Battle Of Plattsburgh Essay

The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain from June 1812 to December 1814. It was in the war that confirmed American Independence. From the end of the American Revolution in 1783, the United States had been irritated by the failure of the British to withdraw from the American territory along the Great Lakes. Since this conflict did not end peacefully, the United States declared War on Great Britain on June 12, 1812. Even though United States did not win all of the battles, they won the war. The Battle of Plattsburgh also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain ended the final invasion of the Northern states during the War of 1812.
Being outnumbered and outgunned, the Americans managed to defeat 11,000 British military

A British army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadron under Captain George Downie battled on the lakeside town of Plattsburgh, which was defended by New York and Vermont militia and detachments of regular troops of the United States Army, all under the command of Brigadier General Alexander Macomb, and ships commanded by Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough(History.com Staff). Downie's squadron was attacked shortly after dawn on September 11th 1814, but was defeated after a ruthless fight in which Downie was killed. Prévost then abandoned the attack by land against Macomb's defences and retreated to Canada, stating that even if Plattsburgh was captured, any British troops there could not be supplied without control of the lake(dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/500). The Battle of Plattsburgh, on land and lake, generated relatively few casualties that summer and fall of 1814. Furthermore, the British had one more territory to gain which was New Orleans. Plattsburgh, nevertheless, was the key to ending the war. In the competition for territory, the British accession of forces that summer seemed to have given them the advantage. In August, as the British summer offensives were getting under way, the British commissioners offered terms about which the American peace commissioner Henry Clay

The American victory at Plattsburgh, and the successful defense at the Battle of Baltimore which began the next day and halted British advances in the Mid-Atlantic states, denied the British negotiators leverage to demand any territorial claims against the United States. “The Treaty of Ghent, in which captured or occupied territories were restored and was signed three months after the battle”(wiki/Battle_of_Plattsburgh). The British forces were crushed by the heavy defence of Americans and they had to retreat before they lost any more troops. They sailed off to regroup before the next attack on America at the Battle of New Orleans. The last famous battle was the Battle of New Orleans. On January 8th, 1815, American forces, under General Jackson, defeated the British forces trying to capture New Orleans. Even though the treaty of Ghent was signed two weeks earlier, the news did not actually reach the battlefront in time to prevent this battle. But it had turned out to be the most decisive American victory of the war. With “only around 70 casualties”(Bluhm, Raymond K), Americans had gotten the victory. The victory was celebrated with great enthusiasm in the United States, and gave General Jackson the reputation of a war hero. The newspaper called “Mercantile Advertiser Extra” wrote an