Not an anniversary that will be really commemorated by the government, and who can blame them? It… was not one of the country’s better days, and that is simply the way of it. I can’t even muster up enough indignation to get a proper head of steam towards the British for burning the place down, which is one hell of a concession from somebody as reflexively pro-American as myself. It was kind of a messed-up war.
Besides, Andy Jackson kicked the Brits’ asses a little bit later at New Orleans, which pretty much guaranteed that we’d pick up Florida in due time, so it more or less worked out all right in the end.
“…which pretty much guaranteed that we’d pick up Florida in due time, so it more or less worked out all right in the end.”
.
Says the man who doesn’t live in Florida.
Ah, but it has so many places where one may put a strategically useful naval base.
The end of the War of 1812 and the terms of settlement were decided before Jackson’s victory. Andrew Jackson picked up Florida by his unauthorized invasion of the territory four years late and came close to starting a 3rd war with a Britain no longer distracted by Napoleon. Do we really want generals with their private armies setting our foreign policy?
Their track record doesn’t seem to be worse…
:snort: To paraphrase Eric Flint: the SOB got us Florida, didn’t he?
Individual initiatives by local Japanese army officers got them control of Northern China in the 1930s… for awhile.
Except for New Orleans, the British kicked our butts on land in the war. Jackson’s execution of British subjects in Florida made us Blanche DuBois: we were dependent on the kindness of the British. They were kind and we got Florida and the Trail of Tears.
Well, except for the Battle of Plattsburgh.
Moe, I made it a point to say on LAND. The battle of Lake Champlain? Really?
We started the war in part to annex Canada. The closest we came was when they captured Winfield Scott after the NY militia refused to leave the state. If the Canadians had not returned Scott, he would have eaten them into submission.
Plattsburgh had both land and sea combat. They saw the British off on both. 🙂
Also note that I am preemptively conceding that nothing from the Creek War ‘counts’ in this context. 🙂
The Trail of Tears started in Tennessee, not Florida.
.
I’ve walked that ground.
I’m a bit disgusted with the Cherokee, that they didn’t choose to fight. The area is danged-near perfect for guerrilla warfare. They could have made a go of it.
But they didn’t even try.
They lost everything, and experienced a brutal slow-motion massacre. Willingly.
They fought in the Courts, and won.
We won the Battle of Thames ( in Modern Day Ontario) which killed Tecumseh, thus ending the Shawnee threat to the Ohio River Valley ( effectively turning allowing the Lower Midwest to be settled, with the exception of parts of Illinois threatened by Black Hawk’s tribe)
Tecumseh was the last true threat to American settlement in the Ohio River Valley, and the Last chief east of the Mississippi that was capable of crafting large and dangerous Native Confederations.
We also burnt York ( Toronto)
Would the British do it again? Could we launch a kickstarter campaign to make it happen?