Even though there were War Hawks, calling for war with Britain, the U.S. military was not prepared for war. In addition, Americans underestimated the strength of the British and their Native American allies. But war with Britain started in July 1812 outside of Detroit, near the U.S./Canadian border. American naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry was ordered to seize all of Lake Erie from the British/Canadian side and he succeeded. In Oct. 1813, outside of Detroit, the great Native American leader Tecumseh died at the Battle of the Thames. With his death, hopes for a Native American confederation died. In 1814 a young soldier from Tennessee begins slaughtering the Creek people in the Southeastern U.S. (We will return to Jackson in future classes). What's really shocking about the War of 1812 (and kind of overlooked in most history curricula in the 17th - 20th centuries) is that that the British not only attacked the U.S. on U.S. land - they burned down the White House in Washington, D.C. After sacking D.C., the British marched north and bombarded Forth McHenry from Baltimore Harbor. (Watching this bombardment, American lawyer, Francis Scott Key wrote the the lyrics to what is now the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." Fighting between the invading British and the Americans finally stops in upstate NY after the Battle of Lake Champlain. One , final battle was fought in New Orleans where U.S. troops led by Andrew Jackson killed 100's of British soldiers. In 1814, the U.S. & Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent. Most Americans felt proud & self-confident at the end of the War of 1812. Americans now felt a new sense of patriotism and a strong national identity.