Historical Notes
In the study of American history, the War of 1812 is usually more of a footnote than a major event. Thirty years after the Revolution, the young United States fought Britain again, the results were pretty much a stalemate, and the only noteworthy event was the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I’m not sure that the average Briton has any awareness of the war at all. But in the US and Canada, the war mattered.
In my hometown of Baltimore, the war is very, very personal. When I first moved here, I was surprised to find a Maryland State holiday called Defenders Day, on September 12. Say what?
It turned out that September 12 was the land part of the Battle of Baltimore, when the militia stopped the advance of British troops at the Battle of North Point, allowing time for the Americans to prepare for the naval part of the battle, which was the defense of the city at Fort McHenry.
The reasons for the war are murky. On the American side, there was a feeling that Britain was dissing our new little republic. The British blockade of the Continent was interfering with our trade with France, and the Royal Navy was impressing sailors from American ships to serve on British vessels. If we fought, we could teach them respect and maybe collect Canada and add it to the United States.
I suspect that in Britain, the fighting was seen as a bloomin’ nuisance—just get those colonials out of the way, please, so Britain could take care of Napoleon. I do know that the issue of impressing American sailors to serve on British ships was taught in my school as a huge infringement of our sovereign rights, but it looked very different after I read Life in Nelson’s Navy, by Dudley Pope. It was a lesson in different points of view.
A good part of the war was fought grimly along the Niagara Frontier between Canada and the United States. The war in the Chesapeake Bay was right on my doorstep and it’s well documented. In my research, I was able to find weather conditions, troop movements, the blowing up of bridges and ammunition dumps, not to mention ministers’ benedictions and idiotic mistakes to weave into my own story.
With Napoleon defeated and exiled to Elba in 1814, battle-seasoned British troops were freed up to sail to North America and administer the spanking those Americans so richly deserved. When the British walked into Washington with no opposition after some American troops had disgraced themselves at the Battle of Bladensburg, they primarily burned government buildings, but one house was used by snipers and burned down, an incident I was able to borrow for my own characters.
The easy occupation of America’s capital was a national humiliation and could have had dire effects on the peace negotiations that were being held in Ghent. After that victory, the Royal Navy, the most powerful in the world, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, determined to destroy Baltimore. The city was one of the largest and richest in America, and had quite justly earned the label “a nest of pirates,” though Americans preferred the term “privateers.”
The British troops were led by Major General Robert Ross, a distinguished veteran of the Peninsular War. With the might of the empire bearing down on the city, the local citizens, white and black, rich and poor, dug in grimly, because that’s what you do when enemies threaten your home. The territorial instinct is powerful. Earthworks were dug, twenty-two merchant ships were sunk in the mouth of the harbor to prevent the British from entering, and both regular troops and militia took positions and prepared for whatever might come.
The British land invasion retreated after General Ross was shot, the Royal Navy began bombarding Fort McHenry, and the rest of the story is well known. The United States regained its pride by standing firm against the might of the British Empire and the peace negotiations in Europe were concluded with no changes of territory.
It could be called a stalemate, but that doesn’t mean the war had no lasting effects. Both the United States and Canada developed much stronger senses of their national identity, to the extent that the War of 1812 is sometimes called the “second American Revolution.” Having declined to join America, Canada has been a steadfast, invaluable member of the British Empire ever since, and a very good neighbor to the United States.
If you’d like to learn more about the war in the Chesapeake, the classic history is Walter Lord’s excellent The Dawn’s Early Light: The Climactic Shaping of “the Land of the Free” During the Hazardous Events of 1814 in Washington, Baltimore, and London. Another fine book is Steve Vogel’s Through the Perilous Fight: From the Burning of Washington to the Star-Spangled Banner: The Six Weeks That Saved the Nation.
One last note: coal seam fires are real and can burn for decades or even centuries. The fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been burning since the 1960s and caused the entire town to be evacuated.