Many of the battlefields from the War of 1812 still exist today.

The War of 1812 has been called “America’s Forgotten War.” It is studied much less than the American Revolution or the Civil War, as a result, many of its battlefields are ignored for development. In 2007 the National Parks Service identified 214 battlefields and other important sites of the War of 1812. However, development has placed these sites in danger, the National Parks service identified that 50% are destroyed or fragmented and 25% of these sites would be destroyed in the next decade.

One of the most known battlefields from the War of 1812 these days is Châteauguay. The quiet fields in the distance are along the Châteauguay River approximately where Lieutenant-Colonel Charles-Michel de Salaberry in October 1813 gathered a force of 1,600 to face an army of more than 2,600 led by Major-General Wade Hampton who was bent on capturing Montreal and isolating the British forces in Upper Canada. De Salaberry’s force, consisting of the French-speaking Canadian Voltigeurs along with some British regular forces, local militia, and Mohawks, drove Hampton’s force into retreat. The Americans retreated across the fields in disarray. The enemy suffered approximately 75 killed, wounded, or missing while the British lost fewer than 20 men. The Battle of Châteauguay saved the city of Montreal and de Salaberry became a Canadian folk hero as early accounts greatly embellished the size of the American forces he and his small group of Voltigeurs had faced.

You can still revisit this place in Montreal, Canada which was once a fierce battlefield in the War of 1812.