Chapter I: 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, if pride in the past be a safeguard for the future in forming a national spirit, America should rejoice.

There exists no Englishman today whose heart is not moved at the word “Trafalgar,” or whose feelings are not stirred by the sentence “England expects every man to do his duty.” The slight, one-armed figure of Admiral Nelson has been before the Briton’s eyes as boy and man, surrounded always with the glamour that will never cease to enshroud a nation’s hero. Has it kept alive a feeling of animosity against France to dwell on such a man as this, and to keep his deeds alive? So it may be. But no Englishman would hide the cause in order to lose the supposed effect of it.

In searching the history of our own country, when it stood together as a united nation, waging just war, we find England, our mother country, whose language we speak, arrayed against us. But, on account of this bond of birth and language, should we cease to tell about the deeds of those men who freed us from her grasp and oppressions, and made us what we are? I trust not. May our navy glory in its record, no matter the consequences! May our youth grow up with the lives of these men--our Yankee commanders--before them, and may they profit by their examples!

This should not inculcate a hatred for a former foe. It should only serve to build up that national _esprit de corps_ without which no country ever stood up for its rights and willed to fight for them. May the sons of our new citizens, whose fathers have served kings, perhaps, and come from other countries, grow up with a pride in America’s own national history! How can this be given them unless they read of it in books or gain it from teaching?

But it is not the intention to instruct that has caused the author to compile and collate the material used in the following pages. He has been influenced by his own feelings, that are shared by the many thousands of the descendants of “the men who fought.” It has been his pleasure, and this alone is his excuse.

Mr. Carlton T. Chapman, whose spirited paintings are reproduced to illustrate this volume, has caught the atmosphere of action, and has given us back the old days in a way that makes us feel them.

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1

I

The United States frigate _Constitution_, on July 17th, 1812,
falls in with a British squadron, but escapes, owing to the
masterly seamanship of Captain Isaac Hull 23

II

The _Constitution_, under command of Captain Hull, captures
the British frigate _Guerrière_, under command of Captain
Richard Dacres, August 19th, 1812 35

III

The United States sloop of war _Wasp_, Captain Jacob Jones,
captures the English sloop of war _Frolic_, October 18th,
1812; both vessels taken on the same day by the English
seventy-four _Poictiers_ 47

IV

October 25th, 1812, the British frigate _Macedonian_, commanded
by John S. Carden, is captured by the _United States_
frigate, under command of Stephen Decatur; the prize is
brought to port 59

V

Captain Wm. Bainbridge, in the _Constitution_, captures the
British frigate _Java_ off the coast of Brazil, December
29th, 1812; the _Java_ is set fire to and blows up 73

VI

Gallant action of the privateer schooner _Comet_, of 14 guns,
against three English vessels and one Portuguese, January
14th, 1813 91

VII

The United States sloop of war _Hornet_, Captain James
Lawrence, takes the British brig _Peacock_; the latter
sinks after the action, February 24th, 1813 103

VIII

The United States frigate _Chesapeake_ is captured by the
English frigate _Shannon_ after a gallant defence, June
1st, 1813 113

IX

The United States brig _Enterprise_, commanded by William
Burrows, captures H. B. M. sloop of war _Boxer_, September
5th, 1813; Burrows killed during the action 129

X

On September 10th, 1813, the American fleet on Lake Erie,
under the command of Oliver Hazard Perry, captures the
entire English naval force under Commodore Barclay 139

XI

The American privateer brig _General Armstrong_, of 9 guns and
90 men, repulses a boat attack in the harbor of Fayal, the
British suffering a terrific loss, September 27th, 1813 159

XII

March 28th, 1814, the United States frigate _Essex_, under
Captain David Porter, is captured by two English vessels,
the _Phoebe_ and the _Cherub_, in the harbor of Valparaiso 171

XIII

The United States sloop of war _Peacock_, commanded by Captain
Warrington, takes the British sloop of war _L’Epervier_ on
April 29th, 1814 191

XIV

The United States sloop of war _Wasp_, under command of Captain
Blakeley, captures the British sloop of war _Reindeer_,
June 28th, 1814. The _Wasp_ engages the British sloop of
war _Avon_ on the 1st of September; the English vessel
sinks after the _Wasp_ is driven off by a superior fore 199

XV

September 11th, the American forces on Lake Champlain, under
Captain Macdonough, capture the English squadron, under
Captain Downey, causing the evacuation of New York State by
the British 209

XVI

The United States frigate _President_, under command of Captain
Decatur, is taken by a British squadron after a long chase,
during which the _President_ completely disabled one of her
antagonists, January 15th, 1815 219

XVII

February 20th, 1815, the _Constitution_, under Captain Stewart,
engages and captures two English vessels that prove to be
the _Cyane_ and the _Levant_; one of her prizes is retaken,
and the _Constitution_ again has a narrow escape 231

XVIII

The British brig of war _Penguin_ surrenders to the United
States brig _Hornet_, commanded by Captain James Biddle;
the _Penguin_ sinks immediately after the accident, March
23d, 1815 245