Veteran, War of 1812

WAR OF 1812 VETERAN -  The War of 1812 was a military conflict that lasted from June, 1812 to February, 1815 fought between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies, and its Native American allies.  Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars.  By the war's end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved and peace returned with no boundary changes.

The United States declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by the British war with France, the impressment of as many as 10,000 American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support for Native American tribes fighting European American settlers on the frontier, outrage over insults to national honor during the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, and interest in the United States in expanding its borders west. The primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies; they also hoped to set up a neutral Native American buffer state in the US Midwest that would impede US expansion in the Old Northwest and to minimize American trade with Napoleonic France, which Britain was blockading. At the outset of the 19th century, Great Britain was locked in a long and bitter conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte's France.  In an attempt to cut off supplies from reaching the enemy, both sides attempted to block the United States from trading with the other.