Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 91

BOOK REVIEWS

loyalty and motivation is compelling and offers a
useful case study for the shaping of sentiment in a
military unit.
John E. Fahey, Lafayette, Indiana.

THROUGH THE PERILOUS FIGHT:
Six Weeks That Saved the Nation
Steve Vogel, Random House, New York, 2013, 522
pages, $30.00

I

n the course of celebrations of its bicentennial, America’s war of 1812 (which dragged into
1815) is getting some warranted attention.
Renewed war with Britain posed a serious test for
a young America that was still sorting out its institutions, not to mention its very identity. Nothing
better attests to the fragility of America’s position
in the world at that time than the British strike on
Washington in the summer of 1814, which left the
U.S. capital a smoking emblem of humiliation.
Author Steve Vogel, an accomplished writer
and popular historian, has stitched together a
stirring and colorful account of Britain’s fateful
drive to defeat the United States in the third year
of the war. Drawing extensively from first-person
recollections, he invites the reader to see breaking
developments from multiple perspectives. From
the British side, he focuses on Rear Adm. George
Cockburn, describing him as “ruthless and witty” and “determined to make Americans pay a
hard price for their ill-considered war with Great
Britain.” In his many character sketches, Vogel captures the spectrum of emotional states conjured up
by the struggle from contempt and arrogance to
fear and rage. Among the central players is Francis
Scott Key. Key was a lawyer and friend of James
Madison’s administration who found himself in
the unlikely position of watching the British attack
on Baltimore from a vessel of the Royal Navy.
Despite his fascination with historical figures,
Vogel has not neglected the gravity of the British
campaign or the critical significance of tactical and
strategic events. He describes how the Chesapeake
region’s killing heat affected the ordinary soldier
during forced marches.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2014

Had it succeeded, the British attempt to capture
Baltimore would have been a devastating blow to
America’s strategic situation and the national psyche.
Instead, U.S. troops rallied in front of the city and Fort
McHenry withstood a furious naval bombardment.
Cockburn’s thwarted gamble marked a dramatic
reversal of fortune and broke the momentum of the
1814 offensive. The U.S. victory in turn restored its
negotiating position as well as its self-confidence.
Through the Perilous Fight is highly readable
and brings the history of the war to life. The author
does not