The nation plans to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, it seems that it has become a cause and has acquired the flavour of significance.
Apart from a couple of good songs and a pretty good flag I don’t see it.
This is my contribution to Mr. Mackie’s Poem contest and I shall post a link there.
The War of 1812
The Brits had ruined our three cornered trade
Because we ignored their European blockade
We felt so hard done by and so in disgrace
We just had to get in somebody’s face
To the North we all cried! and looking up there
Saw a few lonely Frenchmen and the occasional bear
That should be easy, we thought with a grin
We’ll push them out and move ourselves in
Our four million square miles was hardly enough
We’ll show them who’s made of the proper right stuff
We attacked at Niagra, Detroit, Montreal
But soon things were not going our way at all
We crossed over the border but then soon found out
We could not defend it and fled back in a rout
When the tally was taken we sadly found
At the end of the battle we’d lost our own ground.
But up on lake Erie we built a small fleet
To show the odd gunboat we weren’t to be beat
We drove all comers from that freshwater lake
but being clustered up there proved a costly mistake
‘Cos the Brits then invaded the great Chesapeake
pushed our navy aside and within the same week
sailed up the Potomac, and before they turned round
had burned our new White House right down to the ground.
The pols. ran to Baltimore where they were all caught
By the Brits who were shelling McHenry’s fort
The fort was still standing at dawn the next day
But all of the Brits had sailed clean away
our only reward was a flag, and a song,
not much consolation for being so wrong.
We heard late in ‘14 that the devils now lay
attacking New Orleans, and on Christmas Day!
With as much beans and bacon that we-all could tote
We got down there in ‘15 and that’s where we smote
At Pakenham’s army and they all ran away
To their boat on the gulf on that fine January day
It looked like a win and we got another song
But again in this war it was all a little wrong
The peace had been signed two months before
And that was the end of 1812’s war
Boadicea's Chariot 
I can hear the cannons’ roar!
Wow, LW, nice one! 🙂
Very good LW. I like it.
I must admit that the only reason I can see for the Yanks to celebrate ‘Madison’s War’ is the bicentenary of their national anthem, which is a good one, even if the melody is based on an old English drinking song. The flag of course came earlier via the nimble hands of the thrice married Betsy Ross. That is to say she is alleged to have presented George Washington with the original flag, depicting stars and stripes, without any reference to Britain’s Union Flag as was the case of the 1776 Continental flag. Given that America continued to expand its territory through conquest, in contrast to its avowed ideals, new states joined the Union and thus new stars were added to the flag, the last being Hawaii’s in 1960.
It is quite interesting to see just how many versions of the American flag there have been.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States#Historical_progression_of_designs
One of the popular reasons given for Puerto Rico not to join the Union is that the additional star would spoil the design. Which seems sensible!
When I was living in Atlanta in the 1990s, I found a book that told the tale of some of the New England states, who, during that period, took umbrage at the power being exerted by Congress and Presidents Jefferson and Madison and their aggressive trade policies towards Britain. There was much talk of secession. It would be interesting to read an objective history of that period. I sometimes think American accounts of that nation’s history are somewhat coloured by nationalistic fervor and tend to tell only one version of events. This book claimed that the break away states even provided funds to British forces.
Is this the Battle of New Orleans of which Lonnie Donnegan sang, LW?
Sheona: The very same
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
and we fought the bloody British at the town of New Orleans.
Sipu: It’s mostly about the Flag and the anthem, especially here in Maryland, but it seems to have acquired a larger significance. As you say it’s very hard to find an objective report of the happenings,, both sides seem to have won and lost.
Janus: That’s “the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air”
Low Wattage: how the War of 1812 was explained to me was that both sides generally secured what was most important to them. Those Britons who wished to reclaim the US had to accept that it would not happen. The US was just strong enough to hold its own at the time. The US had to accept that it would live next to a British North America, the future Canada. The British were far too powerful and entranched there.
I agree with sipu’s last para, the nationalistic fervour more than colours American history as it is taught in schools anyway. They gloss over anyhting that doesn’t quite fit the bill so to speak.
Considering spousal unit is a Columbia graduate his knowledge of American history is woeful!
All far too triumphalist and not enough examination of the warts.
From what I can make out it all ended with a bit of a whimper and a ‘Mexican standoff’.
Good pome LW, more accurate assessment than most!
By the way, I haven’t noticed any hoohaa about this in the NW? But then I sometimes wonder why W of the Cascades they even bother to be part of America! Very little in common and most of the locals are related to BC denizens. The border is a very modern invention over here.
CO: the NW is a bit more complex. For a time it was British, then it was ruled for a time by both the US and UK. Oregon and Washington were ceded to the US in exchange for extending the border to the Pacific on the 49th parallel, with the exception of the Minnesota quirk.
Where were the French hiding at the time?
Lest anyone is in doubt, here is Lonnie Donegan’s version……