Andrew Jackson and the War of 1812

I had never heard of the War of 1812 until I chanced upon it browsing the "In Our Time " archive
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q95s0

It seems to have been a pimple on an offshoot of the Napoleonic Wars but in the USA it is known as "The 2nd American War of Independence" and in the Big Easy it is known as "The Battle of New Orleans".
It is important in relation to Canada as Madison intended to invade thinking that the Canadians would want to join the United States rather than remain British. It was disastrous for Native Americans who sided with the Canadians but from the British perspective was largely a naval war as the majority of the ground troops were committed to the war in Europe but Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805 had largely seen of the French fleet.
The British were trying to effectively blockade the Americans from supplying the French and the Americans had banned exports to Britain but not imports thereby wrecking their economy. The naval war proceeded at a desultary pace with a series of skirmishes. These included a raid on Washington in which the British approached under a white flag intending to take a ransom as then current rules of war allowed a besieging army to do. They were shot upon whilst under the white flag from a house near the edge of the city whereupon they killed everyone in that house and fired it and then raided the public buildings make off with the original declaration of independence and firing the Library of Congress and the Presidential Palace (rebuilt as the White House). Another raid wherein the British were repulsed from Baltimore inspired the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Thus the 1812 war is dear to the American historical myth and the defeat of the Indians gave rise to the pernicious American theory of "Manifest Destiny" justifying colonial expansionism.
The war was ended in 1814 by the Treaty of Ghent and the Battle of New Orleans took place after that because nobody on the Western side of the Atlantic had heard. The boat cruise were keen to point out the concrete pillar marking the site of the battle in the National Historical Park

and the 19C Jackson barracks were the troops were stationed with their sleeping porches for the slinging of hammocks.

You can take whole day tours of the battlefield and the tour tout looked quite hurt when we said why would we want to tour the site of a battle in a war no-one in the UK had heard of. the victory made Andrew Jackson a popular hero who was elected 7th President. The main square in New Orleans is named after him.