[Freee-dame]

Patriot Boot Camp sounds very worthwhile and fun. When you cover the War of 1812, does it include the fact that not until after that war did most people in the United States identify themselves more as an American than as a member of their individual state?

Sometimes a war with an external power is very uniting. I did not learn this until the bicentennial of the War of 1812 when I was many decades older than your campers.

[weston]

Yes, we covered that. There was not actually a winner in the War of 1812. All the boundaries reverted to status quo ante bellum. The way they were before the war. But Americans felt it was a big win because there was for the first time a feeling of nationalism and pride in being an American. There was no true winner but definitely the Native Americans were big losers.