The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  Congress organized the Louisiana Territory by 1805, which allowed Jefferson to reward Wilkinson with an appointment as the governor. Following years of clandestine activities, the senior commander communicated with Spanish dons in West Florida. He wanted payment of a pension owed to him for prior service to His Catholic Majesty, while he promised to pass along new information about U.S. forces in the borderlands. “I know what is concealed in the president's heart,” he told his foreign patrons. Identified as “Agent 13” in Spanish correspondence, he shared a secret report titled “Reflections” in exchange for thousands of dollars. To counter “an army of adventurers similar to the ancient Goths and Vandals,” he recommended that the Spanish Empire divert Americans from Mexico. Whatever his motivation, he passed along intelligence about planned military expeditions across the North American continent.

  Months earlier, Jefferson asked Lewis to lead a military expedition to explore and to map northwestern Louisiana. Lewis persuaded Captain William Clark, who previously served with him in the Legion, to join his special force as second-in-command. In addition to scientific pursuits, the two officers expected to establish relations with Indian leaders and to impress upon them “the rising importance of the United States.” In the beginning, their companions on the journey included 48 men – 34 soldiers, 12 boatmen, a slave, and an interpreter. Naming their expedition the Corps of Discovery, they set out from St. Louis on May 14, 1804.

  After six months on the Missouri River, the Corps reached the hospitable villages of the Mandan. While keeping a detailed journal of their activities, the officers presented leaders with Jeffersonian “peace medals.” The soldiers built Fort Mandan and wintered among the Indians. After they broke camp the next spring, a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea accompanied them as a guide and a mediator. Even though some Indians thwarted their progress, others gave them food and shelter. They proceeded onward through rapids, waterfalls, storms, accidents, and disease. Their ranks dwindled, yet they reached the Continental Divide and crossed the Rocky Mountains. On November 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark gazed upon the Pacific Ocean.

  Figure 3.2 Meriwether Lewis fires his rifle, 1810. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

  On the south side of the Columbia River, the Corps erected Fort Clatsop for winter quarters. While performing garrison duties, they survived in a remote area claimed by Great Britain, Spain, and Russia. Indian warriors approached them to acquire firearms for fighting their rivals, whereas the soldiers occasionally procured sexual favors from Native women. Three months later, Lewis and Clark led the expedition homeward. The former retraced their previous route, but the latter followed the Yellowstone River to the Missouri River. The two parties rejoined on the upper Missouri and arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

  Upon assuming the governor's post in St. Louis, Wilkinson dispatched Captain Zebulon Pike on a military expedition to locate the headwaters of the Mississippi. With 20 soldiers and an interpreter, Pike set out on August 9, 1805. He attempted to interdict British traders in the pine forests near Cass Lake, which he mistakenly identified as the source of the river. After probing the waterways to locate sites for a chain of forts, he returned home early the next year.

  That summer, Pike accepted another mission from Wilkinson. Ordered to move “with great circumspection,” the Pike expedition through southwestern Louisiana included Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, the intriguing governor's son. After returning a group of Osage captives as directed, they explored the Arkansas River and searched for the headwaters of the Red River. They reached the Rocky Mountains by winter, but Spanish troops arrested them. Furthermore, Spanish officials confiscated Pike's notes and journal. The American prisoners tarried in Mexico for months before their captors escorted them to the Louisiana border.

  For years, disputes over the Louisiana border prompted Americans and Spaniards to rattle their sabers. While the Jefferson administration pressed Spain to sell Florida, Dearborn ordered Wilkinson to reinforce New Orleans in “defence of the country.” Both appeared to favor a thrust into Mexico, although they never agreed upon logistics and plans for a military operation. Spanish troops repeatedly crossed the Sabine River in violation of American sovereignty, which resulted in cavalry skirmishes near the outposts. Madrid broke off diplomatic relations with Washington D.C., but Wilkinson met with Lieutenant Colonel Simón de Herrera during the fall of 1806. They determined that the 50-mile zone between the Arroyo Hondo and the Sabine represented a “neutral ground,” thereby making it off-limits to soldiers from either side.

  Meanwhile, the federal government administered Indian affairs under the auspices of the War Department. The Superintendent of Indian Trade executed the transfer policy, which involved the exchange of lands with Indian nations east of the Mississippi River in order to relocate them on the western side. However, Wilkinson reported to Dearborn that many of the Indian leaders in Louisiana were “disposed for war.” While struggling to prevent Spanish and British traders from crossing the borders, American troops attempted to keep squatters away from Indian communities. At the western forts, they built factories, transported goods, and beat and packed furs. While facilitating trade relations with Indian people, they attended tribal councils and negotiated peace treaties. The Mississippi “is not to be a river of blood,” the president informed Harrison, the governor of Indiana.

  By mixing liquor with bribery, Harrison negotiated a handful of peace treaties that favored the interests of settlers and speculators. In response, a Shawnee visionary named Tenskwatawa, or the Prophet, urged his kinsmen to shun the Americans altogether. His followers from diverse tribes refused to cede any more acres to the children of “the Great Serpent.” Hoping to discredit the spiritual movement, the shrewd officer challenged him to demonstrate his special powers. On June 16, 1806, the Prophet correctly predicted a total eclipse of the sun. Afterward, he established a new village at the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers called Prophetstown. Harrison also noted the widespread influence of his elder brother, Tecumseh, who “would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru.” As resentment against the U.S. continued to fester, the rise of a pan-Indian confederacy in the vast interior frustrated the work of the Army.

  The Army contributed in various ways to filibusters, that is, private military ventures organized to seize lands not already held by the U.S. Rogue elements used their military connections not only to achieve national security objectives but also to pursue their own personal fortunes. An armed citizenry participated in an array of ambitious schemes to expand what Jefferson once called an “empire for liberty.”

  No ambitious scheme of the early republic surpassed the scale and the scope of the Burr Conspiracy. Vice President Aaron Burr, a veteran of the Continental Army, killed Hamilton in a pistol duel and briefly fled the country. After his term in office expired, he plotted with “sundry persons” to undertake a land grab beyond the “western waters.” He communicated with the British minister to the U.S. about possible naval support in the Gulf of Mexico. Evidently, he planned either to invade Mexico or to seize Louisiana. Given his secretive correspondence with Wilkinson, perhaps he intended to do both. According to the allegations against him, he even contemplated marching on Washington D.C. On November 27, 1806, the commander-in-chief issued a proclamation that denounced the armed adventurers. Following his dramatic arrest for treason, Burr was tried but acquitted in a U.S. circuit court.

  Peaceable Coercion

  The Napoleonic Wars in Europe endangered the maritime commerce of the U.S. Both France and Great Britain intercepted American vessels bound for European ports, although the latter posed the greater threat to free trade. Following the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the British ruled the high seas. Treating merchantmen and their cargoes as prizes, they impressed, or forced into naval service, American sailors. Between 1803 and 1807, they captured well over 500 ships and impressed 6,000 sailors. The federal government tried to assist seamen wit
h papers that attested to U.S. citizenship, but the Royal Navy often ignored them.

  Defending the notion of sailors' rights, the Jefferson administration condemned the impressments by the Royal Navy. With Jay's Treaty scheduled to expire, Monroe raised the issue during talks in London. In 1806, he negotiated a new treaty with British officials that remained silent on impressments. The president refused to submit the agreement to the Senate, because it failed to stop the insults to national honor.

  The worst insult came on June 22, 1807, when the U.S.S. Chesapeake sailed from Norfolk, Virginia. Under the command of Commodore James Barron, the frigate encountered H.M.S. Leopard just outside territorial waters. The British opened fire with several broadsides. The attack killed three Americans while wounding 18. After a boarding party seized four alleged deserters from His Majesty's service, the Leopard departed without claiming a prize. The damaged Chesapeake returned to Norfolk the next day.

  Despite the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, Jefferson refused to lead the country to war. He sought reparations while ordering British vessels out of American ports. His demands included an end to impressment, but no one took him seriously. London's Morning Post mocked the defense posture of the Americans: “It will never be permitted to be said that the Royal Sovereign has struck her flag to a Yankee cockboat.”

  To make matters worse, the European powers pushed American tars into a crossfire. The British Orders in Council required U.S. ships to pass through a British port before proceeding to any port on the European continent. Disregarding the claims of neutrality made by seafaring nations, Napoleon's “continental system” hampered American shipping as well. He issued the Berlin and Milan Decrees, which warned merchantmen that visiting a British port made them subject to seizure. Consequently, American compliance with the “paper blockade” of one side placed them at odds with the regulations of the other.

  Faced with an international dilemma, the Jefferson administration pursued a strategy of peaceable coercion. Secretary of State Madison expressed confidence in non-military options, because he assumed that the belligerents depended upon American goods. Congress devised the Embargo Act of 1807, which prohibited U.S. ships from carrying trade to foreign ports. Furthermore, the controversial law prevented foreign vessels from collecting cargo at American ports. In effect, policymakers in Washington D.C. imposed an embargo on their own nation's exports to punish the European powers. Shipmates sat idle along the waterfronts closed by gunboats, even if scores turned to smuggling in defiance of the regulations. Federalists in New England criticized a strategic approach that harmed Americans more than anyone else. Congress repealed the law shortly before Jefferson retired from the presidency.

  His successor, President Madison, remained committed to peaceable coercion, albeit with modifications. In 1809, he urged Congress to pass the Non-Intercourse Act to permit trade with all countries except Great Britain and France. A year later, Macon's Bill Number 2 refined the restrictive measures with an incentive. If one of the belligerents ended the “paper blockade,” then the president offered to reopen trade with that nation but to reapply non-intercourse to their opponent. Napoleon soon offered to rescind the Berlin and Milan Decrees contingent upon a reversal in London. Unfortunately, nothing seemed effective in forcing the British to withdraw their Orders in Council.

  By 1811, British ships were operating with impunity close to American shores. H.M.S. Guerriere and H.M.S. Melampus sailed that spring near Sandy Hook, where they stopped the American brig Spitfire and impressed a sailor. The incident inspired warmongering but no immediate action. Commodore Rodgers captained the U.S.S. President, which approached H.M.S. Little Belt near Cape Henry. On the evening of May 16, they traded shots in the darkness. The British sloop limped to Halifax and reported 13 dead sailors. Rodgers suffered no losses, prompting the Madison administration to trumpet his success.

  Because of declining revenue from tariffs, the Madison administration restrained federal spending on the armed forces. The militia system remained the “firmest bulwark of republics,” or so the commander-in-chief boasted. Although the War Department appeared devoted to thrift, Congress authorized the recruitment of 6,000 men into the Army. A large number deployed to New Orleans in anticipation of military action. Owing to the mismanagement of the Terre aux Boeufs encampment, as many as 1,000 died or deserted. Likewise, the Navy Department dithered for years. Irrespective of their contributions to coastal defense, gunboats failed to project American might across the blue waters. The Navy operated only 16 warships, which were built before Republicans gained political power. No matter how many times American leaders beat the war drums, the European powers refused to flinch.

  American leaders disputed Spanish claims to West Florida. Secretary of State Monroe opined that it belonged to the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase. With Madrid preoccupied by the Napoleonic Wars, discontented settlers launched a revolt against colonial rule. At Baton Rouge, they announced the Republic of West Florida on September 23, 1810. Because they unfurled a blue flag with a white star, some called it the Lone Star Republic. Weeks later, Madison issued a proclamation announcing the annexation of the narrow strip. Spain protested, but American troops secured the lands west of the Perdido River.

  In Indiana Territory, American troops prepared to launch a preemptive war against the Indians. Harrison gathered 1,000 soldiers from the 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment and the territorial militia at Vincennes. In the fall of 1811, the governor led an advance toward Prophetstown. The soldiers erected Fort Harrison, where a messenger of the Prophet arranged a peaceful meeting for November 7. While Harrison directed sentinels to keep watch on the eve of the parlay, the Prophet informed his followers that no bullets from American rifles would harm them. Under the cover of darkness, hundreds of Indians encircled the military camp.

  Shortly before sunrise, the Battle of Tippecanoe erupted. The sentinels began firing at the warriors along the perimeter, which awakened the rank and file from their slumber. The attacking Indians broke through the lines and rushed into the camp. The units regrouped, fighting hand to hand and repulsing repeated charges. After a two-hour brawl, Harrison's soldiers counterattacked with great fury. They stripped, scalped, and mutilated enemy corpses. The Indians dispersed into the woods and swamps along the Tippecanoe River. Harrison lost over 180 killed and wounded, but U.S. forces gave him a celebrated victory that day.

  The next day, Harrison ordered a reconnaissance of Prophetstown. To their surprise, the troopers found it deserted. They confiscated items of interest while setting fire to corn, beans, and lodges. They blamed the British in Canada for inciting the Indians, because of the arms trade along the Great Lakes. Americans soon broke camp and marched back to Vincennes.

  Americans failed to stop Tecumseh, who departed Prophetstown several months earlier to undertake a 3,000-mile journey. He traveled northward to visit British officials in Canada and southward to meet with Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee leaders. He encountered dozens of Indian tribes and bands along the way, even as a severe earthquake shook the Mississippi and Ohio valleys that winter. Although a military defeat discredited the Prophet, Tecumseh returned to Indiana Territory with his own grand visions for a war against the U.S.

  Conclusion

  Even though Americans celebrated their newfound independence, the U.S. faced the prospect of constant strife in North America and beyond. A series of armed rebellions and domestic uprisings shook public faith in the adequacy of the state militias. Civilians noted with alarm the persistence of Indian unrest from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Despite anti-military sentiments within the country, the Constitution and Bill of Rights provided new guards for national security. Congress funded the establishment of a regular army and navy and eventually a permanent corps of marines. The commander-in-chief held executive authority over the standing forces and called upon state militiamen to render federal service. The founding generation shared a compelling vision of the military's role with respect to constabulary act
ivities, inland garrisons, reconnaissance missions, coastal defense, and maritime operations. Instead of making a blunt instrument for state-sponsored violence, the federal government crafted a useful tool for civil society.

  While building a nation, no aspect of the federal government created more unease among Americans than military affairs. Thanks to federal laws, the War Department organized an army greater than all others in the western hemisphere. Although the Jeffersonian Republicans were suspicious of military professionals, the Corps of Engineers at West Point received institutional support to develop a culture of leadership. From policing borders to venturing abroad, service members fulfilled their oaths with courage and skill. They combated Indian nations and European powers, who attempted to block their advance westward. Initially, they focused on protecting the expanding settlements between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Following the Louisiana Purchase, they marched into an immense domain that encompassed the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Anxieties about national forces lingered, but civil–military relations improved. The U.S. demonstrated sufficient power not only to establish the military but also to extend the republic.

  The U.S. considered naval power vital for safeguarding American rights. Because agrarian communities produced surplus commodities for overseas markets, commercial interests demanded a deep-water fleet in addition to coastal gunboats. Though constrained by governmental austerity, the Navy Department dispatched squadrons to patrol the territorial waters and to sail the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. warships battled French vessels in the West Indies, where they won a string of victories during an undeclared war. A combination of seafaring prowess and direct action accentuated the rising glory of America, albeit in martial ways. Taken by surprise, the regencies of North Africa retreated from blows delivered by American tars. Naval construction programs, however, became entangled with the partisan agendas of Federalists and Republicans. Years of diplomatic wrangling and defensive posturing failed to guarantee that neutral ships enjoyed free trade. The Napoleonic Wars drove the U.S. toward belligerence, but Americans attempted to avoid a titanic clash with imperial might.