<P> The British Army regarded the 1812 - 15 conflict in Canada and America as a sideshow . Only one regiment, the 41st, was awarded a battle honor (Detroit) from the war . The army was more interested in the lessons of the Peninsular War in Spain . The battle New Orleans could be conveniently attributed to poor leadership or insuperable physical obstacles and British attention was given to the Royal Navy's successful capture of the American flagship which the Americans conveniently overlooked . If generalship had been better, it was believed, then British would have been successfully at New Orleans . Due to the huge, overwhelming success and pre-eminence of the Duke of Wellington in Europe, the British army was to make no change to its systems of recruitment, discipline and awards of commissions for more than half a century . </P> <P> The British suffered 5,000 killed or wounded soldiers and sailors in the war . </P> <P> The gloom in New England, which staunchly opposed the war, culminated in December 1814, as delegates from five states met secretly in the Hartford Convention . It demanded constitutional amendments to protect New England's interests against the West and the South . Secession talk was rife and the region might have threatened to secede from the Union, if their demands had been ignored, but the news of peace ended the movement . </P> <P> The United States had faced near - disaster in 1814, but the victories at the Battle of New Orleans and the Battle of Baltimore and what seemed to be a successful fight against the United Kingdom increased national patriotism and helped to unite the United States into one nation . Meanwhile, the loss of the American flagship USS President was conveniently overlooked by the public . The best - known patriotic legacy of the war was The Star Spangled Banner . The words are by Francis Scott Key, who after the bombardment of Fort McHenry set them to the music of a British drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven ." In 1889 the U.S. Navy began using The Star Spangled Banner at flag - raising ceremonies, a practice copied by the Army . In 1931, Congress made it the U.S. National Anthem . </P>

Examine the impact of the war of 1812 on british north america and the united states