I was watching a History program today called The Real Story.  They take famous movies about historical events and try to test the truth.  This version was about the movie Master and Commander

The program is obviously produced in US.  In it they were discussing the structure of the US built warships of the period since the French warship was supposedly built in the US.

They describe the war of 1812 (and this is a quote) where “America fought off the attempt of Britain to reclaim them as a Colony”  What a bunch of BS.  US declared war on Britain who was fully involved at the time in fighting Napoleon and had actually pulled most of their troops from Canada.  The last thing Britain wanted was another war theatre.

US president Madison wanted to appease Senators from Southern States and agreed to invade Canada to take us since they thought it would “be just an matter of marching”   They got defeated in almost all of their attempts (aside from the burning of Toronto)

The few times I have discussed the history of this war with Americans they thought that it was just a defense on their part and of course the Battle of New Orleans was the only battle.  If they knew a little more they may recall that the US Constitution heavy frigate wiped the seas of the British Fleet (in fact it was one single encounter against a smaller British Frigate)

Oh history.  I regret that Pat and I could not make it down to Ontario last summer to attend any of the battle reinactments  At least some Real Truth