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Category Archives: War of 1812

Whitman at 200

31 Friday May 2019

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Incorporating New York (book manuscript project), Robert Moses, Walt Whitman, War of 1812

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Walt Whitman was born in this farmhouse in 1819. The family moved to Brooklyn four years.

Walt Whitman was born in the farming community of Huntington, Long Island on May 31, 1819, two hundred years ago today. He was the second of what would eventually be nine children, one of whom died in infancy. Whitman had a strong sense of history and always believed he was taking part in a large historical narrative, probably because he was. Whitman and his family feature prominently in my book manuscript “Incorporating New York,” and I just may write a fair bit about the Whitmans over the summer. A friend and I intend to see the exhibit at the Grolier Club in the coming weeks or months. He also lived across the street from where I work, which has always made him seem that much more immediate to me. The Brooklyn printing house where he set the type for the first edition of Leaves of Grass was torn down in the early 1960s to make way for a Robert Moses project. Whitman and his siblings gloried in listening to stories of how their Long Island elders tricked the Redcoats during the British occupation in Revolutionary War.

By the time Walt Whitman was born the second round against the British—the War of 1812—had been over for nearly half a decade. During this Era of Good Feelings there was a feeling of optimism in the young republic, that the country held great possibility. A sense of history was clearly not lost on the parents; three of Walt’s brothers were named George Washington Whitman, Thomas Jefferson Whitman, and Andrew Jackson Whitman. George Whitman became an officer in the 51st New York Volunteers during the American Civil War, serving in the Army of the Potomac. It was after hearing of George’s wounding at the Battle of Fredericksburg that Walt rushed down South. His brother was okay, but what Walt saw in the hospitals horrified him. It was then that he became a nurse in the wards.

The Whitmans’ story is nothing less than the story of nineteenth century America. In addition to the Grolier exhibit I mentioned, there will be a number of other events in New York and elsewhere for those inclined.

(image/Jerrye & Roy Klotz MD via Wikimedia Commons)

Sunday Morning Coffee

02 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in War of 1812

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268245 war_1812_npsToward the end of last summer the NPS released The War of 1812: Official National Park Service Handbook. The book was released for the bicentennial of that conflict, which  is passing along with disappointedly little fanfare. Hopefully there will be increased interest as we mark such events as the Siege of Fort Erie all the way through the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans in January 2015.

When I was on the Mall a few weeks back I picked up a copy at the Eastern National next to the Washington Monument. What I like about the Park Service handbooks is that the chapters are written by first-tier scholars and focus a wide range of topics. As did the Civil War handbook, the 1812 offering covers a wide ranger of economic and social topics, not just the minutiae of the battles.

One of the issues I am most interested in is the generational element between the Revolutionary War, 1812, and Civil War participants. It is intriguing that so many men in both the Union and Confederate armies thought of themselves as carrying on the traditions of 1776 and 1812. This is something that we have all of course know; it hit me with full force two years ago when I saw the Star-Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The flag that flew over Fort McHenry was commissioned by George Armistead, the uncle of Lewis Armistead who was mortally wounded in Pickett’s Charge. The flag was in the possession of the Armistead family until they gave it to the federal government in the early twentieth century, which they undoubtedly did as a gesture of reconciliation.

I am looking forward to delving into the handbook. I imagine in the coming weeks I will read an essay each morning during the am commute on the subway.

Hiram Cronk, cont’d

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Keith Muchowski in War of 1812

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In June I wrote the post below about Hiram Cronk, the last veteran of the War of 1812. Aging veterans are fascinating for their ordinariness. As it turns out Cronk’s descendants are still living in New York State and have more information about their ancestor who voted for Andrew Jackson and shook hands with Lafayette during his famous 1824 visit.

I have been boning up on my War of 1812 for the bicentennial and my volunteer duties at Governors Island. America’s Second War of Independence is not something I know a whole lot about and I am finding myself increasingly intrigued and intellectually excited. It is going to be a great summer. Below is some wonderful film footage of the funeral of Hiram Cronk, the last known veteran of that conflict. The one-time private died in 1905 and was given a funeral with full military honors in Manhattan. Afterward, Cronk was held in state in New York’s City Hall and subsequently buried in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills National Cemetery. There was nothing unique about the man or his military service. As I have written before, aged veterans eventually become famous by virtue of their longevity. Cronk was born in 1800, a year after George Washington died, and lived into Teddy Roosevelt’s second term. He would have been sixty-five when President Lincoln was assassinated, and he still lived another four decades after that. Pretty crazy, huh?

Remembering the War of 1812

01 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Memory, War of 1812

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I mentioned a few weeks ago that the bicentennial of the War of 1812 is now underway. To be specific it began on June 18, the anniversary of President Madison’s signing of the Declaration of War against Britain. Americans so far have not paid much attention to this milestone, probably because the war was such a politically, militarily, and morally ambiguous episode in our nation’s history. Even the name of the conflict is unhelpful; General Andrew Jackson stopped the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. North of the border it is a different story. The Canadian government is going all out to mark the event. In all the articles I have read so far in my crash course on the war by far the most thoughtful is this piece by Jon Wells. The best way to think of the war is an an international event, especially as part of the Napoleonic Wars. When the war ended America’s westward expansion also began in earnest. No less than six states joined the Union between 1816 and 1821, the last being Missouri (1821) after the Compromise of 1820. We all know what that helped eventually lead to.

Thankfully, the New York State Museum has created a website to recognize the Empire State’s significant role in the war.

(image courtesy MJC Detroit/Perry’s Victory and Internation Peace Memorial, South Bass Island, Ottawa County, Ohio)

Hiram Cronk

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Keith Muchowski in War of 1812

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I have been boning up on my War of 1812 for the bicentennial and my volunteer duties at Governors Island. America’s Second War of Independence is not something I know a whole lot about and I am finding myself increasingly intrigued and intellectually excited. It is going to be a great summer. Below is some wonderful film footage of the funeral of Hiram Cronk, the last known veteran of that conflict. The one-time private died in 1905 and was given a funeral with full military honors in Manhattan. Afterward, Cronk was held in state in New York’s City Hall and subsequently buried in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills National Cemetery. There was nothing unique about the man or his military service. As I have written before, aged veterans eventually become famous by virtue of their longevity. Cronk was born in 1800, a year after George Washington died, and lived into Teddy Roosevelt’s second term. He would have been sixty-five when President Lincoln was assassinated, and he still lived another four decades after that. Pretty crazy, huh?

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