On the rainy evening of June 19th, 1813, the battle of Troupesville, later renamed Sodus Point, was fought at the brow of this hill when approximately 60 Americans, including farmers with no military training and poorly trained militia, fired on about 200 British marines as they ascended the hill. Two Americans, Asher Warner and Charles Terry, and three British soldiers later died from wounds received. After the initial volley, the Americans retreated into the underbrush and the British withdrew to five ships anchored offshore. Three Americans were captured as the two sides intermingled in the darkness, but they were released the next day. On the following day, British ships fired cannons into the village and landed again, but the Americans had already removed most supplies from the local warehouse and hidden them in a nearby ravine. The British then burned all the public buildings except Mansion House, where the mortally wounded Asher Warner had been moved by British soldiers; it is said they placed a pitcher of water near him, and officers twice put out a fire started by their men to destroy the building. The War of 1812 began when the United States declared war on Great Britain on June 28, 1812, the first time the United States declared war on another nation, and it continued from 1812 to 1814 as an armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain rather than between the U.S. and Canada. Its causes included trade tensions, impressments, British support for Indian raids, and U.S. territorial expansion. In August 1814, the British captured and burned Washington DC. Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner in 1814 after witnessing the bombardment of Ft. McHenry by British naval ships, and it became the United States national anthem in 1931. After five months of negotiations, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in late 1814, though news of the treaty reached the US weeks later, so the Battle of New Orleans took place after it was signed. The war ultimately led to independence for both the U.S. and Canada. Modeled on the International Peace Garden concept that originated in Canada in 1990, a permanent trail of peace gardens has been established along the historic route where events of the war determined the future of Canada, the United States, and the fate of many First Nations and Native American people. Covering more than 600 miles in the USA and Canada, this cooperative initiative of the International Peace Garden Foundation, 1812 Legacy Council, and many volunteers is intended to draw visitors and residents to the region while commemorating the peace that has existed between Canada and the United States over the past 200 years.