This is particularly ironic, since James Madison damn near lost the War of 1812 because our militia pretty much sucked ass. If it were not for the heroic naval wins at Lake Erie, and Lake Champlain we'd have lost the NW territories (at the time, Michigan, the Great Lakes, etc.) because England wanted the native Americans to have that (probably to stifle westward expansion) (If you like reading about military history, the heroics of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry (Lake Erie) and Commodore Thomas Macdonough (Lake Champlain) are fascinating)
Our Generals were all: drunks, cowards, or lazy (in one battle near Niagara IIRC, coordination was so poor, that one American division thought they were winning the battle, only to discover that they were fighting an adjacent American division, LOL)
In any case, our makeshift army performed so poorly, that it changed the sentiment amongst the states (who, up until then resisted forming a professional/standing army) to support a "regular army"
(Also, Madison tucked tail and fled Wasington when it became clear that it was going to get torched. And he left in spite fo the fact that his wife, Dolly refused to leave. She stayed to pack stuff up so the dirty British couldn't get their hands on it. The very last item she saved was the portrait of George Washington.)
Father of the Constitution stuff aside, he was a sh*t President, and he caved to those two war-mongering self-enriching idiots, Henry Clay and William Henry Harrison and got us into one of the most stupid wars in history.
Not that I'm still bitter about it or anything. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣