World War II was fought to save the world. The Civil War was fought to preserve the union and/or end slavery. The Revolutionary War was fought for American independence. Need we go on?)Ī popular theory as to the war’s anonymity is that no one can figure out why it was fought. Andrew Jackson and his army were in Alabama. (“Colonel Jackson” and his men did not make a little trip “down the mighty Mississipp’ ” - Major Gen. Most at least know the Battle of New Orleans happened in the War of 1812, though almost all knowledge comes from Johnny Horton’s 1959 hit “ Battle of New Orleans,” a song that manages to get almost every fact wrong. Oliver Hazard Perry’s message after his signal victory on Lake Erie - “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” No, that wasn’t from a “Pogo” cartoon strip. Nope, “Old Ironsides” did not fight during the Revolutionary War. The USS Constitution’s great victories at sea. Quite a few folks think that must have been during the Revolutionary War never mind that the White House and the Capitol, not to mention Washington, did not exist. The dastardly British burning of Washington. These are familiar to most Americans, but as floating moments in time, ones they often can’t quite place in the War of 1812: The war, which was declared on June 18, 1812, featured some of the most dramatic episodes in the nation’s history. Its anonymity is certainly no fault of the war itself, which has a gripping plot: Upstart nation with a tiny army and even smaller navy declares war on former colonial master, one of the most powerful nations on earth, and nearly gets blown off the map, but rallies in the end to squeak out a moral victory. The Maryland Historical Society on Sunday opened “In Full Glory Reflected,” a major exhibit on the war, and on June 17, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will premiere “Overture for 2012” by Baltimore native Philip Glass, who composed it as a companion piece to Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which will also be performed.īut in New York, site of some of war’s most important fighting, funding for a state War of 1812 commission was blocked for three years before a token amount of money for bicentennial programs was allotted in March. There are pockets of enthusiasm, to be sure, nowhere more so than in Maryland, which kicks off three years of commemorations with the “Star-Spangled Sailabration” beginning Wednesday in Baltimore, and where the cars sport War of 1812 license plates and the governor (Martin O’Malley) shows up at 1812 reenactments on horseback, dressed as a Maryland militia officer. MacKay Hitsman named his book “The Incredible War of 1812,” but he was Canadian.) Clay Blair titled his fine 1987 history of Korea “The Forgotten War” Donald Hickey, one of 1812’s foremost scholars, countered two years later with “The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict.” (J. Historians duel over which deserves the title of most obscure major American war, Korea or 1812. (True, Americans have a lot more wars to choose from than Canadians.) While 17 percent of Canadians consider the War of 1812 the most important war in the formation of their nation’s identity, only 3 percent of Americans feel the same way. Some 36 percent of Americans say there were no significant outcomes to the War of 1812, or if there were any, they could not name them, according to a recent poll by the Canadian research firm Ipsos Reid for the Historica-Dominion Institute. It gets no respect, this Rodney Dangerfield of American wars. The 100th anniversary of the sinking of a ship (admittedly, the Titanic) and the 60th anniversary of a queen (British, no less!) have drawn mountains of publicity in comparison to the War of 1812. On Memorial Day, President Obama kicked off the 13-year commemoration planned for the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Other anniversaries are much in the news. No such dispensation could be granted for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, of course, as it is impossible to miss the armies of reenactors, the newspaper special sections, the magazine covers, the Civil War travel packages - all this, even though sesquicentennial has none of the zing of bicentennial. You will be forgiven for not noticing that the bicentennial of the War of 1812 is nearing full swing.
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