A careful and sustained search for written and traditional records of those who shared in the national defence in 1812 has revealed a lamentable dearth of authentic information both in official and private circles. America has been prodigal of her heroes. Contemporaneous foreign history shows a wealth of smallest details in their perfected systems of War Office Records. But America was in her infancy; a struggle for even the form of the constitution itself was raging while the war of 1812 was being waged. Such official records as were kept were despoiled by the British invasion of Washington. The vast extent of the country and the rapidly shifting scenes of action also contributed much to the difficulty of accurately recording events.