United States in the War of 1812



The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain began formally on June 18, 1812. It involved about 60,000 U.S. Army forces supported by 470,000 militia and volunteer troops. To end the war, the treaty of Ghent was signed 24 December 1814, however another battle was fought 8 January 1815 at New Orleans. The U.S. Congress ratified the treaty on 17 February 1815, formally ending the war.

When war was declared, the Regular Army had about 10,000 men, and about half of those were new recruits. "Each Regular Army infantry regiment was recruited from a particular state (or states). Rifle, artillery, and dragoons were recruited at large...Most, but not all, of the men recruited for a particular infantry regiment were from the state of recruitment."

[https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/827221? David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, editors Encyclopedia of the War of 1812.Santa. Barbara, California : ABC-CLIO, 1997. FS Library 973 H26he]

Map of the.

How to Find your War of 1812 Soldier

 * Guide to searching for your War of 1812 Soldier

United States Federal Military Units

 * Military Laws and Rules and Regulations for the Army of the United States 1814
 * Military Laws and Rules ans Regulations for the Army of the United States 1816
 * Rules and Regulations... Dated December 1814. 1817
 * John C. Fredriksen. The United States Army in the War of 1812 : concise biographies of commanders and operational histories of regiments, with bibliographies of published and primary sources. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Co., 2009. FS Library 973 M2fjc

Not all men enrolled in state militia units. Men also enrolled in federal (US) units. The records for the federal units are more extensive than those for the state militia units. United States (Federal) Units U.S. Infantry U.S. Rifles U.S. Cavalry U.S. Artillery and Engineers U.S. Navy and Marines

For a list showing the regimental recruiting districts, see William A. Gordon, A Compilation of the Registers of the Army of the United States from 1815 to 1837, 1 (Washington, DC: James C. Dunn, 1837). Digital version: Internet Archive.

Military Districts

 * Military District No. 1: Massachusetts and New Hampshire
 * Military District No. 2: Rhode Island and Connecticut
 * Military District No. 3: New York, from the sea to the Highlands, and East Jersey
 * Military District No. 4: West Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware
 * Military District No. 5: Maryland and Virginia
 * Military District No. 6: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
 * Military District No. 7: Louisiana, Mississippi Territory, and Tennessee
 * Military District No. 8: Kentucky, Ohio and the Territories of Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and MIssouri
 * Military District No. 9: New York, north of the Highlands, and Vermont

State and Territorial Militia Units
Many men enrolled in state or territory militia units. The records for these men were kept by the state or territory. Check a state or territory below:


 * See also:C. Edward Skeen. Citizen soldiers in the War of 1812. Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, 1999. FS Library 973 M2scs

War of 1812 Records

 * US War of 1812 Bounty Land Warrants
 * US War of 1812 Cemetery Records
 * US War of 1812 Pension Records
 * US War of 1812 Service Records

More Records

 * The Bureau of Pensions: Its History, Activities and Organization. c1923. by Gustavus A. Weber. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press. ;
 * War of 1812 Genealogy. 1983. by George K. Schweitzer. Knoxville, Tennessee. Includes general history of the war, the types of records created, and the titles of those records. ;

National Archives Catalog

 * War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, ca. 1871 - ca. 1900
 * Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, ca. 1800 - ca. 1900
 * Index to War of 1812 Pension Application Files
 * Indexes to the Carded Records of Soldiers Who Served in Volunteer Organizations During the War of 1812, 1899 - 1927
 * Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the War of 1812, 1899 - 1927
 * Muster Rolls of Volunteer Organizations During the War of 1812, 6/18/1812 - 2/17/1815
 * Dept. of the Treasury. Customs Service. Collection District of New London, Connecticut. War of 1812 Petitions
 * U.S. District Court. Southern District of New York. War of 1812 Prize Case Files, 1812 - 1816

Soldiers' Claims

 * Index of Awards on Claims of the Soldiers of the War of 1812 at Ancestry ($). Compiled by the New York Adjutant General's Office. List is presented as follows: Claim number, name of applicant, residence of applicant, amount allowed.
 * Native Americans from the Index of Awards at NYGenWeb. The list is an index of claims presented by members of Indian tribes, primarily in New York, mustered into the service of the United States in the War of 1812. Information is presented as follows: Claim number, name of warrior, claimant and amount awarded.

Privateers

 * History of Privateering in the United States - website extracts information from: William S. Dudley and Michael J. Crawford, eds 1985 The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History 3 vols. Washington: Naval Historical Center Department of the Navy]
 * List of American Privateers
 * Privateers out of Balitimore
 * Bibliography of books on Privateers
 * American Vessels Captured by the British
 * Thomas V. Huntsberry and Joanne M. Huntsberry,Maryland privateers, War of 1812Baltimore, Maryland : J. Mart, 1983 FS Library 975.2 M2h v. 2
 * John Philips Cranwell and William Bowers Crane, 'Men of Marque : a history of private armed vessels out of Baltimore during the War of 1812,'' New York, New York : Norton, c1940 FS Library 975.26 M3c

Battles

 * List of War of 1812 Battles on Wikipedia
 * Campaigns of the War of 1812-1815, Against Great Britain, Sketched and Criticised; with Bief Biographies of the American Engineers, George W. Cullum.
 * The Fight for a Free Sea: a Chronicle of the War of 1812. 1920. Ralph Delahaye Paine. New Haven Connecticut, Yale Univeristy Press, 1920)

Individual Battles
 * Battle of Queenston Heights, Queenston, Ontario (British victory) - 13 October 1812
 * The Canadian Encyclopedia
 * Wikipedia
 * American Battlefield Trust
 * The Battle of Queenston Heights - by Ernest Cruikshank on Archive.org


 * Battle of Frenchtown(British victory) - 22 January 1813 at what is now Monroe, Michigan on the Raisin River
 * Battle of Lake Erie (Wikipedia) [[Image:Battle Lake Errie 1813.jpg|right|200px|Battle Lake Errie 1813.jpg]](United States naval victory) - 10 September 1813
 * Battle of the Thames (Wikipedia) (Both sides claimed victory) - 5 October 1813 at Moraviantown, on Thames River, Kent County, Ontario
 * Battle of Lundy's Lane - 25 July 1814; Both sides claimed victory; one mile from Niagara Falls
 * The Battle of Lundy's Lane by Ernest Cruikshank on Archive.org
 * Battle of Lundy's Lane


 * Battle of Plattsburg - 11 September 1814
 * Centenary of the Battle of Plattsburg, vol. 2
 * Centenary of the Battle of Plattsburg, vol. 3


 * North Point and Fort McHenry, September 12 & 13, 1814
 * Battle of New Orleans (United States victory) (after peace treaty was signed) 8 January 1815

Published Books Online

 * War of 1812 Newspaper Clippings and Pictures. 1966. Frankfort, Kentucky, Kentucky Historical Society.
 * The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812: or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence. c2009. by Benson J. Lossing. Salt Lake City: Digitized by the Genealogical Society of Utah. FamilySearch Digital Library
 * Additional list of published books online at various websites

Published Books

 * 1812: War with America. c2007. by Jon Latimer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. 637 pages. ;
 * American Privateers in the War of 1812 : the Vessels and their Prizes as Recorded in Niles' Weekly Register. c2012. by Timothy S. Good, ed. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Co. ;
 * Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812 c1999. by C. Edward Skeen. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. Includes description of the militia system in the states before the War of 1812, how the militia was combined with the regular army, and what happened. Bibliography: p. 215-220. Includes index. 229 pages. ;
 * Citizens in Arms : the Army and Militia in American Society to the War of 1812. c1982. by Lawrence Delbert Cress. Chapel Hill, North Carolina:University of North Carolina Press. ;
 * The Coming of the War of 1812: An Account of the Remarkable Events Leading to the War of 1812. c1960. by Albert H.Z. Carr. Garden City, New York:Doubleday.
 * Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. c1997. by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. 636 pages. ;
 * Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812. 2006. by Robert. Malcomson. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 701 pages. ;
 * The Naval War of 1812: a Documentary History. 1985-2002. by William S. Dudley. Washington, District of Columbia, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy 1985-2002. ;
 * Officers of the War of 1812 with Portraits and Anecdotes: the United States Army Left Division Gallery of Honor. c1989. by John C. Fredriksen. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press. ;
 * The Republic in Peril: 1812. c1971. by Roger H. Brown. New York: Columbia University Press, c1964; reprint ed., New York: W.W. North and Company.
 * Resource Guide for the War of 1812. c1979. by John C. Fredriksen. [S.l.]: J.C. Fredriksen. ;
 * The Twilights Last Gleaming. c1977. by Kate Caffey. New York: Stern and Day, c1977.
 * The United States Army in the War of 1812: Concise Biographies of Commanders and Operational Histories of Regiments, with Bibliographies of Published and Primary Sources. c2009. by John C. Fredriksen. Jefferson, North Carolina. ;
 * The War of 1812, a Forgotten Conflict. 1989. by Donald R. Hickey. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 457 pages. ;  
 * The War of 1812. 1969. by Reginald Horsman. New York, New York, Alfred A Knophf. 286 pages. ;
 * The War of 1812: a Compact History. 1969. by James Ripley Jacobs and Glenn Tucker. New York, New York, Hawthorn Books copyright. ;
 * Kenneth Scott, British aliens in the United States during the War of 1812 Baltimore, Maryland : Genealogical Publishing Company, 1979 FS Library 973 W4s