Sir Amédée Forestier, The Signing of the Treaty of Ghent, Christmas Eve, 1814, 1914, oil on canvas, Smithsonian Art Museum, Gift of the Sulgrave Institution of the U.S. and Great Britain.
War of 1812
The “Second War of Independence”
Sometimes referred to as the “Second War of Independence,” the War of 1812 was the first large scale test of the republic on the world stage. With the British Navy impressing sailors, and the British government aiding Native tribes in their attacks on citizens on the frontier, Congress, for the first time in our nation’s history, declared war on a foreign nation: Great Britain. Battles raged on the high seas. British soldiers invaded soil, captured Washington D.C., and even burned the White House. In the end the Star-Spangled Banner waved “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Explore the battlefields and personalities of this critical time in history.
