The year of 1812 is mainly remembered for Napoleon Bonaparte’s ruinous retreat from Moscow, when his “Grande Armee” was forced to evacuate the city or face starvation with the Russian winter impending. It was the beginning of the end for “Boney” and his defeat would eventually lead him to abdicate as emperor of France in 1814. Napoleon’s failed “Russian Campaign” would be known as the “Patriotic War of 1812” by the Russians and seventy years later would be celebrated by the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” in Moscow. Therefore it is ironic that the 1812 Overture is played every 4th of July to celebrate American Independence Day and many Americans consider the piece to be a celebration of their victory against the British in their “War of 1812”. This misconception arose in 1974 when Arthur Fiedler, the conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra performed the piece, complete with canons roaring and bells ringing, during the Independence Day celebrations of that year, which began the tradition.
The other misconception is that the Americans were victorious in the War of 1812, ask any Canadian and he or she will tell you otherwise. The truth of the matter is that the peace treaty signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve of 1814, ended the war with no conclusive winner, in effect it ended as a draw, even though extra time was played on January 8th 1815 when the Battle of New Orleans was fought, a victory for the United States. Owing to slow...
