[Komskies]

There's a show on History Channel tonight called Explosion: 1812. I believe it's just a one-part special.

http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledeta...titleid=267631

In June 1812, thirty six years after the Declaration of Independence, the United States of America declared war on Britain and invaded its colony of Upper Canada. Across the Atlantic Britain was already locked in a life and death struggle with Napoleon in Europe. Upper Canada was left poorly defended and vulnerable to attack. Britain relied on the support of its native allies and the militia, a part-time army made of local inhabitants most of whom were in fact American. US politicians were convinced they would be welcomed with open arms, and former president Thomas Jefferson declared that victory would be a ‘mere matter of marching’.

As the fate of North America hung in the balance, the odds were stacked heavily in favour of a United States victory. But this isn’t what happened… One year into the war - after a series of bloody encounters on the battlefield - the United States attacked York, the capital of Upper Canada, (modern day Toronto in Ontario). The British defenders of Fort York detonated their Grand Magazine - an armory packed to the rafters with much of the province’s ammunition supply, including nearly 30,000 pounds of gun powder, together with 10,000 cannonballs and 30,000 cartridges...