Who Won The War of 1812?

[Vile Atheist]

Face it, jebronis. We won.

[Sunstone]

Andrew Jackson won it by using his record in the war to get elected president.

[Seyorni]

...then proceeded to allow hoards of white farmers and speculators to steal the legally titled land of thousands of civilized Cherokee. Ignored a supreme court ruling in favor of the Indians, and finally deport the whole lot of them to the Western wildernessin the dead of Winter.

[Vile Atheist]

Madison was a damned fool, for one. The Brits would have never stormed Washington if the Americans didn't attack non-military targets in Upper Canada by burning the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada and looting private homes.

And I'm not sure if Jackson's victory at New Orleans really "counts". The war was over already.

[Panda]

Was it really that important?
Britain didn't think it was they had bigger fish to fry against the French.

If you look at it from a lives loss point of view then America lost, but the death toll wasn't that large at all so this isn't really much of an indicator. Yet at the same time nothing at all really changed, seems more pointless than most wars to me.

[Trey of Diamonds]

Jean Lafitte

The Battle of New Orleans
~Johnny Horton

In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We looked down the river and we see'd the British come.
And there must have been a hundred of'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'til we see'd their faces well.
Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em ... well

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.**

We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

[Vile Atheist]

^ There's an alternate version by the Arrogant Worms (a Canadian band)

Goes something like:

Oh, we fired our guns and the Yankies kept a-comin'
There weren't quite as many as there were awhile ago
We fired once more and the Yankies started runnin'
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico!

[Vile Atheist]

Originally Posted by Panda

Was it really that important?
Britain didn't think it was they had bigger fish to fry against the French.

If you look at it from a lives loss point of view then America lost, but the death toll wasn't that large at all so this isn't really much of an indicator. Yet at the same time nothing at all really changed, seems more pointless than most wars to me.

It was pointless. The only reason the US attacked Canada was because we were the closest thing British.

However, the Americans greatly over-estimated the ease of which they could take Canada. Most of the British regulars were tied up in mainland Europe against Napoleon. By and large, the bulk of the fighting was done by ill-armed, less numerous, and less trained Canadian militia. They also had Native allies.

The same thing was tried during the American Revolution and the Canadians were in about the same relative conditions.

From a strategic point of view, the American objective was to take Canada from the British because the American Navy had no hope of challenging the Royal Navy on the Atlantic. They failed at this. Canada's objective (or rather the colony of Canada) was to successfully defend itself (which it did).

A lot of sources I read on this war either claimed it was a stalemate or the Americans won, which I could never figure out why. They won a few land battles and got lucky in a few naval encounters with the British. But by and large, they had the advantage in numbers, firepower, and training and failed at taking an objective that was "a mere matter of marching".

And yet, look at the Siege of Detroit. The British/Canadians captured Fort Detroit and took about 2500 prisoners.

600 Natives/300 regulars/400 militia/10 guns (British) vs. 582 regulars/1600+ militia/30 guns (Americans).

The attackers had a 3 to 1 disadvantage in artillery, a 2 to 1 disadvantage in number of regulars, a 4 to 1 disadvantage in the number of militia, plus the disadvantage of attacking prepared defensive ground.

And the British/Canadians didn't suffer any KIA.

And though the United States won some battles, overall, the British still dominated despite having its hand tied behind its back by Napoleon. So how is that a stalemate or American victory? Can anyone elaborate on that? Am I missing something?

[Trey of Diamonds]

Originally Posted by ContentiusMaximus

^ There's an alternate version by the Arrogant Worms (a Canadian band)

Goes something like:

Oh, we fired our guns and the Yankies kept a-comin'
There weren't quite as many as there were awhile ago
We fired once more and the Yankies started runnin'
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico!

Yeah, we sing it like that in Texas too.

[Vile Atheist]

Originally Posted by Trey of Diamonds

Yeah, we sing it like that in Texas too.

Gotta love Confederates.