See also the bit where I didn't learn till I was reading the Aubrey/Maturin and then Hornblower books that the War of 1812 was connected to the Napoleonic Wars. The causes had always been taught in school as a case of the Brits being snippy in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution and our sailors being snatched for British ships -- the part about us trading with France while the UK was fighting them was glossed over if it was mentioned at all (and the point that so many of our sailors had been born as British citizens and in many cases probably were outright deserters from British ships was left out).