Major military engagements organized by theater.
The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, was a decisive American victory during the War of 1812, ending the last British invasion of the northern United States and influencing the Treaty of Ghent negotiations.
The Battle of Tallushatchee, fought on November 3, 1813, in present-day Calhoun County, Alabama, was the first major American victory of the Creek War. Andrew Jackson’s subordinate John Coffee led about 900 Tennessee mounted troops in destroying the Red Stick Creek town of Tallushatchee, killing 186 residents, including women and children.
In August 1814, British forces captured Washington, D.C., and set fire to the President’s House (now the White House) in retaliation for the American burning of York. The event shocked the nation, but the building was swiftly rebuilt, and the white paint used to cover the scorch marks helped cement its lasting name.
In August 1814, British forces occupied Spanish Pensacola in West Florida as a staging base for operations against the United States, but Andrew Jackson’s army captured the town in November 1814, forcing the British to withdraw and eliminating a strategic threat.
The Battle of Châteauguay, fought on 26 October 1813, saw Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry lead a small force of Canadian Voltigeurs, militia, and Indigenous allies to repel a much larger American army, protecting Montreal and becoming a defining moment in French-Canadian identity.
The Siege of Detroit (15–16 August 1812) was an early War of 1812 engagement in which British and Indigenous forces under Major General Isaac Brock and Tecumseh compelled the surrender of American Brigadier General William Hull’s larger army at Fort Detroit, securing the Michigan Territory for Britain.
After the American naval victory at Plattsburgh on September 11, 1814, British commander Sir George Prevost called off the land assault and retreated to Canada. The retreat stemmed from the loss of naval support, fears for supply lines, and Prevost’s cautious judgment, a decision that many subordinates and later historians have debated.
At the Battle of Queenston Heights on 13 October 1812, American Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott took command of the U.S. force on the heights after his superiors were wounded, and was forced to surrender to the British after militia reinforcements refused to cross the Niagara River.
The Battle of Frenchtown, fought on January 18 and 22, 1813, near present-day Monroe, Michigan, was a decisive British and Indigenous victory during the War of 1812. The defeat and subsequent massacre of American prisoners sparked the rallying cry ‘Remember the Raisin’.
The Battle of New Orleans, fought on January 8, 1815, was the final major land engagement of the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson’s ragtag American force decisively repulsed a British invasion, securing New Orleans and the Mississippi River and catapulting Jackson to national fame.
