Collection America Under Fire
The young national capital at Washington, D.C. became the epicenter of The War of 1812 with Great Britain during the...
Main Content
How Long? 1 minute
Britain's navy began its war in North Atlantic waters with a crushing advantage over the United States in numbers of both ships and sailors, but events were to prove that the U.S. Navy's pluck and resourcefulness would inflict punishing setbacks on its larger opponent.
Wartime successes of the U.S. Navy included a victory by the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") over HMS Guerriere; winning the Battle of Lake Erie, ensuring U.S. control of Lake Erie and diminishing the prospect of British attacks on western New York; and winning the Battle of Lake Champlain, spoiling British invasion plans.
Commodore Stephen Decatur, a hero of the Tripolitan wars, burnished his fame on October 25, 1812, when his 56-gun frigate USS United States captured the 49-gun frigate HMS Macedonian. Decatur and his officers and crew were acclaimed as heroes when they returned home, and all were awarded a portion of the Macedonian's $200,000 prize value. Decatur's share came to $30,000, and after the war he and his wife Susan invested the money in land near the President's House. In 1818 they erected an elegant square three-story red brick Federal-style town house on the northwest corner of the President's Square (today's Lafayette Square).
USS United States battles the HMS Macedonian, October 25, 1812. 1880 painting by Fred Pansing (1844-1912).
The young national capital at Washington, D.C. became the epicenter of The War of 1812 with Great Britain during the...
From its construction in 1792, until the 1902 renovation that shaped the modern identity and functions of the interior of the White...
Since the White House was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800, influential people and organizations—or those who hoped to...
Chester Alan Arthur's beloved "Nell" died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880. That November, when he was elected vice president, he was...
In November 1845, Elizabeth Lord Cogswell Dixon arrived for the “season” in Washington, D.C., with her family. Her husband, James Dixo...
President James Madison arrived back in Washington about 5:00 p.m. on August 27, 1814 and took up temporary lodgings at the F...
Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans on December 1, 1814, and took charge of the city's defense, commanding that waterways be obstructed...
The British decided in 1814 to relieve pressure on their forces in Canada by launching diversionary assaults in the Chesapeake Bay...
Washington awoke to a humid, cloudy day as an occupied city on August 25. Cockburn and Captain John Wainwright of Cockburn's...
On September 8, 1814, the Madisons moved into the Octagon, second in size only to the burned President's House, and the only...
During the 1850s Japan gradually began to discard its isolationist foreign policy of sakoku (“locked country”) and began opening some of i...