50 Fun Facts About War of 1812

In which month of 1812 did the United States declare war on Britain?

Madison signed the declaration on the 18th. It was the first time the US had formally declared war on anyone, and by the narrowest margin in its history.

What did the anti-war Federalist Party call the conflict?

Not one of the 39 Federalists in Congress voted for it. Later Americans rebranded it the 'Second War of Independence', a label historians treat with scepticism.

Which party supplied the votes for war in June 1812?

The House voted 79 to 49 and the Senate 19 to 13, both strictly along party lines.

How many of the 39 Federalists in Congress voted in favour of the war?

Days later a Baltimore mob attacked Federalists for printing anti-war views, starting more than a month of deadly rioting.

Which British prime minister was assassinated on 11 May 1812, weeks before the war began?

His successor repealed the Orders in Council on 23 June, but the news took three weeks to cross the Atlantic and the war was already on.

Which American post guarding the Huron–Michigan passage fell first to the British?

Isaac Brock heard of the war before the Americans did and ordered the attack, helped by North West Company fur traders and Indigenous allies.

Which city did American general William Hull surrender to Brock on 16 August 1812?

Hull feared superior numbers and a massacre; the fort was short of powder and shot. His invasion of Upper Canada had lasted less than a month.

Isaac Brock was killed during which October 1812 battle on the Niagara River?

The Americans were defeated anyway, but British leadership in Upper Canada suffered without him.

'The Hero of Upper Canada', Isaac Brock, was born on which island?

He joined the army as an ensign in 1785 and won a knighthood for taking Detroit; he and Tecumseh worked in person together only for a few days.

'Remember the River Raisin!' recalled a massacre of prisoners after a defeat at which settlement?

In January 1813 Procter left the captives poorly guarded and his Potawatomi allies killed 60 of them.

Oliver Hazard Perry's decisive Lake Erie victory in September 1813 was fought off which harbour?

It forced the British out of Detroit and opened the way to Harrison's invasion of Upper Canada.

Perry's Lake Erie battle flag carried which dying words of Captain James Lawrence?

Women of Erie, Pennsylvania sewed it. Perry accepted the surrender on the battered deck of his flagship, named for Lawrence.

Tecumseh was killed in October 1813 at the Battle of the Thames, also known by which name?

William Henry Harrison's mounted infantry overran the British line and the Indigenous warriors withdrew after their leader fell.

Which capital of Upper Canada did American forces capture and burn in April 1813?

Soldiers torched the legislature and looted homes; the British cited it when they burned Washington sixteen months later.

How far did Laura Secord walk in 1813 to warn the British of an American attack?

Her contribution went almost unrecognised in her lifetime; Canada has since given her schools, monuments, a stamp and a coin.

Laura Secord's warning helped a smaller British force win which June 1813 battle?

An American force surrendered to a smaller one, ending the 1813 American offensive into Upper Canada.

At Chateauguay, Charles de Salaberry's 339 men turned back an American force of roughly what size?

Canadian Voltigeurs and Mohawks held a strong position; Wade Hampton's failure doomed the 1813 advance on Montreal.

Winfield Scott's hard-drilled regulars beat the British at which battle on 5 July 1814?

Riall, unaware Fort Erie had fallen, was chased off the field by volleys from a shallow U formation.

Which inconclusive July 1814 battle near Niagara Falls is considered the war's bloodiest?

Riall, Scott, Brown and Drummond were all wounded; Scott's injuries ended his war.

HMS St Lawrence, launched at Kingston in September 1814, carried how many guns?

News of its approach sent the Americans back across the Niagara, destroying Fort Erie on the way.

Who commanded the American squadron that won the Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain?

Theodore Roosevelt later called it the greatest naval battle of the war. Prevost turned his army around and was recalled to London.

Tariff money the British took from occupied Castine, Maine, helped found which university?

The £10,750 'Castine Fund' went to Halifax. The British had run eastern Maine under martial law as the colony of New Ireland.

Which British general led the 4,500-strong force that captured Washington in August 1814?

Admiral George Cockburn accompanied him. Weeks later Ross was shot dead by snipers at North Point outside Baltimore.

The rout of American militia at which battle opened the road to Washington?

Madison watched and said he could never have believed so great a difference existed between regulars and militia.

What put out the fires in Washington less than a day after the British lit them?

Possibly a hurricane, it spun off a tornado that lifted two cannons and killed British troops; the occupation lasted about 26 hours.

Roughly how long did the British occupation of Washington last?

They burned the White House and Capitol but were ordered to spare private homes, and left with portraits of George III and Queen Charlotte.

The Gilbert Stuart portrait rescued from the White House in 1814 depicts whom?

In 2009 the White House honoured the Madisons' enslaved servant Paul Jennings for the staff's role in saving it; the canvas was a Stuart copy, not the original.

For how long was Fort McHenry bombarded during the Battle of Baltimore?

Baltimore blacked out its lights; the only illumination came from shells bursting over the fort and its still-flying flag.

What was the title of Francis Scott Key's poem about the bombardment?

Written on 14 September 1814, it was set to music and renamed 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.

Key's poem was set to the tune of which popular British drinking-club melody?

John Stafford Smith wrote it for the Anacreontic Society, a London gentlemen's club; Key had used the same tune for an earlier song.

In which year did Congress make 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the official US national anthem?

Herbert Hoover signed the resolution. The Navy had adopted it for official use back in 1889.

Who made the 15-star, 15-stripe flag that flew over Fort McHenry?

She and her workers sewed it at her home on Baltimore's Pratt Street; a smaller storm flag flew through the night.

The Red Sticks, who fought the Americans in the South, were a faction of which nation?

Named for the colour of their war sticks, they were inspired by Tecumseh and had long ties to the British and Spanish.

Roughly how many settlers died in the Red Stick attack on Fort Mims in August 1813?

The fort stood north of Mobile; the attack became a rallying point and drew Georgia and Mississippi militia into the Creek War.

About how many Red Sticks were killed at Andrew Jackson's victory at Horseshoe Bend in March 1814?

Jackson lost 49 killed, then forced the whole Creek nation, allies included, to cede most of western Georgia and part of Alabama.

On what date was the Treaty of Ghent signed?

Christmas Eve. The Prince Regent signed it into law on 30 December, but the US Senate did not ratify it until 17 February 1815.

The city of Ghent, where the peace was signed, lies in which modern country?

In 1814 it was in the United Netherlands. The treaty restored the pre-war borders and said nothing about impressment.

On what date in 1815 did Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans?

Fifteen days after the peace was signed. The British suffered 291 dead against 13 Americans; the victory carried Jackson toward the presidency.

Which British major general commanded the 8,000-man attack on New Orleans?

His secret orders told him to keep fighting even if he heard rumours of peace. The British withdrew on 18 January.

What was the only territory the United States permanently gained during the war?

Britain never recognised it as American territory; Mobile had been taken from Spain in 1813.

New England Federalists met to air their grievances about the war in which city over the winter of 1814–15?

Massachusetts and Connecticut had refused to put their militias under the War Department; secession was openly threatened.

The 1817 Rush–Bagot Treaty demilitarised which waters?

It laid the basis for a demilitarised border and remains in effect today.

USS Constitution earned which nickname after British shots bounced off her hull against HMS Guerriere?

A sailor supposedly shouted 'Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!' She is still in commission, the oldest naval vessel afloat.

Which June 1813 duel was the bloodiest single-ship action of the war?

Both sides lost three frigates over the war; the Royal Navy took 1,400 American merchantmen to the US Navy's 165.

Legend credits the 'Uncle Sam' name to Samuel Wilson, a wartime meatpacker from which New York town?

Contractors had to stamp their name on ration barrels. The first literary reference came in an 1816 allegory.

In which year did HMS Leopard attack USS Chesapeake off Virginia in search of deserters?

The affair near Norfolk inflamed American anger over impressment five years before war came.

Who led the American forces at the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe against Tecumseh's confederacy?

Then governor of Indiana Territory. Tecumseh was away recruiting; his brother the Prophet was in charge.

Tecumseh's brother, the spiritual leader known as 'the Prophet', was named what?

He commanded at Prophetstown in his brother's absence but was no military man.

Fort Dearborn, whose evacuees were ambushed in August 1812, stood where today?

Hull ordered the evacuation to Fort Wayne; Potawatomi warriors attacked the column and the fort was burned.

American general James Wilkinson, who led the 1813 push on Montreal, was secretly paid by which country?

He also took the Mobile area from the Spanish in March 1813, and resigned after a failed attack at Lacolle Mills.