[[quoteright:317:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Francis-Scott-Key_9189.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:317: [[NationalAnthem "Oh say! Can you see?'']] ]]

The WarOf1812 (1812-1815) is the most popular war ever to grace the Americas. Americans think they won it, the Canadians think ''they'' won it, and the British have ''[[ButForMeItWasTuesday no idea]]'' they fought it. In the US it has been called the Second Revolutionary War, in Canada it is remembered as the war in which Canada stopped the US trying to annex them, and like we said, the British don't even know it happened. In fact, nobody outside North America knows it happened. This is because an altogether more expensive, expansive, ideologically charged, bloody, and ''important'' series of wars had been going on elsewhere for some time. There were more troops (150 000) on the field when [[NapoleonBonaparte Emperor Napoleon I]] won at Austerlitz in 1805, for instance, than there were English-speaking soldiers (87 000) in all of the Americas in 1815. Napoleon's 1813 defeat by the ''Sixth'' Anti-Napoleonic Coalition at the three-day battle of Leipzig, the greatest gunpowder-battle ever (at the time), involved more than 600 000 soldiers with over 2000 artillery pieces; the one-day Battle of New Orleans, the largest battle of The War of 1812, involved just 15 000 men and 16 cannon. These great conflicts of the age (to European civilisation) were {{the French Revolution}}ary and NapoleonicWars, which basically concern the attempts of the Kingdom-turned-Republic-turned-Empire of France to alternately defend herself against and dominate all of Europe over two decades (1789-1815) of near-constant warfare.

The causes of the war basically boil down to the knock-on effects of the NapoleonicWars. Elements within the USA (the 'War Hawks') wanted to take advantage of Britain's preoccupation with France to annex British America. However, they needed a ''casus belli''. Thankfully, the war played right into their hands in this respect as well. Traders in the US had become rich from [[WarForFunAndProfit war profiteering]]; basically, selling food and guns to both sides in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Both sides had declared an embargo upon each other, and commissioned privateers and used their navies to raid each others' shipping. However, after their sound victory at Trafalgar in 1805, the British were suddenly in a much better position to confiscate American trade bound for France -- and they did just that. Moreover, the expansion of the Royal Navy left them short of sailors.

Scraping the bottom of the manpower-barrel after two decades of near-constant warfare, the Royal Navy stepped up the conscription of sailors into the navy in domestic ports and began to search US vessels they encountered for deserters -- easily identifiable by their RN tattoos. Some ten thousand men were thus taken from American merchant vessels and pressed into RN service. All of these men ''really were'' deserters from the Royal Navy, but that was besides the point.[[hottip:*: The 19th century wasn't a good time for exact or even approximate numbers for ''anything'', so nobody at the time had a good idea of just how many deserters had actually been reclaimed.]] The facts were, the Royal Navy was ignoring the sovereignty of the United States, which had real troubles being taken seriously as a country abroad (and even, to a certain extent, at home). The traders and coastal states of the USA which actually owned and operated the ships in question didn't want a war -- they were raking it in and an end to war-trade was the ''last'' thing they wanted -- but the 'War Hawks' didn't care, and it was they who won the elections on a platform of 'resisting British oppression' and 'ending the tyrannical impressment of foreign neutrals'. They were backed up by a new generation of young Americans who had not experienced the hardships of TheAmericanRevolution and the economic crisis that accompanied and followed it, and were eager to prove their (patriotic) worth and wage a Second American Revolution/War of Independence to drive the tyrannical British monarchists from the continent.

Far to the south, in the Federal territory of Mississippi, the Indian tribes were uniting under a charismatic new leader; Tecumseh. Seeing this, the 'War-Hawk' generation suspected a British conspiracy to prevent American westward expansion, and clamoured for war with Britain. The British Cabinet viewed with favour the establishment of a [[TruceZone neutral state]] of American Indian peoples in the Mississippi territory, but didn't actually have enough confidence in their fighting ability to back them, though they did sell them some weapons. The western states of the Union (in what we would now call the Midwest) would have nothing of this British conspiracy to encircle them and prevent westward expansion, wanting nothing more than to drive the Indians out and open up the Mississippi territory to European settlement. The same states of the southern and western United States also considered [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs capturing British North America]] easy pickings and the next logical step after the Revolutionary War. Many people in said states -- not the ones actually affected by the disruptions to the thriving war-time trade -- [[CurbStompBattle considered Canada an easy prospect]], famously put by one official as [[HomeByChristmas "a simple matter of marching."]]

The war was fought on multiple fronts, most notably ground combat between infantry and ongoing naval confrontations within the Great Lakes. The British forces in North America were notably stressed, being undermanned and lacking much support from the main British Isles, which was still involved in the Napoleonic Wars. However, British General Isaac Brock and the Native leader, Tecumseh, proved brilliant leaders who arranged a powerful defence, even if they were lost all too soon. They also managed to bolster their ranks against the far more numerous Americans by recruiting [[GondorCallsForAid former slaves, Loyalists from the Revolutionary War and befriending many Native peoples.]] The dangerously-overtaxed British Navy was forced to commit a full ''fifth'' of its ships[[hottip:*: they committed just a handful of line-of-battle ships, but had to use a disproportionately large number of their 22-40 gun frigates and smaller types of ships]] to the Americas to defend British shipping and (successfully) blockade the USA's east coast. The Navy also conducted frequent raids on US naval bases and port-towns, one of the largest of which saw all the government buildings in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC burned down (including TheWhiteHouse).

The confrontation continued until late 1814 when spiralling military costs, fatigue, and general lack of enthusiasm for the stalemate-war caused the forces to [[PeaceConference enter peace talks]]. The Treaty of Ghent was the result, the agreement relegating all captured land back to whoever had originally owned it. The treaty was signed December 24, 1814 and took effect February 18, 1815, though the biggest battles of the war occurred during the peace talks and in the time it took for news about the treaty to filter down. Most notable of these was the Battle of New Orleans, a US victory which effectively secured the (gateway to the) Mississippi river system for them.

With the acceptance of the treaty, everything more or less returned to how it had been previous to the confrontation. Neither side retained any land it captured (though the U.S. managed to seize Mobile from Spain) and the only party that ultimately lost was the Natives, who lost their bid for their own neutral state during peace talks. Losses are estimated at 5000 deaths on the British side and 15,000 on the American side; though most Canadian militia and Native losses went unrecorded, fairly important when some of the most important battles of the war were fought by the Natives. It also doesn't take into account the large number of British sailors who defected or deserted. No compensation was paid by either side for damages though the British did pay $1,204,960 in damages to Washington to reimburse the slave-owners whose slaves defected to the British side or escaped in the confusion of the war.

Today the war is largely forgotten due to its lacklustre outcome; other than being the source of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", the war is barely remembered there. In Canada, however, it was a defining event that fostered a quiet determination to remain British and distinct from the United States. After the creation of the Canadian nation, the outcome of the war became a point of national pride. In Britain, of course, only historians remember it. That and people who watched ''Hornblower''. As for the actual outcome of the war, the only clear losers were the Amerindians, whose last best attempt at uniting in the face of Western Imperialism had failed. Their populations devastated and displaced by the US campaign, they were no longer able to form a serious check to the western expansion of the United States. The United States also secured NewOrleans right at the last second -- if the war had dragged on another few months and the Cabinet had deemed it worthwhile to take New Orleans back, the relatively small and over-stretched US Army would not have been able to defend the town. As it was, they were very fortunate to capture it when they did, as it meant that there would be no foreign checks to US expansion through central-northern America either.

As a side note, one notable exception to the general indifference towards the war in the US is in the US Navy, which sees the war as a defining moment in its history. That the brand new, tiny USN was able to stand up to the world's most powerful navy and win the majority of its engagements is a point of pride -- armchair admirals still like to debate whether this has more to do with the more modern, sturdier build and heavier armament of the US navy's ships, or their habit of only engaging smaller flotillas or [[CurbStompBattle lone ships]]. Both Alfred Thayer Mahan and President Theodore Roosevelt wrote books aimed specifically at debunking this deeply misleading view of the naval War of 1812, which has been propagated by the US Navy and its enthusiasts. Despite some minor tactical victories earlier in the war against the second-line forces of a severely overstretched British navy, the bulk of the war was a disaster for the US at sea; most of the US Navy spent most of the war bottled up in port, and the country's entire coastline was blockaded by a massively superior foe. The fact that there weren't many major American naval defeats in this period is a testament merely to the fact that the (bulk of the) US navy was unable to take to the sea at all (for fear of being annihilated).

Bernard Cornwell, author of the {{Sharpe}} series, summed up the war very well: "What was to be expected in each theatre was inverted, with the exception of the major battles: The British inflicted a string of defeats on the numerically superior American Army, but lost the Battles of New Orleans and Plattsburgh. The US Navy inflicted a series of defeats on the far more powerful Royal Navy, but failed to prevent them raiding the Chesapeake and burning Washington."

A more comprehensive article and links to other related articles can be found on TheOtherWiki.

Not to be confused with [[NapoleonBonaparte the other]] [[TsaristRussia war of 1812]].

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!!Tropes involved in the War of 1812 include:

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Battlefield successes launched the presidential careers of William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson.
* AttackAttackAttack: Used in several major battles.
* [[AwesomeMcCoolname Awesome McCoolname]]:
** Oliver [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hazard]] Perry.
** How's about Zebulon Pike?
* {{Badass}}: General Isaac Brock on the British side and Andrew Jackson on the American side, as well as the Native leader Tecumseh.
* BadassBoast: Oliver Hazard Perry after the Battle of Lake Erie:
-->"We have met the enemy and they are ours."
* BadassCrew:
** The Indiana Rangers.
** Joshua Barney's flotilla crew.
** Andrew Jackson's militia and pirates in New Orleans.
** The York Volunteers, in the opinion of Isaac Brock.
* BackToBackBadasses: Isaac Brock and Tecumseh.
* BattleCry:
** "Revenge the General", by Canadian forces lead by John Macdonell in the second charge at Queenston Heights, after the death of Isaac Brock.
** Also, "Don't give up the ship," the dying words of James Lawrence and the motto on the battle flag of Oliver Hazard Perry.
* BigBad: Either Sir George Prevost (the Governor-in-Chief of British North America) or President James Madison, depending on which side of the war you were on.
* {{BFB}}: When American forces landed on the north shore of Lake Ontario and advanced on the city of York, the seriously outnumbered British forces under General Roger Sheaffe retreated in response, but not before setting off the powder magazine at Fort York in the midst of the American column. The resulting explosion ''could be seen, heard and felt 100 kilometres away'' and wounded or killed 260 American troops[[hottip:*:including the commanding officer, General Zebulon Pike]] (out of the force of 1600 to 1800) and was the largest man-made explosion on Canadian soil until the Halifax Explosion in 1917.
* BlingOfWar: The USS ''Chesapeake'' and her ''three'' enormous banners. The British thought this was very silly:
-->'''British Seaman''': May we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?
-->'''Captain Phillip Broke''': No. We've always been [[ConsummateProfessional an unassuming ship]].
* BrickJoke: Laura Secord and her husband, James Secord, heard of an impending American attack in 1813 due to the fact that they were forced to house and feed several American soldiers at their home in Queenston, Ontario. As a member of the Canadian militia, James was only at home because he was still recovering from wounds sustained during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1812 (during which he had helped to carry recently-deceased General Isaac Brock's body away from the battlefield).
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: As you can see on this very page, it is by no doubt very important in Canadian history. Americans barely remember it happened, and mostly just remember it for being the second time they fought the British. Brits don't remember it at all. It just sort of slips down the back of the historical memory-couch to join the Anglo-Dutch and Carnatic Wars.
* TheCaptain:
** Stephen Decatur, Oliver Hazard Perry. Lesser-known but every bit as badass is Commodore Joshua Barney.
** On the British side we have British Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo, who commanded the Lake Ontario squadron, and had a distinguished career of foreign service behind him.
* ColonelBadass: Lt. Col. Charles de Salaberry, a Francophone officer in the Royal Army who, with volunteers from Quebec and native assistance halted the Americans' invasion of Quebec (then "Lower Canada") in November 1812. He later played an important role in several other major battles, including Crysler's Farm and Chateauguay. His actions at the latter prevented the fall of Montreal, and saved Upper Canada.
* CoolShip:
** The US Navy's secret weapon was a line of powerful frigates crewed by well trained sailors, particularly the USS ''Constitution'' ("Old Ironsides"). It only won a few victories, but arguably the war was really about [[HonorBeforeReason prestige]] after all.
*** The ''Constitution'' and her sister ships outmatched any other ship in their class, being more heavily armed, faster, and better designed, despite being fifteen to twenty years old during the war, to the point that the British Admiralty issued orders forbidding one on one fights between British 38 gun frigates and the American 44's.
*** Of course, part of the reason the Royal Navy failed to field any equivalent heavy frigates was that they served no purpose in the Royal Navy's battle doctrine. Such ships were considered too big and expensive to serve as patrol ships as their frigates did, and would be badly outmatched in any battle against a Ship of the Line. It just so happened that much of the naval combat in this conflict played to the advantages of the US Navy, what with the bulk of the Royal Navy being focused on other, larger conflicts.
** HMS ''St. Lawrence'' was the first and only Royal Navy ship-of-the-line (a [[MoreDakka 112-gun first-rater]], no less) ever to be built and operated in freshwater. She never saw battle after being launched in 1814, but her ''mere presence'' was enough to keep the US Navy off of Lake Ontario entirely while they scrambled to build an equal or better vessel in response.
* CombatByChampion: USS ''Chesapeake'' versus HMS ''Shannon''. The two captains agreed to battle, apparently because they were bored at the time (well it's probably more complex, but that'll do). The ''Shannon'' won in a short but unusually bloody battle. It's not clear what purpose it served but from a distance in time it does seem [[RuleOfCool really cool]].
** It served to boost the morale of the British and damage that of the Americans, which was the reason Captain Broke fought it in the first place. The ''Chesapeake'' had been in port, whilst ''Shannon'' had using captured powder and shot to train its crew to a [[MoreDakka ridiculously high standard of naval gunnery]]. One BatmanGambit later, and the ''Chesapeake'' sailed out to fight a battle it could not possibly win.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: In a rare RealLife example, both sides at the Battles of Lake Erie built the majority of their ships right at bases constructed for the purpose on the lake shore using wood harvested from the surrounding forests and then proceeded to fight over the lake.
** Justified in that the lack of proper passages through the St. Lawrence River prevented large ships from sailing into the lake from the ocean. This also occurred in Lake Huron to a lesser extent and for the same reasons.
* CommonKnowledge:
** Many Canadians can tell you that the War of 1812 was when the Canadians burned Washington, D.C.. Except that there were no Canadian forces involved in the Baltimore Campaign, and it was the ''British'' who burned Washington, D.C..
** Averted entirely by the British. A possibly apocryphal tale was that a British general saw a painting of the Burning of Washington in the Pentagon in WorldWarTwo, and asked 'Who the devil ever did that to you chaps?' His embarrassed escort had to explain, "You guys did."
** Makes sense from a historical perspective, though: Most (English) Canadians considered themselves British during the 1812-era. Naturally, any victory that was claimed by "The British" was celebrated by all the British-allied Anglophones. [[LegendFadesToMyth Over time, the rise of an independent Canada and its nationalism resulted in any British victories being considered the same thing as Canadian ones, even if Canadians forgot that no Canadian volunteers were involved in the battle in question]].
* CoolVersusAwesome : A rare DavidVersusGoliath example; the US Navy and the Royal Navy were two of the best at the time.
** The US Navy had far higher pay then the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy was worn out by a ForeverWar. After the original shock of some engagements British captains who had been lax on training began working thus giving them a chance to [[TakeALevelInBadass retake a level in badass]].[[note]]British veterans of the Home Navy, such as Captain Broke of the ''Shannon'', who had served in the French Wars, were notably ''far'' superior to their American-deployed and USN counterparts.[[/note]]
*** More to the point: Sailors on American vessels were better paid and, more importantly, ''better treated'' - not least due to the US Navy's ''far'' smaller size, even relative to the country's population, making 'press gangs' and 'shanghai-ing' unnecessary. This is precisely the reason sailors jumping ship was such a severe problem for the Royal Navy, and why so many joined American ships when they deserted in the first place.
*** The British navy had been on near-constant total war footing for '''over 20 Years''' at the time this war started. Treating your sailors decent and recruiting volunteers is well and good when you only have a dozen frigates to crew. The British had over a hundred ships of the line and hundreds of frigates and smaller vessels (the british navy at one point had over 900 vessels) running in bases literally all over the world, the British had to find over 100,000 crewmen out of a population of roughly 10 million and most of them had to be highly skilled.
* CourtroomAntics: Prize Law was an innate part of the laws and customs of war at the time. One American privateer was able to sue for the ransom of one capture in a ''British'' court. And was granted his suit. This no doubt proves that lawyers are {{Pirates}}.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
** The siege of Detroit included Tecumseh having his men repeatedly circle the fort, tricking the Americans into thinking that the Native numbers were much greater than they were. Detroit's surrender gave the Natives and British a tremendous amount of supplies, along with a major psychological victory.
** More humorously, the British torched Washington, while the Americans burned down York, later to be known as Toronto. Given the loathing Americans and Canadians have for their respective cities, a DeadpanSnarker could claim that the War of 1812 is one where both sides did the other a favor.
** The defense of Fort [=McHenry=] stemmed the Royal Navy's raid on the Eastern seaboard. After being turned back the fleet sailed to New Orleans ... where AndrewJackson, four thousand troops, and some badass pirates made excellent use of trenches and a swamp to hold back a force of 11 000 Royal Marines, who decided that the casualties required to take the place weren't worth the trouble and left.
*** In fact, the defense of Fort [=McHenry=] was so awesome, they wrote a poem about it. That poem later became a song [[EarWorm/NationalAnthems which any US citizen has no doubt heard many times.]]
** Battle of Lake Erie.
--> "Dear General: '''We have met the enemy and they are ours'''. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, O.H. Perry"
*** Also: After the ''Lawrence'', Perry's flagship, had been beaten into submission with 4 out of every 5 men killed or wounded, Oliver Hazard Perry took down his battle flag, '''rowed through a hail of cannon fire''', reached the ''Niagara'', and steered it through the British line, decimating their fleet in 15 minutes.
** While the British were approaching Washington, Dolly Madison stayed in the White House until the very last minute, rescuing valuable items including a famous painting of George Washington.
** The Battle of Plattsburgh. Master Commandant Thomas [=MacDonough's=] fleet, equipped with spring lines which allowed his ships to turn while anchored, allowing faster firing and reloading of the cannons, successfully drove the Royal Navy off of Lake Champlain and forced them to retreat back into Canada.
** The Battle of Stoney Creek was a desperate last stand in the eastern part of what is now Hamilton, Ontario. It was the farthest into Canada the American troops had come, and the British general was so convinced it was hopeless that he sent any men who could go home away. With half as many forces remaining, poised to retreat to Burlington Heights and then to Fort York, the British and Native troops suddenly turned around and swarmed the American encampment in the middle of the night. The two generals in command of the American force were captured when they blundered into groups of British soldiers. During the subsequent American retreat, the new commanding officer was so freaked out by the Native militia that was hounding them from the forest that he ordered a retreat all the way back to Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake (a two-hour drive by highway now, a couple of days walk then).
*** Going slightly meta, this battle later became the first, and now the largest, War of 1812 re-enactment in Canada.
* CrowningMomentOfIndifference: The British were preoccupied with blockading Europe and launching raids on French ports and naval works, as well as some major campaigns like the (Iberian) Peninsular Campaign and the 1815 Allied invasion of France. Westminster sent only a very small force of regulars to defend British America, relying mostly on local militia, Amerindian allies, and American stupidity to hold the line. Upon the defeat of Napoleon by the Sixth Coalition in 1813, they reassigned a portion of their regular forces to America, to help bring about a quicker end to the war. The United States meanwhile was largely indifferent to the war with New England threatening to separate because they didn't want the war in the first place. Today, barely anyone in the United States even remembers it, although it tends to be a point of pride for many Canadians, even if the country didn't technically exist yet.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Subverted. The war was supposed to be this in the favour of the Americans, but the British scrounged up several unexpected allies (mostly natives) and employed unconventional tactics, holding off the American invasion.
** Subverted again after the defeat of Napoleon. With British forces now freed up from fighting in Europe things looked grim for the Americans. Three major raiding-campaigns were launched in the space of a year but all were turned back.
** Played straight in the Battle of New Orleans (which actually happened after the war technically ended). 55 Americans died, 185 were wounded, and 93 were missing, with a grand total of 333 casualties and losses at the end of the battle. On the other side, 386 British died, 1,521 were wounded, and 552 were missing, with a grand total of 2,459 casualties and losses. The reason for the high casualties is because AndrewJackson put his army in a position that made all of his flanks covered by swamps, thus forcing the British to attack head on, because they couldn't wade through the swamps. Pakenham forgetting to give the marines ''siege equipment'' may also have had something to do with it. American morale soared after the battle, and was even made the subject of a popular American song called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ''The Battle of New Orleans'']].
** To make up for New Orleans, the Brits had the Battle of Frenchtown. The British had 25 dead and 161 wounded, plus 3 dead native allies, whereas the Americans had 410 dead, 87 wounded and 547 captured. Unfortunately, 30 to 100 of the wounded American prisoners were executed by the Native forces allied with the British.
** This was actually a theme in the earlier days of the war. The British were had an experienced army, with experienced generals, and miliamen and native allies fighting for their homes, whereas the Americans' invasion forces were untrained volunteers with guerilla ex-revolutionaries as generals (until those were mostly shot and then replaced with competent men who whipped their troops into shape). So despite the Americans having a huge numbers advantage, they tended to lose dramatically more men in any given battle, even the ones they won.
* DavidVersusGoliath: A complicated example at sea. In the over all picture the US Navy and Army was the ''David'' but it was often the ''Goliath'' in a given engagement. This is actually fairly common in warfare but worth remarking on.
** Advancements in ship-building by the Yanks allowed the U.S. Navy to float fewer but vastly more powerful ships than the British. While the British were able to adapt new tactics and develop improved ships as the war progressed, the early victories by the U.S. enhanced their navy's reputation to WorthyOpponent status.
*** The Americans had more powerful ''frigates'' than the British. Two or three British ships of the line still could have curbstomped several American ships in a straight fight. It should also be noted that the British did have frigates powerful enough to take on the American heavy frigates (many of them French captures), but those frigates were all deployed in Europe to fight Napoleon so in the early days when most American victories took place, it was against second-or-third-line British frigates.
*** The American war doctrine of the time was centered around coastal fortifications and a navy generally lacking the capability to wage large wars abroad (in line with the general policy of ''not'' getting involved in foreign wars). As a result, there were no American ships of the line, a handful of relatively powerful frigates, and a large force of gunboats intended to work in cooperation with the coastal fortifications (which, in the timeless fashion of government procurement, were never completed anyways). Many of the less-famous naval battles involved British warships [[CurbStompBattle sinking or chasing off American gunboats.]]
* DefeatEqualsFriendship: Mutually, ''and how''. Remember the Battle of Plattsburgh? Stand by the side of the road on Upper Cornelia Street (where the big-box stores are) in that city on a summer Saturday and ''count'' the Quebec and Ontario license plates...
* DeusExMachina: As British troops were burning Washington DC, a ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_18894_6-real-historic-battles-decided-by-divine-intervention.html goddamn tornado]]'' touched down in the city, [[DidntSeeThatComing for the first time in known history]], causing a MassOhCrap amongst the occupying British forces. The wind was so strong that ''it lifted cannons into the air.''
* [[DidntSeeThatComing Didn't See That Coming]]:
** Tens of thousands of slaves used the opportunities the war provided them to escape from their owners, often incurring great risks and hardship. This put a dent into the then still widespread belief that slaves were generally content with their lot.
** And then there was the fact that the Canadians ''fought back'', and effectively at that. Many Americans were stunned.[[hottip:*: There had been an implicit assumption that Canada only remained British because they had been oppressed into submission, and that their American British brethren would jump at the chance to be freed from the shackles of tyrannical (constitutional) monarchical control.]]
* DirtyCoward:
** To some extent, American General William Hull, who surrendered Detroit due to a deathly fear of Natives which Isaac Brock exploited ruthlessly. Though in fairness, he was a man lacking in military experience who thought the Natives would torture the civilians, including his wife and children.
** Militia were also mocked by regular soldiers during the war on the American side. They were only distinguished from real soldiers by the speed with which they fled the battlefield.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: New England threatened to secede from the Union over the issue of the war due to how it was wrecking their economy. In addition, the British sought to carve out an Indian nation in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to serve as a buffer between the US and Canada.
* TheEmpire: In America, the war is remembered as a fight against the British Empire. In Canada, it is remembered as a war against an Imperialist United States.
* FamousLastWords:
** "Don't give up the ship!" Captain James Lawrence's dying words, shortly before the ''USS Chesapeake'' was taken by a boarding party from ''HMS Shannon''. His good friend, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, later named his flagship ''USS Lawrence'', put the phrase on his battle flag, and used it as his BattleCry at the Battle of Lake Erie. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming He won the battle.]]
** The last words of General Brock, killed by a sharpshooter during the Battle of Queenston Heights, was said to be either "Push on brave York volunteers!" or "Push on, don't mind me." "Push on" is now used as the motto of Brock University in Niagara Falls, Canada.
* AFatherToHisMen: Isaac Brock, Andrew Jackson, Techumseh and many others on both sides.
* FourStarBadass: Isaac Brock was one, leading his men from the front. William Henry Harrison's men saw him as one as well.
* GeneralFailure: American generals William Hull, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Henry Dearborn, who were vastly out of their depths. Given the relatively young age of the American army, this isn't surprising, along with the fact that the first two were political appointees.
* GracefulLoser: Always the case with surrenders, to the point that Isaac Brock's motif was tricking major American fortifications into surrendering.
* GondorCallsForAid: The British forces were bolstered with local militia, escaped Loyalists, former slaves and Native Peoples. Similarly, the American defenders at New Orleans included Kentucky frontiersmen, Creole aristocrats, free men of color, and frickin' ''pirates'' fighting for their new nation.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Isaac Brock's charge at Queenston Heights. His death was a direct result of the fact that he always led his men into combat.
** Brock's aide, John Macdonell, promptly followed him after another failed charge up Queenston Heights. Roger Sheaffe, who subsequently arrived from Fort George with reinforcements, took note of this and used a circuitous but better-covered route to set up his own successful assault, ending the battle.
** Similarly, Tecumseh's death in the Battle of the Thames resulted from fighting alongside his followers.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade:
** Although Isaac Brock didn't think much of the Canadian colonists as militia, Canadians largely don't care and have adopted him with Tecumseh as the "Saviors of Canada" and among its greatest military heroes.
** There is also the "militia myth". Basically, no, Canadian militia didn't beat back the invasion of British North America; they helped certainly, but were usually too busy farming to do much fighting, where the heavy lifting was done by a combination of British regulars and native allies.
** A partially hilarious example is that of Laura Secord. Yes, she did warn the British of an impending American attack, but modern depictions of her paint her as a crusading hero or master spy, when in reality she was basically a housewife.
*** She is, not unreasonably, considered the Canadian equivalent of Paul Revere.
** Canadians tend to boast that they were the ones who burned down Washington DC, when in reality the soldiers that sacked the city were Napoleonic War veterans shipped in from Spain and France.
* InstantDeathBullet: The means of General Isaac Brock's demise in the Battle of Queenston Heights. Any accounts of FamousLastWords are almost certainly apocryphal, as he was shot in the chest (likely the heart) and died immediately.[[hottip:*:Brock's jacket is preserved in a Canadian war museum and the location of the wound can be clearly seen.]]
* InvadedStatesOfAmerica: The most successful real life example. In response to the Americans invading the British Empire's territory in North America and torching Toronto, the British launched their own raids on Maryland[[hottip:*:resulting in the capture of Washington DC and torching of numerous federal-government buildings]], New Orleans, and New York. All the raids were turned back in [[CurbStompBattle the battles of Plattsburgh, New Orleans, and Baltimore]] -- in New Orleans' case, the battle technically occurred after the war was ended by the Treaty of Ghent.
* KillItWithFire: The Burning of York (today's {{Toronto}}) in 1813 by Americans, and the [[InfernalRetaliation retaliatory]] Burning of Washington by British forces in 1814.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Part of British Major-General Roger Hale Sheaffe's motif, most notable at his retreat during the Battle of York.
* LaResistance: After the capture of Fort George on the Niagara River in May 1813 and the subsequent Battle of Stoney Creek, a force of fifty British soldiers under Lieutenant James [=FitzGibbon=], along with hundreds of Native allies, carried out raids up and down the Niagara peninsula and kept ''thousands'' of American regulars and militia off balance and unwilling to advance. With prior warning of a coming American attack, courtesy of local resident Laura Secord (yes, [[IThoughtItMeant that Laura Secord]]), [=FitzGibbon=] and his detachment were able to enlist the help of a large Caughnawaga and Mohawk force to trap and capture over 500 American soldiers in the Battle of Beaver Dams (now located near present-day Thorold, Ontario). The American forces eventually retreated to the eastern side of the Niagara River in December 1813.
* LargeAndInCharge: Isaac Brock stood six-foot-three or four, Winfield Scott six-foot-five. Tall by modern standards, they would have been absolutely enormous at the time.
* LosingTheTeamSpirit: The death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames forever ended the dream of a united Indian confederacy.
* MagneticHero:
** Isaac Brock again, who was responsible for swaying many of the Native Peoples to fight with the British.
** Also, Tecumseh; he had built an entire Midwestern native confederacy, which collapsed in his absence.
* TheMenFirst: Isaac Brock, to the point of leading his charges against the enemy. [[HeroicSacrifice It cost him his life]].
* MildlyMilitary: The U.S. and Canadian militia, the bulk of their forces.
* ModernMajorGeneral: It's been claimed that one of the reasons the Americans didn't conquer British North America was because a number of their generals were appointed more due to political reasons than actual military talent. Then again, that's how it worked just about more-or-less everywhere. An academy-trained officer corps selected on merit alone is a 20th-century ideal, one that has yet to be fulfilled in its entirety.
* NationalAnthem:
** "The Star-Spangled Banner" was famously inspired by the defense of Fort [=McHenry=] during the Battle of Baltimore.
** On the Canadian side, the second verse of "The Maple Leaf Forever" references 1812 (particularly "Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane") in much the same way.
* NotSoDifferent: It's hard to tell, but it's doubtful the distinctive American twangs had caught on by this stage. When American prisoners of war were paraded around for the benefit of the (paying) public, the general reaction was disappointment. They all looked and sounded some sort of British, this being on account of the great majority of Americans being either emigrants or the descendants of emigrants from the Isles.
* TheNeidermeyer: Governor of British North America Sir George Prevost. This is more due to his wanting to maintain a defensive stance, than any real inability on his part. He did, however, lead the British forces to defeat in the Battle of Plattsburgh, resulting in his disgrace after the war had concluded.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: Various examples on both sides.
* OhCrap:
** "Those are Regulars, by God!", British General Phineas Riall's (possibly apocryphal) reaction at the Battle of Chippewa to Winfield Scott's gray-coated brigade pressing forward through shot and shell. (Gray was the color of militia uniforms; there was no blue cloth available for uniform coats when Scott's brigade was outfitted. West Point cadets wear gray uniforms in memory of this incident.)
** MassOhCrap: On the part of the American residents and politicians in Washington, when they realized that their defenders had fled and there was nothing between the British forces and the capital.
** A whole ship load of OhCrap came from the crew of the HMS ''Guerriere'', as they watched their cannon balls ''bounce off'' the side of the USS ''Constitution'', prompting one of the American gunners to yell out "Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!". Needless to say, the ''Constitution'''s next volley did ''not'' bounce off of the ''Guerriere''. To sum it up in the British captain's own words:
--> '''Captain Dacres:''' "Well, Sir, I don't know. Our mizzen mast is gone, our fore and main masts are gone -- I think on the whole you might say we have struck our flag."
* PeaceConference: The war's eventual resolution.
* {{Pirates}}:
** Baltimore privateers were famous or infamous depending on which side you were on.
** Jean Lafitte being a more literal example in the Battle of New Orleans.
* PopCultureOsmosis: Many present-day US citizens think [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture the 1812 Overture]], published in 1880 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, had something to do with ''this'' war ... even though the song is actually about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino the Battle of Borodino]] during the Napoleonic Wars.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Much of the Canadian militia (but not the British regulars), and some of the American forces, specifically the Indiana Rangers.
* RecruitingTheCriminal: The wanted pirate Jean Lafitte earned a full pardon for the indispensable service his artillery provided at New Orleans.
* SenselessSacrifice: Possibly both Isaac Brock and his successor John Macdonell, who died during unsuccessful charges during the battle for Queenston Heights. Later the reinforcements arrived, and under the command of Roger Hale Sheaffe undertook a meticulous and better planned advance that easily recaptured the Heights.
* TheSiege: The epic Siege of Fort Erie was the bloodiest battle ever fought on Canadian soil.
* [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Similarly Named Wars]]: Napoleon's invasion of Russia is known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812.
* SpinOff: Spun off from the NapoleonicWars and had its own spin-off in the form of the Red Stick Creek War.
** At the time the British took very little notice of the war, being preoccupied with the much bigger one against [[TheEmpire France]]. Their inability to annex British America and Napoleon's defeat by the Sixth Coalition meant that by 1813 it was in the USA's interests to see the war over, if only so they could resume trading with everyone again. Moreover, their stated casus belli - the 'tyrannical impressment of neutral nationals' into the Royal Navy - was now irrelevant as the Royal Navy was no longer for desperate for sailors, and in fact was preparing to lay many of them off to cut down on costs[[hottip:*: Not that, of course, the Royal Navy had had any opportunity to reclaim deserters from ships registered in the USA for a couple of years by that point]]. Of course, not long after Britain and the USA had concluded their peace treaty, Napoleon returned from exile for a final showdown with the Seventh Coalition in 1815.
* TheStrategist: Isaac Brock.
** As an example, he forced the surrender of a major fort by having his men march at twice the regular distance as standard, creating the illusion that there was twice as many soldiers. Similarly, in another battle he had his troops loop back while en route to an enemy fortification to give the impression of extra forces, forcing another surrender.
* TemptingFate: [[ThomasJefferson The moron]] responsible for the "mere matter of marching" quote.
* TookALevelInBadass: The American army under Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown during the 1814 Niagara Campaign.
* UnderDogsNeverLose: The British Canadian forces inflicted greater casualties against a larger opposing army without much support from Britain. Meanwhile the young United States was able to militarily challenge the most powerful nation in the world and fight it to a standstill.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: The Americans were turned back from Canada, never "brought Britain to account" over impressment, and resumed trading with (and being invested in by) Britain at the war's end. Likewise, the USA liked to think that they had managed to prevent Britian from annexing them -- not that Britain had actually tried, mind. Nowadays the the outcome of the war is generally agreed as a stalemate. However, since the Canadian colonies were fighting to defend themselves from invasion, the fact that they threw back their would-be conquerors counts as a victory to Canadians. Really, the only real losers of the war were the Native Americans, who lost Tecumseh -- their last best chance at checking US expansion into Indian territory -- and even more of their lands.
* YouAreInCommandNow: John Macdonell after the death of Isaac Brock. Unfortunately, [[SenselessSacrifice it didn't last too long]]. Succeeded in turn by Roger Sheaffe, who through a more meticulous and cautious attack managed to entirely thwart the American attack at Queenston.
* YouShallNotPass:
** Pulled by Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, and by Joshua Barney's now-shipless flotilla against the British forces advancing on Washington after the Battle of Bladensburg ''while American militia fled past them in terror''.
** Additionally pulled by the British regulars and Canadian militia defending the Niagara peninsula throughout the war. The American forces only got as far as Stoney Creek, in the eastern part of modern-day Hamilton, Ontario. Partially subverted in that the American army crossed the lake and burned York (now Toronto) to the ground.
* ZergRush: A major part of military tactics at the time but more often utilized by American forces, as British forces were far smaller but more professional. However, the Royal Marines [[TooDumbToLive tried it ''twice'' against entrenched troops with ''artillery'' at New Orleans.]]
** You've got to give the Marines some credit, they had some serious bollocks on them. There was literally no other way to attack that position, what with that great big (un-mapped) swamp preventing them from just going around it.
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
** General Roger Sheaffe, who succeeded Isaac Brock as the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario) after the Battle of Queenston Heights, was never very popular with the citizens he worked to defend. However, this got drastically worse after his retreat in the Battle of York, which allowed the Americans to walk in and sack the town (modern-day Toronto) practically unopposed. Lost on the furious citizens was the fact that Sheaffe's forces were hugely outnumbered by the Americans, and that in withdrawing his forces and blowing up Fort York's magazine he denied the Americans a total, decisive victory and saved the lives of the British regulars under his command. Regardless, Sheaffe lost his military and civilian offices as a result, and was reassigned to Montreal before being recalled to Britain.
** Sir George Prevost, the Governor of British North America (future Canada), ran into this towards the end of the war. As a result of his failure in the Battle of Plattsburgh, as well as feuding with British and Canadian officers, he was thrown into disrepute as the war ended. He died of illness in January 1816, before a court-martial could be convened to clear his name.
** William Hull's breakdown and surrender in the fall of Detroit led to a court-martial wherein he was sentenced to be shot. He was only spared by a pardon from President James Madison.
** General Alexander Smyth openly disrespected the militia general who was his superior officer and casually declined to bring his detachment to participate in the Battle of Queenston Heights. When he took charge of the American forces on the Niagara frontier later that year, his few attempted attacks were a complete failure, and after feuding with the officers under his command he was removed and his name was eventually struck from the rolls of the U.S. Army.

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!!In popular culture:
* The AlternateHistory ''DecadesOfDarkness'' has this time period as its point of divergence. ThomasJefferson dies early in 1809, leading to war tensions ramping up earlier, a "War of 1811", and New England [[DividedStatesOfAmerica seceding]] as a result, taking New York and New Jersey with it. The war ends with a British/Yankee [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp victory]] that sees Chicago (sorry, [[IstanbulNotConstantinople Dearborn]]) becoming Canadian and Michigan becoming New England territory.
* An episode of ''Series/DueSouth'' has a Canadian general reference a CurbStompBattle that the Canadians won during this war. A battle that the American police chief he was yelling at never heard of.
* The first book of EricFlint's ''Literature/TrailOfGlory'' series, ''The Rivers of War''[[hottip:*:released in paperback as ''1812: The Rivers of War'']] is an AlternateHistory story set during the war.
* College Humor spoofs the relative obscurity of this war [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2AfQ5pa59A in the mock trailer]] of a fictitious ''War Of 1812'' movie, where the characters can't even figure out what the war is being fought over and against whom.
* The AlternateHistory short story "Empire" by William Sanders has Napoleon moving the the US and coming into American military service. He then promptly backstabbed it (with the help of the likes of Arraon Burr, Andrew Jacskon, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston) and carved out his own Empire of the Louisiana. Said empire is embroiled in wars against the US and the Spanish colonies, which expand but later weaken it. The novel is set in an alternate War of 1812 fought between the British and Napoleon's Empire, leading to the defeat and dissolution of the Empire and TheDukeOfWellington darkly commenting in the end that "perhaps we shall see about the damned Yankees and their so-called United States of America."
* Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie made a song called "The War of 1812", which is often [[MisattributedSong misattributed]] to Music/TheArrogantWorms. It recounts an inaccurate and pro-Canadian version of the events.
* Several novels of the ''[[AubreyMaturin Master and Commander]]'' saga have Aubrey and Maturin and the Royal Navy fighting against the US. The foe was changed to France [[Film/MasterAndCommander in the film]] for marketable reasons.
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