The 1812 war was as a result of a conflict between two principal powers in the world; America and Britain. The cause of the 1812 war is America’s quest to enlarge its territorial boundaries and the efforts of Britain to restrain the United States (U.S) from trading. The impressments of America’s seamen by the Royal Navy also contributed largely to the 1812 war. The organization and strategies used by the American military largely accounted to the outcomes of the 1812 war. This paper seeks to analyze the effectiveness of the organization and tactics used by the American military in the 1812 war.
The America military chose to use an offensive stratagem for the war. America’s military took advantage of the fact that most of the British military were fighting in the Napoleon war in Europe. With this in mind, the military was optimistic that it could successfully launch an attack on Britain. This was a correct calculation by Americans since their military was readily available at that time. They embarked on land campaigns with an objective of concurring Canada as well as constructing ships to battle in the Great Lakes. This was with an objective of defeating the powerful Royal Navy.
Despite this grandiose strategy that the American military chose for the war, they did not prepare nor organize themselves properly for the same. It was clear that America had manpower advantage over Britain at that time. They however commenced the war with only a fraction of soldiers and weapons that the British and Canadian troops possessed (Hickey, 2012). At the same time, the American military comprised of unprofessional soldiers who lacked the capacity to undertake a military operation. Instead of directing their forces towards one objective, they scattered their forces in several attacks. Despite a good strategy, with such poor organization their attempt invasion in Canada failed. They could be easily suppressed by the Britain forces.
References
Hickey, D. R. (2012). The War of 1812: A forgotten conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press.
