often called the Second war for american independence . The american army faced the british again in the war of 18 12 . What were the causes for the war ? How did the United States Army meet the strategic and tactical challenges . What battles won and lost shaped the eventual american victory For discussion and insights . Welcome to the U . S . Army history and Heritage podcast , the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The Center of Military History , writes and publishes the army's official history , manages the US Army Museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U . S . Army . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army history and Heritage podcast . I'm lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the United States Army Center of Military History . In this episode we discuss the United States Army in the war of 18 12 . Joining me for this discussion is Dr Glenn Williams . Welcome , Glenn , thank you . Good to be here and it's good to have you back . I know you you helped us out here a lot on the Revolutionary War podcasts , but some background on dr Williams . Dr Glenn Williams is a retired army infantry officer and airborne ranger . Who are you ? He is a published author on the colonial and Revolutionary War era , has extensive experience working in historical locations , including as a historian and curator at the U . S . S . Constellation in Baltimore harbor with the National Park Service battlefield protection program and assistant curator for the Baltimore Civil War Museum and President Street station . Dr Williams has been a historian with the center of military history since 2000 and four . Well , glenn , that's pretty impressive . A lot of history . Uh there , what am I missing any , anything special you want to point out , it's basically also my hobby in my so called free time . I research and write books , give lectures , lead tours of battlefields and also part of my job here leading staff rides of battlefields for military leaders . And I do also want to point out that in um in addition to you being an author on on your own separate from the center of Military history , you've also written several books about the colonial error or the Revolutionary War error . And here at CMH . You also write and edit um publications And because we are talking about the war of 1812 . Today we have a set of seven pamphlets about the war of 1812 . And you played a role in these . What did you do with those ? I basically planned out which the volumes are going to be , each one is tied to at least one of the campaign streamers on the army flag . Um I recruited the authors and with my associate and colleague , john Moss , we did the content editing . I did five of them . Um john wrote one of the pamphlets and did the content editing on the other . Alright , well , great . And john Moss , of course he was with us for our third part , a podcast about the Revolutionary War . So those people have been listening for a while . We'll , we'll know john So let's get into the war of 1812 , you know , I remember in my college history courses they said this is the second war for American independence . Um but a lot of people don't really understand why or how we got into the war . So let's talk about that first . How did we end up in this war ? Okay , the second war of independence , a lot of people take that wrong . They think Great Britain wanted to retake the colonies and make them part of the United Kingdom again , but that's not true . Uh the british did not recognize or respect american sovereignty in the period . Um so you might have heard the slogan free trade and sailors rights . Well , great Britain and France were engaging in what we now call the Napoleonic wars and both of them had blockades against each other and seized our shipping on occasion . And the british actually impressed some sailors from our ships american citizens because they did not recognize citizenship in the United States . The other cause is without spain there to keep the keep the United States and bounds east of the Mississippi . After the Louisiana purchase Britain had to find another way to limit the expansion of the United States and they started inciting and arming and equipping various tribes and nations of american indians to keep the frontier and turmoil to prevent that expansion . So those are the two big reasons . Yeah , and I think that's , that's where the phrase , once an englishman , always an englishman comes from , is that right ? That's correct . Right . Um , Alright , so I understand why , you know why . But um , so let's talk about opening battles . What , what happened um , to get us into into the conflict at the beginning of the year 1812 , the US Army is very small paper strength of about 10,000 actual strength half that . But it looks like we're . approaching going to war with great Britain . Congress authorizes expanding the army to about 35,000 between january and june of 18 12 from an army of seven regiments to an army of 44 regiments . So you see this rapid expansion stretches the small regular army to the limit for providing leaders and and cadre for these new regiments . Opening battles take place and do not go well for the US army along the Niagara frontier and uh , in the michigan territory , um , we suffered some tremendous losses , including the loss of Detroit and , and battles along the Niagara mainly dude because of the unpreparedness of the small Then expanded regular army and militia called to federal service without much training . Right . And so it had really been about 30 years since the end of the revolutionary war . So has the American army's tactics and weapons changed much in that time . We were still using the linear tactics like we talked about in the Revolutionary war . Many other weapons systems are the same . Maybe a little improved , still using the smooth bore musket for the basic infantry weapon . Although the use of the rifle had expanded somewhat By the end of the war , the U . S . Army would have seven regiments of riflemen uh and each unit might have had uh other units of um riflemen and militia had either battalions or regiments of militia as well . Alright , so that really I think goes to tell about why we have these losses . Initially we just , it was the american army was unprepared and was it you mentioned a standing army ? Um Did the army also rely a lot on the militia at that time ? The army had to rely on the militia and a lot of cases . And you know , Congress said that up to 100,000 militiamen could be detached which meant put on federal service uh to assist the army . Um they also authorized the raising of 50,000 what they called volunteers . These are men from the militia called to federal service for one year term paid the same as regulars . And then you had the regulars as well . But the same thing happened expanding from that small army to a huge army without developing leaders uh discipline and so forth . So after those initial losses and the expansion is is continuing . Did we take any of those , the lessons learned ? And and did the army improve ? Very much so the army did start to improve . And in 1813 , we defeated an invasion into the Ohio territory . Um , counterattacked , regained Detroit even had forces into what's now Western Ontario and stayed there till the end of the war . And on the other front along the lake's repelled an attack against Sackets harbor new york and raided the city of york , which was a provincial capital now Toronto on the , on the lakes . And in in that battle , I think we talked about at some point as pike , Zebulon pike was involved in the raid on new york . Um , A lot of people think that the U . S . Army burned new york , but the british actually started the destruction by setting their own powder magazine ablaze when they withdrew the resulting explosion , some of the debris that fell . Hit and killed pike who was in command at the time for the US army and he died there . And Debbie Allen Pyke again , just for those listening remind him who Zebulon Pike was a longtime regular army officer led expeditions into the western territory of exploration . Uh , and it is for him that pikes Peak is named . And uh , all right , so , you know , we had an initial losses . I think so . Um , Then in the second year we were able to gain some of those losses back , I guess in in our victories and we expanded into Canada and a couple of places actually by 1814 , we have crossed the Niagara , we've taken Fort George advanced deeper into Canada there , we still had forces in Western Ontario , uh , and uh , pretty much taking the offense and we still had some setbacks along with Saint Lawrence , but basically a much more improved army that had made some gains . And one since some impressive victories like Cipolla , uh , in uh , in Canada . Right . And so up to this point , most of this war , at least for the army is being fought in the north . Right , is that correct ? Yes . And mostly in Canada . And that's one of those misperceptions about the wars . Some people think , well , we're trying to get Canada to be a new state , but that's not true . Remember free trade and sailors . Right . So we had a navy that had only about 12 frigates and we're fighting the greatest naval power in the world . So the only leverage we would have is to make an encroachment on Canada as a means of bargaining for removing those restrictions on our maritime trade . And I think it's worth noting to what was happening on the seas . So he mentioned that the british were really tied up with in the Napoleonic wars . Uh , so they had limited resources out here , but did they not establish a blockade ? Uh , they did uh , in a couple of instances is mainly centered on the approaches to new york harbor and the Chesapeake bay primarily where they could detach squadrons from the , from the war in europe , Which they were able to do more after the 1805 Battle . Trafalgar where the British Uh regain dominance of the sea . And so now let's let's say moving into 1814 then uh pivotal year here because the Napoleonic wars ended well , they went into a hiatus . The napoleon abdicated , but he came back 100 days later . So there was a brief part in there and some say that one of the reasons why they started sending more troops to America to fight this war here is not only to end this war here , but they had a feeling that napoleon might try to come back and they wanted to keep their large standing army standing . Uh And so that was one way of doing it . Right . But it was , it provided the british sometime to send massive reinforcements , both both naval and army . So then how did the british strategy change ? In 18 14 , they embarked on three offensives . One from Canada to come down lake champlain towards the Hudson . A second , a major diversion in the Chesapeake bay area to draw the regulars of the US army away from the northern frontier and the third to operate in the gulf of Mexico um to attack mobile Alabama and new Orleans and ultimately the goal in new Orleans was possibly to not re not take that and occupy it . But the british never recognized any treaties that anybody had signed with napoleon . So the thought is that they were going to recede the Louisiana territory from the Louisiana purchase back to Spain , the Spain was great Britain's ally . Right , okay . So 33 different phases if you will . In 18 14 , let's let's talk about each phase . You talked about the not the north . How successful were the british ? The british launched their invasion coming down lake champlain . The naval battle of Lake champlain one by the americans . Without the naval support , the british army is stopped at Plattsburgh new york by a combined army of regulars and militia . Um Then about at the same time the british are in the Chesapeake and they launched a raid against Washington D . C . Um the capital of the U . S . They are able to defeat uh american army made up mostly of militia at a place called Bladensburg just outside the district . Uh , that enables them to come into Washington and set fire to most of the public buildings including the capitol and White House . Uh and then they go to Baltimore where Baltimore puts up a stiffer defense and they're turned back there . And then from there , most of those forces that were engaged in Baltimore go to the gulf and they're part of the force that attacks new Orleans eventually . Right . But then in so in Washington D . C . You said that the british attacked and burned the public buildings that they left most of the rest of the city did not touch private property except if if there had been somebody firing from a private building . But interestingly enough , the commandant of the Marine Corps's house because it was considered private property was spared even though it was at the Navy Yard , they burned the rest of the Navy yard . Okay , that's interesting . Alright . Um and so at this point the battles are now moving into the gulf . So let's talk about the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson . So what , what actually took place there ? Okay , that's pretty interesting battle . The british had a massive army they had already attacked and failed at mobile , moved into new Orleans . That's their primary target . Their primary objective . They're able to move from lake born all over to the Mississippi and they're going to advance up the Mississippi to the city of New Orleans . Uh U . S . Army commanded by major General Andrew Jackson . Combined militia , regulars , sailors , marines , uh privateers , privateers , even even some indians and refugee free men of color from ST Demong . So talk to me about the battle and this is a very , very famous battle and well , before we get into that , I think there's a there's a big myth that says that the battle of New Orleans was fought after the war was officially over . So is this correct ? Uh Well , it has some truth to it . The Treaty of Ghent which negotiated the peace between Great Britain and the United States was agreed upon in Ghent Belgium . However , it still needed to go to both governments to be ratified and it was not finally ratified . It had to be ratified by both parties . It was not ratified for another six weeks after the Battle of New Orleans was fought . So it had been negotiated peace but not a ratified peace . All right . So what happened in New Orleans , we tend to think of the battle of New Orleans as having one Engagement on eight January , but actually there were several smaller engagements leading up to that . Um Jackson set up his line along the Rodrigue , a canal on one side and on the other side he had another line the British attempted to attack um very poorly executed attack . Uh and um the british sustained a lot of casualties , including a couple of the british general officers before they called off the main attack and withdrew back to their fleet . Um and then they attacked mobile again . Right , so the second Battle of Mobile ? Yes . And what happened in that battle , the british were able to take the fourth at the end of the peninsula . Uh But knowing that the british were aiming for that , Jackson had marched most of the american army from New Orleans to mobile . Um they're about to square off when they received word that a piece has is in the offing . Um So they go into a truce and trade casualties and prisoners and things like that . While they're waiting for word on what happened with the peace treaty . So then they find out about the peace treaty and and then what do the british do british sail for home ? And some of those regiments will be at the Battle of Waterloo . Okay , so they get back into the Napoleonic wars . So Andrew Jackson , You know , in the Big Heroes of the War of 1812 , who else is where it's highlighting ? Winfield scott . Winfield scott is a young brigade brigadier general commanding an infantry brigade . It's his unit that does most of the fighting at the battle cipolla . Uh he'll eventually become the commanding general of the U . S . Army . He will lead the U . S . Army's expedition into Mexico during the mexican war and he will still be the commanding general of the U . S . Army at the outbreak of the civil war . Right , right in operation anaconda I think and that's his plan that eventually is executed to win the civil war . That's amazing , wow . Um and anything else about the war of 1812 that you think is significant to address ? Yeah , I think the attack on Baltimore is significant . Had two phases . A naval phase where the British executed a naval attack against Fort Mchenry which with stands uh an overnight attack , 25 hour bombardment and a land attack where the Maryland militia is able to um delay and then halt the british land invasion and significant in that particularly is of course we all know the story of the writing of the star spangled banner original name being the defense of Fort Mchenry . And I'd like to tell people that remember the star spangled banner was the garrison flag of an army post ? Very good point . That's a good bit of trivia here that we'll get to in a few minutes . So at the end of the war of 18 12 , by this time that the numbers in the army had had risen um the experience level was very high morale was high . What happened to the army immediately following the war ? Well as usually happens to the U . S . Army following a war , it's downsized as we would say today , a lot of regiments , most regiments were under strength to begin with . And so with the discharges of the soldiers at the end of the war and who's left ? A lot of units are consolidated re numbered . As a matter of fact , the old first infantry regiment becomes part of the new third Infantry Regiment , which it still is today . Uh So they're they're broken down into these uh more up to strength but fewer regiments in the army . Uh And they go back to doing what they had done before a lot of guarding the frontier , A lot of manning seacoast forts and things like that . And what about territory did um what it looked like did we gain ? Did we lose territory ? We did not fight the war to gain territory . So there's no gains . However , um , we do start to make inroads into florida ? East and west florida which is still controlled by spain and will be until certainly after the war of 18 12 . And also the troubles with the Seminoles , we'll end up fighting three different wars with the Seminoles following the war of 18 12 . So let's , let's talk about um hooah trivia , what , what kind of who a trivia Or is it still properties to say , who's our ? It is still proper to say who's a uh , I think the , the hula trivia for the war of 18 12 is that um , a lot of the leaders of the army that we would hear about between this time and the mexican war uh , would come to the fore and uh , and especially on the western frontier . Eo hear a lot about the units on the western frontier uh , and the rifle becomes more of a not yet a standard weapon , but more utilized throughout the army . Okay . And um , so some of the weapons and then as the weapons are improved , are we going to see changes in tactics following this war ? And we'll start to see changes in tactics , but we , like all the others armies that we engage with um are still basically using the linear tactics , although artillery comes into more use with napoleon . Okay , so lessons learned from from those wars and we apply them to the army and then , uh , so overall you mentioned this earlier battle streamers , how many battle streamers were put on the army flag from this was it ? I think 77 . we often forget about the the campaign against the creeks which is considered one of the battle streamers , one of the indian wars , but it's really part of the war of 18 12 . Andrew Jackson commands the U . S . Armed army forces that engage in it . The creeks at the time are divided . The white , the White Stick Creeks are allies to us . The Red Stick Creeks are allied with the british and they are influenced very much by the british and helping the british wherever they can . Alright , great , well thanks so much glen , it's a pleasure to have you on again uh and talking um you know , getting all your insights here on the war of 1812 Um and if anyone wants to learn more about the war of 1812 , I mentioned it earlier . We have a seven pamphlet series on the war of 1812 dr Williams . Um you know , helped develop those and and edit those and those are available on our , from our website at history dot army dot mil . And if you want to experience army history every day , then please visit our social media sites on facebook twitter and instagram and make sure you like and share them so that we can get more people excited about army history and please join us every week on this podcast for more in depth discussions about army history as we cover topics from all areas of the US Army history . So if you love army history , you don't want to miss an episode . Thanks for joining us today on the United States Army history and Heritage podcast for the Center of Military History . I'm lee Reynolds and until next time we're history . The views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of policies or opinions of the U . S . Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the army's proud history and heritage , go to history dot army dot mil .