200 Years Ago Today: The Battle of Plattsburgh--The Most Decisive Battle in the War of 1812

Thirteen years ago today, America was attacked by terrorists who killed almost 3,000 people by skyjacking planes. As we remember those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on the fourth plane in which the terrorist plot was thwarted, let's also remember that September 11th was a good day for the country 200 years ago.

September 11, 1814 was immediately recognized as a great day to Americans as they were enduring the final months of the War of 1812. Later generations also grasped its significance. In his naval history of that war, Theodore Roosevelt referred to the Battle of Plattsburgh as the “greatest naval battle of the war.” Winston Churchill, in his A History of the English Speaking Peoples, called it the “most decisive engagement of the war.”

Read about that battle, and what it meant, in a commemorative post at Neatorama.