… the War of 1812,
"I wish to address statements regarding amphibious warfare made in the article "Breaking the Stalemate: Amphibious Operations during the War of 1812," published in the Canadian Military Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1 Winter 2013.
The suggestion that land operations during the War of 1812 resembled the First World War more than the Napoleonic Wars is nonsensical, unless one believes that the allied victory over Bonaparte in Europe came as the result of a handful of major land battles, fought over the course of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. One would then have to ignore the more than 2000 other battles, skirmishes, raids, and sieges that took place between 1792 and 1815. It was not Salamanca, Borodino, Leipzig, the actions in France during 1814, and Waterloo in Belgium that won the war for the allies. Rather, the steady application of military, naval, economic, and diplomatic power defeated Napoleonic France through attrition. In North America, the wilderness and space of the northern theatre and the coastline offered operational challenges. However, the effects of battle, whether victory, defeat, or stalemate, did not always bring tactical or operational advantages.
The War of 1812 was a limited conflict, conducted at a time when Europe was locked in a global war. In July 1813, Britain had 73 warships on the North American coast and at Newfoundland, out of a total of 624 vessels in commission, and the majority of the latter were in European waters or in the Mediterranean. Similarly, of the 235,172 personnel serving in the British Army, just over 13,000 were stationed in North America. While the number of soldiers increased to 43,900 after the conclusion of the European war, the British had also began demobilizing and had reduced their army to 170,000 personnel. By this time, the Royal Navy was also down to 485 commissioned ships…"
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's motivation to paint Napoleonic ships returns!
