Great Britain had been at war with France since 1793 and imposed trade restrictions that the newly formed United States of America found unbearable. On June 18, 1812, the United States of America declared war on Great Britain based in part on the impressment of America soldiers into the British Navy, restraints on neutral trade, and anger at British support of American Indians. President James Madison thought attacking Canada would compel Britain to change her policies. Neither country was prepared for war, as Britain had been fighting France, and the United States had only a 20 years old Navy with just 12 vessels to fight the largest Navy in the world at the time. The War of 1812 was fought on many fronts from the defeat at Toronto to the last battle in New Orleans in 1815. The Treaty of Ghent was ratified February 17, 1815. Little had changed, except this war gave the United States a greater status on the world stage, and it has been called the Second War of Independence. In the Chesapeake Campaign, the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay were declared in a state of blockade on December 16, 1812, and beginning in March 1813 British Rear Admiral George Cockburn blockaded the bay and raided towns and farms along its shores and rivers. On July 4, 1813, Joshua Barney convinced the United States Navy to build a Chesapeake Flotilla, and although its twenty ships harassed Cockburn's fleet, they could not stop the British invasion. Barney's flotilla withdrew up the Patuxent River and was scuttled to prevent capture, and Barney and his men then marched to Bladensburg to reinforce American troops and fought valiantly but in vain. During the first invasion, on August 19, 1814, British Rear Admiral Cockburn, under Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, landed 4,500 troops on the Patuxent River at Benedict, Maryland. With General Ross, the British began their march toward Washington on August 20 while Cockburn's fleet sailed upstream, defeated the Americans at Bladensburg, entered a deserted capital, and burned the city before returning to Benedict and sailing for Baltimore. Ross later moved toward Baltimore but was mortally wounded by American sniper fire before the Battle of North Point, and Cochrane later directed the bombardment of Fort McHenry, the event that gave rise to Francis Scott Key's poem that became the "Star Spangled Banner."