Besides the frigates, of which the American Navy was justifiably proud, there were eight smaller vessels called sloops-of-war that also recorded two notable victories, contributing to the growing respect for our country’s navy. The first was fought on October 18, 1812, between the USS Wasp and HMS Frolic off Cape Hatteras. Four months later, on February 24, 1813, the USS Hornet fought HMS Peacock off the coast of South America. The American ships emerged victorious in both battles, with the British suffering high casualties.

On August 19, 1812, lookouts on the USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, spotted the HMS Guerriere sailing alone 500 miles southeast of Halifax. As the ships came together in this first ever frigate-on-frigate engagement between the United States and British navies, the Constitution poured broadside after broadside into the Guerriere, devastating the British ship. Later that fall, Captain Stephen Decatur in the USS United States came upon the HMS Macedonian, commanded by Captain John Carden near the Azores, and crippled the ship in battle, forcing Carden to surrender. And finally, in December, the Constitution, this time under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, destroyed the HMS Java off the Brazilian coast in quick fashion.

At the outset of the War of 1812, the only ships ready for sea were the President, commanded by Commodore John Rodgers, the United States, commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur, the Congress, and the Argus. The rest were either not seaworthy or struggling to find an adequate crew, as in the case of the Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull. The Constitution left Annapolis and arrived off the New Jersey coast on Friday, July 17, sighting five distant sails making straight for the ship. Hull realized this was a British squadron under Captain Philip Broke and wisely took flight, thus starting one of the great chases in the age of sail.

The foundation for the later successes of the United States Navy was laid with the Naval Act of 1794, legislation passed by Congress at the urging of President George Washington, which authorized the construction of six frigates. Their design allowed the American frigates to carry heavier guns than their European adversaries, firepower that would prove decisive in the years ahead. The first training ground was the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war that began in 1798 when President John Adams retaliated against France for seizing American merchant ships. The American frigates outclassed their French adversaries in virtually every encounter. The Quasi-War ended in September 1800, but less than a year later, the Navy was again called on to defend American maritime rights. This time the adversaries were the Barbary States of North Africa.

The United States Navy that performed so well in the War of 1812 was first established by Congress on October 13, 1775. Naturally, the American fleet was not expected to compete on the high seas against the Royal Navy, the strongest in the world. While the initial squadron consisted of fewer than ten vessels, all of which were refitted merchantmen, the Royal Navy initially had over 250 warships, and that number doubled by the end of the Revolutionary War. Although outnumbered and under-equipped, there were numerous instances of American warships and fighting men performing well, including Benedict Arnold and his fleet at the Battle of Valcour Island and John Paul Jones, considered by many to be the Father of the U.S. Navy, at the Battle of Flamborough Head.

One of the most strategically impactful battles in the War of 1812 was the naval contest for the control of Lake Champlain, the two-hundred-mile waterway that had served as the main invasion route for American, British, and French troops since the 1750s. The British fleet was commanded by Captain George Downie, while the American navy was entrusted to 31-year-old Captain Thomas Macdonough. On the morning of September 11, the first broadside from the British ship Confiance was devastating to the American vessel Saratoga, with forty sailors killed or wounded. But Macdonough reorganized his men and began a murderous fire on the Confiance. Fifteen minutes later, a shot from Saratoga hit a cannon on Confiance, which sent the gun hurtling across the deck and crushed Captain Downie, a critical loss to the Brits.

After the collapse of Napoleon’s empire in the spring of 1814, Great Britain sent 28,000 veteran troops to North America, one quarter of which were sent to Lower Canada to invade the Champlain Valley and punish the United States for initiating a war Great Britain never wanted. The British army entrusted with this task was one of the finest ever put into the field in North America and was commanded by Sir George Prevost, Governor General of the Canadas. Strategically for Great Britain, it was critical to secure a direct overland route from the St. Lawrence River to an ice-free port on the Bay of Fundy, and to gain this route, they needed the northern portion of Maine.

In July 1813, Secretary of War John Armstrong chose General James Wilkinson to lead the northern army and General Wade Hampton to command a contingent at Burlington on Lake Champlain. The plan was for Wilkinson and Hampton to join forces above Montreal and then assault the city. It was an interesting choice, as Hampton and Wilkinson were bitter enemies, and yet the two generals would have to work hand in hand for the campaign to be successful. Concerned that his generals would fight themselves as much as the British, Secretary of War John Armstrong transferred his headquarters to Sackett’s Harbor to act as a buffer between the two antagonists. In late September, Hampton establishedhis base camp at Four Corners near the Chateaugay River, a tributary of the St. Lawrence. From this strategic position, Hampton could threaten both Montreal and the British line of communication with Upper Canada. On October 18, Hampton headed down the Chateaugay River to confront a 1,500-man British army.

The American fleet conveying General James Wilkinson’s army to Montreal entered the St. Lawrence River on November 5, 1813. The Americans paused near a farm owned by John Crysler, a Canadian militia captain, to prepare for their descent through an eight-mile stretch of rapids. Recognizing the Canadian side of the river must be secured before confronting the rapids, Wilkinson dispatched Generals Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott to clear the shore ahead of the American flotilla and General John Boyd with three brigades to drive off Colonel Joseph Morrison’s British army in the American rear. The battle, in which the Americans outnumbered their British adversaries by almost three to one, was an embarrassing and costly loss for the Americans.

Henry Dearborn was tasked by President James Madison with conducting the right wing of the American invasion of Canada, but the responsibility was too much for the 62-year-old general who was in poor health and had not seen active military service since the American Revolution. Secretary of War John Armstrong reassigned Dearborn and began searching for a replacement, and he essentially had two choices: Andrew Jackson and James Wilkinson. Armstrong knew Wilkinson and was unfamiliar with Jackson, and, in a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” Armstrong entrusted this command to Wilkinson. Ultimately, Wilkinson decided on a two-prong offensive, leading his command of 7,000 men down the St. Lawrence from Sackett’s Harbor while another 4,000-man army under General Wade Hampton marched north from Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. The two armies would then rendezvous above Montreal, and the combined army under Wilkinson’s command would capture the city.

By late July 1814, General Jacob Brown’s army had dwindled to 750 men in fighting condition and Brown, who was recovering from wounds sustained at Lundy’s Lane, withdrew the army to Fort Erie and brought in General Edmund Gaines to take command. Gaines was instructed to hold Fort Erie at all costs. In early August, British General Gordon Drummond commenced a siege of Fort Erie and, after several days of a largely ineffective bombardment, ordered an assault. For three vicious hours, British and Americans vied for control of the northeast bastion before the British withdrew. The following month, to force the British to lift the siege, General Brown ordered a sortie against the British lines. The fighting was desperate and three battalion commanders were killed before the Americans disengaged and returned to Fort Erie, where General George Izard, who assumed command from General Brown, made the painful decision to blow up the fort and return to American soil.

On the afternoon of July 25, 1814, the British army under General Gordon Drummond came face-to-face with General Jacob Brown’s American army at Lundy’s Lane, a small offshoot of the main road along the west bank of the Niagara River. The focal point of the fight became the British artillery battery in the center of the line and a general melee ensued. General Eleazar Ripley, who assumed command due to wounds suffered by both Generals Brown and Winfield Scott, ordered Colonel James Miller of the 21st Regiment to capture the guns. Miller led his men in the darkness to within a few yards of the British battery before taking the battery with a bayonet charge. But the Brits were not finished, and General Drummond ordered his men to retake the position.

In the spring of 1814, Napoleon fell from power and British troops that had been fighting him were now freed up to fight the United States. Secretary of War John Armstrong knew he had to strike before these troops arrived and ordered an invasion of the Niagara Peninsula. Armstrong selected General Jacob Brown to lead this effort. Although Brown’s military experience was limited, he had shown excellent fighting qualities in the defense of Sackett’s Harbor the previous year. Brown's army consisted of 3,500 men and would prove to be a formidable fighting unit, while the British had 4,000 men led by General Phineas Riall, but they were thinly spread across the Niagara frontier.

In May 1813, General Henry Dearborn pulled most of the soldiers from Sackett’s Harbor for his invasion of the Niagara frontier. With the post now lightly defended, Sir George Prevost, governor-general of Canada, felt it was an opportune time for the British to strike the main American naval yard on Lake Ontario. By the time the British came ashore the morning of May 29, there were 1,400 Americans, both regulars and volunteers, under the command of Jacob Brown, a New York state militia general who would become one of the country’s most capable officers during the war. The Americans stood firm against repeated British assaults, and with adverse winds keeping British warships too distant from shore to support the attack, Prevost ordered a withdrawal from Sackett’s Harbor rather than press the fight any further.

With Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s fleet in control of Lake Ontario, York sacked, and British Brigadier General Vincent's army on its heels, the time seemed ripe for the American conquest of Upper Canada. It would prove to be the best opportunity of the war for the Americans, but unfortunately one they would squander.

President James Madison assigned Henry Dearborn the right wing of the three-pronged American invasion of Canada, up Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence River and then onward to Montreal. Arguably, this invasion sector was the most critical, as the St. Lawrence represented the only means of communication between Lower Canada and Upper Canada. In late April 1813, Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey, commander of the American fleet on Lake Ontario, sailed with 1,700 men from Sackett’s Harbor, arriving at York, the capital of Upper Canada. The Americans landed at 8 a.m. and, by late morning, the British recognized they could not hold the town and withdrew across the Don River. But prior to leaving, the British rigged the powder magazine, which held 74 tons of iron shells and 300 barrels of gunpowder, to explode rather than let it fall into American hands. Around 1 p.m. the charge denoted and beams, metal, and stone from the magazine flew off in every direction, killing or wounding over 200 Americans and nearly as many Brits. Angered by the explosion, the Americans set fire to the town’s public buildings.

The center thrust of the three-prong American invasion of Canada was along the Niagara River frontier, a thirty-five-mile stretch that would be the most contested piece of real estate during the War of 1812. Command of this sector was entrusted to General Stephen van Rensselaer, who established his headquarters at Lewiston, New York, directly across the Niagara River from Queenston, Upper Canada. On October 13, 1812, van Rensselaer sent Captain John Wool, a recently commissioned officer, and Colonel Solomon van Rensselaer, the general's nephew, across the river to capture Queenston. British General Isaac Brock arrived with reinforcements and led a counterattack but was mortally wounded and the British attack faltered. American reinforcements led by Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott also arrived and dug in to secure their position. However, soldiers refusing to leave American soil would soon lead to disaster.

With Captain Oliver Hazard Perry's great victory on Lake Erie, General William Henry Harrison knew the time had finally come for the invasion of Upper Canada. On September 27, 1813, Captain Perry’s fleet transported Harrison’s army across the lake to the Canadian shore, three miles below Fort Malden. To oppose the American force, British General Henry Proctor commanded an army of 400 regulars and approximately 3,000 Indians. But Proctor was a cautious man and retreated east up the Thames River valley to the disgust of Tecumseh and his warriors, many of whom returned home rather than join in the retreat. Proctor halted his retreat on October 5 and drew up his dwindling army, consisting of just 400 regulars and 500 Indians, in line of battle adjacent to the Thames River just west of Moraviantown. Upon observing the thin British line, General Harrison opened the assault with a mounted charge, and the fury of the American assault quickly broke the British line.