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It was a war England didn't want and was never gonna win. Americans started it, and Americans were ready to finish it, as Andy Jackson proved a few months after the Treaty of Ghent was signed.

The story about the burning of Washington comes of revenge upon the Yankees for burning York (Toronto), the capital of the Canadian province. American frontiersmen and fisherman wanted the Brits out. Their one-country vision for North Americas didn't die for some time. In 1911, and based largely on this fear,the Brits defeated a free trade treaty between Canada and the U.S. Not until the 1990s did this become a reality. Wow.

Unlike many contemporary historians, I am all for the War of 1812. I think it tested the Brits, gave force to national sentiment, and was a sweet little flex of muscle. Americans were just then tasting their identity and power. Like good little adolescents, they couldn't be held down.

As for the importance of Baltimore: it doesn't matter. We held out and went from there.

Thanks, Hon. Billybob, for this wonderful account. Happy Flag Day!

We held out and went from there.

That is the lesson I wish children would be taught. The "we" who held out were civilians: -- shopkeepers, tradesmen, laborers, farmhands, ordinary people, many who were immigrants to America. As 'adolescents' they knew that they had to prove the approaching maturity of the United States as fully independent from the mother country.

Like good little adolescents, they
couldn't be held down.

Well, actually, we lost that one.
Unless you can claim victory by
negotiating an end to the war while
your forces are surrounded, that is.