“What I find particularly interesting about this war is that historians disagree on who if anyone won the war. Wesley Turner, who taught at Brock University, wrote a book titled The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won. Andrew Duncan Campbell, a Canadian, who taught at the University of Wales at Swansea, wrote in his book Unlikely Allies on page 11 : ‘…the treaty signed at Ghent was an admission by both sides that neither had won the conflict….’ In a recent book by British historian Jeremy Black, The War of 1812 in The Age of Napoleon, the author states on pages 239 and 240: ‘The failure of both powers to achieve their goals and vindicate fully their martial reputation and image encouraged in each a measure of prudence and restraint that was to be important.’

It seems that it is possible to find an historian for whatever view one finds most agreeable.”

I think this person has it right.

Gary

Here lies Edith Bolling Galt, beautiful swan
By the pen of a stroke, First woman President
If she can vote, why not all woman
Hence the 19th Amendment
RIP
Nobody was faster

One tip: definitely do your homework before you go. You have to figure out how you are going to get on and off the island (ferries make this easy), book in advance (since this place is so popular), figure out how you are going to get around: biking, walking, carriage, horse taxis; and plan enough time to take in everything.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: if you are at the Grand Hotel, whether staying or visiting, after 6:00 p.m. men must be in suit jackets and women in skirts or dresses. How fancy!

As American History Professor Donald Hickey states in his new book (Don’t Give up the Ship: Myths of the War of 1812): Who Won the War? “there are actually five groups of participants that must be considered: The biggest winner was Canada; then came Great Britain; and then the Indians living in Canada. The biggest losers were the Indians living in the United States [98% of them were exterminated by the end of the19th Century]; after them came the United States itself, which … for the first time in its history lost a war.”

When the War of 1812 started America’s leaders thought an invasion of Canada would be “a mere matter of marching,” as Thomas Jefferson confidently predicted. How could a nation of 8 million fail to subdue a struggling colony of 300,000? Yet, when the campaign year of 1812 ended, the only Americans left on Canadian soil were prisoners of war. Three American armies had been forced to surrender, and the Canadians were in control of all of Michigan Territory and much of Indiana and Ohio.

After two more years of War and another seven invasion attempts, none of Canada was occupied by American Forces and Canadian/British forces occupied large chunks of land within the U.S..
By the end of the War U.S. trade had been strangled to practically nothing, the economy was grinding to a halt, the US Navy was blockaded in port, the US Army faced increasingly hostile odds on land, and the nation’s capital city lay in ashes. … And the issue over which America had gone to war — the impressment of seamen — was tactfully ignored in the peace treaty and the captured American territory returned. Too soon, the construction of reassuring myths in the immediate aftermath helped transform a futile and humiliating adventure that aimed to conquer Canada into one of defending the republic.These facts (not “myths”) can all be found in recent books by Pierre Berton (2001), Donald Graves (1999), Jon Latimer (2007) and Donald Hickey (2008).