Amongst my best men

"The War of 1812 is without doubt one of the least known of all of America's wars. Mere mention of the war conjures in the average American's mind a series of illusions, misconceptions, and false assumptions. Chief among those fallacies is that the United States won the war, closely followed by numerous supposed truisms perpetuated by individuals reluctant to admit that the United States rushed headlong into an avoidable war, blundered through ill-conceived military campaigns, suffered defeat in most of the land battles, and nearly lost the war outright. Thus, it is not surprising that the role of African-Americans in the War of 1812 is as misunderstood as the war itself ... Even though there occasionally may be no specific information pertaining to African-American participation, black soldiers and sailors did serve in virtually every land and naval engagement of the war of 1812"--Preface.