A lot of people,especially on the internet, preach about how America lost the war of 1812. Most people cite Britain burning down the White House as evidence. However when I read deeper into it it seems like America won. The war of 1812 is typically referred to as “America’s second war for independence”. We achieved our goals of stopping British impressment and re-established American independence. Further more we won a stunning victory at the Battle of New Orleans. With all of this,I don’t understand why people say America lost?
I have written extensively on this topic, but to give a brief summary, the US definitely did not win the war.
The US declared war for three principal reasons:
Ending the British practice of Impressment, in which British-born sailors were pressed into service in the Royal Navy; American sailors were sometimes targetted in this practice (the "sailor's rights" of "free trade and sailor's rights!")
Ending the British general blockade of the European mainland in their efforts against Napoleon, called the Orders in Council (the "free trade" of "free trade and sailor's rights").
Ending British support of Native American sovereignty and their gun and fur trade, and further to end the new confederacy under Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (which the US incorrectly perceived as being a Native arm of British politics).
In order to achieve these aims, the Madison administration's strategy was to capture Canada, then a British colony, and to either annex it or use it as a piece of leverage to extract British political and economic concessions.
And the reason people say that the US lost is because they dismally failed to capture Canada, and none of the issues that provoked the war were resolved by it, apart from ending British support of Native interests. The first two issues were voluntarily rescinded by the British government either before the war (the orders in council) or as a result of their first victory against Napoleon in 1814 (impressment; without Napoleon, the manpower needs of the Royal Navy didn't demand impressment anymore). They won a handful of battles, yes, and prevented a couple of British invasions, but their chief aim in the war was the conquest of Canada, which repeatedly failed. Furthermore, the US was in such a sorry state that, even after the battles of Plattsburgh and New Orleans, the two marquee victories for the US, they would likely not be able to afford pursuing it into 1815; they had exhausted their national credit to the extent that banks were unwilling to lend more money, and the anti-war sentiment - always strong - was growing even despite the huge victories mentioned above.
Jon Latimer's 1812: The War with America is a great overview of the war with a particular interest in explorings its connection to the conflict with Napoleon.