The Incredible War of 1812: A Military History. Rev. ed.

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of history at Brock
University and the author of The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides
Won and The Military in the Niagara Peninsula.

This republication of “possibly the best single-volume account of that
strange and far-off conflict”—originally published in 1965—will be
welcomed by readers interested in the War of 1812 and in
Canadian–American relations. Donald E. Graves edited this new edition,
keeping the original text, preface, and one appendix. He has added 10
new maps, many illustrations, seven appendixes, and an extensive updated
bibliography of published and unpublished sources. The original work had
no references, although it contained many quotations. It took
considerable searching by Graves and four other historians to locate the
sources both for quotations and for other parts of the text. Scholars
will certainly appreciate their efforts.

In 15 chapters, Hitsman covers the background from 1783 to the outbreak
of war in 1812, command decisions on both sides, campaigns and battles
on land and sea, the qualities of leaders and troops on each side, the
negotiations for peace, the Treaty of Ghent, and the war’s legacies in
Canada and the United States. The narrative is clear and direct (and
sometimes dramatic), and Hitsman provides astute analyses of the causes,
course, and outcome of the conflict, as well as of the leaders on both
sides.

Two themes are dominant. The first is the restriction imposed by the
British government on their commander-in-chief in North America, Sir
George Prevost, who was required to follow a cautious, defensive
strategy. The second theme is the influence of European events on the
war in North America. This updated edition of a classic history should
remain a standard work on the “incredible” War of 1812 for some time
to come.