ABSTRACT
The War of 1812 does not have a clear winner, and as a result historians have debated the conflict’s outcome for nearly two centuries. Canadian historian Wesley Turner suggested that both the United States and Britain won the war, while Henry Adams came close to suggesting that both sides lost. Most historians, however, have taken a middle position, arguing that the war actually ended in a draw. Yet the fighting along the Gulf Coast ended in a clear U.S. victory with the young republic in the ascendency. By the time the fighting had concluded, American forces had defeated the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, Spanish forces in Pensacola, Florida, the British Navy at Fort Bowyer, and British-trained Peninsula veterans at New Orleans.
