up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired army colonel david fitzend, author of the final invasion platsburg, the war of 1812's most decisive battle takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> we're at the clinton county museum in plattsburgh, northern new york, on lake champlain. today i got something to show you that is very rare. the militia deployed from the state of new york and there were 2500 that were asked to come to fight the british as they cross the border. but only 700 showed up. and captain martin akin, who is the son of a lieutenant colonel in the militia, he decided that he had all these weapons and no one to use them. since the arsenal for the militia was in the basement of st. john's academy, he went upstairs to see the reverend. and he asked to address the class and the class consists of boys and girls, of course, teenagers. and he said to the boys, your fathers are all going forward it fight the british. and you're here, you can really help out. i've got plenty of weapons downstairs. if you come with me, if you volunteer to come with me and come do

up next, we travel to plattsburg where david fitzend takes us on a tour of kilocations to tell the story. >> i'm at the battle of plattsburg museum. it's on the old army post. there's been an army post here ever since the war of 1812, and in this museum the most important item is this painting by davidson. and it shows the culmination of the battle when the royal navy had finally closed with the americans and they fought it out only 300 yards apart for an hour and a half. there were some 90 guns firing at the same time, and the noise was so disoriented that the sailors were unable to figure out what was going on, and they began to load the cannons one ball after the other after the other after the other until they had so many cannon balls they rolled out of the end of the barrel. another case they put too much powder in and a cannon exploded when they set it off. so there was a huge cloud of smoke on the battlefield and at the end of the naval battle the british struck their colors there on the right, and that was seen by general provo who was sitting up on the hill, and when he saw that

up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired army colonel david fitzends, author of the final invasion plattsburgh, the war of 1812's most decisive battle, takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> pilot, joseph baron, ship, saratoga, september 11th, 1814, battle of plattsburgh in cumberland bay. this is a battle that is lost to american history. it is the first 100th anniversary, it was known by everyone. this was a huge celebration. people knew how important the battle of plattsburgh was. but in the meantime, things have changed. that poem became the national anthem. baltimore is in the center of a populated area. and people have been taught what took place there and what took place there was very important. but it was a diversion. the real battle was up here. you see, ifh