The+War+of+1812+Book+Pages+2+53+=)

Hi everyone! My name is Scruffles! Today, I am going to tell you about the so called "forgotten" War of 1812. Although some people say it is "forgotten," I will never foget it.

It all started when a naval war broke out between Great Britain and France. The United States found itself stuck in the middle of the battle.

When Britain and France realized that the U.S. was a neutral country, they both made laws about American merchant ships bringing supplies to the enemy. Merchants ignored the laws and carried goods to both sides.

When Britain found merchant ships breaking the law and bringing goods to France, officials searched the ships for anyone they thought deserted the British navy. This was called impressment. When they did this, they captured many Americans too!

Impressment became a huge issue. I remember once when I was still a puppy, my mom told me a story about the British officials capturing an American ship and trying to take four of its sailors. The British opened fire and took them by force. This outraged many Americans.

Americans were so outraged after this incident, that they decided to put an embargo act, or an act that banned trae against Britain, into action. This act ended up banning trade with all foreign nations.

Unfortuneately, the act didn't do what they wanted it to. The law was intended to punish the British and French, and protect U.S. ships from being captured. Instead, merchants lost a great deal of business. It hurt the Americans more than the British and French.

Americans hated the embargo act and it was finally repealed and replaced with an act that just banned trade with Britain and France. They hoped this would stop Britain and France from violating the neutral side they were on.

They trouble between Britain and the U.S. didn't just have to do with our neutral rights. Also, Britain wanted to stop the U.S. from expanding west into where the Native Americans were. But Britain didn't want to go to war. The British came up with a plan.

Their plan was to provide military aid to the Indian nations. These nations were angry that Americans were expanding into their territory. The British wanted the Indians to go to war with the U.S., and an indian leader, Tecumseh, just gave other Indians more reasons to start war.

Tecumseh warned tribes about dangers they faced from settlers. He convinced Indians to believe in his dream of uniting all the American Indians into a single confederation to go against American settlers. Tecumseh got himself into many disagreements with settlers.

When Tecumseh left his brother in charge when he went south, a settler led his army close to the Indians, making the Indians want to attack. And the Indians did attack. It was called the Battle of Tippecanoe because it was held near the Tippecanoe River. The settlers won the Battle and Tecumseh lost the support he needed to make his dream come true.

After the battle, many Americans were sure that the British encouraged the Indians to fight. The War Hawks were members of Congress who believed that the only way to respond to Britain's insult was to declare war. They Britain didn't want the U.S. to become powerful, so they would have to go to war.

The opposition disagreed with the War Hawks. The opposition thought that it was much more important to create new friendly business ties with Britain than go to war with them.

The president at the time, James Madison, heard both points of view. He told Congress that Britain had violated the U.S.'s neutrality and concluded that Britain was in a state of war with the U.S. He had Congress vote on what to do and for the first time evr, Congress declared war.

At the beginning of the war, the U.S. was very outnumbered. But the U.S. government allowed privately owned ships called privateers to attack the British merchant ships. They used them because it was less expensive than building new naval ships.

Also at the beginning of the war, the U.S. stumbled over many bluders, or bad mistakes. One of these was the fact that America kept on trying to take over Canada. They also kept on failing to do so.

Another blunder was when the British and the Indians began to work together. They defeated the Americans in some of the battles. It became a very intence and crazy time for both sides.

America continued to try to take over Canada and burned down the Canadian town York. The British wanted revenge on the U.S. for doing this, so they marched to Washington D.C., and burned down the White House. At this time President Madison disapearred for a while.

Amazingly, when the White House was about to be burned down, Dolly Madison, the first lady, was still in the White House! She just had to save the priceless portrait of George Washington. She was the last one to leave the White House. She had risked her own life.

After the burning of the White house, the Americans finally won a battle. This made sure that the Canadian border was safe. The British tried to attack Baltimore and Fort McHenry, but the Americans were prepared! This fight lasted for three days! But finally, the British surrendered.

When the battle began, a man named Francis Scott Key was on one of the British ships to try to get one of his friends, who the British took prisoner, released. Unfortuneately for him, the British then took him prisoner and would not let him go until the battle ended!

Mr. Key was proud as he stood on the boat watching the firey battle. He wrote a long poem about the great battle that was then turned into a song called the Star Spangled Banner. The song then became our National Anthem. He was amazed that our flag stayed waving high through the entire fight.

It was really an incredible war that is quite unforgettable in my mind! I would love to stay and chat some more, but it is this doggy's nap time! Woof-Woof!!