[Restorer]

Good story.

I disagree with your assertion that the fall of Baltimore would have meant the automatic collapse of the United States and its reconquest by the British.

The British were unable to conquer the colonies in the 1770s despite capturing all major colonial cites at one time or another. They certainly couldn't conquer a far more powerful America in 1814. Not unless there was a strong pro-British party among the Americans, which there wasn't.

[maica]

I disagree with your assertion that the fall of Baltimore would have meant the automatic collapse of the United States and its reconquest by the British.

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Perhaps it would not have meant the reconquest by the British, but America could not have evolved as we know it today. "Peace talks" were underway at Ghent, Belgium and the British commisioners had issued an ultimatum including

--Surrender of the northern half of Maine
--Surrender of the Mississippi River to international control
--Surrender of the northern half of Minnesota, from Lake Superior and the Canadian border to the headwaters of the Mississippi
--Surrender of almost all of the Northwest Territory and part of the Louisiana Purchase, with the creation of a buffer Indian 'nation' under British military control, as a permanent barrier to westward expansion of America.

With this ultimatum came a British warning that unless the Americans agreed to these terms of surrender, there would be no talk of peace.

This coincided with the Battle of Baltimore, making it one of the decisive battles of the world.