Chapter 15

The War of 1812

This chapter is devoted to a very short and nasty war which lasted only two years and eight months that involved many of the American Indian Tribes despite their past experiences which should have warned them about not getting involved in wars that could only hurt their own cause of retaining their tribal lands.

If one were to search for the primary singular cause of the War of 1812 the only possible reason would be that the British Empire was still smarting from the defeat by their errant children the American English Colonists. Even almost a quarter century after the Treaty of Paris 1783, the war planners in Whitehall still saw the entire episode of the American Revolution as a random mistake that required a firm hand to set things straight. They were repeatedly assailed by their military commanders to give the upstart Americans a "good thrashing" to show the rest of Europe that the British Empire still reigned supreme despite the setback in the New World.

Most of Europe including France had their separate internal issues to resolve at that time and had little interest in the politics of Anglo-American relations. The British Navy was still the most powerful naval force in the world and it was important to the British Admiralty to retain that mystique of superiority not only to external viewers but to their internal populace as well.

THE WAR OF 1812

This was a war that started on the high seas but soon found its way to land and a series of bloody battles on the same territory that had seen the hardships and horrors of the American Revolution. However, it was a for the most part a new generation of combatants opening old wounds and making the same mistakes of their forebears.

Just as in the American Revolution and the prior French and Indian Wars, the American Indian Tribes found themselves heavily involved for varied reasons. For the most part, the Tribes allied with the British Regular forces sensing the opportunity for revenge on the American settlers. That unwise decision allowed the American government to accelerate their plans for eventual dislocation of all Indian Tribes east of the Mississippi River to designated areas in the largely still unsettled western lands. The Indian Tribes had been stirred up by the British military movements and false promises of restoring their hunting grounds, but the repeat defeat of the British Regular Army on American territory caused Britain to abandon their hopes of regaining the New World and they left the Indians on the battlefield to fight their own battles. The Tribes suffered great loss of life and eventually most of them voluntarily withdrew to unsettled territories and even up to the Canadian wilderness. This is covered more in detail in the next chapter when President Andrew Jackson signed into law the "Indian Removal Act of 1830" making most Indians refugees in their own land.

The most important fact to remember about the War of 1812 as it relates to the conflict of the American Indian Tribes against the European Settlers was that it was a severe setback to the Native American Indian population and further accelerated their decline. The heavy casualties suffered by the Tribes during the war added to their overall sense that the deck was stacked against them and their best option was to relocate only not to the areas selected by the American government. The withdrawal of British Regular forces was accompanied by the afterthought of proposing a "neutral zone" for the American Indian Tribes in the American West. This concept was rejected by the American government and it was dropped as a viable option. Strangely, the net effect after the passage of the "Indian Relocation Act" in 1830 which was endorsed by President Andrew Jackson of "The War of 1812" fame accomplished the same purpose and was later folded into a policy of "paternalism" that robbed the Native American Indian populace of their rightful place as full-fledged American citizens.

After the War of 1812, deprived of their hunting grounds that allowed them to receive the benefits of fur-trading became a drag on the British economy and they disassociated their commercial interests from commerce with the Indians to commerce with their former opponents as that was a more profitable market for them. This was especially noteworthy in the areas just south of the Canadian border ranging all the way from the Alleghenies to the far reaches of the Great Lakes and beyond. The American Indian Tribes had now lost two powerful patrons, first the might of the French and their plans for "New France" in the "Lower 48" and now Britain with their desire to regain their former colonies.

The same General Andrew Jackson who had totally defeated the American Indian Tribes in the "Creek Wars" destroying that Confederation of warriors with overwhelming firepower sought to eliminate all Indian resistance in the south and relocate surviving members of the American Indian Tribes to the open range of the as yet undeveloped west. He was instrumental in the preparation of "reservations" to house the Indian populace which was forced to move as a last resort. We will see in the next chapter the shameful employment of such "forced relocation" in the story of "The Trail of Tears" which witnessed the humiliating and deadly forced march of the entire Cherokee Nation to their reservation land in Oklahoma Territory.

While the American fighting forces did have a number of American Indian Tribes on their side during the War of 1812, most notably the Creek and the Cherokee, it was the British regular forces who had a large contingent of Native allies at their disposal.

These Indian fighting forces came under the command of Chief Tecumseh who was killed in the fighting in 1813. Over twenty tribes aligned together to fight on the side of the British King.

The War of 1812 is widely taught as part of history in the public school system in the United States of America. It was fought on four fronts from the American perspective but in the British point of view it was only a "Minor" issue in their bigger problem of dealing with the French and their trouble in Europe. The four fronts were; the battles on the high seas between the finest navy in the world, the British Navy, The newly constructed American Navy and large "Privateer fleets" working for the United States. With the size of their Navy, the British military forces had no need for Privateer Ships and the bulk of their seizures on the high seas were by the Navy. Unexpected victories by upstart American fighting ships embarrassed the Admiralty and forced them to change their tactics at sea to working in convoys and battle groups of ships. A second front and probably the most important from the British point of view was the defense of their positions in British Canada preventing the Americans from taking any more land to the north, the third front was in the newly formed Northwest Territory where the British Agents used the American Indian Tribes to inflict damage to the interests of the American settlers moving into that vast territory and developing it for further expansion. The final front of the war was in the southeast of the newly formed nation and witnessed incursions by the British Regular Army and the destruction of the Creek nation by General Andrew Jackson who later as President instituted the harsh reality of genocidal relocation for all Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.

The American forces were mostly defeated in their Canadian campaigns, held their own on the high seas, suffered the loss of their Capitol in Washington, D.C. and defeated the British in Baltimore. The Northwest Territory which now consists of the current States of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. This region which comprises a huge section of the mid-west was the battleground for the fight between the British forces and their Indian allies against the American Militia and the Uniformed Regulars.

One of the features of any conflict is the size of the opposing forces because that often leads to the final outcome. In the War of 1812, I was struck by the little known fact that while the uniformed forces were fairly evenly matched, about fifty thousand on each side, the overwhelming size of the American Militia really determined the result of a "feel good" victory for the American forces. The American Militia was estimated to total no less than 650,000 armed fighters itching to get a Redcoat in their sights. A lot of the Militia was unskilled in matters of military tactics but they had good leadership in the War and generally much better shots than the British Regulars who seemed to put more faith in discipline than in marksmanship. The lessons learned in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 led the newly formed United States Marine Corps (1775) to espouse the necessity for every member to be a trained marksman regardless of their duties in the organization.

The Indian allies of the British were in excess of 100,000 and their ferocity in battle led to huge losses in the short two year, eight month span. Less than 40,000 of the American Indian Tribe fighters managed to return home to their lodges due to losses in battle and attrition just moving through a hostile land of revenge-seeking settlers. The promises of the British agents were to naught because the British had already awarded the entire territory to the United States in the Treaty of Paris 1783 ignoring the fact the American Indian Tribes were still inhabiting the area.

The great Indian Chief Tecumseh preached that he had been visited by the "Great Spirit" and was told that all the Indian Tribes must band together to expel the "evil-minded" American settlers from their midst. He drew many of the Tribes together into a Confederation to block American expansion into the Northwest Territory. The British Agents saw the Confederation as a way to protect their interests in Canada and furnished weapons and supplies to the Indian Confederation to raid and dislodge the American settlers.

The British government did everything possible to win the approval of the Indians of the Northwest Territory with the full intent of using them as allies in the War. As a lead-up to the War of 1812, the raids prompted by the British authorities caused much bloodshed in the Northwest Territories and were one of the many annoyances that fueled the American dislike of British meddling in their affairs. The common thought among the settlers was that their problems would only be solved when the British were driven from their base in Canada because the Indians had easy access to British muskets and European steel forged tomahawks and knives.

The British concept of a "neutral" Indian State acting as a buffer to their south was abandoned after key battles in the Northwest Territory led to the defeat and destruction of the Indian Confederacy which was intended to be the recipient of the British plan. The higher priority of commerce with the emerging nation of the United States caused the British to lose interest in such a demand at the peace table.