Johns Hopkins Books on the War of 1812 – serie

Welcome to War of 1812 tidewater country. Here, in the waters and on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Americans fought to preserve their recently won independence from the British. Detailing sites from Maryland to Virginia to the District of Columbia, this portable guidebook points readers to the war's most important battlefields and historic places. The book is organized into eighteen tours. Five Historic Route Tours guide enthusiasts down the same roads and past the same buildings that proved critical in the struggle. Thirteen Historic City, Town, and Regional Tours feature key sites in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Visitors can pick a tour and follow the President and First Lady as they fled Washington, D.C., or British troops as they landed at North Point, or the Declaration of Independence as patriots saved it from the invaders. The tours are organized geographically to make trip planning easy. All are accessible by car or on foot; bike and water excursions are also suggested where appropriate.Each tour includes a brief history and information every visitor will need to know, such as the address, phone number, website, parking availability, days and hours of operation, and entrance fees. The guide is richly illustrated throughout, showing many structures that no longer exist and numerous historic sites not visible from public roads. Detailed maps direct visitors to each site. Tourists can step back in time as they travel the same roads and waterways that American and British troops did two centuries ago.

Native peoples played major roles in the War of 1812 as allies of both the United States and Great Britain, but few wrote about their conflict experiences. Two famously wrote down their stories: Black Hawk, the British-allied chief of the still-independent Sauks from the upper Mississippi, and American soldier William Apess, a Christian convert from the Pequots who lived on a reservation in Connecticut. Carl Benn explores the wartime passages of their autobiographies, in which they detail their decisions to take up arms, their experiences in the fighting, their broader lives within the context of native-newcomer relations, and their views on such critical issues as aboriginal independence. Scholars, students, and general readers interested in indigenous and military history in the early American republic will appreciate these important memoirs, along with Benn's helpful introductions and annotations.

During the War of 1812, most clashes on the high seas involved privately owned merchant ships, not official naval vessels. Licensed by their home governments and considered key weapons of maritime warfare, these ships were authorized to attack and seize enemy traders. Once the prizes were legally condemned by a prize court, the privateers could sell off ships and cargo and pocket the proceeds. Because only a handful of ship-to-ship engagements occurred between the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, it was really the privateers who fought-and won-the war at sea. In Privateering, Faye M. Kert introduces readers to U.S. and Atlantic Canadian privateers who sailed those skirmishing ships, describing both the rare captains who made money and the more common ones who lost it. Some privateers survived numerous engagements and returned to their pre-war lives; others perished under violent circumstances. Kert demonstrates how the romantic image of pirates and privateers came to obscure the dangerous and bloody reality of private armed warfare. Building on two decades of research, Privateering places the story of private armed warfare within the overall context of the War of 1812.Kert highlights the economic, strategic, social, and political impact of privateering on both sides and explains why its toll on normal shipping helped convince the British that the war had grown too costly. Fascinating, unfamiliar, and full of surprises, this book will appeal to historians and general readers alike.

Once celebrated on par with the Fourth of July, January 8th-the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans-is no longer a day of reverence for most Americans. Although the United States' stunning 1815 defeat of the British army south of New Orleans gave rise to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Democratic Party, and the legend of Jean Laffite, the battle has not been a national holiday since 1861. Joseph F. Stoltz III explores how generations of Americans have consciously revised, reinterpreted, and reexamined the memory of the conflict to fit the cultural and social needs of their time. Combining archival research with deep analyses of music, literature, theatre, and film across two centuries of American popular culture, Stoltz highlights the myriad ways that politicians, artists, academics, and ordinary people have rewritten the battle's history. While these efforts could be nefarious-or driven by political necessity or racial animus-far more often they were simply part of each generations' expression of values and world view.From Andrew Jackson's presidential campaign to the occupation of New Orleans by the Union Army to the Jim Crow era, the continuing reinterpretations of the battle alienated whole segments of the American population from its memorialization. Thus, a close look at the Battle of New Orleans offers an opportunity to explore not just how events are collectively remembered across generations but also how a society discards memorialization efforts it no longer finds necessary or palatable.

What did it take—logistically and operationally—for the small and underfunded US Navy to face the battle-hardened Royal Navy in the War of 1812? Find out in this book, the magnum opus of one of the deans of American naval history.When the War of 1812 broke out, the newly formed and cash-strapped United States faced Great Britain, the world's foremost sea power, with a navy that had largely fallen into disrepair and neglect. In this riveting book, William S. Dudley presents the most complete history of the inner workings of the US Navy Department during the conflict, which lasted until 1815. What did it take, he asks, for the US Navy to build, fit-out, man, provision, and send fighting ships to sea for extended periods of time during the War of 1812?When the British blockade of 1813–14 severely constrained American sea trade, reducing the government's income and closing down access to American seaports, the navy was forced to innovate: to make improvements through reforms, to redeploy personnel, and to strengthen its industrial capacity. Highlighting matters of supply, construction, recruitment, discipline, medical care, shipbuilding, and innovation, Dudley helps readers understand the navy's successes and failures in the war and beyond. He also presents the logistics of the war in relation to fleet actions on the lakes and selected ship actions on the oceans, stresses the importance of administration in warfighting, and shows how reforms and innovations in those areas led to a stronger, more efficient navy. Refuting the idea that the United States "won" the war, Dudley argues that the conflict was at best a stalemate. Drawing on twenty-five years of archival research around the world, Inside the US Navy of 1812–1815 will leave readers with a better appreciation of how the navy contributed strategic value to the nation's survival in the conflict and assisted in bringing the war to an honorable end. This book will appeal to scholars and students of naval and military history, veterans, current officers, and maritime-oriented history buffs.

With the Royal Navy's offensives in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812 came devastating raids that wreaked havoc on the small villages along its shores and the very economy of the region. American naval forces were incapable of wresting control of the Tidewater from the superior enemy forces. Then in 1814 Captain Joshua Barney, a rare American hero during the struggle, intrepidly led his Chesapeake Flotilla against the invaders, determined to contest their advance on the nation's capital and drive them from the region. Donald G. Shomette, director of the archaeological excavation of the flotilla's flagship, substantially revises the first edition of this captivating history with new information about Barney, his crew, and the mosquito fleet of gunboats and war barges that so valiantly fought the British. He sheds new light on the efforts of the U.S. Flotilla Service to build a viable coastal defense force. Shomette details the construction and manning of the famed Chesapeake Flotilla and recounts the terrifying details of British attacks on the towns, plantations, and farms throughout the bay region.Doomed from its conception by sparse funds and the natural limitations of the bay's coastline, the flotilla ultimately suffered defeat. Yet its efforts were not completely in vain. Turning back wave after wave of British attacks, the fleet earned an improbable victory at St. Leonard's Creek and its men went on to make heroic stands at the battles of Bladensburg and Fort McHenry in 1814. The thoroughly updated and enlarged edition of Flotilla is the result of impressive research on a forgotten chapter in the development of the young nation's naval and maritime tradition.

The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was fought throughout nearly all of the country, from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the vast frontier between the U.S. and Canada. No theater of war suffered more than the Chesapeake Bay region, where 11 battles-including Craney Island, Hampton, Bladensburg, and Baltimore-63 skirmishes, and 86 raids took place. Featuring a comprehensive list of more than 800 of the war's historical sites in the region, this book is an indispensable reference to the second great war for independence. One chapter each covers Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The authors draw on both American and British accounts in describing battlefields and the locations of skirmishes. The book includes historic maps and drawings, descriptive overview essays, the most complete chronology of the War in the Chesapeake ever assembled, and a thorough bibliographic essay. Supported by such primary documents as diaries, journals, and newspaper articles, the material compiled in this encyclopedia surpasses any collection thus far brought together on the subject.Local librarians, historians, tour guides, history buffs, school teachers, and genealogists will find this guide to be informative and enlightening.

Welcome to War of 1812 tidewater country. Here, in the waters and on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Americans fought to preserve their recently won independence from the British. Detailing sites from Maryland to Virginia to the District of Columbia, this portable guidebook points readers to the war's most important battlefields and historic places. The book is organized into eighteen tours. Five Historic Route Tours guide enthusiasts down the same roads and past the same buildings that proved critical in the struggle. Thirteen Historic City, Town, and Regional Tours feature key sites in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Visitors can pick a tour and follow the President and First Lady as they fled Washington, D.C., or British troops as they landed at North Point, or the Declaration of Independence as patriots saved it from the invaders. The tours are organized geographically to make trip planning easy. All are accessible by car or on foot; bike and water excursions are also suggested where appropriate.Each tour includes a brief history and information every visitor will need to know, such as the address, phone number, website, parking availability, days and hours of operation, and entrance fees. The guide is richly illustrated throughout, showing many structures that no longer exist and numerous historic sites not visible from public roads. Detailed maps direct visitors to each site. Tourists can step back in time as they travel the same roads and waterways that American and British troops did two centuries ago.

This engagingly told and richly illustrated history invites readers to travel back in time and imagine what it would have been like to live through the War of 1812, America's forgotten conflict. Offering readers an impressive array of images-some rarely before seen-and a crisp narrative, the book recounts the war's main battles and campaigns, from William Hull's ignominious surrender at Detroit in 1812 to Andrew Jackson's spectacular victory at New Orleans in 1815. Learn about Oliver H. Perry's remarkable victory on Lake Erie and the ensuing death of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Witness the devastation on the Niagara Front as the balance of power shifted back and forth. Watch as Thomas Macdonough executes a masterstroke on Lake Champlain, winning a great naval battle and saving upper New York from occupation. Experience the demoralizing British raids in the Chesapeake that culminated in the burning of Washington, D.C., and the successful defense of Baltimore that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen "The Star-Spangled Banner." The Rockets' Red Glare recaptures in vivid detail not only the military history of the war but also its domestic and diplomatic history.Authors Donald R. Hickey and Connie D. Clark show why the fragile young republic, which was still a second-rate power, declared war against Great Britain, an established global power. They also explain why Americans remember the conflict as an unalloyed success, even though by the war's end, the United States faced military uncertainty, financial stress, a punishing British naval blockade, and the intractable opposition of Federalists in New England. The thrilling stories and stunning illustrations of The Rockets' Red Glare are sure to capture the imagination of anyone interested in the fascinating history of the War of 1812.

In his study of William Henry Harrison, David Curtis Skaggs sheds light on the role of citizen-soldiers in taming the wilderness of the old Northwest. Perhaps best known for the Whig slogan in 1840 - "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" - Harrison used his efforts to pacify Native Americans and defeat the British in the War of 1812 to promote a political career that eventually elevated him to the presidency. Harrison exemplified the citizen-soldier on the Ohio frontier in the days when white men settled on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains at their peril. Punctuated by almost continuous small-scale operations and sporadic larger engagements, warfare in this region revolved around a shifting system of alliances among various Indian tribes, government figures, white settlers, and business leaders. Skaggs focuses on Harrison's early life and military exploits, especially his role on Major General Anthony Wayne's staff during the Fallen Timbers campaign and Harrison's leadership of the Tippecanoe campaign. He explores how the military and its leaders performed in the age of a small standing army and part-time, Cincinnatus-like forces.This richly detailed work reveals how the military and Indian policies of the early republic played out on the frontier, freshly revisiting a subject central to American history: how white settlers tamed the west-and at what cost.