In the War of 1812, or America’s Second Revolutionary War, the British had burned Washington DC to the ground, but had been stymied in Maryland, New York, Michigan, and the Western frontier. The war was at an impasse. The British knew they needed to stop America’s westward momentum (or Manifest Destiny, they recognized it before we did). The key to doing that was New Orleans which controlled trade on the Mississippi river.

In early January 1815, Major General Sir Edward Pakenham’s eight thousand battle hardened British veterans, fresh from defeating Napoleon in Spain, approached New Orleans from the south. Between the British and New Orleans stood four thousand strongly entrenched American troops under Major General Andrew Jackson, or “Old Hickory” to his men. But Pakenham and the other British leaders were contemptuous of the ramshackle nature of America’s small army.

Jackson’s command was the first American melting pot. It consisted of Kentucky riflemen and Tennessee volunteers, Mississippi dragoons, a company of US Marines, the 1st and 7th US Infantry Regiments, French, Spanish, Creole and free African American militia from Louisiana, Choctaw Indians, a battalion of US Navy seamen, and even two hundred of Jean Lafitte’s Baratarian pirates. The British scorn for Jackson troops was misplaced. Before Packenham and his main force arrived, Jackson’s troops had already defeated the British vanguard twice: once on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day (because if you mess with us, we’ll kill you on our holidays. Just ask the Hessians). Additionally, most of the American army participated in the hard fought Red Stick War/Creek Civil War the previous summer. And finally, Jean Lafitte’s pirates were arguably the best cannoneers on the gulf coast, and they brought their cannon with them. Pakenham, like the British generals of the American Revolution, thought that the Americans would break under a disciplined bayonet charge. Most of the British wouldn’t get close enough.

The British attacked under cover of fog on the morning of 8 January 1815. But Pakenham’s plan was complicated and suffered from poor staff planning. The five uncoordinated British columns attacked piecemeal and suffered from numerous planning errors, including the lack of boats to cross the Mississippi River and the location of scaling ladders for the assault troops. The American penchant for shooting enemy officers first destroyed any cohesion left in the British attack. American sharpshooters and riflemen, especially the New Orleans businessmen who shot for sport, killed almost the entirety of the British leadership, including Pakenham. Still, sheer British determination and bravery allowed some to storm the earthworks on the right, a complement to the successful British attack across the river. But the assault eventually failed in the face of America’s own bayonets of the 7th Infantry Regiment. Any local successes were untenable. Less than two hours after the first shot was fired, Brigadier John Lambert, the senior surviving British commander, ordered a withdrawal…down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a decidedly lopsided American victory: the United States had 13 killed and 40 wounded while the British had 330 killed, 1200 wounded and 400 captured. The news of the Treaty of Ghent, and the end of the War of 1812, arrived a few weeks later and the Battle of New Orleans forced the British to adhere to the terms of the peace treaty (which they had no intention of doing prior to the battle).

America had taken on the largest and most powerful empire in the history of the world and survived, again. And it would send a surge of pride in the young American nation. The Battle of New Orleans permanently forged an American national identity. After the battle citizens would stop saying. “I am a Louisianian”, “I am a Kentuckian”, “I am New Yorker” or “I am a Free Man of Color”, but would instead say, “I am an American”.

It was also the last time a foreign power would attack America on its native soil until Pancho Villa a hundred years later in 1916 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Admiral Cochrane kept his promise and bombarded Ft McHenry all night. On 13 September 1814, the last thing he saw of the fort was a giant American flag flying over it before the smoke of the cannon and the bad weather obscured it. A storm blew in that the afternoon and it rained all night. For Major Armistead, this was a gift from God. While many “bombs bursted in air” and the rockets gave off a “red glare” amidst the thunder and lightning of the gale that blew in off the Atlantic, many of Cochrane’s cannon balls did not explode because the rain extinguished the fuses and they landed harmlessly on the fort.

The bombardment was furious, but largely ineffectual. At sunset, Armistead was forced to take down the giant American “garrison” flag which he put up as a taunt to Cochrane, and replace it with a smaller “storm” flag lest the weather snap the flagpole. Armistead refused to capitulate, even after the casualties he took repelling a landing by Royal Marines under cover of the bombardment and weather. The cannons on both sides raged at each other all night.

Onboard Cochrane’s flagship, Annapolis lawyer Francis Scott Key was negotiating the release of his friend Dr. William Beane, who was to be hanged for spying. Key was successful but he was not allowed to return to shore while the bombardment continued. Like Cochrane, the last thing he saw on that evening was the giant American flag flying over Ft McHenry. To pass the long night, Key wrote poetry. He was not an especially patriotic man, he opposed the war and railed against it at every opportunity, but there was something about the tiny American garrison fighting back against the might of the largest and most powerful force on earth, the British Empire, which “stirred one’s soul”. The first verse of his poem, “The Defense of Fort McHenry”, the one that would become our national anthem, was full of doubt… and hope. He would also write third verse that night. It was full of vengeance and righteous fury against anyone that would oppose the experiment that was America.

The next morning, Armistead took down the smaller storm flag and raised the giant garrison flag just as the sun rose. The message was clear: the Americans were still in control of the fort and no naval assistance would be available for Brooke to continue his land assault of Baltimore. As the smoke cleared and night lifted, Francis Scott Key finished the second, jubilant verse when he knew Ft McHenry was still in American hands. Dawn also signaled the end of the battle for the British Navy. Adm Cochrane could not continue the bombardment because he had little powder and shot left for the fort, and what remained was soaked and needed to dry. He left the decision to continue up to Brooke, who promptly called off the attack and had his troops re-board the ships.

On his way back to Baltimore, Francis Scott Key finished the final verse, one of redemption and thanksgiving.

Admiral Cochrane and Col Brooke left for the Caribbean the next day. Failing to destroy Baltimore, Cochrane’s next target was the soft underbelly of America: the strategic port of New Orleans

“The Defense of Fort McHenry”, a poem by Francis Scott Key.

O! say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rocket’s red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the Land of the free, and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected new shines in the stream,

‘Tis the star spangled banner, – O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps pollution.
No refuse could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d home, and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our Trust;”
And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O’er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

With the untimely death of Maj Gen Ross, command of the British invasion force fell to the much more cautious Col. Arthur Brooke. Brooke was surprised at the spirited defense of North Point, and his scouts told him he could expect the defense of Baltimore to be even more difficult. The Americans had large systems of redoubts and earthworks spanning the approaches to the city. And even more worrying were reports of two regiments of regulars and 4000 more militia to fill them, including the crews of the privateers.

Still, the British believed the Americans were weak and divided. They had heard reports that New England attempted to secede from the union (It tried, but failed), and the sacking of Baltimore might force the Americans to end the war. After that it would only be a matter of time before they were incorporated back into the Empire. Brooke knew he must attack, no matter the odds. But after a personal reconnaissance of the fortifications, he saw that he needed heavy siege guns to support the assault. He didn’t have any on land, but Admiral Cochrane had nineteen ships bristling with cannon that would do nicely.

Unfortunately for the British, Major George Armistead, commandant of Fort McHenry (and uncle of the future Confederate general, Lewis “Lo” Armistead of Pickett’s Charge fame), sank several merchantmen in the approaches to Baltimore harbor and this prevented Cochrane’s ships from reaching firing range of the fortifications. In order to support Brooke, Cochrane had to first reduce Ft McHenry then go around the sunken merchantmen. Armistead had only 20 cannon. Cochrane had over 200 cannon, and thousands of Congreve rockets, which although wildly inaccurate, proved to be very effective against militia.

At 6:30am, on 13 September 1814, Cochrane’s flotilla furiously opened fire on Ft McHenry. Armistead and his 1000 men and twenty cannon proved more resilient than expected. Cochrane was determined though, and said the bombardment would continue all day and night if need be. By noon, Ft McHenry was giving as good as it got and Brooke became impatient. He could see the Americans to his front improving their positions. His junior officers soon became adamant: their men had stormed the fortress at Ciudad Rodrigo and forced the breaches at Badajoz. And those assaults were against the best troops Napoleon had; the Continentals, shopkeepers, and pirates of Baltimore be damned. They convinced Brooke, and at 1 pm, he attacked.

His veterans took horrible casualties, but by 4pm his outnumbered troops miraculously held a solid foothold on Baltimore’s outer ring of fortifications. However, they would go no further. Their assault on the inner ring ran headlong into a counterattack by the veteran US 36th and 38th Infantry Regiments (Later, they formed the 4th US Infantry Regt., which today is the OPFOR at CMTC in Germany.) What can only be described as a barroom brawl with muskets and bayonets left both sides exhausted and both retreated to their respected redoubts. By evening, it seemed to Brooke that every person in Baltimore who could walk and hold a musket was opposing the British. It was all they could do to hold their gains. He needed Cochrane’s cannons to advance any further.

Admiral Cochrane continued his bombardment of Ft McHenry throughout the night.

The British were astonished – They had looted Washington DC and burned it to the ground, and the Americans didn’t surrender! Major General Ross even supped in the White House after that coward Madison fled, and then personally put it to the torch. The shame! It was unimaginable for a European country to lose its capital and still continue the war. The capital was the center of government, the aristocracy, the bureaucracy, economics, finance, and culture. To lose Vienna, Berlin, St Petersburg, or London (!) to an invading army was unthinkable to any “civilized” country. Even Napoleon abdicated when Paris was occupied. But these Americans and their curious experiment in self-rule were strange. If they didn’t want to surrender when they were rightfully beaten then they must be taught a lesson.

In 1814, the British were finished with Napoleon in Europe and turned with a vengeance on America. They had been fighting a defensive war for the last two years, but when Napoleon surrendered that all changed. In August, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane and Maj Gen Robert Ross, with 19 ships and 6000 elite troops, invaded Maryland and easily swept passed any resistance the Americans offered. They sacked Washington DC in late August and when President Madison didn’t accept terms, they did the same to Georgetown and Alexandria. Their next target was Baltimore, one of the largest trading ports on the Atlantic seaboard, and a haven for American privateers that raided British shipping.

Admiral Cochrane moved his fleet up the Chesapeake Bay and landed Maj Gen Ross with a brigade of regulars and two battalions of Royal Marines with orders to seize and destroy Baltimore. Ross’s 4000 officers and soldiers were all veterans of the Duke of Wellington’s five year Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon. They were met by MG James Stricker and 3000 Maryland militia. The American militiamen fought the British veterans at North Point, Maryland in the afternoon of 12 Sep 1814. The flooding forced the British to approach Baltimore through North Point, between the Back River and Bear Creek, and funneled them into Marylander muskets. The Americans gave a much better account of themselves than they had in defending Washington DC. The battle resembled Bunker Hill more than Bladensburg, and only when their position was out flanked did the Americans fall back. And they did so in an organized and disciplined fashion, fighting the whole way.

The Battle of North Point was very costly for the British: Maj Gen Ross was shot through the head by a 14 year old Maryland sharpshooter and this left command to Col Arthur Brooke. Stricker’s stand gave MG Samuel Smith time to prepare the landward defense of Baltimore, defenses that Brooke deemed impossible to storm without support from the British Navy. And finally, the Battle of North Point gave Major George Armistead, charged with the seaward defense of Baltimore, time to gather extra powder for Fort McHenry.

By late summer 1813, the War of 1812 was not going well for the young American nation. Detroit had fallen to the British, two separate invasions of Canada had failed, and Indians were ranging across frontier raiding settlements and massacring or enslaving their inhabitants. In order to regain Detroit, control of the Great Lakes had to be wrested from the British. 28 year old Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry spent the winter, spring, and summer building ten American ships and training their crews on Lake Erie. On 10 September, 1813, Commodore Perry sailed his fleet from Presque Isle Bay (now Erie, PA) to engage the six British ships nearby at Put-In-Bay (just east of present day Toledo, OH).

About noon, the British fired on the American line of battle with their lighter but much longer range cannon. Commodore Perry needed to close the distance quickly in order to get his much heavier, but much shorter range carronades into action. Unfortunately, his flagship, the USS Lawrence, was battered and out of action early in the battle so he had to transfer his flag, literally, to the USS Niagara. Perry hauled down his battle flag, “Don’t Give Up the Ship”, the last words of his best friend Captain John Lawrence, and with his remaining crew rowed the 1/2 mile through cannon and musket shot to the Niagara.

Aboard his new flagship, the USS Niagara, the undaunted Perry sailed directly into the British line, bisecting it. At one point in the battle, the crew of the Niagara traded multiple broadsides with the HMS Queen Charlotte and the HMS Detroit to port, and HMS Lady Prevost to starboard, at the same time. In the confusion caused by Perry’s aggressiveness, the Detroit and Queen Charlotte collided, became entangled, and effectively ended the engagement.

That night, Perry wrote a short, succinct message to General (and future President) William Henry Harrison, then advancing on Detroit. It said,

“Dear General: We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, O.H. Perry”12 SEP The Invasion of Italy.

On 1 June 1813 during the War of 1812, Captain James Lawrence of the 49 gun frigate USS Chesapeake sailed out of Boston Harbor to engage Captain Philip Bloke’s 38 gun HMS Shannon. Lawrence wanted to break the blockade of Boston and saw his chance when most of the patrolling British flotilla departed, leaving just the Shannon until she could be reinforced in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, Lawrence just finished outfitting the ship and most of the crew had been on board for less than two weeks. The Chesapeake’s crew was virtually untrained. Bloke’s crew on the Shannon had been together for almost seven years and was one of the most highly trained crews in the Royal Navy. In the ensuing battle, the Chesapeake was dead in the water in under 15 minutes and Lawrence laid mortally wounded on the deck. In one of the last orders to his crew, he muttered “Don’t give up the ship”. Inspired by their captain’s words, all of the officers and most of the crew fought on until they were either dead, or too wounded to fight. Their tenacity, however, didn’t change the outcome.

News of the fight and Lawrence’s words electrified Boston and a flag was commissioned in Lawrence’s honor. It was dark blue with “Don’t Give Up the Ship” written in large bold white letters across of it. The flag was presented to Lawrence’s friend, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who was in the process of building a squadron of ships at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, in order to clear Lake Erie later that summer of the British. Perry would fly it as his rank flag on his flagship, the USS Lawrence.

In the War of 1812, or America’s Second Revolutionary War, the British had burned Washington DC to the ground but had been stymied in Maryland, New York, Michigan and the Western frontier. The war was at an impasse. The British knew they needed to stop America’s westward momentum (or Manifest Destiny, they recognized it before we did). The key to doing that was New Orleans which controlled trade on the Mississippi river.

In early January 1815, Gen James Pakenham’s eight thousand battle hardened British veterans, fresh from defeating Napoleon in Spain, approached New Orleans from the south. Between the British and New Orleans stood four thousand strongly entrenched American troops under MG Andrew Jackson or “Old Hickory” to his men. But Pakenham and the other British leaders were contemptuous of the ramshackle nature of America’s small army. Jackson’s command was the first virtual American melting pot. It consisted of Kentucky riflemen and Tennessee volunteers, Mississippi dragoons, a company of US Marines, the 1st and 7th US Infantry Regiments; French, Spanish, Creole and free African American militia from Louisiana, Choctaw Indians, a battalion of US Navy seamen, and even two hundred of Jean Lafitte’s Baratarian pirates. The British scorn for Jackson troops was misplaced. Before Packenham and his main force arrived, Jackson’s troops had defeated the British vanguard twice: once on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day (because if you mess with us, we’ll kill you on our holidays. Just ask the Hessians). Additionally, most of the American army participated in the hard fought Red Stick War/Creek Civil War the previous summer. And finally, Jean Lafitte’s pirates were arguably the best cannoneers on the gulf coast. Pakenham, like the British generals of the American Revolution, thought that the Americans would break under a disciplined bayonet charge. Most of the British wouldn’t get close enough.

The British attacked under cover of fog on the morning of 8 January 1815. But Pakenham’s plan was complicated and suffered from poor staff planning. The five uncoordinated British columns attacked piecemeal and suffered from numerous planning errors including the boats to cross the Mississippi River and the location of scaling ladders for the assault troops. The American penchant for shooting enemy officers first destroyed any cohesion left in the British attack. American sharpshooters and riflemen, especially the New Orleans businessmen who shot for sport, killed almost the entirety of the British leadership, including Pakenham. Still, sheer British determination and bravery allowed some to storm the earthworks on the right, a complement to the successful British attack across the river. But the assault eventually failed in the face of America’s own bayonets of the 7th Infantry Regiment. Any local successes were untenable. Less than two hours after the first shot was fired, Gen John Lambert, the senior surviving British commander, ordered a withdrawal…down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a decidedly lopsided American victory: the United States had 13 killed and 40 wounded while the British had 330 killed, 1200 wounded and 400 captured. The news of the Treaty of Ghent, and the end of the War of 1812, would arrive a few weeks later and the Battle of New Orleans forced the British to adhere to the terms of the peace treaty (which they had no intention of doing prior to the battle).

America had taken on the largest and most powerful empire in the history of the world and survived, again. And it would send a surge of pride in the young American nation. The Battle of New Orleans permanently forged an American national identity. After the battle citizens would stop saying. “I am a Louisianian”, “I am a Kentuckian”, “I am New Yorker” or “I am a Free Man of Color”, but would instead say, “I am an American”.

After the fall of Ft Detroit to the British on 16 August 1812, Indians all along America’s western frontier began raiding in earnest. On 3 September 1812, a Shawnee war party descended upon the small settlement of Pigeon’s Roost (in modern day Indiana just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky). The attack was a complete surprise and many inhabitants were killed before they could make it to the Collings family blockhouse. The scalps of 15 children (including 2 infants), 6 women and 3 men from Pigeon’s Roost were eventually presented to the British commander at Ft Detroit.