Submitted by Gay Harowe, President of the Benjamin Devane Chapter, Floridal

Florida

Ring the Bells for 1812, Monday in LakeWales

Submitted by Gay Harowe, President of the Benjamin DeVane Chapter, Floridal

: Published in the LakeWales News 15 June, 2012

Bells will be ringing in LakeWales on Monday to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812. Bells of the Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian churches will join the BokTower carillon at noon to mark the occasion. “If you have a bell and would like to help remember the start of the second war for independence please join in, says Karen Wolzanski, representative with the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The War of 1812 was declared by Congress and signed into law by President James Madison on June 18, 1812. “There were many reasons for legislators to vote for the war. A well known motive was the impressment of American seamen into the Royal Navy. A more important explanation for the southern senators vote was Britain’s support of native North Americans. By creating an Indian buffer state, Britain hoped to contain American westward expansion.

Everyone knows that Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became our national anthem during the bombardment of FortMcHenry. Did you know that he was accurately describing the attack? According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the rockets’ red glare was caused by British missiles called Congreves, which looked a bit like giant bottle rockets. They were a long stick attached to a cylindrical canister filled with gunpowder, tar and shrapnel. Congreves were inaccurate but intimidating; an 1814 version of shock and awe. The bombs bursting in air were 200 pound cannonballs, designed to explode above their target,” said Wolzanski.

The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, was ratified by the United States on Feb. 17, 1815. According to this treaty, neither Great Britain nor the Americans gained territory from each other. However, the United States acquired Mobile, Ala., and parts of west Florida from Spain as a result of the war.

Ring the Bells for 1812 is a nation wide program sponsored by the United States Daughters of 1812. The Benjamin DeVane Chapter is supporting the project in Polk and Hillsborough counties. For information about joining USD1812, contact Karen Wolzanski 863-692-0038.

Georgia

Library Displays

War of 1812 Display at the Washington Memorial Library, Genealogy Room, in Macon, GA.

Submitted by:

Judy Wall Smith, Chairman Georgia Society USD 1812 Bicentennial Committee

GEORGIA BICENTENNIAL AT FORT HAWKINS, GEORGIA June 18, 2012

LINK HERE

10 ways to commemorate the War of 1812

Statewide events recall Maryland's pivotal role in the War of 1812

FortMcHenry Guards marched in the colors at the beginning of the ceremony to announce the Star-Spangled Sailabration. (Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun / June 14, 2012)

NEW YORK

Oswego Dedicates Its PeaceGarden

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Steve Yablonski REPORT FROM General Jacob Brown Chapter, Beverly Sterling-Affinati

OSWEGO, NY – Nearly 80 people showed up Saturday afternoon in LeottaPark along East First Street to officially dedicate Oswego’s PeaceGarden.

The 15-star and 15-stripe, 1812 flag

A huge American Flag, with 15 stripes, fluttered in the breeze.

“This is the only (US) flag with 15 stripes,” Tony Leotta pointed out. “The 14th and 15th stripes represent Vermont and Kentucky. This flag was used until, I think, 1822. When the other states were added, they realized they couldn’t add a stripe for every new state. So, they returned to the 13 stripes and added stars instead.”

The garden was originally developed in 2003 by Leotta, the city engineer, and the Jay Saternow family, and several volunteers from the community.

Mayor Tom Gillen chats with Joyce Lorraine, USA project manager of the International Peace Garden Foundation, center, and Paula Savage, president of the group, prior to the ceremony.

“It was named a ‘PeaceGarden’ by the late Frank Clavelli Sr., former member of the Oswego Common Council,” Leotta pointed out.

He and the city’s Department of Public Works along with a group of volunteers have cared for and maintained the garden for the past several years.

The oval-shaped garden was recently expanded and planted with a colorful assortment of marigolds, zinnias, cannis and geraniums.

The 15-star and 15-stripe, 1812 flag has been ordered to fly over the garden.

New signage will be installed to identify the garden as an official site of the War of 1812 Bicentennial Peace Garden Trail.

Sophie DeCaire shows her disdain at being told she can't pick any flowers from the PeaceGarden.

The garden route covers more than 600 miles in the U.S. and Canada and includes 17 peace gardens in communities where events took place during the War of 1812.

Joyce Lorraine, USA project manager of the International Peace Garden Foundation, said the first gardens were in recognition of sharing the longest undefended border in the world since the War of 1812.

“Since then, these peace gardens have been going around the world, from country to country,” she said.

Paula Savage, president of the organization added it was originally “only going to be three or four gardens along the Niagara River on the Canadian and on the American side.”

But, she said, there is a lot more to the War of 1812 than just the Niagara River. And so, it became a much larger project.

“We want to embrace all the historic areas,” she told Oswego County Today. “So that is when we started calling all the tourism directors together across the state. The war really had a big impact on the whole eastern part of the country.”

Legislator Louella LeClair presents the city with a county flag. Holding the flag are Mayor Tom Gillen and Mercedes Niess, director of the H. Lee White Marine Museum.

“We’re celebrating 200 years of peace between the United States and Canada,” Savage noted.

The program has been honored by the United Nations “for fostering world peace.”

Mayor Tom Gillen said he was honored to have the PeaceGarden in the PortCity. He praised all of the dozens of volunteers who made it a reality; especially Leotta, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the garden.

“There’s a lot of Tony in this garden,” the mayor said. “It celebrates our relationship with Canada.”

Paul Lear

The garden is actually situated within the confines of LeottaPark. The plaque designating the park area is still in the mayor’s office, Leotta pointed out. It will be erected “at the proper time,” he said modestly.

Paul Lear, superintendent of Fort Ontario State Historic Site, said Oswego was an important military site during the War of 1812, sometimes referred to as the second war for independence.

He provided the large crowd with a brief look at Oswego’s significance during the war.

There were two battles here, one in 1813 and the other in 1814.

Beverly Sterling-Affinati

“On May 5 -7, 1814, British land and naval forces conducted an amphibious assault on FortOntario and the village of Oswego. Lt. Col. George Mitchell, commanding 290 men of the 3rd U.S. Artillery Regiment and a Light Artillery company, 20 sailors from the USS Growler and local militia, fought off one landing attempt and stubbornly resisted a second and final successful British attack before retreating to OswegoFalls,” he said.

Although FortOntario was ultimately destroyed and Oswego captured, the British soon left. Mitchell’s delaying tactics had provided time to remove vital naval stores and supplies upriver to OswegoFalls (now Fulton).

Mercedes Niess

Within a few weeks, ropes, rigging, sails, cannon, powder, and other supplies began flowing again through Oswego to SacketsHarbor. The U.S. Navy was able to maintain pace with British shipbuilders in Kingston, Ontario, in the struggle for naval control of LakeOntario because of Mitchell’s defense of Oswego.

Legislator Louella LeClair presented the city with a flag to fly over the park and garden site.

“May God grant our county and country peace,” she said.

Savage gave the crowd an overview of the International Peace Garden Foundation.

“The garden is a tangible part of this friendship (between nations). Annually, a new country is nominated by the previous recipient country,” she explained. “We are completely volunteer.”

The PeaceGarden idea was expanded to involve all areas that had an historic significance relating to the war.

Mayor Tom Gillen

Today there are 18 bicentennial PeaceGardens along the trail in New York alone. Four more are currently being developed.

These gardens are a place to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers, Savage said, “But, also they have a much greater meaning.”

They also foster partnerships, promote community pride and volunteerism and more, she said.

She encouraged people to “enjoy them, visit them, help maintain them and brag to your out-of-town family and friends about them.”

Beverly Sterling-Affinati, chair of the US Daughters of 1812 Bicentennial, said by dedicating the garden “we are passing our heritage on to future generations.”

Paula Savage

“If you do only one thing when you leave here to day, please remember – remember there was a War of 1812, that it was significant and it was significant because that war cost men their lives! Mothers lost sons, wives lost husbands, girlfriends lost boyfriends,” she said. “As time passes and new generations take the place of older generations, it is easy to forget that they, like you and I, were once real people with real loved ones and real families. It’s easy to forget that any time our lives and communities are disrupted by a war; it costs all of us something. Some kind of sacrifice has to be made and generally that sacrifice is paid for in the way of lives.”

Mercedes Niess, director of the H. Lee White Marine Museum, represented the Great Lakes Seaway Trail.

Some flowers in Oswego's PeaceGarden

“Later this year, the H. Lee White Marine Museum will host the new Great Lakes Seaway Trail War of 1812 traveling exhibit,” she said.

“We part of this network, the international peace gardens,” Mary Vanouse, community development director, noted. “The significance of this park is that it is such a key battle area.”

There have been many donations that have helped make the park and the garden a reality, she said.

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Placed in Temple, Texas Public Library, Penny Worley, Jordan Bass Chapter.