by Thundertaker » Sat Sep 01, 2012 4:19 pm
Battle of New Orleans? Didn't affect the treaty of Ghent, and in any case, shortly after the Battle, Britain won the last engagement of the war by capturing Fort Bowyer and were about to attack (and probably capture) Mobile, Alabama when news of the treaty arrived and so they packed up and went home instead.
Objectively speaking, the aggressor in a war cannot claim a victory for a status quo ante bellum result, the defender on the other hand, can. Britain tried to avoid this war through diplomatic means, but the Americans were quite gung-ho for it, and were the ones who declared war and subsequently failed to achieve their initial war aims. Their aims towards the end of the war were forced to evolve massively, so that by the end they were basically reduced to trying to avoid getting their asses kicked too hard by the vengeful British troops and Canadian militias, which they did achieve to a certain extent, but mitigating a defeat is nowhere near the same thing as winning a victory...