A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy (44 page)

Two silver and four bronze stars represent the fourteen actions during the War of 1812 (which actually lasted until 1814).

 

1.
Constitution
versus
Guerrière
(19 August 1812).
In the first action of the war between two frigates, USS
Constitution
sank HMS
Guerrière,
lifting national morale at a time when the land war was going badly for the Americans. Time and again during the engagement, British cannon shot failed to penetrate the U.S. frigate's hull, earning her the nickname “Old Ironsides.” In his after-action report, Captain Isaac Hull cited the courage and fighting skill of the black Sailors in the crew, writing that he “never had any better fighters” and that they “stripped to the waist, and fought like devils . . . utterly insensible to danger.”

2.
United States
versus
Macedonian
(28 October 1812).
In a second frigate action, U.S. Sailors were again victorious over the Royal Navy. This time, the British vessel was captured and ultimately served in the U.S. Navy for many decades to come.

3.
Constitution
versus
Java
(29 December 1812).
In a hard-fought battle—the third consecutive meeting of frigates—American Sailors again defeated the British. HMS
Java
was so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled.

4.
Chesapeake
versus
Shannon
(1 June 1813).
The string of U.S. victories in frigate engagements ended when HMS
Shannon
defeated USS
Chesapeake,
but the words of Captain James Lawrence as he lay dying—“Don't give up the ship”—set an important U.S. naval tradition that continues to this day.

5.
Essex
versus
Phoebe
and
Cherub
(28 March 1814).
Ending an extraordinarily successful commerce-raiding expedition into the Pacific that
crippled Britain's whaling industry, the frigate
Essex
was defeated by two British ships (frigate
Phoebe
and sloop of war
Cherub
) when the British ships violated neutral waters to attack her. Despite the loss,
Essex
's captain and crew exhibited the same courage and daring that had characterized their exploits for a full year prior.

6.
Constitution
versus
Cyane
and
Levant
(20 February 1815).
Frigate
Constitution
defeated two British ships (frigate
Cyane
and sloop of war
Levant
).

7. Sloop of war and brig single-ship actions.
While the frigate-to-frigate engagements were capturing the attention and the imagination of the world, the smaller ships were likewise doing battle in the far corners of the earth. The various actions included, among others: on 18 October 1812, U.S. sloop
Wasp
captured sloop HMS
Frolic
five days out of Philadelphia; sloop
Hornet
sank British brig
Peacock
in early 1813 off British Guiana; sloop
Enterprise
captured the brig
Boxer
off the coast of Florida in August; and on 29 April 1814, sloop
Peacock
captured the British brig
Epervier.

8. Commerce raiding in the Atlantic.
By keeping the pressure on British merchant shipping, some of the advantages enjoyed by the more powerful Royal Navy were offset.

9. Operations against whaling fleets in the Pacific.
The frigate
Essex
was the most famous of the American ships attacking this vital British industry, virtually destroying it for a time by taking twelve prizes around the Galapagos Islands from April through July 1813.

10. Battle of Lake Erie (10 September 1813).
One of the most important naval actions of the war occurred when an American squadron of nine ships (flying a flag with the words “Don't Give Up the Ship”) under the command of Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a more heavily armed squadron of British ships, capturing them all and allowing an American Army to launch an offensive to recapture Detroit.

11. Battle of Lake Champlain (11 September 1814).
In a battle credited with causing the British to come to the peace table, an American squadron under Thomas Macdonough defeated a British squadron, causing an advancing British army to retreat into Canada.

12. Defense of Washington (July–August 1814).
Although unable to stop the British advance, Commodore Joshua Barney and his naval brigade showed great courage in resisting superior British forces.

13. Defense of Baltimore (September 1814).
Defenders at Fort McHenry were able to prevent the British advance on Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the words to what later became the American national anthem.

14. Battle of New Orleans (December 1814–January 1815).
Slow communications of the day did not prevent this battle from taking place even though the war had officially ended earlier. Supported by naval forces, including a heroic stand by a naval battery on the west bank of the Mississippi River, the American Army under General Andrew Jackson was able to withstand the British assault and save New Orleans from capture.

In 1819, Congress declared the long illegal, infamous slave trade to be piracy and, as such, punishable by death. The Navy's African Slave Trade Patrol was established to search for and bring to justice these dealers in human misery. The patrol, which from time to time included USS
Constitution,
USS
Constellation,
USS
Saratoga,
and USS
Yorktown,
relentlessly plied the waters off West Africa, South America, and the Cuban coast, all principal areas for the slave trade. They captured more than a hundred suspected slavers before the patrols ended with the coming of the Civil War.

During the decade between 1810 and 1820, pirates increasingly infested the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and by the early 1820s, nearly three thousand attacks had been made on merchant ships. Financial loss was great; murder and torture were common.

In 1822 the Navy created the West India Squadron to combat the problem. Under the leadership of Commodores James Biddle, David Porter, and Lewis Warrington, Sailors of the American Navy crushed the pirates and ended their previously unchallenged crimes.

Sailors manning open boats for extended periods through storms and intense heat relentlessly ferreted out the outlaws from uncharted bays and lagoons.
Added to the danger of close-quarter combat was the constant exposure to yellow fever and malaria in the arduous tropical duty.

The Navy's persistent and aggressive assault against the freebooters achieved the desired results. Within ten years, Caribbean piracy was all but extinguished, and an invaluable service had been rendered to humanity and the shipping interests of all nations.

The boggy maze of the Florida Everglades long provided a fortress of refuge for the resourceful Seminole Indians. In 1835 the massacre of an Army detachment by the Indians caused the Navy to send Sailors and Marines into the watery environment.

Landing parties from the West India Squadron commanded by Commodore Alexander Dallas relieved Army garrisons, enabling them to move into the interior. In 1836, involvement of the Creek Indians extended the war to southern Alabama and Georgia. Small Navy steamers plying the Chattahoochee and other rivers supplied army troops, reinforced by nearly the entire Marine Corps, to keep U.S. lines of communication open and secure.

American Sailors also operated a brown-water “mosquito fleet” composed of small sailing craft, flat-bottomed barges, and shallow dugouts that could penetrate hundreds of miles into swamps and twisting tributaries to find and help defeat the elusive enemy.

Friction between the United States and Mexico, aggravated by an ever-increasing American population in the southwest and the admission of the Texas Republic into the Union, resulted in war. A variety of operations not only served to assure an American victory but also prepared U.S. forces for the great challenges of the coming Civil War.

Stars

Four bronze stars represent the actions during the Mexican War.

 

1. Veracruz landing (9 March 1847).
Veracruz, key to ultimate victory on the Gulf of Mexico, fell before a brilliantly executed amphibious assault planned by Commodore David Conner. More than twelve thousand troops were put ashore with their equipment in a single day, and, at the request of General Winfield Scott, naval gunners and their heavy cannon went ashore to help the Army artillery pound the enemy into submission, opening the way for the capture of Mexico City.

2. Riverine operations.
From the Gulf of Mexico, Sailors under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, navigating small side-wheel steamers and schooners, fought their way up tortuous rivers to capture Frontera, San Juan Bautista, and other enemy strongholds and supply sources.