The Forgotten Battle

President Harry S. Truman called the War of 1812 “the silliest damned war we ever fought” and said it should have been resolved through diplomacy, yet Congress declared war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812. The war was mainly waged in the north and at the Canadian border until May 1814, when Britain extended its blockade of the East Coast to include Georgia. At that time, the British vessels HMS Morgiana and HMS Majestic were seen in the St. Marys River, and the Georgia Militia was immediately activated. In the fall of 1814, the British made plans to invade Georgia to prepare for a defense of New Orleans. On January 10, 1815, the British fleet commanded by Admiral George Cockburn, who had burned Washington, D.C. and unsuccessfully attacked Ft. McHenry, put troops on Cumberland Island and commandeered Dungeness, the home of Mrs. Shaw, the widow of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene.

Yulee, Florida · United States