War of 1812

Long-simmering tensions between the United States and Great Britain gave way to war in the late spring of 1812. On June 18, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain within days of London’s suspension of the Orders in Council, one of the major sources of tension between the two countries. American strategists planned to invade Canada from Detroit and New York state. In the northern theater, American regular and militia forces fought against British regulars, Canadian provincials, and their Native American allies in the Old Northwest, on the Great Lakes, along the Niagara Frontier, and along the northern front from Fort Erie to Montreal. Additional fighting took place along the Chesapeake Bay and in the American South in the Creek War. The latter conflict began ...