LYCOS RETRIEVER 
War of 1812: New Orleans
built 277 days ago
Over nearly three centuries, many of the buildings in this historic city have weathered the Civil War, epidemics and fire. But Hurricane Katrina swept in with a vengeance in August, punishing more than 20,000 of the old structures with wind and water damage. The National Shrine of St. Roch's Chapel was damaged by water, which is rotting pews in the historic structure. With Tropical Storm Rita looming and the possibility of rain bearing down on an already battered New Orleans, preservationists fear the worst. On Monday, preservationists made their first foray into some historical districts around the city and began their scramble to save damaged sites from the wrecking ball. But the tour barely touched the surface.
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In his reminiscences, Captain Henry Brush described with precision what newly enlisted recruits wore during the War of 1812. Soldiers were outfitted for service in unbleached, tow-linen hunting shirts and trousers. On their heads they wore low-crown hats, on the left side of which were black cockades about two inches in diameter. A small silver eagle (about the size of a quarter) was fastened in the center of each cockade. Each soldier strapped a leather girdle around his waist, where he carried a tomahawk, a knife, a cartridge box, a bayonet, and a quart-sized tin canteen. He was armed with a musket and shouldered a linen knapsack with a blanket lashed to the top.
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New York State passed, in 1857, a law to compensate unpaid claims for service in the War of 1812. Responding to this veterans' act, a group of Oneidas filed requests to recover costs they (or their parents) had incurred for transportation and equipment during the war years. One of these documents indicates that Oneida Jake Antoine served at Sackets Harbor almost immediately after the start of the war (Declaration 10,566). He asked to be reimbursed for use of his own equipment (including a rifle) and noted he was owed $60 in pay.
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Militia bands were a common sight during the War of 1812. The first military band of New York City was organized in 1810 and offered its' services to the 11th Regiment of the New York Militia. It was stationed at Bledsoe's Island in the New York Harbor, the site of the Statue of Liberty. The band served throughout the War of 1812.
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The United States no longer questioned the need for a strong Navy and indeed completed three new 74 gun ships of the line and two new 44 gun frigates shortly after the end of the war. (Another frigate had been destroyed to prevent it being captured on the stocks). In 1816 the U.S. Congress passed into law an "Act for the gradual increase of the Navy" at a cost of one million dollars a year for eight years authorizing nine ships of the line and 12 heavy frigates. The Captains and Commodores of the U.S. Navy became the heroes of their generation in the United States. Decorated plates and pitchers of Decatur, Hull, Bainbridge, Lawrence, Perry and Macdonough were made in Staffordshire, England, and found a ready market in the United States. Three of the war heroes used their celebrity to win national office: Andrew Jackson (elected president in 1828 and 1832), Richard Mentor Johnson (elected vice president in 1836), and William Henry Harrison (elected president in 1840).
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By 1810, the national spirit began to revive, and there was increased talk of the possibility of war. The centers of this new demand for war were in the Mississippi Valley and in the South Atlantic states. Historians disagree on the causes of the war feeling in the West and South. Some have argued that the Westerners now were beginning to demand war because of the increasing Indian problem in the Northwest, and the suspicion, that the British in Canada were instigating this hostility. Certainly the Northwest had been growing increasingly agitated since 1805 owing to the growth of Tecumseh's Confederacy, and Governor William Henry Harrison of Indiana clashed with the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe on Nov. 7, 1811. Others have suggested that the Southerners wanted to seize Florida.
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