The following article is Part One of a two part series on the causes of the War of 1812 and the effects on our local community.

For most Americans, the War of 1812 is a forgotten conflict overshadowed by the American Revolution before it and the tragedy of the Civil War that followed it a generation later. For those that lived through the War of 1812, it provided a stark reminder that the United States was not quite ready to challenge the British on the world stage even as it revealed a tough new breed of American that would one day lead the world. For the Gulf Coast and the future Baldwin County specifically it provided a legacy and a foundation for the rich heritage that we celebrate today.

The complexity of the War of 1812 has perhaps obscured the conflict among the many the United States has been involved in over 230 plus years. It did not boast the splendor of creating a nation as did the American Revolution nor did it contain the pain and struggle to maintain the Union that was the focus of the Civil War. And, more recently, the cause of freedom that is expressed through the American effort in World War II has come to dominate our understanding of what war should represent if, in fact, war becomes the only alternative. The War of 1812, when compared to these more widely understood conflicts is, for the most part, an enigma. The causes that led to the war are varied and broad while also localized at the same time. Nationally, impressments of American sailors by the British navy played a major role in the growing animosity between the American and the British. Locally, tensions between the Creek Indians and settlers throughout the Old Southwest applied another layer to the complex nature of the event. It was the effects of this tension that came to shape Baldwin County in its earliest stages.

On the national stage, the War of 1812 resulted from several points of contention between the American government and that of Great Britain. One such issue centered on the impressment of American sailors by the British navy. Impressments as defined by Merriam-Webster are “the act of seizing for public use or of impressing into public service.” The British navy had, by the first decade of the 19th century, begun to stop American ships at sea, board them, and remove anyone they suspected of being a British citizen. The British government maintained that they were detaining British subjects that were escaping service in the Royal navy by sailing under the American flag. In turn, the American government suspected that the impressment activities were part of a larger effort by the British to weaken their long time enemy, the French, by reducing the potential commerce shipped to them on American vessels.

In pursuing their policy, the British also seized an estimated 5,000 – 9,000 Americans illegally. Beyond their attempt at gaining an advantage over the French, the British were not above creating an air of superiority in their dealings with the American state which only 10 years prior had secured its independence from the British crown. Regardless of the reasons for impressments the act angered the American government and incensed the American public.

The call for the halt to British impressments reached its apex in the summer of 1807. In June of that year, the American naval frigate Chesapeake came under fire from a British vessel, the “Leopard.” The commander of the “Leopard” approached the American ship and demanded to search for British deserters. After the refusal from the Americans the British ship opened fire, killing and wounding several American sailors. Quickly, the Chesapeake surrendered, after which time a British detachment boarded her and removed four crewmen accused of being British deserters. The incident heightened the tension between the two countries even as the British stepped up their campaign to supply their Indian allies in the interior of North America.