Local and national perspectives on the War of 1812: the birth of patriotism

George Cooper | Staff Writer

The War of 1812 is a sometimes overlooked but nonetheless important conflict in the United States’ coalescence and national identity. As that war contributed to the country, so did Chautauqua County contribute to that war. To explain some of the local, Chautauqua County connection to the War of 1812, and to situate it within the scheme of the whole war, the Oliver Archives Heritage Lecture Series will sponsor Traci Langworthy, assistant professor of history at Jamestown Community College, today at 3:30 p.m. in the Hall of Christ. She will lecture on “In the Shadows of War: Chautauqua Region and the War of 1812.”

Langworthy has been at Jamestown Community College full time since 2004, where she has taught U.S. and world history. She also has developed a course in local history that explores some of the area’s contributions to U.S. history.

The three years of war were a difficult time in Chautauqua County. In her book, Chautauqua County: A History, Helen G. McMahon wrote: “The county was separated only by Lake Erie from enemy territory, and was scarcely forty miles from the fighting. The scattered settlers, who had all they could do to get along in the best of times, had no reserves for the rigorous war years. And finally, the county was dependent for protection upon state militia, which lacked training, equipment, provisions, and leadership.”

Nonetheless, some of the first fighting of the war took place in Chautauqua County at the mouth of the Canadaway Creek near Dunkirk. Langworthy said that though one or another community might claim the first shots as their own, scholars disagree on the “where” and “when.”

But they agree that through the war, Chautauqua County sacrificed. The county’s first white settlements broke ground in the early 1800s, barely taking a foothold by the time war began in 1812. So close was the fighting, “you didn’t have to have a family member in the conflict to feel it,” Langworthy said.

Nineteenth century historian Obed Edson wrote about how strongly the War of 1812 affected the people of Chautauqua County. Men called into the militia had to leave their crops — the only equity they had as well as the food needed to sustain their families. People starved. The winter was hard.

After having just settled, some families returned to the East from where they had come. Or men would “send wives and children back to their New England homes.” It was no small effort, as the families were, by and large, poor, having been able to purchase land in Chautauqua County only due to the generous terms laid out by the Holland Land Company.

In spite of its local and national impact, the War of 1812 is often forgotten. The war’s path is difficult to track, because it was fought mostly by militias, for which men did not have to muster in or muster out.

“This was not an army as we think of one today. They were not regular soldiers. No. They were husbands, and fathers and sons called into duty when they were needed,” Langworthy said.

As when Buffalo burned.

“There was a desperate call to arms and Chautauqua County headed to Buffalo,” she said.

But, the cause of the war and its effects are difficult to pinpoint and explain. “We remember a war for what it is useful for.”

The Revolutionary War created the U.S., Langworthy said. The War of 1812 is not as significant. It is known as the second war for independence. As much as anything, it is a war by which America found its patriotism.

The battle of Fort McHenry. “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans. “My students remember the Battle of New Orleans,” Langworthy said, even though it happened after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed. The war was essentially over. The battle probably made little difference. But it is a battle people remember.