Transcript for:
War of 1812 Lecture Notes

so as you saw in the clip british troops marched toward baltimore as the british navy attacked fort mchenry now they hoped to draw out the american troops defending baltimore and allow british ground troops to take the city but their plan didn't work francis scott key's poem was set to the tune of a british drinking song and called the star-spangled banner it was designated for official use by the us navy in 1889 and finally by president wilson for the nation in 1916. although many americans were reluctant to approve a british drinking song the star-spangled banner became the national anthem in 1931. before that the u.s unofficially used my country tis of the which has a melody identical to god save the queen the british national anthem in other words the us has a really poor track record of national anthems and all of them have been british the star-spangled banner actually has four stanzas but we usually only sing the first and critics normally target the third verse which you see here on the slide it references the american slaves who ran to british lines for freedom in the war of 1812 and discussing the victory at fort mchenry describes those enslaved people as having quote no refuge the battle of fort mchenry stopped british momentum in the war now remember those mid-atlantic attacks like at fort mchenry and dc were supposed to be diversions from the two major offenses general george prevost led the british troops down the shores of lake champlain and he's trying to get into new york here however commodore thomas mcdonough defeated the british fleet at the battle of plattsburgh on september 11th and broke british supply lines news of the british defeats at plattsburgh and fort mchenry reached the british foreign office and they began to scale back their demands that they were making on american negotiators at the peace talks in ghent which is in belgium as a result the treaty of ghent was signed on christmas eve 1814 and it really didn't settle anything it just restored relations to the status they were before the war both sides are like we're tired of fighting let's just go back to how things work nobody really wins or gets what they want out of this war it's just restoring the pre-war status quo no territory changed hands there's nothing in the treaty about impressment or neutrality rights some of the things they're fighting about but the treaty was signed and would actually take weeks for both nations legislatures to ratify because remember the united states can sign a treaty but they have to bring it back and have the senate ratify it for it to actually be in effect same for britain parliament has to ratify it so even though there is a peace treaty working its way through congress and parliament britain still hoped to gain control of the mississippi river valley especially new orleans so they sent reinforcements to general edward packingham commander of the louisiana invasion it's technically not illegal since the peace treaty hadn't been ratified yet but basically they signed a peace treaty and they're still eyeing new orleans now the battle of new orleans was fought on january 8 1815 so just a couple weeks after the peace treaty was signed but before general pakenham's reinforcements arrived so it's just that original force that wanted to invade louisiana defending new orleans was andrew jackson a planter and politician from tennessee who'd made his name fighting against native americans he had already forced the creeks to seed two-thirds of their land he had acted as a state militia general and was then given a federal commission he's promoted to general and the regular army and he's responsible for the defense of the gulf coast but he really doesn't have a lot of respect within the u.s military because he's a militia guy jackson pulled together anybody and everybody he could find in new orleans so that was militia pirates freed slaves it did not matter if you could hold a gun you could be part of his army they built fortifications and prepared for the onslaught the british were overconfident due to their superior numbers and training again they don't have a lot of respect for militia and they launched a complicated three-pronged frontal attack on jackson's lines now some of this required part of the british force to make it across the mississippi river and then continue forward with the rest of the british military towards jackson's lines but some of those boats were carried down the mississippi river when they crossed so they're not able to kind of catch up to the rest of the british line in time for the battle additionally the british regiment responsible for the latters that they were going to use to get over the fortifications forgot to get the ladders so they go back to camp to retrieve them and return only to find that their column is already on the march so the guys who are supposed to have the ladders aren't where they're supposed to be this is an overly complicated plan a third of the the force is too far back from where it's supposed to be is just not going to work jackson's militia including french-speaking canon ears opened fire on the british and britain's high command including pak and him died during the battle you're going to watch a quick clip about that battle but first let's look at our focus question so why did jefferson consider the louisiana purchase to be unconstitutional what were the domestic and international causes and results of the war of 1812 and what caused the death of the federalist party which you know a little bit about now what we're going to learn a little more about next time so proceed to the next part of the lecture page to learn more about the battle of new orleans and then take the war of 1812 lecture recap quiz in the following clip you're only responsible for 30 seconds to 4 minutes so start at 30 seconds end at 4 minutes