Why We Have Forgotten the War of 1812

The following article is not an exhaustive analysis and expands on my personal views as a historian. It takes a social view of the causes of the war and the concept of “victory” in order to understand why it’s not a popular conflict to study in the 21st Century. There are, obviously, other factual considerations that are not mentioned in this article due to relevancy (i.e., military strategy, the British perspective, etc.).

“The Star-Spangled Banner” wasn’t written to be our national anthem. Its prominent verse was handpicked in 1931 from Francis Scott Key’s celebratory 1814 poem, “The Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Key’s commentary on American resolve, fortitude, and unity in the Battle of Baltimore resonated over a century later during one of the most crippling human-made disasters to hit the United States. When the national anthem is played — whether at a ball game, graduation, or presidential event — the message remains the same: We have pride in our country and we are united in our Americaness.

That is the legacy of the War of 1812, that American identity was forged in fire. A nation barely forty years past its revolution, we were still a disparate people loyal more to our home states than our home country. We emerged relatively unscathed from a second bout with one of the mightiest armies and most powerful navies on the planet, who not only waged war with us but also simultaneously defeated Napoleon Bonaparte. We no longer set our sights on our neighbors to the north, and instead manifested the rest of the 19th Century in the West.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that most Americans are unaware of the causes, intricacies, or impacts of this conflict. All we really needed to know in order to pass high school history is that this fellow named Key witnessed the British attacking Baltimore’s Fort McHenry and wrote a poem about how we remained steadfast in the face of danger; and a verse of that poem went onto to become our anthem.

As a historian of wartime America, it even took me longer than necessary to address the War of 1812. It wasn’t my fault, or anyone’s fault, but we do default in our education system and nonfiction book clubs to the “big, bad wars” that rocked the world. How could a conflict that so strongly installed a professional army and based what it meant to be American have become so lost to time?

The War of 1812 is nestled between two of the largest conflicts in our early history: the Revolution and the Civil War (honorable mention to an equally forgotten event: the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848).

The war does not get due credit for establishing precedent or change in American society, culture, politics, or economics like these larger arenas. Many wrongfully believe that “nothing changed,” as if 1811 and 1816 America were identical. Do people only want to study conflicts that uproot entire political systems, crash economies, or kill-off a large portion of the population? Even if this false claim of consistency were true, what an odd reason to not study the war.

The reality is that, yes, the borders and boundaries of the United States did not change immediately after the peace-brokering Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1814. However, the war triggered Manifest Destiny and mass migrations out west. America gained new territories in the following decade due to this surge in interest to conquer a land that was — for a second and hopeful final time — threatened by a faraway force.

Tecumseh’s Native American confederacy dissolved and ceded millions of acres which were prime for the taking. From this and what remained of Spain’s North American colonies, the United States gained Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), and Florida & Missouri (1821). So, in fact, the War of 1812 did drastically change the country geographically, but detractors don’t count these territorial acquisitions since they weren’t part of a peace deal or surrender.

Nationalism is not a nice word in our modern era. Once used to describe a more fervent form of patriotism, it’s been twisted by corrupt governments and utilized for mobilizing nations for ill-intentioned actions in recent decades.

Back in the early 1800s, however, nationalism was an extremely necessary vehicle to garner a sense of Americanness. Most Americans still don’t feel really, well, American. Aside from state-oriented identity and loyalty, fights frequently broke out at the federal level over major concepts in nation-building, such as creating a national banking system, establishing a national currency, and communicating with a common language (I’m looking at you, American English).

The War of 1812 ignited a sense of pride and unity across these diverse citizens. Despite having a badly organized and inadequately trained army, as well as a less-than enthusiastic populace, Congressional “War Hawks” wanted America to stand up for itself once and for all. No matter what it took, America would show the world that we could hold our own, and that the American experiment would prevail.

When Andrew Jackson annihilated the British in New Orleans in 1815, two weeks after the formal peace treaty was signed, Americans whooped and hollered like it was the Superbowl. The rise of nationalism post-1815 is such a major aspect of this conflict’s importance. You would think this would garner more interest in the wartime culture that emerged, but 21st Century Americans have understandably not been keen on exploring the origins of our American pride.

The War of 1812 was anything but boring: the British kidnapped our sailors on the high seas, Native Americans rebelled on the frontier, Washington, D.C. burned to the ground, and we invaded Canada.

Since the Revolution, American leaders thought that Canadians were oppressed by the British in the same way we were as colonists. After decades of attempts at diplomatic persuasion, the only way to find out, apparently, was to attack them.

In comparison with the casualties and geography of the Civil War or Second World War, the War of 1812 appeared more like a scuffle. But actually, we covered some major ground. Fighting took place not just along the Canandian border, but also in the Chesapeake region and the Gulf Coast. The tide turned in 1814 once Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo, freeing up thousands of British soldiers to sail to North America. They retaliated for America’s destruction of York (now Toronto) and torched Washington on their rampage up the Potomac River.

I may be biased, but this war being “boring” is far from the truth. Nonetheless, that myth and misunderstanding has prevented many people from studying it. The notion that we were not a victorious nation has also permeated the conversation. Victory itself comes in all forms, and withstanding a world power is one of them. That America remained intact, stable, and with uplifted spirits in 1815 was, in itself, a major victory. That we fought for four long years against a mighty foe without much organization, funding, or supplies spells a miracle just as much as a victory. “Boring” should not be among the adjectives used to describe this conflict.

So, why do Americans shy away from the War of 1812? Why does it receive a meer mention in the classroom? The answer is simple: Americans moved forward in 1815 onto bigger, grander ideas. Aside from Francis Scott Key’s verses, war memorialization occurred in the form of continued American conquest. The war was not really over, though, it just blended into the next phase: Manifest Destiny.

Madeline Feierstein is an Alexandria, VA historian and founder of the educational & historical consulting company Rooted in Place, LLC. A native of Washington, D.C., her work has been showcased across the Capital Region. Madeline is a member of Emerging Civil War and has written for Emerging Revolutionary War, Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office, and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. She leads significant projects to document the sick, injured, and imprisoned soldiers that passed through Alexandria and Washington, D.C. Her first book, Occupied Alexandria: How the Civil War Transformed a Southern City, will be publishedin Fall 2026 by The History Press. Madeline holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from George Mason University and a Master’s in American History from Southern New Hampshire University. Explore her research, schedule a meeting, and book a guided tour at www.madelinefeierstein.com.