- Historic Sites August/September 2002 | Volume 53, Issue 4 In
the aftermath of last September’s attacks, there was, for the
first time in my memory, a good deal of talk about the War of
1812. This most underrated (in terms of both significance and
intrinsic interest) of our national conflicts saw a number of
humiliating military defeats and the destruction of a good part
of the capital, and now we were being reminded that this was the
last time such things had taken place on American soil. This is
both true and not true. Certainly it was the last time a foreign
power made a successful foray into the United States, but we
should remember that the destruction of the Civil War, though
brought about by our own hand, was immeasurably greater. In last
December’s issue, James McPherson pointed out that 2 percent of
the population died in the conflict; if that happened to us
today, it would mean five and half million dead Americans. How
does a nation absorb such losses and continue to function?
George R. Stewart end