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cgod  ·  2221 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Significance of Zama (Roman History)

I always wonder what the battle for Lake Ontario would have been like. So much would have hung on the when it happened and what ships made it on the water by that time. Ships of the line fighting on the Great Lakes would have been an crazy thing. Control of Erie and Ontario would have been a pretty nice advantage for the U.S. war effort. The battle to build on Ontario is one of the more exciting stories of a front in which no real fighting took place.

I have to admit that I'm a total fan boy of the early U.S. navy, I'm sure it bias's my view on the conflict. If you read a bit of the history, the extent to which the British were gobsmacked at the drubbing they received early in the naval conflict paints a much different picture to standard "Brits kicked the Yankees asses stone cold on the sea front" story of today.

It's been almost two decades since I devoured every thing I could on the Barbary and 1812 war's at sea but the excitement of these early years of the U.S. navy are still my favorite era and theaters of military history.