THE WAR OF 1812

By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART

Professor of Government, Harvard University

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

MENTOR GRAVURESMENTOR GRAVURES
CAPTAIN JAMES
LAWRENCE		COMMODORE
OLIVER HAZARD
PERRY
COMMODORE
STEPHEN DECATUR		THE BATTLE OF
LAKE ERIE
COMMODORE
WILLIAM
BAINBRIDGE		GENERAL ANDREW
JACKSON

THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
MARCH 15, 1916

Our defeat of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War was conclusive; though "we" in that case included France, without whose aid the patriots must have been defeated. It is not so easy to discover a fund of military glory in the War of 1812.

That was a great war year. Within a few days of the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, Napoleon's Grand Army of over 400,000 men crossed the Niemen into Russia. Six months later 4,000 of that host recrossed, pursued by the Russians; and probably not more than 100,000 of the whole number ever saw their homes again. In 1813, while the Americans were fighting on the ocean and on Lake Erie, Napoleon was driven out of Germany. A few weeks before the Battle of Lundy's Lane, Napoleon was compelled to abdicate. Soon after the news of the Peace of Ghent with Great Britain was received in the United States, in 1815, Napoleon broke loose from Elba; and a few months later he was again a prisoner and sent to St. Helena.
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Entered at the Postoffice at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter. Copyright, 1916, by The Mentor Association, Inc.