Argumentative Essay: The War Of 1812

The war of 1812 is a war of trial and error, hardship, and great death. Many men, women, and children lost their lives in a conflict between countries that had fought only 30 years prior, with the same outcome. It all starts around the year 1803 when the British begin doing the unimaginable to American sailors on trading ships.
1803 was a great year for one and a trying year for another. America was a young country, still trying to get everything set straight after the American Revolution. Things finally seemed to be going well for the United States. Britain on the other hand, was at war in France against Napoleon, it seemed the British couldn’t afford another war being fought somewhere else, especially somewhere outside Europe right? Someone

must have made Britain mad, because from 1803 to 1811 they began impressing American sailors to join their navy. In 1806 when James Madison became the president he said, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”(“James Madison”) While Madison was busy being president of this young, new country, Thomas Jefferson had other ideas to help stop this British injustice. Thomas Jefferson proposed to put an embargo on Great Britain’s goods, which worked in the favor of the Americans for the longest time, until it hurt their economy to a point they lifted the embargo in 1809. Before new of the embargo reached Britain, the remaining trading ships still out were either coming home or just reaching Britain. When the trading ship Chesapeake reached a harbor(the exact name isn’t known) it was fired upon without warning, lucky for the British they didn’t hurt anyone aboard the Chesapeake.
With tensions tight between the two countries, James Madison decided to call together the country's war counsel to discuss Britain’s behavior towards the United States. While discussing the subject of war, in the Indiana territory at Tippecanoe a battle broke at between some natives and the American soldiers. The Americans were told they would meet in the morning with Tecumseh. Just before dawn they attacked trying to catch the soldiers off guard, which worked initially but after that little time frame of glory the U.S. army absolutely demolished the natives. The army lost about 220 dead or wounded, the natives losses are not known, but it was written that they lost the will to fight.
The battle of Tippecanoe proved that war was coming to America very fast and even though there was a 6 month silent period, America declared war on June 18th, 1812. Surprisingly enough, many Americans opposed the war, even after all the tyranny Britain had caused over the last decade.
Baltimore was a city turned against the United States with riots breaking out all around the area, so many people were angry at this decision the city was almost set on fire. The people had already had lost a generation due to the American Revolution, they weren’t about to let another generation of man be destroyed by the same people as before.
In July General Hull and 2500 troops arrived at the Detroit river, as he looked across the river he saw about 200 British regulars and about that Angry natives, not counting the possible sharpshooters in the area.

General Hull sent his men across the river for an assault, but the more he thought about the possibilities of the battle, he called his troops back across the river after two days of moving them across towards the British. After seeing this, British General Isaac Brock confronted Tecumseh about attacking Fort Detroit, and he said with a shout “Ho! Here is a man!”(“Tecumseh”). General Brock crossed the river and came upon the fort in a hurry, while General Hull was getting more nervous by the second and decided the fort couldn’t withstand an attack of this severity so he surrendered without a shot even being fired. General Hull said "I have saved Detroit and the Territory from the horrors of an Indian massacre"(“General Hull”). His defeat shunned the American army making them look weak and unorganized, he was censored by the army shortly after his defeat. General Brock headed towards Niagara where he thought the next attack might take

place.
On October 13, 1812 General Brock was along Niagara Lake when he spotted an American force next to the Queenston River, Unfortunately when he spotted them they had already taken the cannon on top of the hill and turned in toward Queenston.

He rounded his troops and charged the Americans on the hill, had to retreat after experiencing heavy fire. After a short time he attempted another charge up the hill, while raising his sword to direct his troops, General Isaac Brock was shot off his horse in the heart dying before he hit the ground. Colonel John Macdonell had two companies of reinforcements and used those to reach the top of the hill where the Americans had dug in and were pounding the British with gunfire. He wasn’t in command long because he was shot sometime between them reaching the top and the British moving up. General Roger Hale Sheaffe had a company of troops going from another nearby fort when he heard the battle and took a detour to help out the British fighting furiously to stay alive on the hilltop. While taking the detour to go help Macdonell, Sheaffe came across 200 natives bringing Britain’s troop total to one-thousand, the exact same amount of troop as the Americans. Sheaffe brought his troops around the back of the Americans putting them between a rock and a hard place. They had troops in the front and back with two deep cliffs on either side of them, this is where Britain goes to work. After the first musket volley, the natives broke through the line and

obliterated the Americans which lead to a surrender after an hour and a half of fighting. The Americans had 960 dead or wounded soldiers compared to 120 dead or wounded for the British. This battle could have turned out very differently because the Americans had a couple thousand militia troops available just a few miles away in Lewiston. No matter how hard they fought, the Americans couldn’t win a battle which was problematic since Britain was fighting two wars at the time of this battle.