Forgotten War

USS Constitution defeats HMS Guerriere in August, 1812

In a place near much of where this war was fought, you'd think we'd be a little more interested in it.  But, 200 years after the first shots of the War of 1812 were fired, not surprisingly in a minor ship engagement, most New Yorkers and the rest of the country couldn't care less.  


Lake Ontario was a prime battleground of the war as were all the Great Lakes simply because our opponents, the British, occupied Canada and we the other side.  Ignoring for a moment the tensions and eventual straws breaking camels' backs that led up to the war, the fight itself was fairly tepid and minor in comparison to other American wars.  Yes, our fledgling capital was burnt and we did happen to get a fair national anthem out of a poem written by a guy watching the shelling of a Baltimore fort. But, the vast majority of the time, the soldiers and sailors and politicians engaged in the three year conflict pretty much angled for position the majority of the time.  


If one travels around Lake Ontario, the Canadian and American relics of the war remain.  From Sacketts Harbor north of Oswego to the mighty Fort Henry at Kingston, Ontario and over towards Toronto and the Niagara Peninsula where Fort Niagara and several skirmish sites mark the places where the opposing forces fought for the Niagara Frontier and what was then called Upper Canada.   In our location we are fortunate to have such historical sites nearby.  If such things interest you, because of the relative anonymity of those who fought in the war and the dearth of common knowledge about it, you never have to fight crowds when visiting.


Perhaps the most spectacular engagements of the war were fought at sea and pitted a tiny little navy - ours, against a much larger and stronger force.  His Majesty's navy was the preeminent force on the high seas at the time and barely anyone dared mess with it even some relatively strong powers like France and Spain.  They were taught a lesson a few years before the war by the British and never quite recovered from it.  


But, the American navy, quickly assembled and hanging its hopes on a few very well built ships called frigates, managed to hold its own.  These, usually one ship-on-one ship, engagements, were brief, bloody and heroic.  


America's best known frigate of the war was USS Constitution which one can still visit berthed pier side in its home port of Boston (Charlestown actually).   It was built there and there it returned at the end of the war.  Its history after the war is equally fascinating but the stuff of legend was born when she fired her long 24 pound cannons in anger on the high seas.  She was build of stout oak and armed to the teeth with the most modern weapons of the day.  Because of her strength and size, she was viewed as more of a ship of the line than just a frigate.   Several British frigates tried to take her on and got on much the worse for the effort.   She never lost a battle. 


In August 1812, Constitution tangled with HMS Guerriere off Boston and it didn't take longer than a short few minutes for the superior vessel to end the fight.  Constitution's captain summarized the brief encounter and passed it off as not much of a contest at all. 


"At 5 minutes past 6 PM being alongside, and within less than Pistol Shot, we commenced a very heavy fire from all of our Guns, loaded with round, and grape, which done great Execution, so much so that in less than fifteen minutes from the time, we got alongside, his Mizen Mast went by the board, and his Main Yard in the Slings, and the Hull, and Sails very much injured, which made it very difficult for them to manage her."