A commemorative walking tour, in observance of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, was kicked off by the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 6.

The ceremonial ribbon was cut by Joshua Cohen, Mayor of Annapolis; Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland; and U.S. Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Michael Miller. The ceremony was held at Mahan Hall, on the Naval Academy Yard.

The self-guided tour will take participants around Annapolis, and will consist of ten stops that are historically significant to the War of 1812. Among the tour’s stops are five locations within the Naval Academy: Mahan Hall, the HMS Macedonian Monument, the Naval Academy Museum, the Joseph Nicholson Home and Bandstand, and the HMS Confiance Cannon.

Vice Adm. Miller talked about why it was appropriate for Annapolis and the Naval Academy to remember and commemorate the War of 1812: “The War of 1812 was truly our first nautical war, and rightly called our nation’s second war for independence. It was foundational to the Naval preeminence we enjoy today and set the stage for what would become the United States Naval Academy.”

Miller shared further: “Some of the artifacts in this walking tour include flags of tremendous significance to our Naval heritage, such as the colors from the British Frigate HMS Guirrere, defeated by the smaller yet quicker USS Constitution on August 19, 1812 under the command of Captain Isaac Hull, and perhaps the most famous of all Naval flags, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry’s ‘Don’t give up the ship’ flag flown in our victory in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813.”

The tour will be available until October 2014.