A vivid account of the often forgotten 1812 conflict between a young United States and an imperial Britain, including maps and illustrations.   Scarcely three decades after the United States won its independence, the massive strength of its mother country returned, seeking to enforce its will on its wayward offspring. The combats were various in scale and ferocity, stretching from the wilds of the Canadian border to the swamps of New Orleans, while on the high seas, the fledgling American navy slugged it out bravely with fearsome Britannia--and achieved shocking success.   On land, the Americans initially had less luck and witnessed the burning of their new capital at Washington, DC, by British redcoats, even as a gallant bastion off Baltimore continued to hold its flag high beneath the "rockets' red glare." Though unnecessary for geopolitical purposes, as the war had already ended, Gen. Andrew Jackson punctuated the conflict profoundly with a disastrous defeat of Wellington's veterans near the Crescent City.   Lavishly illustrated with dozens of images of the fighting and the soldiers, this book illuminates an exciting, even if frequently forgotten, episode in our history--one of America's first great crises.