Battle Of Fayal

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Source

"...Captain Reid...had indeed done wonders, for so great was the damage he inflicted that the fleet was forced to stay a week at Fayal burying the dead and caring for the wounded. That week's delay was most important, for the Rota, the Plantagenet, and the Carnation, on their way to Jamaica to join the expedition against New Orleans, were prevented by the fight at Fayal from arriving on time and so delayed the fleet of Pakenham that Jackson had time to defend New Orleans.

Captain Reid, by his splendid defence of the General Armstrong, may therefore justly be said to have contributed not a little to Jackson's great victory on the banks of the Mississippi. [Source]

The Marble Statue Of Queen Luise

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Source

"It was an odd coincidence that the completed statue (monument of Queen Luise) left Rome on July 19th, the day of the Queen's death.  But England in that year was at war with the United States, and so it happened that a Yankee privateer overhauled the British merchantman, too her prisoner, and sailed away with her precious cargo.  But the captured merchantman was in turn chased and overhauled by the English privateer Elisa, so that once more the monument of Queen Luise sailed under the British flag."

The statue reached Berlin May 22, 1815.

An interesting blog post, Napoleon's Beautiful Enemy: Queen Louise of Prussia, can be seen here.

Withstood The British

"A hundred years are many years too many for a nation such as this to harbor hate against an ancient foe. The British soldiers in the War of 1812 were as brave as Europe has ever produced. All the greater, therefore, the glory of, for example, our "rabble" of convalescents and militia successfully withstanding three times their number of the very flower of Wellington's army victorious in the Peninsula — the best soldiers, by long odds, that the Iron Duke ever commanded!" [Source]

Thoughts Of War Compared To 1940

Napoleon

Excerpts from a book published Christmas, 1940 [before a "date that will live in infamy" and the Declaration Of War by the United States]:


"Across the sea, even as in 1940, a world-shaking conflict was going on. Although America desired to have no part in it, our national rights and our peaceful commerce were assailed with fine impartiality by both warring nations."

"...it was reserved for his [Jefferson's] political heir, President Madison, to pilot the country through a three-year war."

"...we declared war in 1812 upon the greatest military power in the world. If Denmark in the spring of 1940 had declared war upon Germany and confidently anticipated romping into Berlin in a few weeks' time, the exhibition of national folly suggested would have been scarcely more astounding." 

"As it turned out, such factors as our distance from Europe and the preoccupation of Great Britain with the Napoleonic struggle preserved America from the national defeat and dismemberment we had so rashly invited. Saved by a hairsbreadth from such a fate...".

The Great Disturber

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Napoleon's land grab in Europe had consequences for North America.  Troops devoted to stopping him were not available for duty in America until the War of 1812 was well underway.

Per Maple Leaves:....

The great disturber of Europe, Napoleon the 1st, having been sent a prisoner...enabled Great Britain to send a portion of her veteran army, under the illustrious Wellington, to prosecute the war with America--the brunt of which had, for two years, been nobly sustained by the militia of Canada, assisted by the mere handful of regulars which had been left in the country.

Note: Napoleon specifically "disturbed" the Palm family as well:

We are distantly related to Johann Philip Palm who is famous in Europe as the person who was executed upon orders by Napoleon for "publishing and distributing libelous pamphlets about France and Napoleon."