today on the daily dose the war of 1812 at the outset of the 19th century great britain was locked in a long and bitter conflict with napoleon bonaparte's france in an attempt to cut off supplies from reaching the enemy both sides attempted to block the united states from trading with the other the royal navy also outraged americans by its practice of impressment or removing semen from u.s merchant ships and forcing them to serve on behalf of the british after napoleon hinted to the americans that he would stop restrictions president james madison blocked all trade with britain that november meanwhile new members of congress elected that year led by henry clay and john c calhoun had begun to agitate for war based on their indignation over british violations of maritime rights as well as britain's encouragement of native american hostility against westward american expansion by late 1811 the so-called warhawks in congress kept the pressure on president madison who on june 18 1812 signed a declaration of war against britain in order to strike at great britain american forces attacked canada which was then a british colony battle outcomes remained mixed for both the americans and the british until napoleon's defeat in april of 1814 allowed the british to focus their full military attention on the u.s as large numbers of troops arrived into north america british forces raided the chesapeake bay capturing washington dc on august 24 1814 before burning down government buildings including the capital and the white house on september 11 1814 at the battle of plattsburgh on lake champlain in new york the american navy soundly defeated the british fleet and on september 13 1814 baltimore's fort mchenry withstood 24 hours of bombardment by the british navy the following morning the fort soldiers hoisted an enormous american flag a site that inspired francis scott key to write a poem that would later be set to music and become known as the star-spangled banner set to the tune of an old english drinking song it would later be adopted as the u.s national anthem british forces subsequently left the chesapeake bay and began gathering their efforts for a campaign against new orleans after britain's failure to take baltimore war ended with the signing of the treaty of ghent on december 24 1814 however on january 8 1815 unaware that peace had been concluded british forces mounted a major attack in the battle of new orleans only to meet with defeat at the hands of future u.s president andrew jackson's army while the ratification of the treaty of ghent formally ended the war on february 17 1815 many in the united states celebrated the war of 1812 as a second war of independence beginning an era of partisan agreement and national pride and there you have it the war of 1812 today on the daily dose if you like learning something new every day subscribe to the daily dose on youtube or sign up for emails at dailydosenow.com