Table of Contents

* Of Arms and Men, Bad Roads and Short Rations * Disaster in the West * Champlain and Niagara * Marching, Mud, and Misery * Handful of Fir-Built Frigates * Battle for the Lakes * Winter of Our Discontent: Tribulation in the West * Victories Wasted * On to Montreal! Spaniards and Red Sticks * Regulars, by God! * Bladensburg Races * Rockets Red Glare * Triumph in the NorthAlmost * Wars Fringes, East and West * The Confusions of Andrew Jackson

About the Author

Colonel John R. Elting has edited and written numerous books on military history, including Amateurs, to Arms!: A Military History of the War of 1812 and A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars.

Reviews

Having reduced the U.S. Army during the Jefferson administration, the new nation was totally ill-equipped for the war it would wage against British troops in 1812. Plagued with inexperienced recruits, politicians as officers, and a sometimes unsupportive government, the success of the war seemed almost impossible. Elting handles all of these aspects in a manner that would appeal to the general reader of history as well as to the military statistician. Insight into the battles and the leaders is often provided in great detail, and interesting information is also indicated in the footnotes. This book, coupled with J.C.A. Stagg's Mr. Madison's War ( LJ 9/1/83), provides a complete overview of the politics and logistics of the war. With so few books written on the War of 1812, this is essential for any public or academic library.-- Barbara Zaborowski, Cambria Cty. Lib., Johnstown, Pa.

No other conflict in our history found us so unready or ill-prepared as the War of 1812, argues Elting, who here presents the military side of the war and emphasizes the amateurishness of the Americans who managed to win their ``Second War of Independence'' despite themselves. Tactical victories, few and far between, made the difference in the end: Oliver Perry's destruction of a British squadron on Lake Erie in 1813, William Henry Harrison's defeat of a British column the following year at the Battle of the Thames. Ironically, the most celebrated clash of the war, Andrew Jackson's 1815 victory at New Orleans, took place two weeks after the signing of the peace treaty at Ghent in Belgium. Elting ( The Superstrategists ) tells the story from the British side as well as the American. He includes a memorable account of the expedition under Robert Ross that won an easy victory over the Americans at Bladensburg, Va., then captured Washington, burning the Capitol and the White House, only to suffer a surprising defeat before Baltimore. This is a lively, well-written account of one of America's long-forgotten, but decidedly major wars. Illustrations. (Sept.)