An American publication

during the War of 1812

This exceptional piece features a complete issue of THE WAR, printed between 1812 and the conclusion of the war.  The rare and short lived publication dedicated itself almost exclusively to news of the War of 1812 from the American point of view.  The Kurz and Allison 1890 lithograph has been reprinted on the finest museum quality paper.  The documents are housed in a 20½ by 14½ inch pecan stained solid frame with bronze highlights sealed between double glass for protection from the elements.  All materials and assembly are from the USA.   Four British musket balls have been mounted on either side of the name plate.  

The War of 1812 is called by some the “Second American Revolution” and by others “The American Revolution, Part II.” However one views the war, it once and for all affirmed our true independence from Britain.

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The war was marred by communication failures and misjudgments from beginning to end. War was declared in June 1812, not knowing that the most offending cause leading to the war, Britain’s Orders in Council, had already been withdrawn in May.  America’s greatest land victory, the Battle of New Orleans, was fought two weeks after the war had already ended.  The war aim to seize Canada, believed at the time an easy task, was a complete disaster, so much so, that it may be fair to say that the only country that truly won the War of 1812 militarily was Canada.  Our capital was burned to the ground, New England states came perilously close to seceding and ground forces proved to be less than reliable in many of the battles. It is equally true though, that our navy, believed to be our weakest link in the beginning, proved itself to be our strongest and  stunningly, more than a match for the British navy.

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Perhaps James Madison best summed up the reasons to go to war when he wrote: "To have shrunk, under such circumstances, from manly resistance, would have been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes; it would have struck us from the high ranks where the virtuous struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations. It would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourths of the globe we inhabit, where all independent nations have equal and common rights, the American people were not an independent people, but colonists and vassals."

American Military Heritage Society, Inc.