Moraviantown, Procter goes to, 42 Morris, Lieutenant Charles, on the Constitution, 101, 107 Mulcaster, Captain W. H., 83 Murray, Colonel, British officer, 87

Napoleon, Great Britain and, 2; offenses against American commerce, 8 Navy, 8-9,38; on Lake Erie, 46 et seq.; on the sea, 89 et seq.; augmented by private subscriptions, 152; victory on Lake Champlain, 166 et seq. Nelson, Horatio, Viscount, quoted, 141 New England, attitude toward War of 1812, 7-8; British raids in, 187-88 New Orleans, battle of, 166, 175, 208-18, 219 New York, apprehension in, 148 Niagara, campaign planned, 13-14; American forces at, 14-15; campaign, 64 et seq.; renewal of struggle for region of (1814), 167-77 Niagara (brig), 49, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59 Niagara, Fort, 87 Nicholls, Major Edward, 205 Norfolk, Warren attacks, 187 Northwest Territory regained for United States, 44, 63

Ohio, Hull sends troops to, 16; defends western border, 22; militia, 31 "Old Ironsides," 101, see also Constitution Ontario, Lake, Chauncey in command on, 47, 48, 49, 50; battle at Sackett's Harbor, 77-79 Orne, Captain W. B., 104

Paine, R. D., The Old Merchant Marine, cited, 93 (note) Pakenham, General Sir Edward, at New Orleans, 209-210, 212, 213, 214, 216-17 Patterson, Commodore D. T., at New Orleans, 214 Peacock (British brig) and Hornet, 127 Peacock (sloop-of-war), 144 Pelican (British brig), 142 Pennsylvania, brigade in Western campaign from, 23; militia at Erie, 52-53 Pensacola, British pull down Spanish flag at, 204-05; Jackson at, 207-08 Perry, O. H., 180-81; victory on Lake Erie, 21, 46 et seq., 166; and Harrison, 41, 63; famous message, 41, 62 Philadelphia (frigate), 92 Phoebe (British frigate) and Essex, 157-65 Pilot, The, on destruction of the Java, 123-24 Plattsburg, Dearborn at, 71; troops moved from, 74, 80; Izard at, 175, 176; Prevost at, 176, 177,178 Plattsburg Bay, battle of, 177-184, 219 Poictiers (British ship), 113 Pomone (British frigate), 150 Porter, Captain David, of the Essex, 151; raids on British whaling fleet, 154-56; Phoebe and Cherub seek, 157-64; account of surrender of Essex, 163-64 President (frigate), 141, 147, 148, 149; encounters Belvidera, 94-95; Rodgers in command of, 101; captured, 150 Presqu' Isle (Erie), navy yard at, 48; see also Erie Prevost, Sir George, Governor General of Canada, 54; crosses Lake Ontario, 77; defends Montreal, 84-85; goes to Plattsburg, 176, 177; quoted, 176-77, 178-79 Privateers, 93 Procter, Colonel Henry, battle of the Raisin, 26; character, 26; and Harrison, 30, 34, 37-38; at Fort Meigs, 31-32, 33; at Fort Stephenson, 36; blames Indians for defeat, 36-37; Brock reports to, 40-41; and Tecumseh, 42; official disgrace, 45 Put-in Bay, Perry at, 54

Queen Charlotte (British ship), 56, 58, 60 Queenston, attack on, 65-67; British at, 168, 170 Quincy, Josiah, 91

Raisin River, massacre at, 20, 26-30, 36; Winchester at Frenchtown, 25 Ranger (frigate), 141 Rattlesnake (brig), 137 Reindeer (British brig), 145 Rennie, Colonel, British officer, 217 Riall, General Phineas, 168,170 Ripley, General E. W., 173 Ripley, John, seaman on Essex, 162 Rodgers, Commodore John, 94, 95, 101, 113-14 Ross, General Robert, 188, 194; and Barney, 195; in Washington, 196; against Baltimore, 197; killed, 198 Rush, Richard, quoted, 132

Sackett's Harbor, Lake Ontario, invasion of Canada planned from, 13-14; Chauncey, at, 47, 48; in Niagara campaign, 72, 74, 76-77; battle at, 77-79; campaign against Montreal, 80, 81; Brown at, 167; fleet at, 170 St. Lawrence River, plan to gain control of, 72; Wilkinson's army descends, 80; Wilkinson abandons voyage down, 83-84 Salaberry, Colonel de, 85, 86 Salem contributes Essex to navy, 152 Salem Marine Society, 136 Saratoga (flagship), 180 Scorpion (brig), 57, 62 Scott, Michael, Tom Cringle's Log, quoted, 145 Scott, Winfield, quoted, 5; at Queenston, 66; at Chippawa, 68, 168-69; taken prisoner, 68; in control of army, 73; at Fort George, 74; on Wilkinson, 80; trains Brown's troops, 167; at Lundy's Lane, 171, 172,191; wounded, 173 Seneca, Harrison at, 37, 38, 41 Shannon (British frigate), encounter with Constitution, 96-99; defeats Chesapeake, 128-39 Shipbuilding on Lake Erie, 50 Sims, Vice-Admiral W. S., 220-21 Smith, General Samuel, 197 Smyth, Brigadier General Alexander, 65, 66, 68-69, 70-71 Sophie (British ship), 207 Spain and West Florida, 200 Squaw Island, Elliott at, 38 Stephenson, Fort, Harrison at, 34; Croghan at, 36, 46; Procter's defeat, 36, 37-38 Stewart, Captain Charles, 136, 147 Stonington, British bombard, 188 Stony Creek, battle, 75

Tecumseh, 16, 18, 31, 32, 34, 42; death, 44; and Creek Indians, 201 Tenedos (British frigate), 150 Thames River, Procter's defeat at, 43-44 Thornton, Colonel Sir William, British officer, 214 Ticonderoga (schooner), 180 Times, London, account of fight of Guerriere, 122-23 Tippecanoe campaign, 20 Toronto, see York Transportation, effect of blockade on, 148

United States (frigate), 94, 139; captures Macedonian, 114-116, 142; and blockade, 141 Upper Sandusky, Harrison's headquarters, 33, 34

Valparaiso, Essex at, 155, 156, 157; Essex and Phoebe at, 158 et seq. Van Rensselaer, Major General Stephen, 64, 65, 66, 68, 71 Vincent, General John, British officer, 74, 75 Virginia, brigades from, 23

War of 1812, a victory, 1; causes, 2-4; army, 5-8; "Mr. Madison's War," 8; navy, 8-9, 89 et seq.; campaign in West, 11 et seq.; Perry and Lake Erie, 46 et seq.; the Northern Front, 64 et seq.; victory on Lake Champlain, 166 et seq.; peace with honor, 185 et seq.; bibliography, 223-25 Warren, Admiral Sir J. B., 138, 185, 187 Warrington, Captain Lewis, of the Peacock, 144 Washington, George, on need of regular army, 6-7; and Hull, 11 Washington, Capitol burned, 73, 196; naval ball to celebrate capture of Guerriere, 116; British fleet causes consternation in, 187; British decide to attack, 189; capture of, 166, 190-96 Wasp (sloop-of-war), 48; encounter with Frolic, 108-13; last cruise, 144-47; disappearance, 147 Wellfleet (Mass.), war levy, 188 Whinyates, Captain Thomas, of the Frolic, 109, 112 Wilkinson, James, succeeds Dearborn, 80; character, 80; Hampton and, 81, 84; and Armstrong, 81; campaign, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87; age, 117 Winchester, General James, as a leader, 24-25; at Raisin River, 25, 26-27, 28 Winder, General W. H., in Niagara campaign, 74, 75; at Washington, 190-91, 192 Wool, Captain J. E., at Queenston, 66

Yeo, Sir James, 49, 77 York (Toronto), plans to capture, 72, 73 capture, 73

THE END