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NAVAL ACTIONS OF THE WAR OF 1812
NAVAL ACTIONS OF THE WAR OF 1812
BY JAMES BARNES AUTHOR OF “FOR KING OR COUNTRY” WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CARLTON T. CHAPMAN NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. FOR KING OR COUNTRY. A Story of the American Revolution. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. A story that will be eagerly welcomed by boys of all ages.... It is doubtful whether the reader will be content to lay the story aside until he has finished it. It is a good book for an idle day in the country, and we cordially recommend it both to bo
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PREFACE
PREFACE
The country that has no national heroes whose deeds should be found emblazoned on her annals, that can boast no men whose lives and conduct can be held up as examples of what loyalty, valor, and courage should be, that country has no patriotism, no heart, no soul. If it be wrong to tell of a glorious past, for fear of keeping alive an animosity that should have perished with time, there have been many offenders; and the author of the following pages thus writes himself down as one of them. Truly
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
To study the condition of affairs that led up to the declaration of the second war against Great Britain we have but to turn to the sea. Although England, it must be confessed, had plenty of fighting on her hands and troubles enough at home, she had not forgotten the chagrin and disappointments caused by the loss of the American colonies through a mistaken enforcement of high-handedness. And it was this same tendency that brought to her vaunted and successful navy as great an overthrow as their
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I THE THREE-DAYS CHASE OF THE “CONSTITUTION” [July 17th, 18th, 19th, 1812]
I THE THREE-DAYS CHASE OF THE “CONSTITUTION” [July 17th, 18th, 19th, 1812]
If during the naval war of 1812 any one man won laurels because he understood his ship, and thus triumphed over odds, that man was Captain Hull, and the ship was the old Constitution . Returning from a mission to Europe during the uncertain, feverish days that preceded the declaration of war between England and America, Hull had drawn into the Chesapeake to outfit for a cruise. He had experienced a number of exciting moments in European waters, for everything was in a turmoil and every sail susp
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II THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “GUERRIÈRE” [August 19th, 1812]
II THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “GUERRIÈRE” [August 19th, 1812]
The history of the naval combats of our second war with Great Britain, the career of the frigate Constitution , and the deeds of our Yankee commodores will never be forgotten as long as we have a navy or continue to be a nation. England, it must be remembered, had held the seas for centuries. In no combat between single ships (where the forces engaged were anything like equal) had she lost a vessel. The French fleets, under orders of their own government, ran away from hers, and the Spanish capt
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III THE “WASP” AND THE “FROLIC” [October 18th, 1812]
III THE “WASP” AND THE “FROLIC” [October 18th, 1812]
Jacob Jones , of the United States Navy, was a native of Kent County, in the State of Delaware. He rose rapidly through the various grades of the service, attracting notice by his steadfastness and attention to duty, and in 1811 he was transferred to the command of the Wasp , a tidy sloop of war then mounting eighteen 24-pound carronades. She was a fast sailer, given any wind or weather. In the spring of 1812, Captain Jones was despatched to England with communications to our minister at the Cou
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IV THE “UNITED STATES” AND THE “MACEDONIAN” [October 25th, 1812]
IV THE “UNITED STATES” AND THE “MACEDONIAN” [October 25th, 1812]
Eighty-four years ago, throughout the country, the name Decatur was toasted at every table, was sung from the forecastle to the drawing-room, from the way-side tavern to the stage of the city playhouse. Today, written or spoken, it stands out like a watchword, reminiscent of the days of brave gallantry and daring enterprise at sea. Those writers who have been tempted by their Americanism and pride to take up the navy as a field have repeated over and over again, more than likely, everything that
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V THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “JAVA” [December 29th, 1812]
V THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “JAVA” [December 29th, 1812]
William Bainbridge , commodore, was one of those commanders who were graduated from the merchant service to take high place in the navy of our country. Owing to his own personal qualifications and character, he became renowned. Bainbridge was born at Princeton, New Jersey, May 7th, 1774. He was descended from ancestors of high standing, who had for several generations been residents of the State in which he was born, his father being a prominent physician, who, shortly after the birth of William
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VI THE “COMET”—PRIVATEER [January 14th, 1813]
VI THE “COMET”—PRIVATEER [January 14th, 1813]
During the war of 1812 the American privateers sent home to United States ports so many hundreds of British vessels that the printed list makes quite a showing by itself. The names of the prizes taken, their tonnage and value, were published in Niles’s Weekly Register , of Baltimore, and each week during the progress of the war the number grew, until it seemed that the stock of Laughing Lassies , Bouncing Besses , Arabellas , Lords something-or-other, Ladies this or Countesses of that, must sure
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VII THE “HORNET” AND THE “PEACOCK” [February 24th, 1813]
VII THE “HORNET” AND THE “PEACOCK” [February 24th, 1813]
After Commodore Bainbridge sailed southward from Bahia on the cruise in which he fell in with and captured His Britannic Majesty’s frigate Java , Captain Lawrence of the United States sloop Hornet had hoped to coax the Bonne Citoyenne , the English armed ship he was blockading, to leave the safe moorings which she kept so closely in the harbor of San Salvador. Captain Lawrence prayed each day that she might venture out and give his gunners a mark worthy of their skill. One morning, as the little
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VIII THE “CHESAPEAKE” AND THE “SHANNON” [June 1st, 1813]
VIII THE “CHESAPEAKE” AND THE “SHANNON” [June 1st, 1813]
New Jersey claims the honor of being the birthplace of Captain James Lawrence, at one time the idol of the naval service. Captain Lawrence was born at Burlington, being the youngest son of John Lawrence, Esq. Although at the age of twelve he manifested a desire to become a sailor, his wish was not gratified until five years later, when, abandoning the study of law, he took up that of navigation, and received a warrant as midshipman on the 4th of September, 1798. He made one voyage on the ship Ga
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IX THE “ENTERPRISE” AND THE “BOXER” [September 5th, 1813]
IX THE “ENTERPRISE” AND THE “BOXER” [September 5th, 1813]
William Burrows was one of those men from whose early training and development of character great things might have been expected. He was born in 1785, near Philadelphia, and as a boy he had marked peculiarities that presaged somewhat the eccentricities that were shown by him in after-life. His father was wealthy, and, being a man of accomplished mind and polished manners, he determined to fit his son for no profession, but intended to give him the best education that could be had. But the boy s
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X THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE [September 10th, 1813]
X THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE [September 10th, 1813]
Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of Lake Erie, inherited from his father a fearless, high-strung disposition, and early in life showed his longing for adventure. The elder Perry was a seaman from the time he could lift a handspike, and fought in the revolutionary days, first as a privateersman on a Boston letter-of-marque, and afterwards as a volunteer on board the frigate Trumbull and the sloop of war Mifflin . He was captured and imprisoned for eight long months in the famous Jersey prison-ship,
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XI THE DEFENCE OF THE “GENERAL ARMSTRONG” [September 26th, 1814]
XI THE DEFENCE OF THE “GENERAL ARMSTRONG” [September 26th, 1814]
Samuel Chester Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, in August, 1783. Like the majority of the commanders who gained renown during the war of 1812, his seafaring life began at a very early age. At eleven years he made his first voyage, and shortly afterwards he was captured by a French privateer, and for some time confined in the prison at Basseterre. He was released after six months’ imprisonment, and, turning towards the regular navy, he served as acting midshipman on the U.S.S. Baltimore , a
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XII THE LOSS OF THE “ESSEX” [March 28th, 1814]
XII THE LOSS OF THE “ESSEX” [March 28th, 1814]
Late in the fall of 1813 a little American brig made her way up the coast with a cargo that had once been consigned to some British merchants in the West Indies. The little brig had also, a few months previously, flown the British flag, but now she came drifting into the harbor of New York under a prize-master and his crew, for she had been taken in the Gulf of Mexico by one of the privateers that had outfitted from New York. She brought the news that only a short time before her capture three s
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XIII THE “PEACOCK” AND THE “EPERVIER” [April 29th, 1814]
XIII THE “PEACOCK” AND THE “EPERVIER” [April 29th, 1814]
“Captain L. Warrington , of Virginia, has been given the command of the Peacock , sloop of war of 18 guns. He expects soon to set sail and cruise to the southward in search of the enemy.” Such is the personal note appearing in that enterprising newspaper The Register , published in March, 1814. The Captain Warrington referred to was but little known to the country at large, but those in a position of influence in the Navy Department must have discerned his worth and well estimated his valor, for
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XIV THE CRUISE OF THE “WASP” [1814]
XIV THE CRUISE OF THE “WASP” [1814]
In a very amusing cartoon, printed in the latter part of the year 1814 in an American paper, our cousin Johnnie Bull was represented flourishing a cutlass above his head and vainly endeavoring to defend himself from the attack of a nondescript-looking animal that had succeeded in running him through the body with its sting. As was the custom in drawing cartoons at that time, the legend issued from the lips in a cloud, and Johnnie Bull appeared to be smoking out the words, “Save me, oh, save me f
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XV THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN [September 11th, 1814]
XV THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN [September 11th, 1814]
The first Thomas Macdonough was a major in the Continental army, and his three sons also possessed desires for entering the service of their country. The oldest had been a midshipman under Commodore Truxton, but being wounded in the action between the Constellation and L’Insurgent , he had to retire from the navy owing to the amputation of his leg. But his younger brother, Thomas Macdonough, Jr., succeeded him, and he has rendered his name and that of Lake Champlain inseparable; but his fearless
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XVI THE LOSS OF THE “PRESIDENT” [January 15th, 1815]
XVI THE LOSS OF THE “PRESIDENT” [January 15th, 1815]
In recording the actions of the war of 1812 that gave lustre to our navy and added to the records of its heroes, we have already included two in which the results were defeat and capture of American ships. The Essex and the Chesapeake are here referred to, the latter being the only case in which the opposing forces approached an equality. There is one other action still to be touched upon, which, though disastrous, cannot but reflect honor upon those connected with it. Stephen Decatur, the idol
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XVII THE “CONSTITUTION,” THE “CYANE,” AND THE “LEVANT” [February 20th, 1815]
XVII THE “CONSTITUTION,” THE “CYANE,” AND THE “LEVANT” [February 20th, 1815]
Charles Stewart was a Philadelphian. He was born on the 28th day of July, 1778, shortly after the evacuation of the city by the British. His mother was left a widow when he was but two years old. Overcoming many hardships, Mrs. Stewart managed to support herself and her large family of eight children during the troublous times of the Revolution. At the age of thirteen Charles entered the merchant service as a cabin-boy, and speedily began to show that he had in him the material for making an off
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XVIII THE “HORNET” AND THE “PENGUIN” [March 23d, 1815]
XVIII THE “HORNET” AND THE “PENGUIN” [March 23d, 1815]
Lieutenant James Biddle had distinguished himself in the Mediterranean in the war with the Barbary pirates, having been one of the officers captured with Captain Bainbridge on board the Philadelphia , and being, with Bainbridge, held prisoner during those historic months of captivity in Tripoli. Biddle was a young man of much determination, and his career as a junior officer was full of adventure and the successful overcoming of hardships. On the outbreak of the war of 1812 he sought every oppor
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XIX THE ESCAPE OF THE “HORNET” [April 29th, 1815]
XIX THE ESCAPE OF THE “HORNET” [April 29th, 1815]
Although the treaty of peace between England and the United States was concluded at Ghent on November 24th, in the year 1814, hostilities continued even after the signing of the document that took place a month later to a day. This can be well understood when we stop to think that at the best rates of travelling it would take in the neighborhood of three weeks, or possibly four, for the news to reach the United States. The battle of New Orleans, so disastrous to the English arms, would never hav
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