I understand that World War I wasn’t really the first world war.\u00a0 In the early 19th century, France and England were fighting throughout the world.\u00a0 England was trying to stop trade between Canada and the young United States.\u00a0 At the same time, the U.S. expansion was being\u00a0 complicated by the English who were lending their support to the Indians.<\/p>\n
The War of 1812 has important historic significance in England, Canada, and the United States.\u00a0 However, it is\u00a0 not celebrated except for in Canada.\u00a0 In Northwest Ohio we do remember this war because so much of it was fought right here.<\/p>\n
We have a replica of Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, {about 30 miles west of here} and\u00a0annual activities at what was Fort Stephenson, which is now Fremont, Ohio.{ I have lived in Fremont my whole life.}\u00a0 Then, of course we have the famous battle of Lake Erie in\u00a0Put-in-Bay, which is about 25 miles north of Fremont.<\/p>\n
We have re-enactments of the battle at Fort Meigs every year, complete with uniforms and guns of the era.\u00a0 There is a huge monument in Perryburg honoring Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry that over looks the Maumee River.<\/p>\n
Perry first fought from the Flagship Lawerence and then was transferred to the Niagra the Lawerence sustained too much damage to continue.\u00a0 It was from the Niagra that the Brittish were defeated because their supply lines to Fort Detroit were severed.<\/p>\n
I love history, so I love this whole story, but what amazes me the most was what happened at the\u00a0 siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore.\u00a0 A young lawyer,\u00a0 Fancis Scott Key watched the seige from a Brittish ship and wrote a poem called, “The Defense of Fort McHenry”.\u00a0 It was printed and re-printed in all the newspaper of that time.\u00a0 Then it was set to music.\u00a0 In 1931 it became our national anthem: “The Star-Spangled Banner”.<\/p>\n
It amazes me that the war that birthed our own national anthem is forgotten by most of our nation.\u00a0 The War of 1812 did many things that changed the course of our great nation.\u00a0 It prepared the way for our westward expansion.\u00a0 In many ways it helped everyone except the American Indians.\u00a0 England won, because\u00a0 they defeated Napoleon.\u00a0 Canada won because\u00a0 they forged a new identity and began to seek independence from France.\u00a0 The U.S. won because we gained our national sovereignty.\u00a0 The Indians were led by a famous Shawnee chief, Tecumseh who sought to unite all the tribes in order to fight the westward expansion.\u00a0 He was killed in the Battle of the Thames.\u00a0 With him died his dream of a unified Indian nation.<\/p>\n
If one desires to look, we can even find the hand of God in our wars.\u00a0 Although there was much destruction and blood shed during the War of 1812, it also brought strength and advancement to us as a country.<\/p>\n
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I understand that World War I wasn’t really the first world war.\u00a0 In the early 19th century, France and England were fighting throughout the world.\u00a0 England was trying to stop trade between Canada and the young United States.\u00a0 At the same time, the U.S. expansion was being\u00a0 complicated by the English who were lending their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,27],"tags":[22,31],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memories","category-news-or-feature","tag-back-in-time","tag-local-activities"],"yoast_head":"\n