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While I have of late focused more on British personalities in the War of 1812, I will be making an effort to balance it out. James Lawrence is a tragic tale of the war. He was born 1 October 1781 in Burlington, New Jersey. The young James was, for a majority of his youth raised in nearby Woodbury and grew up for the most part without his parents. His mother passed away while he was an infant and his father, a Loyalist to the British Crown, fled to Upper Canada, leaving James behind to be raised by his half-sister. James originally planned to become aRead More →

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Probably the most powerful pocket camera I’ve ever used, the Olympus XA brings the power of the rangefinder, aperture priority and stunning optics into something that can fit in almost every pocket. I’ve used a couple cameras from the XA line in the past, the terribly restrictive XA1 (don’t let the 1 fool you, the 1 came later than the XA and was pretty darn limited), along with the wide angle XA4, but the XA is truly where Olympus made something that was nothing short of magic. Disclaimer: This is an old review, and is scheduled for an update and may look funny during thatRead More →

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When it came to naval warfare in the 19th century the undisputed masters of the sea was the Royal Navy. The rivers and lakes of Upper and Lower Canada were the highways of the day, these were the main trade routes not only for economic purposes but military as well. Any nation that controlled the waterways, could control the course of the war. With the United States not having a squadron of note on the Great Lakes at the start of the war the British were quick to seize control of both Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. With Brock’s capture of Detroit in August ofRead More →

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Oliver Hazard Perry, one of the great American Heroes that made his name in the War of 1812. A navy man through and through and the man who beat the Royal Navy at their own game. Born in August 23rd, 1785 in South Kingston, Rhode Island entered the fledgling United States Navy at age 15 as a mid-shipman. He saw his first action during the First Barbary war in Tripoli under Commodore Preble. By 1802 he was promoted to Lieutenant and offered the post of master and commander of the Schooner Revenge with Commodore John Roger’s squadron. As it was a time of peace, PerryRead More →