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On December 24, 1814, the Treaty Of Ghent was signed in the Netherlands by delegates from the United States and Great Britain, beginning the process of ending the War of 1812. While signalling the end of the war, the treaty still had to be ratified by Congress and Parliament (which would come in February 1815), and several battles fought before peace was established, including the Battle of New Orleans, which would take place on January 8, 1815.

For nearly two centuries, musket balls, canister shot and other artifacts from intense fighting at Caulk's Field waited to tell the story of a sweltering August night in 1814, when militiamen sprang a trap on a British raiding party bent on destruction. How did the citizen-soldiers best their battle-tested foes? State archaeologist Julie Schablitsky hopes to figure that out. With the help of cadaver-sniffing dogs and history buffs armed with metal detectors, she is retracing the footsteps of Sir Peter Parker, a British marine captain who led 170 troops, and a like number of militiamen commanded by Col. Philip Reed....

...At 2 p.m., USS CONSTITUTION opened fire on HMS JAVA, a 38-gun ship that was smaller and faster than her adversary and commanded by Capt. Henry Lambert. HMS JAVA's opening salvo damaged USS CONSTITUTION's rigging and spars and wounded Bainbridge. Raking fire from HMS JAVA to the American frigate's stern shattered the helm and killed or injured the four helmsmen. Wounded a second time in the thigh, Bainbridge passed steering orders to Marines in the ship's tiller room, who moved the rudder using block and tackle. Setting the fore and main courses, USS CONSTITUTION closed fast and delivered a broadside...

The human cost of the War of 1812 was dramatic. Some 35,000 people were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the war. York (now Toronto), Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Washington, D.C. were torched. Elsewhere, homes and properties were looted and damaged and family lives were thrown into chaos. The borders between British North America and the United States might not have changed when the fighting stopped — the old lines were reconfirmed in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war on December 24, 1814. But once the treaty was signed, there wasn’t simply a return to the...

CHARLESTOWN, Mass. (NNS) -- USS Constitution departed her berth from Charlestown, Mass. Aug. 19, to set sail for the first time since 1997, during an underway demonstration commemorating Guerriere Day. The underway honored the 200th anniversary of Constitution's decisive victory over the HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812, marking the first time a United States frigate defeated a Royal Navy frigate at or nearly equal size. It's also the battle in which Constitution earned her famous nickname "Old Ironsides." The ship got underway at 9:57 a.m. with tugs attached to her sides and 285 people on board, including special...

BOSTON (AP) -- The U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides." The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, will be tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It will then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise. The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the...

March 3 is National Anthem Day. Today is the day to celebrate The Star-Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner during the war of 1812. In August 1814 the British detained Dr. William Beanes as a prisoner of war. Beanes was a friend of Key. Key and a United States negotiator boarded a British vessel where Beanes was being held and negotiated his friend’s release. The British decided to capture Key and the negotiator. They were held until after the attack on Fort McHenry which guarded the harbor and city of Baltimore, Maryland. The story goes that...

NIAGARA FALLS — A bi-national opinion poll measuring attitudes of the War of 1812 shows that Canadians consider the war vital to identifying their nationhood but Americans are more likely to commemorate the 200-year anniversary. At a cursory glance of the budgets on both sides of the border to mark the bicentennial, it’s hard to imagine the Americans can match the Canadians in observing the milestone. While the majority of those surveyed agreed the war significantly affected their national identities, more Canadians identified outcomes of the war (77 percent) than Americans (64 percent.)

It’s a sticky question. Exactly how should Canada commemorate the 200th anniversary of a war in which our predecessors repelled an invasion by the United States – now this country’s closest ally and most valued trading partner? The bicentennial of the War of 1812 is fast approaching. It’s a major formative event in Canada’s history – but like all wars, was wrenching and destructive. Both the White House and early Parliament buildings in Upper Canada were torched during the conflict.

If you don't "LIKE" this video you have no clue what it means to be an American.. Even if you are NOT an American Citizen you should "LIKE" this video because it captures the HEART of what it means to be an American or an ALLY of the United States of America ! May God continue to bless the United States of America ! This is the story our kids need to hear in every classroom in America but sadly the bogus "Separation of Church and State" will not allow it.... .... yet another reason to homeschool

A neoprene-clad diver slipped into the murky water of the Patuxent River near Upper Marlboro Wednesday to examine the wreck of a 19th-century ship that archaeologists and state officials hope to make a star attraction in Maryland's commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812. The sailing ship could be the USS Scorpion, part of a fleet known as the Chesapeake Flotilla that was designed to navigate the shallow waters of the Patuxent and harass the British, whose Royal Navy at the time was terrorizing towns from Havre de Grace to Norfolk. The excavation is part of Maryland's effort...

Well, what do you know. The original Star Spangled Banner was about victory in the War against the Barbary Pirates (read Muslims). From Her Royal Whyness: Earlier today, I viewed a video lecture (also forwarded link to you - subject: Arabs and Zionists' tug-og-war over America since 1776 - Professor Michael Oren video)given by historian and author Dr. Michael Oren, here . Quote from the end of the lecture (he's a real tease, that one) : "Why the original lyrics of the 'Star Spangled Banner' talked about Muslims bowing down to the victorious flag of the United States." Well, it...

Vancouver-based artist and author Douglas Coupland hopes his new military monument will help stop what he calls a "creeping revisionism" of the War of 1812. Douglas Coupland's Monument to the War of 1812 was unveiled Monday in Toronto. (CBC) "I've grown up and a lot of people have grown up thinking 'Oh, Americans lost that one didn't they?"' Coupland said Monday after unveiling the Monument to the War of 1812 outside a condominium near Fort York in Toronto. "But once I began getting involved in the project and doing research, I began noticing that the Americans are now starting to...

HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) -- The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows. There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery _ with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran _ surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll. His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him...

Mr. Dickinson's death arose from a feud with Jackson, then a major general who gladly settled questions of honor with violence. In 1803, he even challenged Gov. John Sevier, a Revolutionary War hero, to a duel. The feud with Mr. Dickinson is generally traced to the aftermath of a forfeited horse race and rumors questioning Jackson's honor... Some historians have written that Mr. Dickinson also insulted Mrs. Jackson, although documents from the time do not reflect that... Tennessee had banned duels, so the men traveled north to Kentucky. When the order came to fire, Mr. Dickinson hit Jackson just beside...

As early preparations for the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 get underway in Canada and the United States, organizers in Canada have run into an unexpected hitch: Their American counterparts seem to think they won. The historical disconnect between American and Canadian interpretations of the war, during which tens of thousands of American troops invaded Canada - then still a British colony - and were repulsed by the outnumbered defenders, has left Canadian organizers of the bicentennial events shaking their heads in bemusement at their American colleagues' staunch insistence that the war was a victory for the then-young...

Kevin Moloney for The New York TimesMelissa Bechhoefer, registrar of the Colorado Historical Society, with a sword and scabbard that belonged to Zebulon Montgomery Pike. Kevin Moloney for The New York TimesIn spiffying up to attract tourism, Pueblo, Colo., settled on the idea of a River Walk to anchor downtown. Much of the attraction, along the Arkansas River, offers themes related to Pike’s Southwestern expedition. PUEBLO, Colo., July 13 — All over tourist country, there’s an invisible borderline where people stop and shut their wallets, as if halted by a sign: nothing beyond here to see. snip... Now Pueblo...

After a hard fought war for American independence, war clouds once again loomed on the horizon for the infant nation of the United States. The U.S. felt the British had forced their hand by violating three areas of sovereignty. First, England refused to surrender western forts promised to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. Second, the U.S. accused Great Britain of stopping American ships, under the premise to search for deserters, but instead was pressing U.S. sailors into British service. Third, British sanctions during the Napoleonic Wars resulted in the seizure of...

In 1815, Washington was in ruins: the White House and Capitol building burned and sacked by the British, the national treasury depleted, the U.S. bruised and battered (but not defeated) by the War of 1812. President James Madison called the Congress to its make-shift chamber at the Post Office Building and asked for something extraordinary: a declaration of war against a state thousands of miles away.What followed was the U.S.'s first war on terror. This little conflict is now largely forgotten, but it had great and lasting consequences, establishing the U.S. as a global naval power and ending more than...