Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the War of 1812.

The U.S. declared war on Great Britain because of their:

- impressment of U.S. sailors.

- violation of U.S. sea rights.

- support of Native Americans.

Do Now: What were the three major reasons that the United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812?

Complete Explanation

• In 1814, the British set Washington, D.C. on fire, including the White House.

Washington, D.C is Attacked

Even though people were fleeing the city in droves, First Lady Dolley Madison refused to leave without some of the nation's most important treasures-including this famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.

"The burned-out shell of the White House as it looked after being set on fire by the British on August 24, 1814.

"Drawing shows the ruins of the U.S. Capitol following British attempts to burn the building; includes fire damage to the Senate and House wings, damaged colonnade in the House of Representatives shored up with firewood to prevent its collapse.

• The British attacked Fort McHenry at Baltimore.

• Francis Scott Key watched the battle from a British ship, where he was trying to convince the British to release an American prisoner.

The Star-Spangled Banner

• When the smoke cleared, “our flag was still there”.

• In response, Key wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M'Henry”, which later was put to music and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Francis Scott Key standing on boat, with right arm stretched out toward the United States flag flying over Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland.

The Star-Spangled Banner, written in Francis Scott Key’s own handwriting. (1840)

Bombshells that exploded into deadly fragments were Britain's most formidable weapon against Fort McHenry. Seamen launched the bombs from ships known as bomb vessels using mortars with a range of about 2.5 mi. (4 km).

The Old Defenders, veterans of the Battle of Baltimore, marched in parades in Baltimore on Sept. 12, Defenders' Day, for the rest of their lives. These Old Defenders were photographed in 1880.

Flag that floated over Fort McHenry in 1814, on display here in Baltimore, MD, in 1914.

The original Star-Spangled Banner, on

display in 1964

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

, Washington, D.C.

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Treaty of Ghent• While it ended the war, the treaty did not resolve any of the

problems between Britain and the U.S.

The Signing of the Treaty of Ghent, Christmas Eve, 1814

Battle of New Orleans• Led by Gen. Andrew Jackson, the U.S. defeated the British

two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed.• Casualties: Britain – 2,030; U.S. – 7

Battle of New Orleans: Eyewitness Accounts

“Such a destruction of men, for the time it lasted, was never before witnessed”

- American Engineer Major Tatum Howell

The Battle of New Orleans. January 1815.

"Prompted by curiosity, I mounted my horse and rode to the front; but of all the sights I ever witnessed, that which met me there was beyond comparison the most shocking and the most humiliating. Within the narrow compass of a few hundred yards, were gathered together nearly a thousand bodies, all of them arrayed in British uniforms.”

"Not a single American was among them; all were English; and they were thrown by dozens into shallow holes, scarcely deep enough to furnish them with a slight covering of earth. Nor was this all. An American officer stood by smoking a cigar, and apparently counting the slain with a look of savage exultation; and repeating over and over to each individual that approached him, that their loss amounted only to eight men killed, and fourteen wounded.“

- British Captain George Gleig

The Importance of the Battle of New Orleans in American history.

The headlines that you see in the newspapers when word of this thing reaches are just...they're trying to figure out how to put enough exclamation points, and the whole country just erupts with pride.

It's hard to overestimate the importance of the battle in American history. It secured the Louisiana Purchase. In terms of American nationalism, it gave people a sense - you know, the outcome of this battle and the outcome of the war has been called a second American Revolution, a kind of a feeling of having decisively defeated the former Mother country. It set the stage for the march across the continent and what became Manifest Destiny - the notion that somehow America was destined to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

It propelled [General Andrew] Jackson into politics. You know, General Washington was our first President. General Eisenhower was a President. Jackson is another one of our notable military figures who goes on to capture the White House. In newspapers throughout the country, as late as the 1840's, you'll see...particularly at Democratic Party events...there'll be toasts that are offered to the 8th of January. It became sort of like the 4th of July in terms of American nationhood, I suppose, until it was eclipsed by other wars. Certainly, you don't see that kind of celebration after the Civil War, for example, because I think the perspective changed.

- Jon Kukla, American Historian