1815 in the United States

1815 in the United States
Years:	1812 1813 1814 – 1815 – 1816 1817 1818
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1789–1849)

Events from the year 1815 in the United States. As news slowly spread of the Treaty of Ghent (1814) ending the War of 1812, battles between American and British forces continued in the early months of the year.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: James Madison (DR-Virginia)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: John Marshall (is originally now residing at this time in from of the U.S. state of Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Langdon Cheves (DR-South Carolina) (until March 4), Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) (starting December 4)
• Congress: 13th (until March 4), 14th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors

Governors Governor of Connecticut: John Cotton Smith (Federalist) Governor of Delaware: Daniel Rodney (Federalist) Governor of Georgia: Peter Early (Democratic-Republican) (until November 20), David Brydie Mitchell (Democratic-Republican) (starting November 20) Governor of Kentucky: Isaac Shelby (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Louisiana: William C. C. Claiborne (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Maryland: Levin Winder (Federalist) Governor of Massachusetts: Caleb Strong (Federalist) Governor of New Hampshire: John Taylor Gilman (Federalist) Governor of New Jersey: until June 19: William Sanford Pennington (Democratic-Republican) June 19-October 26: William Kennedy (Democratic-Republican) starting October 26: Mahlon Dickerson (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New York: Daniel D. Tompkins (Democratic-Republican) Governor of North Carolina: William Miller (North Carolina) (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Ohio: Thomas Worthington (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: Simon Snyder (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: William Jones (Federalist) Governor of South Carolina: David Rogerson Williams (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Tennessee: Willie Blount (Democratic-Republican) (until September 27), Joseph McMinn (Democratic-Republican) (starting September 27) Governor of Vermont: Martin Chittenden (Federalist) (until October 23), Jonas Galusha (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 23) Governor of Virginia: Wilson Cary Nicholas (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Chauncey Goodrich (Federalist) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Richard Hickman (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William Phillips, Jr. (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of New York: DeWitt Clinton (Democratic-Republican) (until month and day unknown), John Tayler (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Simeon Martin (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Robert Creswell (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: William Chamberlain (Federalist) (until October 14), Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 14)

Events

• January 8 – War of 1812 – Battle of New Orleans: American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat an invading British force.
• February – The Hartford Convention arrives in Washington, DC.
• February 6 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.
• February 7–12 – War of 1812 – Second Battle of Fort Bowyer: British forces capture Fort Bowyer near Mobile, Alabama in what will be the last land battle between the Americans and British in the War of 1812. The British halt their advance two days later when informed of the Treaty of Ghent.
• February 15 – War of 1812 – The United States Senate ratifies the Treaty of Ghent.
• September 23 – The Great September Gale of 1815 is the first hurricane to strike New England in 180 years.
• December 25 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the U.S., gives its first performance, at the King's Chapel in Boston.

Undated

• The second wave of Amish immigration to North America begins.

Ongoing

• War of 1812 (1812–1815)

Births

• January 10 – John J. McRae, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1851 to 1852 (died 1868)
• January 16 – Lemuel J. Bowden, U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1863 to 1864 (died 1864)
• January 18
  • Henry P. Haun, U.S. Senator from California from 1859 to 1860 (died 1860)
  • Richard Yates, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1865 to 1871 (died 1873)
• March 9 – David Davis, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1877 to 1883 (died 1886)
• April 1 – Henry B. Anthony, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1859 to 1884 (died 1884)
• September 8 – Alexander Ramsey, 2nd Governor of Minnesota from 1860 to 1863 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1863 to 1875 (died 1903)
• September 19 – Charles B. Mitchel, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1862 to 1864 (died 1864)

Further reading

• Estimates of the Value of Slaves, 1815. The American Historical Review, Vol. 19, No. 4 (July, 1914), pp. 813–838
• The Embassy to Washington, 1815. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 48, (October, 1914 - June, 1915),
• Charles W. Elliott. Some Unpublished Letters of a Roving Soldier-Diplomat: General Winfield Scott's Reports to Secretary of State James Monroe, on conditions in France and England in 1815-1816. The Journal of the American Military History Foundation, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1937–1938), pp. 165–173
• William Bell Wait. Richardson's 'O. K.' of 1815. American Speech, Vol. 16, No. 2 (April, 1941), pp. 85–86+136
• Harold W. Ryan, George Izard. Diary of a Journey by George Izard, 1815-1816. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 2 (April, 1952), pp. 67–76
• Orville W. Carroll. Mr. Smart's Circular Saw Mill c. 1815. Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1973), pp. 58–64
• John Swauger. Pittsburgh's Residential Pattern in 1815. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 68, No. 2 (June, 1978), pp. 265–277
• Lilian Handlin. Harvard and Göttingen, 1815. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 95, (1983), pp. 67–87
• Charles E. Kinzer. The Band of Music of the First Battalion of Free Men of Color and the Siege of New Orleans, 1814-1815. American Music, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 348–369

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons