Answer: The war began with an attack on Canada, both as an effort to gain land and to cut off British supply lines to Tecumseh's Indian confederation, which had long troubled the US. The initial battles in Canada were not as easy as the War Hawks hoped. The inexperienced American soldiers were pushed back rapidly. Only by clutch naval victories by Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie and Thomas Macdonough on Lake Champlain was a serious northern- front invasion of the United States, including New York, prevented. General William Henry Harrison's forces did manage to kill Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, amid a decisive victory against the British General Isaac Brock's smaller force.
