Background to the War-- Part 3: The Naval War on the Great Lakes

A crucial fact of the war was the 1,500 mile distance between Quebec City and Detroit, during an age of nonexistent roads.  Control of the Great Lakes was an absolute necessity for the British.  Their fortunes had a major setback in September 1813 when the American fleet under Commodore Perry defeated the British one at the Battle of Lake Erie.

This meant that British ships could no longer go through that Lake.

Then, control of Lake Ontario was deadlocked because of a naval shipbuilding race in which neither commander dared risk it all.

Then, in September 1814, a British attack on Plattsburgh, New York, by the largest army they ever fielded on the continent was thwarted when the British Navy which was supposed to guard its flank was defeated by Macdonough's American fleet.

--Brock-Perry