The two chief authors who have appealed directly to the readers of the mother country are William James and Sir Charles Lucas. James was an industrious naval historian; but he was quite as anti-American as the earlier American writers were anti-British. Owing to this perverting bias his two books, the _Naval_ and the _Military Occurrences of the late War between Great Britain and the United States_, are not to be relied upon. Their appendices, however, give a great many documents which are of much assistance in studying the real history of the war. James wrote only a few years after the peace. Nearly a century later Sir Charles Lucas wrote _The Canadian War of 1812_, which is the work of a man whose life-long service in the Colonial Office and intimate acquaintance with Canadian history have both been turned to the best account. The two chief Canadian authors are Colonel Cruikshank and James Hannay. Colonel Cruikshank deserves the greatest credit for being a real pioneer with his _Documentary History of the Campaigns upon the Niagara Frontier_. Hannay's _History of the War of 1812_ shows careful study of the Canadian aspects of the operations; but its generally sound arguments are weakened by its controversial tone. The four chief American authors to reckon with are, Lossing, Upton, Roosevelt, and Mahan. They complement rather than correspond with the four British authors. The best known American work dealing with the military campaigns is Lossing's _Field-Book of the War of 1812_. It is an industrious compilation; but quite uncritical and most misleading. General Upton's _Military Policy of the United States_ incidentally pricks all the absurd American militia bubbles with an incontrovertible array of hard and pointed facts. _The Naval War of 1812_, by Theodore Roosevelt, is an excellent sketch which shows a genuine wish to be fair to both sides. But the best naval work, and the most thorough work of any kind on either side, is Admiral Mahan's _Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812_. A good deal of original evidence on the American side is given in Brannan's _Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States during the War with Great Britain in the Years 1812 to 1815_. The original British evidence about the campaigns in Canada is given in William Wood's _Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812_. Students who wish to see the actual documents must go to Washington, London, and Ottawa. The Dominion Archives are of exceptional interest to all concerned. The present work is based entirely on original evidence, both American and British. END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The War With the United States