The Naval War of 1812

Chapter IX

President captured by Captain Hayes' squadron—Successful cutting-out expeditions of the Americans—Privateer brig Chasseur captures St. Lawrence schooner—Constitution captures Cyane and Levant—Escapes from a British squadron—The Hornet captures the Penguin, and escapes from a 74—The Peacock and the Nautilus_—Summary—Remarks on the war—Tables of comparative loss, etc.—Compared with results of Anglo-French struggle._

The treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was signed at Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814, and ratified at Washington, Feb. 18, 1815. But during these first two months of 1815, and until the news reached the cruisers on the ocean, the warfare went on with much the same characteristics as before. The blockading squadrons continued standing on and off before the ports containing war-ships with the same unwearying vigilance; but the ice and cold prevented any attempts at harrying the coast except from the few frigates scattered along the shores of the Carolinas and Georgia. There was no longer any formidable British fleet in the Chesapeake or Delaware, while at New Orleans the only available naval force of the Americans consisted of a few small row-boats, with which they harassed the rear of the retreating British. The Constitution, Capt. Stewart, was already at sea, having put out from Boston on the 17th of December, while the blockading squadron (composed of the same three frigates she subsequently encountered) was temporarily absent.

The Hornet, Capt. Biddle, had left the port of New London, running in heavy weather through the blockading squadron, and had gone into New York, where the President, Commodore Decatur, and Peacock, Capt. Warrington, with the Tom Bowline brig were already assembled, intending to start on a cruise for the East Indies. The blockading squadron off the port consisted of the 56-gun razee Majestic, Capt. Hayes, 24-pounder frigate Endymion, Capt. Hope, 18-pounder frigate Pomone, Capt. Lumly, and 18-pounder frigate Tenedos, Capt. Parker. [Footnote: Letter of Rear-Admiral Hotham, Jan 23, 1815.] On the 14th of January a severe snow-storm came on and blew the squadron off the coast. Next day it moderated, and the ships stood off to the northwest to get into the track which they supposed the Americans would take if they attempted to put out in the storm. Singularly enough, at the instant of arriving at the intended point, an hour before daylight on the 15th, Sandy Hook bearing W.N.W. 15 leagues, a ship was made out, on the Majestic's weather-bow, standing S.E. [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes, Jan. 17, 1815.] This ship was the unlucky President. On the evening of the 14th she had left her consorts at anchor, and put out to sea in the gale. But by a mistake of the pilots who were to place boats to beacon the passage the frigate struck on the bar, where she beat heavily for an hour and a half, [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Decatur, Jan. 18, 1815.] springing her masts and becoming very much hogged and twisted. [Footnote: Report of Court-martial, Alex. Murray presiding. April 20, 1815.] Owing to the severity of her injuries the President would have put back to port, but was prevented by the westerly gale. [Footnote: Decatur's letter, Jan. 18th.] Accordingly Decatur steered at first along Long Island, then shaped his course to the S.E., and in the dark ran into the British squadron, which, but for his unfortunate accident, he would thus have escaped. At daylight, the President, which had hauled up and passed to the northward of her opponents, [Footnote: Decatur's letter. Jan. 18th.] found herself with the Majestic and Endymion astern, the Pomona on the port and the Tenedos on the starboard quarter. [Footnote: James, vi, 529.] The chase now became very interesting. [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes.] During the early part of the day, while the wind was still strong, the Majestic led the Endymion and fired occasionally at the President, but without effect. [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Decatur.] The Pomona gained faster than the others, but by Capt. Hayes' orders was signalled to go in chase of the Tenedos, whose character the captain could not make out [Footnote: James, vi, 529.]; and this delayed her several hours in the chase. [Footnote: Log of Pomona, published at Bermuda, Jan. 29th, and quoted in full in the "Naval Chronicle," xxxiii. 370.] In the afternoon, the wind coming out light and baffling, the Endymion left the Majestic behind, [Footnote: Letter of Captain Hayes.] and, owing to the President's disabled state and the amount of water she made in consequence of the injuries received while on the bar, gained rapidly on her, [Footnote: Letter of Decatur.] although she lightened ship and did everything else that was possible to improve her sailing. [Footnote: Letter of Decatur.] But a shift of wind helped the Endymion, [Footnote: Cooper, ii, 466.] and the latter was able at about 2.30, to begin skirmishing with her bow-chasers, answered by the stern-chasers of the President. [Footnote: Log of Pomona.] At 5.30 the Endymion began close action, [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes.] within half point-blank shot on the President's starboard quarter, [Footnote: James, vi, 530.] where not a gun of the latter could bear. [Footnote: Letter of Decatur.] The President continued in the same course, steering east by north, the wind being northwest, expecting the Endymion soon to come up abeam; but the latter warily kept her position by yawing, so as not to close. [Footnote: Letter of Decatur.] So things continued for half an hour during which the President suffered more than during all the remainder of the combat. [Footnote: Cooper, 470.] At 6.00 the President kept off, heading to the south, and the two adversaries ran abreast, the Americans using the starboard and the British the port batteries. [Footnote: Log of Pomone.] Decatur tried to close with his antagonist, but whenever he hauled nearer to the latter she hauled off [Footnote: Report of Court-martial.] and being the swiftest ship could of course evade him; so he was reduced to the necessity of trying to throw her out of the combat [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Decatur.] by dismantling her. He was completely successful in this, and after two hours' fighting the Endymion's sails were all cut from her yards [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes.] and she dropped astern, the last shot being fired from the President. [Footnote: Log of Pomone.] The Endymion was now completely silent, [Footnote: Log of Pomone.] and Commodore Decatur did not board her merely because her consorts were too close astern [Footnote: Report of Court-martial.]; accordingly the President hauled up again to try her chances at running, having even her royal studding-sails set, [Footnote: James, vi, 538.] and exposed her stern to the broadside of the Endymion, [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Decatur.] but the latter did not fire a single gun. [Footnote: Log of the Pomone.] Three hours afterward, at 11, [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes.] the Pomone caught up with the President, and luffing to port gave her the starboard broadside [Footnote: Log of the Pomone.]; the Tenedos being two cables' length's distance astern, taking up a raking position. [Footnote: Decatur's letter.] The Pomone poured in another broadside, within musket shot, [Footnote: Log of Pomone.] when the President surrendered and was taken possession of by Capt. Parker of the Tenedos. [Footnote: James, vi, 531.] A considerable number of the President's people were killed by these two last broadsides. [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Decatur, March 6, 1815; deposition of Chaplain Henry Robinson before Admiralty Court at St. Georges, Bermuda, Jan. 1815.] The Endymion was at this time out of sight astern. [Footnote: Letter of Decatur, Jan. 18th.] She did not come up, according to one account, for an hour and three quarters, [Footnote: Log of Pomone.] and according to another, for three hours [Footnote: Letter of Decatur, Mar. 6th.]; and as she was a faster ship than the President, this means that she was at least two hours motionless repairing damages. Commodore Decatur delivered his sword to Capt. Hayes of the Majestic, who returned it, stating in his letter that both sides had fought with great gallantry. [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hayes.] The President having been taken by an entire squadron, [Footnote: Admiral Hotham's letter, Jan. 23rd.] the prize-money was divided equally among the ships. [Footnote: Bermuda "Royal Gazette," March 8, 1815.] The President's crew all told consisted of 450 men, [Footnote: Depositions of Lieut. Gallagher and the other officers.] none of whom were British. [Footnote: Deposition of Commodore Decatur.] She had thus a hundred more men than her antagonist and threw about 100 pounds more shot at a broadside; but these advantages were more than counterbalanced by the injuries received on the bar, and by the fact that her powder was so bad that while some of the British shot went through both her sides, such a thing did not once happen to the Endymion, [Footnote: Bermuda "Royal Gazette," Jan. 6, 1818.] when fairly hulled. The President lost 24 killed and 55 wounded [Footnote: Decatur's letter.]; the Endymion, 11 killed and 14 wounded. [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Hope, Jan. 15, 1815.] Two days afterward, on their way to the Bermudas, a violent easterly gale came on, during which both ships were dismasted, and the Endymion in addition had to throw over all her spar-deck guns.[Footnote: James, vi, 534.]

[Illustration: The capture of the President: an engraving published in London in 1815 from a painting done under the supervision of an officer in the Endymion. From left to right: HMS Majestic, USS President, HMS Pomone, HMS Endymion, HMS Tenedos. (Courtesy Beverley R. Robinson Collection, U.S. Naval Academy Museum)]

As can been seen, almost every sentence of this account is taken (very nearly word for word) from the various official reports, relying especially on the log of the British frigate Pomone. I have been thus careful to have every point of the narrative established by unimpeachable reference: first, because there have been quite a number of British historians who have treated the conflict as if it were a victory and not a defeat for the Endymion: and in the second place, because I regret to say that I do not think that the facts bear out the assertions, on the part of most American authors, that Commodore Decatur "covered himself with glory" and showed the "utmost heroism." As regards the first point, Captain Hope himself, in his singularly short official letter, does little beyond detail his own loss, and makes no claim to having vanquished his opponent. Almost all the talk about its being a "victory" comes from James; and in recounting this, as well as all the other battles, nearly every subsequent British historian simply gives James' statements over again, occasionally amplifying, but more often altering or omitting, the vituperation. The point at issue is simply this: could a frigate which, according to James himself, went out of action with every sail set, take another frigate which for two hours, according to the log of the Pomone, lay motionless and unmanageable on the waters, without a sail? To prove that it could not, of course needs some not over-scrupulous manipulation of the facts. The intention with which James sets about his work can be gathered from the triumphant conclusion he comes to, that Decatur's name has been "sunk quite as low as that of Bainbridge or Porter," which, comparing small things to great, is somewhat like saying that Napoleon's defeat by Wellington and Blucher "sunk" him to the level of Hannibal. For the account of the American crew and loss, James relies on the statements made in the Bermuda papers, of whose subsequent forced retraction he takes no notice, and of course largely overestimates both. On the same authority he states that the President's fire was "silenced," Commodore Decatur stating the exact reverse. The point is fortunately settled by the log of the Pomone, which distinctly says that the last shot was fired by the President. His last resort is to state that the loss of the President was fourfold (in reality threefold) that of the Endymion. Now we have seen that the President lost "a considerable number" of men from the fire of the Pomone. Estimating these at only nineteen, we have a loss of sixty caused by the Endymion, and as most of this was caused during the first half hour, when the President was not firing, it follows that while the two vessels were both fighting, broadside and broadside, the loss inflicted was about equal; or, the President, aiming at her adversary's rigging, succeeded in completely disabling her, and incidentally killed 25 men, while the Endymion did not hurt the President's rigging at all, and, aiming at her hull, where, of course, the slaughter ought to have been far greater than when the fire was directed aloft, only killed about the same number of men. Had there been no other vessels in chase, Commodore Decatur, his adversary having been thus rendered perfectly helpless, could have simply taken any position he chose and compelled the latter to strike, without suffering any material additional loss himself. As in such a case he would neither have endured the unanswered fire of the Endymion on his quarter for the first half hour, nor the subsequent broadsides of the Pornone, the President's loss would probably have been no greater than that of the Constitution in taking the Java. It is difficult to see how any outsider with an ounce of common-sense and fairmindedness can help awarding the palm to Decatur, as regards the action with the Endymion. But I regret to say that I must agree with James that he acted rather tamely, certainly not heroically, in striking to the Pomone. There was, of course, not much chance of success in doing battle with two fresh frigates; but then they only mounted eighteen-pounders, and, judging from the slight results of the cannonading from the Endymion and the two first (usually the most fatal) broadsides of the Pomone, it would have been rather a long time before they would have caused much damage. Meanwhile the President was pretty nearly as well off as ever as far as fighting and sailing went. A lucky shot might have disabled one of her opponents, and then the other would, in all probability, have undergone the same fate as the Endymion. At least it was well worth trying, and though Decatur could not be said to be disgraced, yet it is excusable to wish that Porter or Perry had been in his place. It is not very pleasant to criticise the actions of an American whose name is better known than that of almost any other single-ship captain of his time; but if a man is as much to be praised for doing fairly, or even badly, as for doing excellently, then there is no use in bestowing praise at all.

This is perhaps as good a place as any other to notice one or two of James' most common misstatements; they really would not need refutation were it not that they have been reechoed, as usual, by almost every British historian of the war for the last 60 years. In the first place, James puts the number of the President's men at 475; she had 450. An exactly parallel reduction must often be made when he speaks of the force of an American ship. Then he says there were many British among them, which is denied under oath by the American officers; this holds good also for the other American frigates. He says there were but 4 boys; there were nearly 30; and on p. 120 he says the youngest was 14, whereas we incidentally learn from the "Life of Decatur" that several were under 12. A favorite accusation is that the American midshipmen were chiefly masters and mates of merchant-men; but this was hardly ever the case. Many of the midshipmen of the war afterward became celebrated commanders, and most of these (a notable instance being Farragut, the greatest admiral since Nelson) were entirely too young in 1812 to have had vessels under them, and, moreover, came largely from the so-called "best families."

Again, in the first two frigate actions of 1812, the proportion of killed to wounded happened to be unusually large on board the American frigates; accordingly James states (p. 146) that the returns of the wounded had been garbled, under-estimated, and made "subservient to the views of the commanders and their government." To support his position that Capt. Hull, who reported 7 killed and 7 wounded, had not given the list of the latter in full, he says that "an equal number of killed and wounded, as given in the American account, hardly ever occurs, except in cases of explosion"; and yet, on p. 519, he gives the loss of the British Hermes as 25 killed and 24 wounded, disregarding the incongruity involved. On p. 169, in noticing the loss of the United States, 5 killed and 7 wounded, he says that "the slightly wounded, as in all other American cases, are omitted." This is untrue, and the proportion on the United States, 5 to 7, is just about the same as that given by James himself on the Endymion, 11 to 14, and Nautilus, 6 to 8. In supporting his theory, James brings up all the instances where the American wounded bore a larger proportion to their dead than on board the British ships, but passes over the actions with the Reindeer, Epervier, Penguin, Endymion, and Boxer, where the reverse was the case. One of James' most common methods of attempting to throw discredit on the much vilified "Yankees" is by quoting newspaper accounts of their wounded. Thus he says (p. 562) of the Hornet, that several of her men told some of the Penguin's sailors that she lost 10 men killed, 16 wounded, etc. Utterly false rumors of this kind were as often indulged in by the Americans as the British. After the capture of the President articles occasionally appeared in the papers to the effect that some American sailor had counted "23 dead" on board the Endymion, that "more than 50" of her men were wounded, etc. Such statements were as commonly made and with as little foundation by one side as by the other, and it is absurd for a historian to take any notice of them. James does no worse than many of our own writers of the same date; but while their writings have passed into oblivion, his work is still often accepted as a standard. This must be my apology for devoting so much time to it. The severest criticism to which it can possibly be subjected is to compare it with the truth. Whenever dealing with purely American affairs, James' history is as utterly untrustworthy as its contemporary, "Niles' Register," is in matters purely British, while both are invaluable in dealing with things relating strictly to their own nation; they supplement each other.

On Jan. 8th General Packenham was defeated and killed by General Jackson at New Orleans, the Louisiana and the seamen of the Carolina having their full share in the glory of the day, and Captain Henly being among the very few American wounded. On the same day Sailing-master Johnson, with 28 men in two boats, cut out the British-armed transport brig Cyprus, containing provisions and munitions of war, and manned by ten men. [Footnote: Letter of Sailing-master Johnson, Jan. 9, 1815.] On the 18th the British abandoned the enterprise and retreated to their ships; and Mr. Thomas Shields, a purser, formerly a sea-officer, set off to harass them while embarking. At sunset on the 20th he left with five boats and a gig, manned in all with 53 men, and having under him Sailing-master Daily and Master's Mate Boyd. [Footnote: Letter of Thomas Shields to Com. Patterson, Jan. 25, 1815.] At ten o'clock P.M. a large barge, containing 14 seamen and 40 officers and men of the 14th Light Dragoons, was surprised and carried by boarding after a slight struggle. The prisoners outnumbering their captors, the latter returned to shore, left them in a place of safety, and again started at 2 A.M. on the morning of the 22d. Numerous transports and barges of the enemy could be seen, observing very little order and apparently taking no precautions against attack, which they probably did not apprehend. One of the American boats captured a transport and five men; another, containing Mr. Shields himself and eight men, carried by boarding, after a short resistance, a schooner carrying ten men. The flotilla then re-united and captured in succession, with no resistance, five barges containing 70 men. By this time the alarm had spread and they were attacked by six boats, but these were repelled with some loss. Seven of the prisoners (who were now half as many again as their captors) succeeded in escaping in the smallest prize. Mr. Shields returned with the others, 78 in number. During the entire expedition he had lost but three men, wounded; he had taken 132 prisoners, and destroyed eight craft whose aggregate tonnage about equalled that of the five gun-vessels taken on Lake Borgne.