The United States was far from ready to fight. The United States had not fought a war, or needed an army, for a long time. There were only 8,000 American soldiers. The soldiers who were young knew little about war. And the officers who knew about war were old enough to have led troops in the American Revolution. There was also the problem of getting enough men to serve as soldiers. Congress had approved an increase of 25,000 men. Only 5,000 agreed to serve. Members of Congress from the western states had spoken proudly of how their people would rush to fight the British
