The mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 can be compared to only one other major Capitol attack in history, and the British carried that one out 207 years ago during the War of 1812. Still, as one newspaper headline said about the recent assault, “Capitol has seen violence in its history, but not like this.”

This one has been called domestic terrorism, which The Associated Press said was “a roiling mob, forcing its way past its (the Capitol’s) majestic marble columns, disrupting the passage of power, desecrating the seat of the world’s greatest democracy.”

We know what happened Jan. 6, but what happened in 1814? What was the War of 1812 all about?

The war traces its beginnings to June 22, 1807, when the British warship Leopard ordered the Chesapeake, an American frigate, to be searched for British deserters in the Chesapeake’s crew.

The British vessel fired a broadside into the Chesapeake, killing three men and wounding 18 more. The British then took four alleged deserters off the American frigate. They were at war with France and needed every man they could get to serve the British navy.

One history report said more than 6,000 American seamen had been “impressed and held in bondage” during that period in history. It wasn’t easy at the time to distinguish between an American and an Englishman.

American commerce was caught in the middle of the war going on between the English and Napoleon. And Napoleon showed no more respect for American commerce rights than the British. He seized our ships and sold their cargoes for the benefit of his treasury.

The mid-term elections of 1810 sent a group of men to Congress who were from the frontier. They were young, aggressive and intensely patriotic. Henry Clay of Kentucky was their leader, and he and his friends were angry about the seizure of American ships and sailors.

The frontiersmen also believed that the British in Canada were arming Native Americans to wage war against Americans. Clay, who had become speaker of the House, urged war in fiery speeches he delivered in Congress.

Canada was ours for the taking, he said. A thousand riflemen from Kentucky could do the job themselves, he said. The end result was the beefing up of an American force and a declaration of war.

The War of 1812 has been called a needless war, and it is generally believed it would have never happened had there been better communication during those years. However, there were some significant events during the war.

The British blocked our commerce, burned towns and raided farms along the coast. Four thousand British soldiers landed near Washington and easily swept aside an American militia force guarding the nation’s Capitol.

One historical account said President James Madison gathered as many valuables as he could and fled to Virginia. The British set fire to the Capitol, the White House, the Library of Congress and several other public buildings. A rainstorm prevented total destruction.

The British said the burning was in retaliation for the burning and pillaging of Toronto, Canada, by American forces. They then sailed up Chesapeake Bay to repeat their raid on Baltimore, but their troops were repulsed before the city in a fierce battle.

A young Francis Scott Key was on an American vessel detained by the British during the bombardment and he witnessed the battle. Here is one historical account of what Key saw:

“He watched anxiously ‘through the perilous night’ while the fort held out against the continuous firing from the fleet. And when ‘the dawn’s early light’ revealed that ‘our flag was still there,’ he composed our national anthem, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ”

The Battle of New Orleans is another major event from that war. The British thought they could take the city with a force of nearly 10,000 men and they descended on New Orleans in December of 1814.

Gen. Andrew Jackson, a Tennessee frontiersman who had successfully fought Native Americans, was commander at New Orleans. The British attacked on Jan. 8, 1815, when the war was already over. The treaty of peace had been signed Dec. 24, 1814.

Deadly fire from Jackson’s riflemen killed the British commander, Sir Edward Pakenham, and over 2,000 of his men in a battle that lasted only 20 minutes. Jackson became the hero of New Orleans, and later governor of Florida, a U.S. senator and president.

Jackson’s reputation has been tarnished in recent years because of his treatment of Native Americans. He broke the power of the Creeks in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and forced them to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson by which they surrendered two-thirds of their lands in Alabama.

To demonstrate how much our nation has become so politically correct in recent years, consider what a 1957 American history textbook said wouldn’t have happened if the Atlantic cable had existed in 1812. The War of 1812 may have never occurred, the Battle of New Orleans would have never been fought and Jackson, “the most masterful of our presidents from Washington to Lincoln, might never have sat in the White House.”CAPITOL ATTACK — The attack of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 has been compared to the British burning of the Capitol and other buildings during the War of 1812.

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