American Renaissance

Transcendentalism is a word that describes a relativity simple idea. All people have knowledge about themselves and the world around them.  This knowledge "transcends" and goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel. This knowledge came purely through intuition and imagination and not through logic or the senses. People started to trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. This movement prompted the start of independent thinking. A Transcendentalist is a person who accepts these ideas not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life. This extremely popular new movement started the rebirth of  new poetry, painting and many other art forms. Nature was a very influencial piece in a lot of these new art works. 

This is a seminal landscape painting by Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. The painting depicts a romantic panorama of the Connecticut River Valley just after a thunderstorm. It has been interpreted as a conflict between wilderness and civilization. The left side if this portrait shows rough and untamed nature in its purest form. To the right, the land is displayed as cultivated and tamed by man. The message I receive from this painting is that man can and will tame all of natures rough beauty. 

Weapons used in the war of 1812

Weapons used in the war of 1812 were knives, swords, bayonets, pistols, muskets, rifles, cannons and crude bombs. The most commonly used weapons were muskets and rifles with bayonets. In fact, these were considered the weapons that won the battles between the two opposing armies (Britain and American). The reason for this is because most battles were fought by soldiers facing each other, separated by a wide distance. 

When it came to close combat fighting, the weapons used were bayonets witch were sharp stakes attached to the ends of rifles and muskets, Swords, knifes and pistols. Pistols however, were usually 

used by army officers and they were rarely used in close quarter fighting among soldiers. The muskets and rifles were credited for the winning of the war because in most situations fighting was in close combat. 

Cannons which were the artilleries weapons used in the war of 1812 were primarily used for the bombardment of buildings and perimeter defenses of string holds. These cannons were in no case labeled accurate for hitting their target and therefor were not depended upon to win any battles. 

There were several kinds of cannons used in the war. Some were designed for use on ships which was a specialty of the British naval forces. Cannons used on land were known as the earliest form of mortars that could carry cannon balls to far distances over the battlefield. Cannons that would be used for an attacking force were called artilleries.  These cannons had to be movable. They were mounted on wooden wheeled contraptions that could be carried to its location by horses. There were many different models and types of cannons used by the British and American forces durning this war.  The type of cannons would depend on the weight of the cannon ball that it could fire. 

Another weapon used in the war of 1812 was the crude bomb. This bomb was intended to explode above the enemy lines. When they explode junk hardware from inside the bomb (like nails and other hard items) are sent flying over the heads of the enemy. One of the many kinds of crude bombs was called the grapeshot.  This bomb contained many musket balls and clearly caused devastating destruction to the enemy if it actually did explode  over enemy lines. Most of these kinds of weapons used in the war of 1812 were undependable to function and therefor not relied on for winning battles. 

• listed below are pictures of the weapons described in the above passages