1812: The Navy's War

by George Daughan

  305 Oliver Hazard Perry was the last: Perry to Jones, Sept. 9, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:256.

  306 Before Gordon extricated: Gordon to Cochrane, Sept. 9, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:242; Lord, The Dawn’s Early Light, 245–46.

  306 Even Boston was finally: David Long, Ready to Hazard: A Biography of Commodore William Bainbridge, 1774–1833 (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1981), 184.

  306 “been continually employed”: Captain Sir Peter Parker to Cochrane, Aug. 30, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:232–33.

  306 On August 30, after: Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reid, Maryland Militia, to Brigadier General Benjamin Chambers, Maryland Militia, Sept. 3, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:235–36; Lieutenant Henry Crease, R.N., to Cochrane, Sept. 1, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:234–35.

  307 “The Federalists now have”: Salem Gazette, Sept. 9, 1814, 7.

  307 On April 7–8, 1814: Richard Buel Jr., America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle Over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 212.

  307 On June 16, Hardy reported: Linda M. Maloney, The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Times of Isaac Hull (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986), 248–49; Hardy to Cochrane, June 16, 1814, in James Tertius de Kay, The Battle of Stonington: Torpedoes, Submarines, and Rockets in the War of 1812 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990), 111–12.

  307 The Times of London would certainly: Times (London), July 2, 1814.

  308 The eighty-six American defenders: De Kay, The Battle of Stonington, 114–19.

  308 “On the night of 20–21 June”: Long, Ready to Hazard, 180.

  309 The bombardment resumed: De Kay, The Battle of Stonington, 146–87; Hardy to Hotham, Aug. 12, 1814, in De Kay, The Battle of Stonington, 187.

  309 The tiny American garrison: Adams, History of the United States, 974–75.

  309 “The district we speak of”: Quoted in De Kay, The Battle of Stonington, 120.

  CHAPTER 25

  313 a court of inquiry: Charles Berube and John Rodgaard, A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart and the USS Constitution (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), 76–83.

  313 Bainbridge stood out from Boston: William James, The Naval History of Great Britain from the Declaration of War Against France in 1793 to the Accession of George IV (London: Richard Bentley, 1847), 6:290–91; Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (New York: Library of America, 1986), 1037–38.

  314 In desperation, Wales: James, The Naval History of Great Britain, 6:291–94; Adams, History of the United States, 1038–39; Warrington to Jones, April 29, 1814, in Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanders, National Archives, Washington, DC.

  315 British Admiral Edward Codrington insisted: Lady Bourchier, ed., Memoir of the Life of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington (London: Longsman, Green, 1873), 1:310.

  315 By nightfall, Warrington had: Alfred T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1905), 2:261.

  315 During this long voyage: Warrington’s report of this cruise in Niles’ Weekly Register, Nov. 11, 1814.

  316 “We have experienced”: Blakely to Jones, July 10, 1814, in Stephen W. H. Duffy, Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), 224.

  317 In the next four days: Duffy, Captain Blakeley and the Wasp, 202–14; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:253–55.

  317 Three weeks later: Mahan, Sea Power, 2:252–53.

  318 By daylight, Morris was: Charles Morris, The Autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris, USN (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002), 72.

  319 “let the lower anchors”: Morris, Autobiography, 74.

  319 On July 19 Morris met: Morris, Autobiography, 74; Theodore Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812 (New York: Random House, 1996), 185–86.

  319 On August 17 the fog was: Morris, Autobiography, 75.

  320 On the morning of September 2: Morris, Autobiography, 82.

  320 Secretary Jones gave Morris: Morris, Autobiography, 83.

  321 “strictly prohibited [them] from”: Jones to George Parker, Dec. 8, 1813. Jones issued identical commands to the Siren, under George Parker; see The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, ed. William S. Dudley (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1992), 2:296.

  321 The Enterprise and the Rattlesnake were: Mahan, Sea Power, 2:232; Adams, History of the United States, 836; Niles’ Weekly Register, July 11, 1814, 391.

  321 On July 11, the 50-gun Leander, under: The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, ed. Michael Crawford (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 2002), 3:200.

  321 Before the Siren reached: Nathaniel D. Nicholson to Captain Samuel Evans, Aug. 24, 1815, in John Brannan, Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States During the War with Great Britain, in the Years 1812–1815 (Washington City: Way and Gideon, 1823), 498–99.

  322 While he was away: David Curtis Skaggs, Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), 164.

  322 “must be annihilated”: Times (London), July 2, 1814.

  322 Secretary Jones even considered: Jones to Decatur, Nov. 8, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:640–41.

  322 David Porter was enthusiastic: James Tertius de Kay, The Battle of Stonington: Torpedoes, Submarines, and Rockets in the War of 1812 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990), 89–90.

  322 The navy gave the inventor: Kirkpatrick Sale, The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream (New York: Free Press, 2001) 159–60.

  323 Secretary Jones was not reluctant: Jones to Madison, Oct. 26, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:631–36.

  323 Privateers continued to be: George F. Emmons, Navy of the United States from the Commencement, in 1775, Through 1853 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1853), 170–97; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:233–44; Adams, History of the United States, 834–53.

  323 Marblehead, Massachusetts, for instance: Samuel E. Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), 199.

  323 estimated 100, 000 seamen: William M. Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland (1913; reprint, Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press, 1965), 13.

  323 Britain’s home islands were: C. S. Forester, The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812 (New York: Doubleday, 1956), 218–19; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:262–63.

  324 Britain’s Convoy Act did not apply: Mahan, Sea Power, 2:226.

  324 That the number of American privateers: Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland, 16–17.

  CHAPTER 26

  325 Dealing with the aftermath: Charles K. Webster, The Congress of Vienna, 1814–1815 (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1934), 1.

  326 “much yet remains”: Times (London), Aug. 1, 1814.

  326 the most contentious was: Webster, The Congress of Vienna, 99.

  327 “On mature consideration”: Monroe to the Joint Commissioners of the United States for Treating of Peace with Great Britain, June 27, 1814, in American State Papers: Foreign Relations (Washington, DC: Gales & Seaton, 1833–58), 3:700–704.

  328 “I think it not unlikely”: Liverpool to Castlereagh, Sept. 2, 1814, in Supplementary Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda of Field Marshall Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G., ed. Arthur R. Wellesley (London: John Murray, 1862), 9:245.

  328 The Times had expected the government: Times (London), May 20 and 24, 1814.

  329 The Courier, Liverpool’s mouthpiece: Courier (London), May 21, 1814, in Bradford Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964), 64.

  329 Liverpool’s demand was obviously: George Dangerfield, The Era of Good Feelings (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1952), 67–69.

  329 “Great Britain has opened”: Adams to Crawford, Aug. 29, 1814, in Writings of John Quincy Adams
, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York: Macmillan, 1915), 5:105.

  329 On August 19, the British envoys: American ministers to Monroe, Aug. 19, 1814, in American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 3:708–9.

  330 These demands were immediately: Journal of Ghent Negotiations, Aug. 19, 1814, in The Papers of Henry Clay, ed. James F. Hopkins (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1959), 1:968–71.

  330 “The prospect of peace”: Clay to Crawford, Aug. 22, 1814, in Hopkins, ed., Papers of Henry Clay, 1:971–72.

  330 “To surrender both the rights”: Dangerfield, The Era of Good Feelings, 69.

  330 The demand for a permanent: Frank A. Updyke, The Diplomacy of the War of 1812 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1915), 250–53.

  330 But the rest of the note: Updyke, Diplomacy of the War of 1812, 256.

  331 Popular enthusiasm for the war: Times (London), Sept. 16, 1814.

  331 A gleeful Henry Goulburn: Fred L. Engelman, The Peace of Christmas Eve (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1962), 197.

  331 On October 8 the British presented: American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 3:724–25; David S. Heidler and Jeane T. Heidler, Henry Clay: The Essential American (New York: Random House, 2010), 114.

  331 “What . . . wounds me”: Clay to Crawford, Oct. 17, 1814, in Hopkins, ed., Papers of Henry Clay, 1:989.

  331 “There can be no possible”: Adams to Louisa Adams, Oct. 4, 1814, in Ford, ed., Writings of John Quincy Adams, 5:151.

  331 10,000 copies printed and widely distributed: American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 3:695–703, gives the documents released.

  332 “If Great Britain does not”: Monroe to Commissioners, Aug. 11, 1814, American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 3:705.

  332 Adams and his colleagues: Commissioners to Monroe, Aug. 12, 1814, American State Papers: Foreign Relations, 3:705–7.

  332 Gallatin had already written to Secretary Monroe: Gallatin to Monroe, June 13, 1814, in Updyke, The Diplomacy of the War of 1812, 282.

  332 “are very sanguine about”: Liverpool to Castlereagh, Sept. 27, 1814, in Mahan, Sea Power, 2:424–25.

  CHAPTER 27

  333 Cochrane finally gave in: Cochrane to First Lord of the Admiralty Viscount Melville, Sept. 17, 1814, in The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, ed. Michael Crawford (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 2002), 3:289.

  334 After being wounded: Mary Barney, A Biographical Memoir of the Late Commodore Joshua Barney (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832), 269.

  334 Rodgers had 1,000: Porter to Jones, Aug. 27, 1814, in Walter Lord, The Dawn’s Early Light (New York: Norton, 1972), 232.

  335 “We deplore your”: Spence to Rogers, Aug. 31, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:261.

  335 Actually, Rodgers had such: Charles O. Paullin, Commodore John Rodgers: A Biography (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1910), 289–90.

  336 Colonel Arthur Brooke, an experienced: Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 259–62.

  337 After Commodore Rodgers straightened: Rodgers to Spence, Sept. 8, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:263.

  337 “It is impossible for”: Cochrane to Cockburn, Sept. 13, 1814; Brooke to Cochrane, Sept. 13, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:277–79.

  338 “the capture of the town”: Brooke to Bathurst, Sept. 17, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:282–85.

  339 Between one and two o’clock: Cockburn to Cochrane, Sept. 15, 1814; Brooke to Bathurst, Sept. 17, 1814; Brooke to Cochrane, Sept. 14, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:279–85; Roger Morriss, Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772–1853 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), 113.

  339 On the night of September 13–14: Cochrane to Napier, Sept. 13, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:278; Irving Brant, James Madison, vol. 6: Commander in Chief, 1812–1836 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961), 324.

  339 Lieutenant Colonel Armistead estimated: Armistead to Monroe, Sept. 24, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:302–4.

  339 inspired an American spectator: Lord, Dawn’s Early Light, 240–45, 293–97.

  340 With the fleet went 2,400 ex-slaves: Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada, 2nd ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1997), 114–27.

  CHAPTER 28

  341 “commence offensive operations”: Bathurst to Prevost, June 3, 1814, in J. Mackay Hitsman, The Incredible War of 1812: A Military History (Montreal: Robin Brass Studio, 1999), 289–90.

  342 On September 1 Prevost marched: Hitsman, The Incredible War of 1812, 254.

  342 “Vermont has shown”: Prevost to Bathurst, Aug. 5 and 27, 1814, in Alfred T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1905), 2:363.

  342 a few of Commodore Macdonough’s: Rodney Macdonough, The Life of Commodore Thomas Macdonough, U.S. Navy (Boston: Fort Hill Press, 1909), 160–61.

  343 Armstrong wrote again: Armstrong to Izard, July 27, 1814, and Izard to Armstrong Aug. 11, 1814, in Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (New York: Library of America, 1986), 976–77; Hitsman, The Incredible War of 1812, 253; C. Edward Skeen, John Armstrong, Jr., 1758–1843: A Biography (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1981), 184–86.

  343 “Armstrong’s policy of meeting”: Adams, History of the United States, 976–78.

  345 “Only sixteen days before”: Pring to Yeo, Sept. 12, 1814, in The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, ed. Michael Crawford (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 2002), 3:609–12.

  345 Yeo’s argument was: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 174–75; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:370–71.

  345 Downie had the 16-gun Linnet: The Linnet had sixteen long twelve-pounders. The Chub had ten eighteen-pound carronades and one long six-pounder. The Finch had four long six-pounders, six eighteen-pound carronades, and one eighteen-pound columbiad. The six galleys had one long twenty-four-pounder and one thirty-two-pound carronade. Two galleys had one long eighteen-pounder and one thirty-two-pounder. Two other galleys had one long eighteen-pounder and one eighteen-pound carronade. Four gunboats had one thirty-two-pound carronade, and three others had one long eighteen-pounder.

  346 Macdonough thought there were: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 161.

  346 The Saratoga had eight long: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 165.

  347 At eight o’clock Macdonough’s: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 176.

  347 Macdonough credited him with: Macdonough to Jones, Sept. 13, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:614–15. Perry had been ordered to Lake Champlain on April 22, 1814.

  348 Macdonough was in constant: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 182.

  349 his battered crew “declared”: Robertson’s statement written from the Saratoga, Sept. 12, 1814, in Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, ed. William Charles Henry (Toronto: Publications of the Champlain Society, 1920–23), 3:373–77.

  349 around 11:20, Pring was forced: Pring to Yeo, Sept. 12, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:609–12.

  349 “The Almighty has been pleased”: Macdonough to Jones, Sept. 11, 1814, in Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 185.

  349 “Gentlemen, return your swords”: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 185.

  349 “I have much satisfaction”: Pring to Yeo, Sept. 12, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:612.

  349 The American and British seamen: Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 188–89.

  350 “The enemy’s shot”: Macdonough to Jones, Sept. 13, 1814, in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812, 3:614–15.

  350 Macdonough was particularly critical: Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794–1815 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 294; Macdonough, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 191–92.

  350 “The disastrous and unlooked for”: Prevost to
Bathurst, Sept. 22, 1814, in Hitsman, The Incredible War of 1812, 264.

  350 “the expectations of His Majesty’s”: Pierre Berton, Flames Across the Border: The Canadian-American Tragedy, 1813–1814 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1981), 399.

  CHAPTER 29

  353 “for in our own country: Clay to Monroe, Oct. 26, 1814, in The Papers of Henry Clay, ed. James F. Hopkins (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1959), 1:995–96.

  353 Clay made sure that Goulburn: David S. Heidler and Jeane T. Heidler, Henry Clay: The Essential American (New York: Random House, 2010), 113.

  353 The Duke of Wellington, now: Major General C. Macaulay to Liverpool, Oct. 31, 1814, in Supplementary Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda of Field Marshall Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G., ed. Arthur R. Wellesley (London: John Murray, 1862), 9:407.

  354 “You will have heard from”: Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 2, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:401–2; Major General C. Macaulay to Liverpool, Oct. 31, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:487.

  354 Castlereagh hoped that getting: Charles K. Webster, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812–1815 (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1931), 10:342–61.

  354 “Unless the Emperor of Russia”: Castlereagh to Liverpool, Nov. 11, 1814, in Charles K. Webster, The Congress of Vienna, 1814–1815 (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1934), 104.

  355 “I see little prospect”: Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 2, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:401–2.

  355 Liverpool wrote to Wellington: Liverpool to Wellington, Nov. 4, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:405–7; Frank A. Updyke, The Diplomacy of the War of 1812 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1915), 303–6.

  355 “The Duke of Wellington would restore”: Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 4, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:405.

  355 “you cannot at this moment”: Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 7, 1814, in Wellesley, ed., Supplementary Despatches, 9:422.