1812 Presidential Matters Mystery Cache

The posted coordinates are off by more than 1,812 feet. The people, places, and things of the War of 1812 will tell you where to search.

America’s Second War of Independence, the War of 1812, also known as “Madison’s War” by New England Federalists, was a war between the United States, Great Britain, and Britain's Native American allies, from 1812 to 1815. The war nearly resulted in an American Civil War when the Federalists of New England threatened to succeed from the Union for the love of Britain in its marketplace and the political division between those Federalist and the rest of the country’s Democratic-Republicans.

There were several causes for the U.S. declaration of war: First, a series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war; second, the impressment (forced recruitment) of U.S. seamen into the Royal Navy; third, the British military support for Native Americans who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest; fourth, the occupation of U.S. territory by British soldiers that were supposed to leave under the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War. Americans were also motivated by the desire to uphold national honor in the face of what they considered British insults in the wake of its loss to “the colonies”.

The war was fought in four theatres: on the oceans, where the warships and privateers of both sides preyed on each other's merchant shipping; along the Atlantic coast of the U.S, which was blockaded with increasing severity by the British, who also mounted large-scale raids on coastal towns in the later stages of the war, and the West Indies; on the long Northwest frontier, running along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, which separated the U.S. from Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec today); and finally along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. During the course of the war, both the Americans and British launched invasions of each other's territory, all of which were unsuccessful or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British held parts of Maine and some outposts in the sparsely populated west while the Americans held Canadian territory near Detroit, but these occupied territories were restored at the end of the war.

Events leading up to the war included the __________-Leopard affair, where the HMS Leopard fired on the U.S. ship, killing, wounding, and impressing some U.S. sailors in 1807 off of Norfolk, Virginia, and the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 against the British supported ________ confederacy.

Negotiations to avoid war were ongoing and progress was made except for one point, that was essential for both sides, the impressment of U.S. seamen. The Madison administration would not tolerate any stoppage of U.S. ships or taking of U.S. citizens. From Britain’s point of view, the practice was essential to keep its navy staffed with qualified English speaking seamen in its fight for survival of the Napoleonic wars. Britain had a great need for sailors (tars) in its vast navy, which suffered continual losses from combat, disease, and desertions. British tars deserted at a great rate because of the horrific living conditions and brutal treatment they suffered from their superiors. Tars sought American vessels for employment because of the much better conditions of service and pay but gave Britain an excuse to stop and search ships and impress seamen. While some sailors taken were deserters, over 500 were American citizens. It made no difference to Britain, the bully of the seas.

Once the War Hawks in Congress convinced President James Madison, the 4th U.S. President, to declare war on Britain, the president's administration thought the U.S. Army was key to an early victory. Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd U.S. President, predicted taking British territory would be a "mere matter of marching" into the Canadas, while the small fledgling U.S. Navy would be no match for the world dominating Royal Navy. Early in the war, the opposite proved true. Early defeats of the army were balanced with naval victories despite the U.S. not having a single Ship of the Line. Its strength was in the newer well-designed speedy frigates, and its happy crews, which were well experienced through the Quasi-War with France, under John Adams, the 2nd U.S. President, and the first Barbary War under Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. With just a handful of frigates and other smaller brigs, schooners, and sloops, the most effective naval force proved to be American privateers. The latter essentially licensed piracy where there were big profits to be made (along with significant consequences but not as great as if they were pirates) and added over 500 "ships" to the American fleet.

The American naval strategy was to separate its fleet into small squadrons, led by commodores, so the mighty Royal Navy would not destroy it in a single battle. American commodores very much wanted to take on a British counterpart, for all the glory that comes with victory, but their mission was to disrupt trade and take on smaller vessel for destruction, incorporation into the U.S. Navy, or to sell for prize money. A particularly effective commodore in all three of these objectives was ____________who sailed his lone ship, the light frigate USS _____ around Cape Horn to disrupt the British whaling industry in the Pacific Ocean. One of his midshipman, who started his career at the age of 9, was _____________________ who became famous during the American Civil War for his orders of “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Another immortal quote, from the War of 1812, came from Captain ______________ who ordered “Don’t give up the ship!” in his dying words aboard the USS Chesapeake during its battle with the HMS Shannon just outside of Boston Harbor. The most distinguished commodore was Stephen Decatur who, as a lieutenant, was the hero who volunteered to lead the daring mission to burn the captured frigate USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor right in front of massively armed forts and corsair ships during the first Barbary War. He accomplished the mission without any loss of his men by getting back to safety in their getaway rowboat.

Other naval engagements occurred in the Great Lakes with the mission to achieve control of the lakes in order to support the U.S. Army attacks into the Canadas. Things did not go well for the army at the start of the war when William Hull surrendered Fort _______ without a fight against a lesser opponent while in a defensive position. He was later court martialed for cowardice, prosecuted by Martin Van Buren, who later became the 8th U.S. President, found guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad. He avoided this fate by a pardon from President Madison who recognized his service during the American Revolutionary War. In contrast, an army hero arose in ______________________, who later became the 9th U.S. President (for a month), for his victory at the Battle of the Thames where the confederate leader was killed, ending the Native American confederacy. This was considered the second greatest U.S. Army victory of the war. But let us not forget about Captain Zachary Taylor, who later became the 12th U.S. President, for his greatest achievement of leading his men to douse a fire on the Fort Harrison blockhouse set by Indians. For these heroics, Captain Taylor was awarded the rank of brevet major, the first brevet ever in U.S. history.

During 1814, the war was not going well for the U.S. in the coastal states. The British sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, up the Potomac and Patuxent rivers, and attacked undefended Washington D.C., as Captain John Tyler, who later became the 10th U.S. President, had already disbanded his Virginia militia company, The Charles City Rifles, that could have served as a defense. It was surprisingly easy for the British to destroy the city, as only ______________ was around to save a wagon load of records, including a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and a portrait of George Washington, the 1st U.S. President, just hours before the British arrived. While others fled, Secretary of State James Monroe, who later became the 5th U.S. President, was assembling armed men to lead an assault on the British Army. Afterall, James Monroe was a hero and marksman from the American Revolutionary War, badly wounded at the Battle of Trenton and in the ranks at the Battle of Brandywine, the Battle of Germantown, and the Battle of Monmouth and wintered with General Washington at Valley Forge. In fact, Democratic-Republican James Monroe was the first to challenge Federalist Alexander Hamilton to a duel but it never took place because of Aaron Burr's intervention. Ironically, years later, Burr killed Hamilton in a duel.

The next British attack, however, was not so easy for them and they eventually gave up and left. The next battle was an assault on heavily defended Baltimore, when, during the battle, a poem called The Defense of Fort McHenry, referring to the fort in Baltimore Harbor, was written by American Francis Scott Key while onboard the British ship HMS ______ facilitating an American prisoner release. This poem was soon set to music and Thomas Carr of the Carr Music Store in Baltimore published the words and music together under the title The Star-Spangled Banner, referring to the fort's 15 starred and 15 striped American flag, which stuck throughout the U.S. in other publications. (The Flag Act of 1818, under President James Monroe, dropped the Vermont and Kentucky stripes, reserving stripes for the 13 original states thereafter. Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi were states at the time too, so an update in the number of stars was also overdue.) President Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. President, signed the bill in 1931 to adopt the song as the U.S. National Anthem, although it had been played at many military events, eventually under orders by President Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. President, and baseball games beforehand.

On Christmas Eve of 1814, John Quincy Adams, who later became the 6th U.S. President, and his colleagues completed negotiations at ______ to end the war. However, the end of hostilities did not commence at that time for western armies nor the combatant navies because it took so long to receive the communique. In January of 1815, the greatest U.S. Army victory of the war occurred at the Battle of New Orleans, led by General Andrew Jackson, who later became the 7th U.S. President, where Jackson inflicted 2,459 casualties on the much larger British Army while suffering only 333 casualties in his army. Congress ratified the peace treaty in February 1815 and the U.S. and Great Britain has not fought a bloody battle since.

Congratulations to smrogers1230 for his first FTF! I know him to be a great American (with a British surname)!