1812

The US did not win the War of 1812. This surprises most Americans- we use to teach our schoolchildren that we soundly whipped the British in the 1812-1815 conflict- usually using the Battle of New orleans as the prime example our victory...But for whatever reasons we went to war with Britain in 1812, we initially launched an invasion into Canada, which was promply soundly repulsed. The Brits then burned our capitol, Washington D.C., and the Canadians in turn invaded the US.

All in all, we lost most of the military engagements. Britain needed to concentrate on beating Napoleon in Europe, so she came to the parley table- the US was eager to end the war as well, and was VERY lucky not to have to concede any territory to Britain. The subsequent Treaty of Ghent was signed, and the status quo that existed before the outbreak of hostilites returned, more or less ( during the negotiations, the delegates learned that the Brits had been defeated in the Battle of Lake Champlain....and the sea assault on Baltimore had failed. These events enabled the Americans to bargain from strength, and keep all its territory).

General Andrew Jackson's victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815-one month after the peace treaty was signed- seems to be the main cause of the creation of the myth that we won this war. Even though we sort-of lost the war, we ended up almost winning the peace, through the very generous terms we received- and it did not hurt that we could remind the British that they could be beaten ( Battel of New Orleans) at least some of the time.

If Jackson had lost New Orleans, prominent politicians in New England were prepared to dissolve the union and secede. The country would be no more...Federalists objected to the war all along, as it incured disruptions upon commerce, and raised taxes. The news of American victory, and the arriving peace delegates, quellched the fires of national dissolution in the nick of time.