Ten Things You Didn't Know About the War of 1812-- Part 4

7.  THE ILL-FATED GENERAL CUSTER HAD HIS START IN THE WAR

Well, actually, it was Colonel Custer at the Little Big Horn.  The Battle of the River Raisin took place in Michigan in 1813 and resulted in a big defeat for the Americans.  The British Indian allies afterwards attacked the wounded and prisoners and it turned into a massacre which sparked the American battle cry "Remember the Raisin."

William Henry Harrison led Americans to later victories and on his tomb is inscribed "Avenger of the River Raisin."

George Armstrong Custer grew up in Monroe, Michigan, along the Raisin River.  There is an 1871 photograph of him standing with some War of 1812 veterans by a monument for the battle.  Five years later, he himself was killed at another massacre.  Of course, Custer was no stranger to massacres, having done it often in his Indian fighting.


8.  THERE WAS ALMOST A UNITED STATES OF NEW ENGLAND

The New England states came close to seceding from the Union because of the war, which they felt would hurt their economic interests.  The Hartford Convention of the states of New England came as close to secession as anything before South Carolina seceded in 1860.  The states viewed  it as a separation of two sovereign states.

These states had been considering such a move for the fifteen previous years, especially after southerner Thomas Jefferson was elected in 1800.  The New Englanders stood solidly against the Louisiana Purchase and the Embargo Act of 1807.  They felt this would help the Southern states at their expense.

Kind of strange that they would be on the other side of secession less than fifty years later.

Brock-Perry