WHY WE FOUGHT IN 1812
A STIRRING TALE OF THE OUTRAGES PERPETRATED ON AMERICAN CITIZENS
BY THE PRESS-GANGS OF THE BRITISH NAVY--HORRORS OF LIFE ON SHIPS
WHERE THE OFFICERS FOUND PLEASURE IN THE USE OF THE CAT--DOOMED
TO SLAVERY FOR LIFE--IMPRESSED FROM THE _BALTIMORE_--A BRITISH
SEAMAN’S JOKE AND ITS GHASTLY RESULT--THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY’S WAY
OF DEALING WITH DELIBERATE MURDER IN AMERICAN WATERS--ASSAULT OF
THE _LEOPARD_ ON THE _CHESAPEAKE_ TO COMPEL AMERICAN SEAMEN TO
RETURN TO THE SLAVERY THEY HAD ESCAPED--BUILDING HARBOR-DEFENCE
BOATS TO PROTECT AMERICAN SEAMEN FROM OUTRAGE ON THE HIGH
SEAS--OTHER GOOD REASONS FOR GOING TO WAR.
There were many causes operating through weary years to force the
American nation to declare war against the British in 1812, which the
reader will recall readily, of course. Great Britain retained the
frontier posts which she had agreed to surrender when the war of the
Revolution came to an end. She used these posts as headquarters for
Indian tribes, whose friendship she cultivated that she might use them
to the injury of the United States. She even incited them to attack the
American pioneers, and furnished them with guns and scalping knives
when night assaults on peaceful settlers were to be made. Although
all Europe was submerged in a turmoil of blood, she turned aside from
the great interests there to foment discord between the States of the
American Union, seeking thereby to disrupt the nation in the hope that
a part--the New England part, at that--would return to the colonial
relationship. Remembering the prodigious growth of American shipping
and the consequent complaints of her own shipowners, she used every
means to harass American commerce. To detail all of the evils she
heaped upon the decks of American ships is unnecessary, but the reader
will remember that a time came when she ordered that every American
ship carrying cargo to any part of Europe must call first at a port in
England, land the cargo, pay duty on it, and then carry it away again,
subject to such regulations as seemed most beneficial to her.
As the _Edinburgh Review_ for November, 1812, said, “the spirit of
animosity and unconciliating contempt pervaded the whole proceedings
of the government” toward the Americans. And although “they are
descended from our loins--they speak our language--they have adopted
our laws--they retain our usages and manners--they read our books--they
have copied our freedom--they rival our courage; yet _they are
less popular and less esteemed among us than the base and bigoted
Portuguese, or the ferocious and ignorant Russians_.”
That the retention of the frontier posts, the inciting of the Indians
to night attacks on the frontiersmen, and the interferences with
American oversea trade were separately sufficient causes of war and,
combined, more than sufficient, will not now be seriously disputed,
if the advocate of peace will stop to consider what ought to be done
were any one of these uncalled-for aggressions attempted now. And yet
so great was the American antipathy to another war, so great was the
American desire to hold a neutral position as to the wars of Europe,
that neither the one nor the other nor all together were sufficient to
nerve them to strike the blow. Still another and a stronger incentive
was needed, if war was to be declared--a grievance that would appeal to
the heart of the whole people. And not only was this incentive found;
it was continually present and crying aloud for vengeance.
[Illustration: “The Press-gang impressing a Young Waterman on his
Marriage Day.”
_From an English engraving, illustrating an old song._]
To fully appreciate this, the chief cause of the War of 1812 between
the United States and England, one must first know well how the crews
of the British naval ships of that day were recruited and what manner
of life these crews led when in actual service. As to the manner of
recruiting, the facts are, no doubt, well known to almost every
reader. Gangs of men, under the lead of petty officers, and commonly
piloted by a crimp, were sent ashore in home ports by the captain
who found his ship short-handed. These gangs went to the resorts of
seamen in the port where the ship happened to lie, and there took
by force every English-speaking sailor they could find and carried
him on board the warship. Failing to find a resource in the sailors’
boarding-houses, they knocked down any able-bodied man encountered in
the street, and he was then carried instantly to the ship. Failing in
getting enough men in this fashion--as, for instance, when the ship
was in a foreign port or on the high seas--it was the custom, the
every-day custom, to send the press-gang, on board any ship where it
was supposed that English-speaking sailors might be found, and there
take and carry off all such sailors.
The life that the crews so recruited led cannot, of course, be
described here in full detail. The reader will readily imagine that
the officers who snatched a man away from his home without even the
poor privilege of telling his wife and children of his fate would not
show any great care for the feelings or comfort of the man when on
board the ship. But any picture of the life there which an American,
at the end of the nineteenth century, might base on the mere fact that
sailors were kidnapped, would be wholly inadequate, for the reason that
no American of these days, unacquainted with the facts, could imagine
such a degraded state of slavery. That the crews were ill-fed; that
they were worked to the limit of their endurance; that the pay was as
nothing (it is on record that one kidnapped man received £14 2s. 6d.
for serving two and a half years); that the kidnapped men were not
allowed to go ashore and were not allowed to write letters to their
families where any effort was likely to be made for their release--all
these conditions are, or were, a matter of course. It was in the
matter of preserving what the officers called discipline--in keeping
these unfortunate slaves in subjugation--that the real brutality of
the British naval officers appeared. For the officers, who depended
on clubs and manacles to recruit their crews, made no appeal to them
save through their fears--used nothing to enforce an order but the
cat-o’-ninetails. One undenied description of the flogging of a man on
a British man-o’-war--a man-o’-war well known later on in the annals
of the American navy--shall serve as an illustration of the ordinary
punishments inflicted there.
[Illustration: Another View of the “Young Waterman” and the Press-gang.
_From an English engraving._]
In the year 1811 the British frigate _Macedonian_ was commanded by
Capt. John S. Carden, and his executive officer was one David Hope.
“It was a peculiar feature of the brutal punishment of flogging that
officers and men who at first sickened and fainted at the sight of it
gradually grew indifferent and in some instances acquired a craving
for the bloody ordeal and took a fiendish delight in superintending
it. David Hope was one of these. He took the exquisite delight of a
connoisseur in the art of flogging, being especially fond of seeing
the tender flesh of boys lacerated and torn.” One day a midshipman on
the _Macedonian_ named Gale, “a rascally, unprincipled fellow,” lost a
handkerchief. A sailor found it on the deck, and as it was unmarked,
kept it. Gale saw it in the sailor’s possession, and the sailor was
court-martialled, convicted of theft, and sentenced to be flogged
through the fleet--to receive 300 lashes from the cat--and to serve one
year in prison.
On the day appointed the _Macedonian’s_ launch was put into the water
and rigged, under the supervision of this David Hope, with a frame
on which the bare-backed sailor was lashed. A surgeon, to keep watch
that the man was kept alive, boarded the launch with the boatswain and
the boat’s crew, and then all hands were called to man the rail and
rigging, where all could view the torture.
This done, the lash was applied to the man’s back until “the flesh
resembled roasted meat burned nearly black before a scorching fire.”
Then the launch was sent to another ship and to another and another,
where fresh boatswains applied the lash anew to the raw back of the
man, the doctor standing by and seeing that the man remained conscious
to suffer the torment. When 220 blows had been given the doctor ordered
the whipping stopped. The sailor begged to have the other eighty blows
given that he might be done with it, but this was refused. He was
carried back to the _Macedonian_ and cared for until he had recovered
his strength, when the remaining eighty were given to him, and then he
was flung into prison.
[Illustration: A Flogging Scene. (“The Point of Honor”--a Sailor about
to be Flogged is Saved by a Comrade’s Confession.
_From a drawing by George Cruikshank._]
Just before the War of 1812 a deserter from a British ship slipped on
board the United States frigate _Essex_. When an officer with a gang
came for him he was, of course, surrendered. On asking, then, that
he be allowed to go below for his clothes, permission was granted, but
instead of getting his clothing he ran to the carpenter’s bench, picked
up an axe, and deliberately chopping off his left hand, he carried it
on deck and threw it at the feet of the British lieutenant, saying he
would cut off his foot also before he would serve again in the British
navy. As he was no longer able to do duty as a sailor the lieutenant
left him.
[Illustration: The United States Frigate _Essex_.
_From a lithograph at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
Lest these stories seem to the humane reader to exaggerate the horrors
of life on a British naval ship, the following facts from the London
“Annual Register” for 1781 (page 41 of “Principal Occurrences”) will be
found conclusive: The total number of men “raised” for the navy, 1776
to 1780, was 170,928. Of these, 1,243 only were killed by the enemy,
while 18,545 “died,” and 42,069 _deserted_. More than ten per cent.
of all who were “raised” “died,” while almost one-fourth of them all
succeeded in deserting, in spite of the rigors of the imprisonment into
which they were carried.
It is necessary to give figures relating to the Revolutionary period
instead of the era of the War of 1812, because British officials have
absolutely refused to publish any such statistics since 1800.
What bearing all these facts have on the War of 1812 between the
United States and Great Britain, if not plain already, will very soon
appear. Animated by the belief that “our maritime supremacy is in fact
a part of the law of nations,” and by the further belief that “America
certainly cannot pretend to wage war with us; she has no navy to do it
with,” the British naval officers kidnapped English-speaking sailors
wherever they were found, even when these sailors were confessedly
born citizens of the United States. The British government did,
indeed, rule that where an American (natural-born) had a certificate
from the American government attesting his nativity--where he could,
by documentary evidence, prove his nativity--he might be excused by
the British “recruiting” gangs, but the rule was, in fact, a mere
diplomatic subterfuge for use should policy at any time require a
“disavowal.” In actual practice the only judge of a man’s citizenship
was the recruiting officer of the short-handed ship, and the
lithe-limbed Yankee sailor was just the kind of a man the British
press-gang was looking for. In fact, the British periodicals of that
day continuously scoffed at these citizenship papers, and it was
asserted in Parliament, as well as by the press, that the American
naval officers, as well as naval officials stationed on shore,
deliberately issued false papers at every opportunity--in short, that
the Americans, as a nation, were liars, perjurers, and forgers.
As early as 1747, when Massachusetts was a colony in most peaceful
relations with the home government, a press-gang caused a bloody riot
on the streets of Boston, where press-gangs were “already stigmatized
as barbarous by public opinion.” Indeed, one of the irritations leading
to the hostilities begun in 1775 was the work of the press-gang. The
war of the Revolution forever settled the question of the _right_ of
the British government to impress an American, but instead of stopping
such violations of the rights of a free-minded people it rather
increased them. For the hatred and contempt which the British felt
toward the Americans as a people during that war was intensified by
the result of it. It was the personal pleasure of the British officer
to get these Yankees where he could make them feel his power. It is on
record (see “Life of Elder Joseph Bates”) that the British officers
were particular to see that these Americans took off their hats when
the band played “God Save the King,” and that a common form of address
was “Here, you damned Yankee scoundrel,” do this or that. That the
“damned Yankee scoundrel” was triced up and flogged on the slightest
provocation by these officers, who confessedly enjoyed seeing flesh
creep under the lash, scarcely need be said.
No sooner was the war of the Revolution over and American merchant
ships free to sail to British ports than the outrages began on the
American seamen. It was literally true that the United States had
no navy and could not wage war with England. We did not have even
one ship-of-war left to carry the flag, and the party that ruled the
nation then was utterly opposed to building one. It called itself
the party of the people--it was fearful lest something or somebody
enslave the people--but when the friends of American seamen, shanghaied
into the barbarous slavery of a British warship, protested, this
“liberty-loving” party pigeon-holed the documents. But let us be just
in this matter. It was the liberty-loving party that did at last
declare war. The opposition preferred to trust in “the humanity” and
“sense of justice” which the offending nation was supposed to possess.
So the press-gangs worked on merrily. Not only was the American walking
in the street of a foreign city in immediate danger; the American ships
on the high seas were stopped and stripped of their crews. The British
ships even lay to off New York, Boston, and other American ports to
intercept American merchantmen, from which seamen were taken until they
were so short-handed that they were lost. The American seamen were
left to face death by shipwreck, as they were disciplined to death on
the decks of British naval warships. And because they were lithe and
quick-witted--because they more readily devised means for escape from
this slavery than others--they were transferred to the ships doing
duty on the coasts of Africa and in the East Indies, just as American
prisoners captured during the war of the Revolution were sent to and
compelled to serve on those stations.
As the _Edinburgh Review_ for November, 1812, admitted, “they were
dispersed in the remotest quarter of the globe, and not only exposed to
the perils of service, but _shut out, by their situation, from all hope
of ever being reclaimed_.” They were doomed to slavery for life.
How the indignation was of slow growth--so slow, indeed, that it needed
the outrages of the Barbary pirates to stir it even to the feeblest
blaze--has already been told in the story of the origin of the new
navy. But at last a majority of two was found for a resolution of the
Congress declaring that a seaside nation ought to have a navy, and
so a navy was built--a navy so small in numbers as to be absolutely
insignificant when compared with that whose “supremacy is in fact a
part of the law of nations.” It was built of American oak, manned
by American seamen, and sent afloat with the American flag flying
from every mast. It did good--it did the best kind of work--but when
the Barbary pirates were cowed it was reduced “to a peace footing.”
There was never an effort made with it to resent the enslaving of
American seamen. So the aggressions increased continually. And the
politicians talked. They talked about the illegal confiscation of
American ships under the decrees and orders of the French and English
governments--they were more concerned about the dollars than the
liberties of the people--and finally when war seemed inevitable, they
seriously discussed the advisability of abandoning the seacoast to
the expected invaders! The chatter about no European enemy being able
to find a permanent footing on the broad American soil, where so many
millions of freemen were to be ready with squirrel rifles and shotguns
to repel him, was quite as common at the beginning of the nineteenth
century as it is at the end of it. The word “jingo” was not in use in
those days. But the men who asserted that government existed solely in
order that the power of the whole people should be exerted to protect
every individual in all his rights wherever in the wide world he might
find himself, heard plenty of equally opprobrious epithets applied to
them. And the utmost that was done for the sake of national honor was
the building of a lot of boats for “harbor-defence.”
And then came a day when, to the injury that had been done unceasingly,
was added insult, the memory of which to this day brings the hot blush
of shame as well as the flood-tide of indignation to the brow of every
American patriot.
It was on the 16th of November, 1798. As the reader will remember,
this nation was then actually at war with France, although no formal
declaration of war had been made. The French ship _Croyable_, of
fourteen guns, had been captured, taken into the American service
under the name of _Retaliation_, and recaptured by the French ship
_Insurgent_. Because of these troubles a fleet of sixty American
merchant ships had gathered at Havana to await a convoy, and the
_Constellation_, Capt. Thomas Truxton, and the _Baltimore_, Capt. Isaac
Phillips, were sent to bring them home.
This service having been performed in satisfactory manner, the
_Baltimore_ was sent alone to convoy a smaller fleet from Charleston
back to Havana.
On November 16, 1798, while _en route_ on this passage, the convoy
fell in with a British squadron consisting of two seventy-four-gun
ships-of-the-line, one ninety-eight-gun ship-of-the-line, and two
thirty-two-gun frigates. Because both Great Britain and the United
States were then at war with France, the two nations were, of course,
allies at this time. Nevertheless, knowing that the British ships were
sure to be anxious for more sailors, Captain Phillips signalled his
fleet to square away before the wind, and so get out of reach, while he
bore up to have a talk with the Englishmen.
On arriving near the flagship--the _Carnatic_, Captain Loring--Captain
Phillips pulled over to her in his gig. He was received with the usual
civilities, and then was coolly informed that every man on board the
_Baltimore_ who did not carry the government certificate that he was an
American citizen would be impressed into the British service.
A ship of the American navy was to be treated as merchant ships had
been treated.
Captain Phillips protested, and said he would surrender his ship
first. Then he returned to the _Baltimore_, where he found a British
lieutenant already on deck and mustering the crew.
No form of protest was of any avail. Everything said or done excited
only the contemptuous smile of the lieutenant, and in the end, being
overpowered by the great ship-of-the-line squadron, Captain Phillips
had the humiliation of seeing five of his men impressed in the British
service.
Meantime Captain Loring had taunted Captain Phillips with the statement
that there were already a number of impressed American citizens in the
_Carnatic’s_ crew.
And all that the American government did in the matter was to dismiss
the unfortunate Phillips from the service--dismiss him as a scapegoat
for the scurvy sins of those really responsible for the disgrace
that had fallen upon the navy. For Phillips very well knew how the
administration had pigeon-holed the complaints of the friends of
kidnapped seamen--knew very well that the Navy Department could not be
depended on to support him in resenting such aggression.
In one respect Phillips deserved his punishment--he had sworn to defend
the flag, and he did not fire a gun. Not only should he have cleared
his ship for action; it was his duty to fight, Nicholas-Biddle fashion,
until the last plank was shot from under his feet.
Humiliated as every patriot was when the story of this outrage was
spread over the nation, greater and lingering shame was in store. Not
only did the outrages on American commerce increase as the years passed
on; a still heavier blow was to fall on the face of American manhood.
A British ship was to shoot an American ship to pieces in order to
recapture four impressed Americans who had succeeded in escaping from
the slavery they had endured--the British frigate _Leopard_ was to
assault the _Chesapeake_ on the high seas in time of peace.
But before that attack another was made that was less aggravating than
the one on the _Baltimore_, only because it was the second of its
kind--because, being the second, the American people may be supposed
to have been somewhat accustomed to their humiliation. This was on
June 12, 1805. Lieut. James Lawrence--he had his revenge afterward
in the _Hornet_-_Peacock_ fight--was carrying a small gunboat to the
Mediterranean to help in the war with the pirates. Off Cadiz he had the
misfortune to fall in with the British fleet under Admiral Collingwood,
when three of his men were taken from him. That the administration at
Washington (it was during Mr. Jefferson’s second term) rested easily
under the outrage is plain from the fact that only the briefest mention
of it is made in any history. The impressment of Americans was such a
common, such an every-day, occurrence that the fact of three taken from
a national ship was, to use a newspaper reporter’s expression, worth
only a three-line jotting.
And another three-line jotting is devoted to what is called the
_Leander_ affair. A British squadron was cruising off Sandy Hook on
what is, in these years, the favorite American ground for yacht races.
They were lying in wait, as was their custom, for American ships, from
which they could gather in seamen. When a little American sloop came
along on April 25, 1806, “a shot was recklessly fired from one of them,
the _Leander_.” It is fair to suppose that this shot was fired as a
joke on the sloop’s crew. If one recalls the undisputed character of
such men as Lieutenant Hope of the _Macedonian_, already described,
one may readily believe that the average British officer of that day
would have thought it a good joke to scare a sloop’s crew by firing a
cannon-ball across her deck. The gunner on the _Leander_, to make the
joke as laughable as possible, aimed carefully. His shot killed the man
at the tiller.
When the people of New York learned the facts through the return of
the sloop, the local excitement was very great. All the vessels in the
harbor hoisted their flags at half-mast on the day the body was buried,
while the Tammany Society attended the funeral in a body. So Mr.
Jefferson’s government felt constrained to protest. At that, Captain
Whitby, who commanded the _Leander_, was taken through the form of a
court-martial, unanimously acquitted of wrong-doing _and promoted_.
The crowning outrage, however, came in the year 1807. Early in that
year a squadron of British warships had congregated in the mouth of
Chesapeake Bay to blockade some Frenchmen lying at Annapolis. The
American Congress had granted an appropriation meantime (though with
stingy hand) for enough seamen to man the frigate _Chesapeake_, that
was to be sent out under Capt. Charles Gordon to the Mediterranean,
where she was to take the place of the _Constitution_. She was to carry
Commodore James Barron with her (his real title was captain), and he
was to command at the Mediterranean station.
[Illustration: Capt Henry Whitby. R.N.]
The _Chesapeake_ was partly fitted out at Washington, and then she
dropped down to Norfolk to complete her preparations for sea, and ship
enough men to fill her crew. While she was still lying at Washington
seven men applied at the recruiting station in Norfolk, who said they
were American citizens--who made oath to that statement, in fact, and
were permitted to sign as members of the crew of the _Chesapeake_,
and they were sent on to join the ship then at Washington. Soon after
this it appeared that three of the men had deserted from the British
warship _Melampus_ and four from the _Halifax_. Just how the fact that
they were deserters became known is not definitely stated, but from
the details given and from the manifest ill-temper of the British
officers in the doings that followed, it is reasonable to suppose that
at least one of these seven men met some of the British officers on
shore, and feeling safe under the American flag, ventured to reply,
in disrespectful manner, to remarks made by the officers. There is,
indeed, no doubt the officers were defied and, so, deeply offended.
In those days one Erskine represented the British government at
Washington. He tried to have the seven deserters returned to the
ships from which they came. Now, in spite of the fact that the
British officers were in those days diligently engaged in kidnapping
American-born sailors from American ships, the American Navy Department
had issued strict orders to the recruiting officers “to enlist no
British subjects known to be such.” And, further, it must be said
that there was no law authorizing an American commander to deliver
up deserters from foreign navies when found in American ships.
Nevertheless, an investigation was made as to the antecedents of the
seven men, and then it was discovered that the British officials were
wholly unable to prove that any one of them was a British subject.
More important still, it was proved that instead of having voluntarily
shipped in the British navy, the three men who had deserted from the
_Melampus_ had been kidnapped from an American merchant ship in the
Bay of Biscay. Two of them were natives of Maryland, and one, although
born in South America, had come to Massachusetts when a child and had
there become a lawful citizen of the United States. The names of the
three were William Ware, Daniel Martin, and John Strachan, and all were
colored. As to the four from the _Halifax_, it was not proved where
they were born except as they swore they were of American birth, but
very likely three of them were of English birth, for they deserted
the _Chesapeake_ and disappeared. The fourth appears in history
both as Jenkin Ratford and as John Wilson. He was a white man and,
unfortunately for himself, he remained on the ship.
Because the three men were definitely proved to be American citizens,
and because there was nothing to disprove Ratford’s oath that he too
was one, the Navy Department refused to surrender the men, and the
diplomatic correspondence was closed. The American authorities having
received no protest after the decision was rendered, supposed that the
matter was dropped altogether.
And that was a very grave error on the part of the American
authorities. For so great was the arrogance of the British naval
officers, and so strong was their contempt for the American government
and people, that they determined to take the men by force from the deck
of the _Chesapeake_ as soon as she had passed out to sea, and an order
was issued by Admiral Berkeley commanding any British captain who found
the _Chesapeake_ at sea to board her, whether she would permit it or
not, and take the men.
Naturally that order was kept secret, and Captains Barron and Gordon
(Barron, by the fact of his rank, was the responsible official) had no
idea that any real ill feeling existed, let alone that any intention to
assault the ship was meditated. There was, indeed, some grumbling by
British officers at Norfolk, and the officers of the _Chesapeake_ heard
of it, but there was not enough in it to excite their suspicions.
And so the 22d day of June, 1807, arrived, and the _Chesapeake_ was,
after a most remarkable fashion, ready for sea. She set her pennant,
got up her anchor, and with her decks littered with baggage, chicken
coops--what not--and her rammers, wads, matches, and powder-horns
stowed no one knew where, she sailed away.
Meantime, while yet the _Chesapeake’s_ anchor had not been gotten, the
crew of the big British fifty-gun ship _Leopard_ had made sail and gone
to sea slowly--so slowly that she kept the _Chesapeake_ constantly in
sight.
At 3 o’clock in the afternoon the _Leopard_ brought to near the
_Chesapeake_ and hailed her, saying that the officers and crew wished
to send letters by her to friends in Europe. It was a common practice
for warships as well as merchantmen to carry letters in that fashion,
and the _Chesapeake_ backed her mainyards and waited for the boat from
the _Leopard_. When the boat came, a British lieutenant climbed to the
deck of the _Chesapeake_, and then, instead of producing a package of
letters, he drew forth a written demand from his captain for the return
of the sailors alleged to be British subjects. With this demand he also
presented a copy of the circular issued by his admiral which ordered
any British ship falling in with the _Chesapeake_ to take the so-called
deserters from her by force if necessary. Captain Barron was very much
surprised, but he refused to deliver up the men.
Meantime the _Leopard_ had worked into the most advantageous position
for attacking the _Chesapeake_, and with her ports open, cannon out,
and matches lighted, she awaited the issue of the demand.
The lieutenant returned to his ship. Captain Humphreys of the _Leopard_
mounted the rail and shouted:
“Commodore Barron must be aware that the orders of the admiral must be
obeyed.”
No reply was made to this, and the words were repeated. A shot was
fired across the bows of the _Chesapeake_. Another one was fired in
like manner, and then a whole broadside was discharged directly at the
American ship.
Being wholly unprepared for action, the _Chesapeake_ could make no
reply, and for twelve minutes (some accounts say fifteen) she lay
there helpless while the British seamen worked their guns. Her masts,
rigging, and sails were shot to pieces. Three men were killed and
eighteen wounded, Captain Barron being among the wounded.
[Illustration: CAPT^N. SALUSBURY PRYCE HUMPHREYS. R.N.]
It was deliberate, cold-blooded murder, done to compel three American
citizens to return to the slavery on a British ship into which they had
been kidnapped. And it succeeded in its object.
Being, as said, wholly unprepared, no defence was made, and when
Captain Barron saw that his crew were being killed uselessly, he hauled
down his flag. Lieut. William H. Allen, on the _Chesapeake_, did manage
to fire one gun by means of a coal carried in his bare hands from
the galley fire, and the ball hulled the _Leopard_, but the flag was
already down to the rail, and it was done only as a matter of honor.
So the crew of the _Chesapeake_ were mustered on deck, the triumphant
lieutenant returned, the four “deserters” were bundled over the rail
into the British boat, and the _Chesapeake_ was left, with her dead and
wounded, to work her riddled sails in the course back to Norfolk.
The _Leopard_ sailed on. The unfortunate Jenkin Ratford was hanged at
the fore yardarm, and the three who were acknowledged to be kidnapped
American citizens were sentenced to receive 500 lashes from the cat.
And what does the uninformed reader suppose the political leaders
of the American republic did about it? They tore the Eagle from the
American coat-of-arms and substituted the Porcupine--they asked the
British government to disavow the act of Admiral Berkeley, and they
ordered the building of 188 more gunboats for harbor defence!
[Illustration: Taking Deserters from the _Chesapeake_.]
APPENDIX TO VOLUME I
PAY OF NAVAL SEAMEN IN THE FIRST YEAR
OF THE NAVY AS A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.
Commander-in-chief, $125 a month. Officers of a ship of twenty guns
and upward: captain, $60; lieutenant, $30; master, $30; surgeon, $25;
chaplain, $20; midshipman, $12; gunner, $15; seaman, $8.
Officers of a ship of ten to twenty guns: captain, $48; lieutenant,
$24; master, $24; surgeon, $21.66; midshipman, $12; gunner, $13;
seaman, $8.
The pay of the following was the same in any class of cruisers:
armorer, $15; sailmaker, $12; yeoman, $9; quartermaster, $9;
quarter-gunner, $8; coxswain, $9; cook, $12.
Commanders were allowed $4 and $5 a week for rations, and lieutenants,
captains of marines, surgeons, and chaplains, $4.
Prize money coming to the officers and seamen of the Continental
navy was divided in shares: captains, 6; first lieutenant, 5; second
lieutenant, 4; surgeon, 4; master, 3; steward, 2; mate, 1½; gunner, 1½;
boatswain, 1½; gunner’s mate, 1½; sergeant, 1½; privates, 1.
Maclay notes that the first system of uniforms was adopted for the
Continental navy on the 5th of September, 1776, when the Marine
Committee decided that the uniform for the officers of the navy should
be as follows: Captains, a coat of blue cloth with red lapels, slashed
cuffs, a stand-up collar, flat yellow buttons, blue breeches, and a
red waistcoat with yellow lace. The uniform for lieutenants consisted
of a blue coat with red lapels, a round cuff faced, a stand-up collar,
yellow buttons, blue breeches, and a plain red waistcoat. Masters were
to have a blue coat with lapels, round cuffs, blue breeches, and a
red waistcoat; while midshipmen had a blue coat with lapels, a round
cuff faced with red, a stand-up collar, with red at the buttons and
buttonholes, blue breeches, and a red waistcoat. The marines were to
have a green coat faced with white, round cuffs, slashed sleeves and
pockets, with buttons around the cuff, a silver epaulet on the right
shoulder, skirts turned back, buttons to suit the facings, white
waistcoat and breeches edged with green, black gaiters and garters. The
men were to have green shirts “if they can be procured.”
INDEX
_Abby Bradford_, merchant-ship, capture of, by the _Sumter_, iv. 412;
captured by the frigate _Powhatan_, 413.
_Abellino_, Yankee privateer, captures prizes in the Mediterranean,
iii. 343.
_Acasta_, British gun-boat, attacks the _Constitution_, iii. 260.
Acquia Creek, Potomac River, capture of Confederate forts at, iv. 66,
81–83.
_Active_, British brig, captured by the _Hazard_, i. 206.
_Adams_, American frigate, changed to a corvette, iii. 54;
Captain Charles Morris in command of, 57;
on the coast of Africa, 58;
chased by the _Tigris_, 59;
scurvy on board, 60;
runs on a rock, 61;
attacked on the Penobscot, 62;
burned, _ib._
Adams, Captain H. A., disloyal conduct of, iv. 117.
Adams, John, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
Adams, Samuel, and the Boston tea-party, i. 12.
_Adelaide_, Federal transport, iv. 100.
_Adeline_, American brig, recaptured from the British, ii. 74.
_Admiral Duff_, British privateer, blown up by the _Protector_, i.
207.
_Adriana_, American brigantine, Ambassador to Holland sails on, iv.
153.
_Adventure_, British ship, burned by Paul Jones, i. 78.
_Africa_, British ship-of-the-line, ii. 55.
Africa, making the coast of, safe for American traders, iii. 340–358.
_Aiken_, Southern revenue cutter, converted into the Confederate
privateer _Petrel_, iv. 93.
_Alabama_, Confederate privateer, off Galveston, iv. 357;
known as _No. 290_, 430;
Captain Semmes appointed to command, 431;
cruises off the Azores, Martinique, Galveston, Cape Town, and the
East Indies, 432–436;
encounters the _Kearsarge_ at Cherbourg, 436;
comparison of their armaments, 437;
the fight, 438–441;
prizes taken by, 447.
_Alabama_ claims, iv. 430.
_Albatross_, Federal gun-boat, passes the batteries of Port Hudson,
iv. 358.
_Albemarle_, Confederate ironclad ram, iv. 456;
laid up at Plymouth, N.C., 457;
blown up by Lieutenant Cushing, 461.
Albemarle Sound, N.C., a Confederate privateer resort, iv. 94.
_Albert Adams_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by the _Sumter_, iv.
415.
Alden, Captain James, iv. 386.
Alden, Commander James, iv. 314.
_Alert_, British corvette, surrenders to the _Essex_, ii. 42;
attempt to rescue from Porter, 43, 44.
_Alert_, British cutter, captures the _Lexington_, i. 119, 120.
Alexander, Captain Charles, i. 66.
_Alexandria_, British frigate, ii. 359.
Alexandria, Red River, Admiral Porter’s squadrons arrive at, iv. 370.
_Alfred_, American flagship, sent to France, i. 130;
captured, 132, 133.
Algerian fleet sent after Yankee merchantmen, iii. 341.
Algerian Navy, strength of the, iii. 344.
Algerian pirates encouraged by England, i. 308, 309.
Algiers, Africa, tribute paid to by the United States, iii. 339;
by England, 340.
Algiers, Dey of, ransom paid to, i. 309, 310;
treatment of Americans by, iii. 340, 341.
Algiers, harbor defences of, iii. 345.
_Allen_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Allen, Captain William Henry, ii. 360;
carries the American Minister to France, 361;
sails into the English Channel, _ib._;
captures a wine ship from Portugal, 362, 363;
encounters the _Pelican_, 362–364;
his ship surrendered, 367;
dies in Mill Prison Hospital, 371.
Allen, Lieutenant William Howard, takes charge of the ship, ii. 364;
continues the fight, 367;
killed in an engagement with pirates, iii. 333.
_Alliance_, American frigate, detailed to carry Lafayette home, i.
232;
fouls the _Bonhomme Richard_, 234;
takes a valuable prize, 236;
fires into the _Bonhomme Richard_, 254;
flight of Paul Jones on the, 275;
cruises on the French coast, 297;
narrow escape of, 298;
sails from Havana with specie, _ib._;
attacked by the _Sybille_, 299;
sold, 303.
_Alligator_, American tender, surrendered to the British, iii. 235.
_Alligator_, American schooner, defeats an attack at Cole’s Island,
ii. 419.
Alvarado, Mexican port, Commodore Conner attempts to take, iii. 410;
captured by Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter, 428.
Alwyn, John C., Lieutenant in the _Java_ fight, mortally wounded, ii.
166, 171, 172.
American citizens in foreign countries, iii. 385, 386.
American commerce, English policy toward, i. 306, 307, 384;
protected by Portugal, 307;
menace to, iv. 412.
American cruisers in British waters, i. 112–133.
American flag, first salute given to, i. 69;
designed, 134;
first hoisted, 135;
first saluted by a foreign power, 138;
protected by Portugal, 307;
a shield for an infamous traffic, iii. 361;
a Chinese assault on, 380.
American frontier in 1812, ii. 262.
American Navy, first existence of, i. 1;
founders of, 37;
first ships of, in commission, 39–43;
resolutions of Congress founding it, 41;
first officers and first ships of, 39–43;
origin of the, 1–47;
first cruise of the, 48–62;
first squadron poorly manned and inefficient, 49–53;
along shore in 1776, 63–83;
mismanagement in, 159;
at the time of the Declaration of Independence, 300;
building a new navy, 303;
strength of, at commencement of hostilities with France, 315;
almost extinct, 396;
reduced to a peace footing, 398;
discreditable lack of, ii. 26;
increase of, 356;
development of, from 1815 to 1859, iv. 1–9;
personnel of the, in 1859, 24–26;
number of men who took part with the Southern States, 27;
value of men from Northern ports and the Great Lakes, 36;
a nautical curiosity shop, 37;
ferryboats as naval ships, _ib._;
first great naval expedition of the War of the Rebellion, 168;
modern, sketch of, 523–554;
in 1885, condition of, 523.
American prisoners in England, i. 122;
in Tripoli, 345, 358.
American seamen, impressment of, ii. 18;
courage and skill of, 357.
American sea-power in 1812, ii. 21.
American shipping and French cruisers, i. 314.
American squadron, career of the first, i. 60.
Ammen, Captain Daniel, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
Commander of the _Patapsco_, 480.
_Amphitrite_, American pilot-boat, attacks a French privateer, ii. 34.
_Amy_, American bark, Blackford, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548.
_Anacostia_, Federal screw steamer, at Acquia Creek, iv. 81.
Anarchy in the West Indies and along the Spanish Main, iii. 325.
_Andrea Doria_, brig of first American Navy, i. 39;
in the first naval battle of the Revolution, 58;
ordered to sea, 64;
fight with brig _Racehorse_, 68, 69;
burned, 70.
Andrews, Major W. S. G., Commander of Fort Hatteras, iv. 107.
Anglo-Saxon aggressiveness, iii. 391.
Anglo-Saxon cheer, the, ii. 308.
Angostura, Venezuela, Commodore Perry arrives at, iii. 329.
Anthracite coal used by blockade-runners, iv. 55.
Antonio, Cape, Captain Kearny of the _Enterprise_ captures pirates
near, iii. 331.
_Aquidaban_, Brazilian rebel monitor, iv. 548.
Arbuthnot, Captain James, captured by the _Wasp_, iii. 93–96.
_Arcade_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Archer_, captured by Captain Read of the _Tacony_, iv. 424.
_Argus_, American sloop, ii. 360;
carries the American Minister to France, 361;
cruises in the English Channel, _ib._;
too successful for her safety, 362;
encounters _Pelican_, 362, 363;
her sails become unmanageable, 364;
surrenders, 367;
contemporary view of the battle, 369;
taken by a prize crew to Plymouth, 371.
_Argus_, American frigate, captures six prizes, ii. 151.
_Argus_, American cruiser, in the attack on Tripoli, i. 374.
_Ariadne_, British man-of-war, captures the _Alfred_, i. 132, 133.
_Ariel_, American schooner, ii. 292.
_Arkansas_, Confederate ram, skirmish in the Yazoo River, iv. 342,
343;
machinery gets out of order, 343;
attacks Farragut’s squadron, 344.
Arkansas Post, naval force sent to help capture, iv. 351.
_Armada_, British liner, chases the _Wasp_, iii. 92.
Armament and construction of gun-boats, iv. 246.
Armament of battle-ships from 1812 to 1859, iv. 24.
Armor-plated ships, first use of, iv. 9, 10.
Armstrong, Commodore James, surrenders Pensacola Navy Yard to
Confederates, iv. 112;
suspended for five years, 113.
Arnold, Benedict, invades Canada, i. 84;
builds a fleet, 89;
fight on Lake Champlain, 92–94;
character of, as a fighter, 105.
Arsenals established in New York State, ii. 264.
_Asp_, American ship, ii. 352.
_Atalanta_, British brig, surrenders to the _Alliance_, i. 298.
_Atalanta_, British ship, captured by the _Wasp_, iii. 100.
_Atalanta_, British frigate, ii. 16.
_Atlanta_, formerly the _Fingal_, Confederate ironclad, iv. 488;
surrenders to the _Weehawken_, 489.
_Atlanta_, United States cruiser, iv. 533.
_Atlantic_, British letter-of-marque whaler, captured by Porter, iii.
9.
See _Essex, Jr._
Audience, an intensely interested, iii. 152.
_Augusta_, Federal ship, in Port Royal squadron, iv. 172.
_Augusta_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Aulick, Captain James, sent to Japan in 1851, iii. 443;
recalled on false charges, _ib._
_Avon_, British brig-sloop, captured by the _Wasp_ (3), iii. 93–96.
_Aylwin_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Bache, Lieutenant G. M., iv. 369.
Badajos, rapacity of English veterans in the streets of, iii. 134.
_Bahama_, British merchant-ship, officers and crew of the _Alabama_
taken in the, to Terceira, iv. 431.
Bahama Islands, a resort for contraband traders in the Civil War, iv.
48.
Bahia, Brazil, Captain Bainbridge paroles his prisoners at, ii. 167,
175.
Bailey, Lieutenant-colonel Joseph, saves Admiral Porter’s squadron,
iv. 371–376;
receives thanks of Congress, 376.
Bailey, Captain Theodorus, at New Orleans, iv. 316;
commands first division of Farragut’s squadron, 324;
sent ashore to deliver Farragut’s letter, 338.
Bainbridge, Captain William, i. 316;
surrenders to the French frigate _Insurgent_, _ib._;
Captain of the _Voluntaire_ refuses to accept his sword, _ib._;
deceives the French officer, 317;
sent to Tripoli in charge of the _Essex_, 335;
chases a Tripolitan corsair, 341;
loses his ship on a reef, 343;
court-martialed, 344;
a prisoner in Tripoli, 345;
communicates with American fleet, 346;
a shot penetrates his prison, 368;
remonstrates with the Navy Department of Madison’s administration,
ii. 26;
cruising in Brazil, 152;
fight with the British frigate _Java_, 153–173;
wounded, 155;
conducts his ship while his wounds are being dressed, 156;
paroles 378 of the _Java’s_ crew, 167;
blows up the _Java_, 173;
his dream realized, 172, 173;
his character illustrated, 177;
insulted at Barcelona, iii. 311–313.
Bainbridge, Midshipman Joseph, his duel with the Secretary of Sir
Alexander Ball, iii. 307–311;
captures a Carthaginian privateer, iii. 65;
attacked and captured by the _Orpheus_ and _Shelburne_, 65, 66.
Baker, Captain Thomas H., iv. 89.
Baldwin, Lieutenant, i. 66.
Ball, Sir Alexander, iii. 307.
_Ballard_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Ballard, Midshipman Edward J., ii. 206.
_Baltimore_, American frigate, five men of the, impressed in the
British service, 401.
Bankhead, Captain J. P., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
Banks, General Nathaniel Prentiss, sent on expedition to Shreveport,
La., iv. 368.
_Banshee_, the first steel blockade-runner, iv. 57.
Barbary pirates encouraged by England, i. 307;
war with, 333, 334.
_Barclay_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
Barclay, Captain Robert H., appears off Erie, ii. 289;
fond of festivities, 291;
misses the American fleet, 292;
opposes Perry, 296;
superiority of his ships, 298;
determines to meet Perry, 302;
awaits the American squadron, 306;
fires the first gun, 308;
surrenders, 324, 326;
loses a second arm in the battle, 330.
Barnard, Captain Tim, iii. 187;
captures nineteen prizes, _ib._
Barney, Captain Joshua, sketch of, i. 209–215;
has command of the clipper-schooner _Rossie_, ii. 245;
captures by, 246–248;
commands a fleet in Chesapeake Bay in 1813, 403;
attacked by the British on the Patuxent River, 403–409;
Captain Samuel Miller and Colonel Wadsworth sent to his assistance,
409, 410;
moves up the Patuxent River, 413;
burns his fleet, 414;
wounded, 416.
Barney, Major William B., acts as aid to his father, ii. 406;
in command of cutter _Scorpion_, 408.
_Barossa_, British frigate, ii. 395.
Barreaut, Captain, chases American ships, i. 316;
recalled by Captain St. Laurent, 317–319.
Barriers on the Mississippi to prevent Farragut’s advance, iv. 320;
broken down by the _Itasca_, 323.
Barron, Captain James, sent to Tripoli in charge of the _President_,
i. 335;
with Stephen Decatur, iii. 318–322;
restored to active service, 323.
Barron, Captain Samuel, sent to Tripoli in charge of the
_Philadelphia_, i. 335.
Barron, Flag Officer Samuel, captured at Fort Hatteras, iv. 106.
Barry, Captain John, i. 39;
commands American brig _Lexington_, 63;
cruises off Virginia capes, 64;
encounters British tender _Edward_, 64;
sinks the _Effingham_, 188;
captures and destroys the schooner _Alert_, 189, 190;
appointed to the _Raleigh_, _ib._;
chases the Unicorn, 191;
loses the _Raleigh_, 194.
Bashaw of Tripoli, treachery of, i. 335, 336;
refuses to make a treaty, 340;
agrees to give up prisoners, 378.
Bassett, Lieutenant F. S., opinion of Commodore Hopkins, i. 61.
Batteaux, travelling in, ii. 263.
Battle of Bunker Hill, i. 26;
Champlain, 92–111;
of Fort Pillow, iv. 298;
of Grand Gulf, 367;
of Lake Erie, ii. 309–325;
of Lexington, i. 14;
of Memphis, iv. 298–307;
of New Orleans (in the Civil War), 326–340;
of Pittsburg Landing, 284.
Baton Rouge surrenders to Captain Craven of the _Brooklyn_, iv. 340.
_Baudara de Sangare_, a private vessel, captured by the _Shark_, iii.
332.
Baury, Lieutenant Frederick, iii. 81.
Bay Point. See _Fort Beauregard_.
Bazely, Lieutenant John, captures the _Lexington_, i. 119, 120.
_Beagle_, American ship, captures Cape Cruz, iii. 334.
_Beaufort_, Confederate gun-boat, takes crew off the _Congress_ after
she surrenders to the _Merrimac_, iv. 208.
_Beauregard_, Confederate ram, attacks the _Queen of the West_ at
Fort Pillow, iv. 301;
rammed and sunk by the _Monarch_, 302.
Bell, Henry H., iv. 314.
Belligerent ships, rules and orders regarding, issued by British
Government, iv. 411.
Belligerents, rights of, iv. 86.
Belmont, on the Mississippi, battle at, iv. 251;
the Confederates compel Grant to retreat, 252.
_Belvidera_, British frigate, encounters the _President_, ii. 29;
escapes, 32.
_Ben. Dunning_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
Benham, Admiral A. E. K.,
prompt action of, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548.
Bentham, Commander George, attacks the _General Armstrong_ in the
harbor of Fayal, iii. 187–199;
sets fire to the _Armstrong_, 200.
_Benton_ snag-boat, converted by Eads into an armored vessel, iv.
246–249.
_Benton_, Porter’s flagship before Vicksburg, iv. 363.
_Benton_, Federal gun-boat, Lieutenant-commander J. A. Greer, iv. 369.
_Berceau_, French frigate, fights with the _Boston_, i. 328;
returned to France, 330.
Beresford, Captain John Poer, recaptures the _Frolic_ from the
_Wasp_, ii. 118.
Berkeley, British minister at Washington, recalled and promoted, ii.
2.
Bermudas a basis for contraband trade during the Civil War, iv. 48.
_Betsey_, British bark, captured by Captain Alexander, i. 66.
Biddle, Captain Nicholas, i. 64;
commands the _Randolph_, 160;
attacks the _Yarmouth_, 162.
Biddle, James, Lieutenant on the _Wasp_ (No. 2), ii. 111;
leads the boarders, _ib._;
hauls down the flag of the _Frolic_, 112;
appointed to command the _Hornet_, iii. 272;
commands the _Macedonian_, 331;
sent to the Pacific Coast, 401;
sent to Japan to negotiate a treaty of peace, 440.
_Bienville_, Federal ship, in Port Royal squadron, iv. 172.
_Black Hawk_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
_Black Prince_, purchased by Naval Committee, i. 39.
Black Rock, near Buffalo, Lieutenant Elliott establishes a navy yard
at, ii. 273.
_Black Snake_, British gun-boat, iii. 126.
Blake, Captain H. C., iv. 432.
Blakely, Master-commandant Johnston, ii. 375;
fights with the _Reindeer_ and the _Avon_, iii. 85–96;
captures the _Atalanta_, 100;
lost with his ship, 103.
Blockade-runner, legal status of, iv. 57, 58.
Blockade-runners, chiefly in the hands of the British, iv. 48;
reckless loading of, 61;
profits of, 63, 64.
Blockading the Southern ports, iv. 28–30;
no force available to blockade at the beginning of the war, 32;
lack of ships and men, 34;
Congress slow to appreciate the need of a navy, 35.
“Blood is thicker than water,” iii. 381, 382.
Blythe, Captain Samuel, attacks the _Enterprise_, ii. 375;
killed, 379;
buried at Portland, 385.
Board of Admiralty, i. 158.
Boggs, Commander Charles S., iv. 314.
_Bolton_, American bomb-brig, i. 56.
_Bonhomme Richard_, American ship, i. 227;
origin of the name, 228;
fitted out by Jones, 229;
mixed crew of, 230;
Richard Dale as master’s mate on, _ib._;
the _Alliance_ runs foul of, 234;
accident to, 235;
meets the _Serapis_, 243;
fight with the _Serapis_, 245–259;
comparative strength of the two ships, 265;
after the surrender, 269–272;
sinking of the ship, 272.
_Bonita_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Bonne Citoyenne_, British war-ship, blockaded in the harbor of
Bahia, ii. 179;
cowardice of Captain Greene, 180.
_Borer_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
_Boston_, American frigate, i. 286, 287.
_Boston_, American ship, fights the _Berceau_, Captain Senez, i. 328,
329.
Boston Port Bill, i. 13.
Boston, tea destroyed in harbor of, i. 13;
press-gang riots in, 395.
_Boston_, United States cruiser, iv. 533.
Boutelle, Mr., of the Federal Coast Survey, replaces the buoys at
Port Royal, iv. 171.
Bowling Green, Kentucky, Confederate position at, untenable after
surrender of Fort Henry, iv. 266.
_Boxer_, British brig, attacks the _Enterprise_, ii. 375;
surrenders, 379;
crew of, 382;
decision of the British court on the loss of the, 384.
_Bragg_, Confederate ship, captured at Fort Pillow, iv. 302.
Breckenridge, General, attacks the Federal forces at Baton Rouge, iv.
344.
Breese, Lieutenant-commander K. R., iv. 369.
Breeze, Chaplain, on the _Lawrence_ in the battle of Lake Erie, ii.
317.
British Government, attitude of the, toward African pirates, iii. 340.
British grab at the Valley of the Mississippi, iii. 229, 230.
British merchants and the American war, i. 112.
British Navy in American waters, i. 195.
British waters, rights of belligerents in, iv. 411.
Brock, Sir Isaac, his view of the English possession of America, ii.
279.
_Broke_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
Broke, Captain Philip Vere, Commodore British squadron, ii. 55;
challenges Lawrence of the _Chesapeake_ to fight, “ship to ship,”
ii. 203, 204;
boards the _Chesapeake_, 214;
is wounded, 217;
becomes delirious, 221, 225;
made a baronet, 226;
death of, 229.
Brooke, Lieutenant John M., assigned to assist in designing an
ironclad, iv. 184.
_Brooklyn_, screw sloop, iv. 314.
_Brooklyn_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 386.
Brown, Lieutenant George, iv. 389.
Brown, Captain Isaac N., iv. 342;
skirmish with the Federal fleet in the Yazoo River, _ib._;
attacks Farragut’s squadron, 344;
supports Breckenridge at Baton Rouge, _ib._
Brown, Lieutenant James, ii. 217.
Browne, Lieutenant G. W., iv. 370.
Brownson, Captain Willard H., at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
on the coast of Mexico, 553.
Bruinsburg, Federal army crosses from, to Grand Gulf, iv. 364.
Bryant, Captain N. C., before Fort Pillow, iv. 290.
Buchanan, Flag Officer Franklin, iv. 188;
his difficulty in finding a crew, 195;
wounded, 210;
his report of the fight, _ib._;
Confederate fleet of, at Mobile, 380;
sends the _Tennessee_ into action, 399;
wounded, 402.
Budd, Lieutenant George, ii. 206, 218.
Bullock, Commander James D., supervises construction of the
_Alabama_, iv. 430.
Bunker Hill, battle of, i. 26.
_Bunker Hill_, American privateer, ii. 394.
Burleton, Admiral Sir George, chases the _Hornet_, iii. 282.
Burnside, General A. E., sent to capture Roanoke Island, iv. 109.
_Burrows_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Burrows, Lieutenant William, appointed to command the _Enterprise_,
ii. 375;
encounters the _Boxer_, 375–377;
is mortally wounded, 377;
receives the surrender of the _Boxer_, 379.
Bushnell, David, invents first American submarine torpedo boat, i.
164;
sketch of his life, 180–184.
Butler, General Benjamin F., sent to attack the forts on Hatteras
Islands, iv. 100;
his report at, 107;
occupies New Orleans, 338, 339;
his plan for blowing up Fort Fisher, 508–510.
_Byron_, Captain of, chased by the _President_, ii. 29–32.
_Cabot_, brig of first American Navy, i. 39;
commanded by Captain Elisha Hinman, i. 66;
fired by her captain, 163.
_Cairo_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
Captain N. C. Bryant commands, 290;
runs by torpedoes in the Yazoo River expedition, iv. 350.
Calbreth, Peter, one of the capturers of the _Margaretta_, i. 17.
Caldwell, Lieutenant C. H. B., iv. 314;
breaks barriers across the Mississippi, 323.
_Caleb Cushing_, Federal revenue cutter, cut out and burnt by the
_Archer_, iv. 424.
_Caledonia_, British brig, captured by Lieutenant Elliott, ii. 279.
California, a bone of contention between Americans and English, in
1842, iii. 387, 388;
operations that insured the acquisition of, iii. 387, 388.
Canada invaded by American troops, i. 84;
annexation of, agitated in 1812, ii. 20;
invasions of, for resenting British aggressions, ii. 263.
Canning, British prime minister, diplomacy of, in regard to the
_Chesapeake_ affair, ii. 1.
Canton, China, American fleet sent to, to protect American interests,
iii. 380.
Cape Cruz, South America, a pirate resort captured by the
_Greyhound_ and _Beagle_, iii. 334.
Carden, Captain John Surnam, i. 389;
cruel treatment of sailors, _ib._;
cruises in the Azores, ii. 121;
falls in with the _United States_, 122;
fight with, 125–134;
Decatur refuses to receive his sword, 139.
Caribbean Sea a nest for pirates, iii. 326.
Carleton, Sir Guy, his supplies captured by Paul Jones, i. 79;
confidence of, 85;
his fleet at St. John’s, 87;
fight on Lake Champlain, 92–94.
_Carleton_, British schooner, ii. 100.
_Carnation_, British brig, attacks the _General Armstrong_ in the
neutral port of Fayal, Azores, iii. 187–200.
Caroband Bank, South America, fight between the _Hornet_ and
_Peacock_ near, ii. 181.
_Caroline_, American schooner, attacks the British camp at Villeré’s
Plantation on the Mississippi, iii. 239;
is fired and abandoned, 240.
Carondelet, James B. Eads’s shipyard at, iv. 243.
_Carondelet_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245,
369;
goes aground outside Fort Henry, 265;
gets free, 266;
shells Fort Donelson, 268, 271;
disabled before Fort Donelson, 271;
gun bursts on, 272;
in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, 363.
Carronades, description and value of, ii. 36–38.
Carronades (short guns) out of use, iii. 141.
Carrying trade of the Mediterranean, England’s tribute to the Dey of
Algiers for, iii. 340;
after the War of 1812, _ib._
Cassin, Lieutenant Stephen, iii. 139.
_Castilian_, English brig-sloop, iii. 93.
_Catherine_, British ship, captured by Lieutenant Downes, iii. 10.
Cat-o’-ninetails used to enforce orders on British ships, i. 389.
_Catskill_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480.
_Cayuga_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 314.
_Centipede_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
_Centipede_, British launch, ii. 398;
sunk, 400.
Ceremonies connected with first American fleet, i. 44–46.
_Ceres_, British man-of-war, captures the _Alfred_, i. 132, 133.
Chads, Lieutenant, in the fight with the _Constitution_, takes
command when Captain Lambert is mortally wounded, ii. 165.
Champlain, Lake, naval battle on, i. 92–100;
reflections on the battle, 105–111.
Champlin, Stephen, in the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 326;
fires the last shot of the battle, 327.
Chandeleur Islands, the British forces arrive at, to attack New
Orleans, iii. 230.
Chaplin, Lieutenant J. C., attacks the forts at Acquia Creek, iv. 82.
Charles City, Ark., attack on, by Federal gun-boats and an Indiana
regiment, iv. 307.
_Charleston_, United States cruiser, plans of, imported, iv. 531.
Charleston, S. C., defences of, iv. 467;
bombardment of, iv. 480–502.
_Charlton_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 14.
_Charwell_, British brig, iii. 110.
Chase, Major W. H., and Colonel Lomax, capture the Pensacola Navy
Yard, iv. 112.
_Chasseur_, Baltimore clipper, attacks the _St. Lawrence_, British
war-schooner, iii. 204.
_Chatsworth_, American brigantine, slave-ship captured by Lieutenant
Foote, iii. 366.
Chauncey, Commodore Isaac, appointed to command the forces on the
Great Lakes, ii. 270;
attacks Kingston, _ib._;
attacks Toronto, 341;
attacks Fort George, 342;
returns to Sackett’s Harbor, 348;
makes another assault on Toronto, 349;
Sir James Yeo’s squadron appears, _ib._;
jockeying for position, 350;
Chauncey opens fire, 351;
returns to the attack, 352;
misses the great opportunity of his life, 353;
operations of, on Lake Ontario, iii. 113–129.
_Cherub_, British war-ship, accompanies the _Phœbe_ in the attack on
the _Essex_, iii. 25.
_Chesapeake_, American frigate, built, i. 312.
_Chesapeake_, Lawrence appointed to command of, ii. 197;
her crew, 198;
the ship reputed to be unlucky, 199;
is fitted out for a voyage to intercept British ships, 200;
is blockaded by the _Shannon_ in Boston Harbor, 203;
goes out to meet the _Shannon_, 1813, 204;
crew mutinous, 205;
closes down on the _Shannon_, 206;
the battle, 209;
the _Chesapeake_ is boarded, 214;
hand-to-hand fight, 217;
the ship is captured, 221;
taken to Halifax, 222;
comparison of the two ships, 229.
_Chickasaw_, Federal monitor, iv. 386.
_Chickasaw_, Federal gun-boat, shells Fort Gaines, and compels it to
surrender, iv. 405.
_Chicora_, Confederate ironclad, built at Charleston, iv. 473;
fires on the _Keystone State_ and captures her, 475.
_Chillicothe_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
Chinese assault on the American flag, a, iii. 380.
Chinese war of 1856, American interests involved in, and fleet sent
to protect them, iii. 379–382.
_Chippeway_, British schooner, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 297.
_Chubb_, British ship, disabled and surrenders to Macdonough, iii.
156.
_Chubb_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Cincinnati_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
flagship of Commodore Foote before Fort Henry, 261;
Captain R. N. Stembel commands, 289;
throws the first shell into Fort Pillow, 293;
attacked by Confederate rains, _ib._;
the _Mound City_ goes to the rescue of, 294;
sinks, _ib._
_Circassian_, blockade-runner, captured off Havana by the Fulton
ferryboat _Somerset_, iv. 37.
Civilization promoted by Anglo-Saxon aggressiveness, iii. 391.
_Clarence_, merchant-ship, captured by Captain Maffitt, of the
cruiser _Florida_, iv. 424;
placed under command of Lieutenant Read, _ib._;
burnt, _ib._
Coaling stations, need of, by Federal war-ships in Southern waters,
iv. 161.
Cocke, Captain W. H., iii. 333;
fired on and killed by a Porto Rican fort, _ib._
Collier, Sir Ralph, K. C. B., iii. 260.
Collins, Captain Napoleon, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
commanding the _Wachusett_, captures the _Florida_ in Bahia Harbor,
iv. 424.
“Colonial Navy,” distinguished from temporary cruisers, i. 28, 29.
_Colorado_, United States screw frigate, launched, iv. 15.
_Columbia_, American frigate, attacks and bombards the Malay town of
Quallah Battoo, iii. 375–379.
_Columbia_, United States cruiser, iv. 534.
Columbiad, description of, iv. 119.
_Columbus_, successful cruise of Captain Whipple in the, i. 66.
_Columbus_, American ship-of-the-line, sent to Japan, iii. 440.
Columbus, Ky., Confederate position at, becomes untenable after
surrender of Fort Henry, iv. 266.
Columbus, on the Mississippi, Confederates evacuate, iv. 275.
_Comet_, American privateer, ii. 252.
Commander-in-chief of the Navy, title held by Commodore Hopkins only,
i. 62.
_Condor_, blockade-runner, wreck of, at Fort Fisher, iv. 511.
_Conestoga_, merchant-vessel, purchased by Commander Rodgers, iv. 241;
Captain Phelps appointed to command, 251.
_Confederacy_, American frigate, i. 287.
_Confederacy_, American packet, captured by the English, i. 298.
_Confiance_, British frigate, iii. 142;
flagship of Captain Downie in the battle of Lake Champlain, 153;
disabled and surrendered to the _Saratoga_, 165.
_Congress_, American galley, i. 89;
Arnold’s, flagship, 99;
covers retreat at Crown Point, 104;
burned by Arnold, 105.
_Congress_, American frigate, built, i. 312;
opens fire on the ironclad _Merrimac_ in Hampton Roads, iv. 200;
grounded, 207;
two Confederate gun-boats open fire on her, _ib._;
Lieutenant Pendergrast surrendered her to the _Merrimac_, 208;
hot shot fired at her by the _Merrimac_, 209;
her magazine explodes, 215.
Connecticut troops desert, i. 30.
Conner, Commodore David, lands a force at Point Isabel, iii. 409;
his fleet not fitted for shallow waters, 410;
his conduct of the seige of Vera Cruz, 418.
Connyngham, Captain Gustavus, i. 123;
captures prizes on the French coast, 124;
commission taken from him, 125;
takes command of the _Revenge_, 126;
his ship injured, 127;
refits in English port, 128;
gets provisions in an Irish port, _ib._;
sails for America, _ib._;
denounced as a pirate, 129;
cruel treatment of, in English prison, _ib._
_Constellation_, American frigate, built, i. 312;
Captain Thomas Truxton commands, 316, 319;
battle with French frigate _Insurgent_, 320;
discipline on board of, 322, 323;
battle with French frigate _Vengeance_, 323–325;
Captain Charles Gordon appointed to command in Decatur’s fleet,
iii. 343.
_Constitution_, United States frigate, built, i. 312;
flagship in the attack on Tripoli, 367;
called a “pine box” by Englishmen, 380;
Captain Isaac Hull disputes with the Captain of the British warship
_Havana_, ii. 13, 14;
is chased by two frigates, _ib._;
ship prepares for action, _ib._;
frigates retreat, 16;
her escape from a British squadron, 53–69;
“a bunch of pine boards,” 73;
fight with _Guerrière_, 76–95;
comparative strength of the two ships, 96;
return to Boston, 101;
cruising off Brazil, 152;
falls in with the _Java_, 153, 155–173;
attempt of the _Java_ to board, 158;
the London _Times_ on the victory, 176;
Lawrence applies for the command of, 197;
laid up at Boston, iii. 241;
goes to sea again, 242;
captures the war-schooner _Picton_, _ib._;
falls in with the British frigate _La Pique_, _ib._;
the British ship runs away, 243;
is chased by the _Junon_ and _Tenedos_, 244;
returns to Boston, 245;
captures the _Lord Nelson_, _ib._;
chases the _Elizabeth_ and captures the _Susan_, _ib._;
is chased by the _Elizabeth_ and _Tiber_, 246;
fight with the _Cyane_ and _Levant_, 247–256;
sails to Porto Praya, 260;
attacked by three British frigates, 261;
her fighting days over, 268;
plan of, iv. 537.
Continental Congress, effect on the, of the British vengeance on
Portland, i. 26.
Continental Naval Board, i. 158.
Contraband trade in the Civil War, iv. 48–52.
Cooke, Captain. See _Albemarle_.
_Coquette_, American merchant schooner, plundered by the Porto Rico
privateer _Palmira_, iii. 332.
Cornwallis, Lieutenant-general Lord, released from imprisonment in
exchange for Henry Laurens, iv. 154.
Corpus Christi, Texas, captured by Farragut, iv. 357.
_Cossack_, Federal transport, iv. 478.
Cottineau, Captain Denis Nicholas, i. 232.
Cotton-mills of the world shut down during the War of the Rebellion,
iv. 47.
_Countess of Scarborough_ attacks Paul Jones’s fleet off Flamborough
Head, i. 243;
surrender to the _Pallas_, 267.
_Couronne_, French ironclad, witnesses the _Alabama-Kearsarge_ fight,
iv. 438.
Couthouy, Lieutenant S. P., iv. 369.
Cox, William, midshipman on the _Chesapeake_, ii. 206.
Coxetter, Captain Louis M., iv. 91–93.
Craighead’s Point, shells thrown into Fort Pillow from, iv. 290.
Craney Island, Captain Tattnall fires and blows up the _Merrimac_ on,
iv. 236–237.
Craven, Captain Thomas Tunis, iv. 314;
sinks with his ship, 394.
Craven, Commander T. A. M., iv. 386.
Crawford, William H., American minister to France, ii. 361.
_Cricket_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Crosby, Lieutenant Pierce, iv. 315.
Crown Point, retreat of Benedict Arnold to, i. 103;
account of the roads and distances to, from New York, 109.
Crowninshield, George, Jr., privateersman, brings home the bodies of
Captain Lawrence and Lieutenant Ludlow, ii. 225.
_Croyable_, French gun-ship, captured off the Delaware, and renamed
the _Retaliation_, i. 316, 400.
Cruisers, Confederate, tales of the, iv. 407–451.
_Cuba_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Cumberland_, Federal sailing sloop-of-war, opens fire on the
ironclad _Merrimac_, iv. 200;
is rammed by the _Merrimac_, 201;
in a sinking condition, 202;
continues firing as she goes down, 203.
Cumberland Head, Plattsburg Bay, Macdonough’s squadron at, iii. 149.
Dabney, John B., American consul at Fayal, iii. 187;
his report on the fight between the _Carnation_ and the _General
Armstrong_, 195, 196, 198–201.
Dacres, Captain James Richard, ii. 55;
surrenders to Captain Hull, 94.
Dahlgren, Rear-admiral John Adolph, his smooth-bore gun introduced,
iv. 489.
Dahlgren, Admiral John A. B., relieves Dupont of his command, iv. 489.
Dale, Commodore Richard, master’s mate on _Lexington_, i. 68;
escape of, from English prison, 123;
joins Paul Jones’s fleet, 230;
resourceful conduct of, 256, 260–262;
wounded, 266;
gallant conduct on the _Trumbull_, 295–297;
placed in command of squadron in the Mediterranean, 334.
Dartmoor Prison, Rev. Joseph Bates imprisoned in, iii. 294.
_Dartmouth_, merchant-ship, tea thrown from, in Boston Harbor, i. 13.
_Dash_, privateer of Baltimore, captures schooner _Whiting_ in
Chesapeake Bay, ii. 241.
_Dauphin_, American ship, captured by Algerian pirates, i. 309.
Dauphin Island, Mobile, iv. 379;
Federal troops landed on, 385.
“Davids,” torpedo boats, first used at Charleston, iv. 497;
derivation of name, 498.
Davis, Captain Charles, relieves Commodore Foote, iv. 289;
his inactivity, 293.
Davis, Captain Charles H., replaces the buoys at Port Royal, iv. 171.
Davis, Jefferson, proclamation inviting applications for letters of
marque, iv. 85.
Davis, Gunner’s Mate John, heroism of, iv. 110;
promoted and honored, 111.
Davyson, Captain Thomas, surrenders to the _Providence_, i. 282, 283.
Dead Sea, exploration of the, iii. 464.
_Deane_, American frigate, with the _Boston_, captures six prizes, i.
284, 287.
Deane, Silas, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36;
American commissioner to France with Franklin, i. 117.
De Camp, Commander John, iv. 314.
_Decatur_, American privateer, throws her guns overboard, ii. 75.
Decatur, Lieutenant James, in the attack on the city of Tripoli, i.
361;
killed by the Tripolitans, 362.
Decatur, Lieutenant Stephen, Jr., i. 346;
captures the _Mastico_, _ib._;
sails on the _Mastico_ to set fire to the _Philadelphia_, 348–361;
made a captain, 358;
in the attack on the city of Tripoli, 361;
his encounter with a Tripolitan captain, 363, 364;
falls in with the British ships _Eurydice_ and _Atalanta_, ii. 16;
cruises in the Azores in the _United States_, 121;
encounters the _Macedonian_, 122;
fights the second frigate battle of the War of 1812, 125–134;
his personal direction of the guns, 128;
surrender of the British frigate, 133;
ball given to Decatur and his officers in New York, 149;
gold medal given by Congress to, 150;
transferred to the _President_, iii. 212;
ordered to cruise in the East Indies, 215;
chased by the British fleet, 216;
lightens his ship, 217;
addresses his crew, 218;
attempts to retreat, 221;
ordered to cruise in the South Atlantic, 271;
his duelling experiences, 307–315;
his fatal duel with Commodore Barron, 318–321;
his death, 322;
a squadron under his command sent to Africa, 343;
his treaty with the Dey, 347–355;
compels the Dey to pay indemnity, 355;
goes to Tripoli and compels the Bashaw to settle, 357.
_Deerhound_, English yacht, witnesses the _Alabama-Kearsarge_ fight
off Cherbourg, France, iv. 438;
assists in picking up the crew of the _Alabama_, 441.
_Defence_, Connecticut cruiser, captures two transports, i. 203, 204.
_Defiance_, Confederate ironclad, abandoned by her crew at New
Orleans, iv. 337.
De Gama, Saldanha, Brazilian rebel admiral, iv. 548.
_De Kalb_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, first
called the _St. Louis_, iv. 245;
takes part in capture of Arkansas Post, iv. 351.
_Delaware_, United States frigate, i. 316.
_Demologos_, Fulton’s first steam war-ship, iv. 4, 11.
Desertions from British ships, i. 394.
_De Soto_, Federal boat, added to Ellet’s command, iv. 351;
burned, 352.
_Detroit_, American brig, captured by the British, ii. 274;
recaptured by Lieutenant Elliott, 276;
runs aground on Squaw Island, 278;
British again capture her, _ib._;
the Americans destroy her, 279.
_Detroit_, United States cruiser, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
fires on the _Guanabara_, 553.
_Diadem_, British frigate, strength and armament of, iv. 23.
Diamond Reef, near Cape Hatteras, iv. 165.
Dickenson, Captain James, attacks the _Hornet_, iii. 273;
is killed in the fight, 276.
_Diligence_, British schooner, sent to capture Captain Jeremiah
O’Brien, i. 23.
_Diligent_, English brig, surrenders to the _Providence_, i. 282, 283.
Discipline on board American frigate _Constellation_, i. 322.
Discord fomented by England between the States of the Union, i. 384.
_Divided We Fall_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Dixie_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.
_Dolphin_, American cutter, purchased by Franklin and other
commissioners, i. 117.
_Dolphin_, American privateer, ii. 242.
_Dolphin_, United States cruiser, iv. 531.
Donaldson, Commander Edward, iv. 389;
of the _Sciota_, 315.
“Don’t tread on me,” the significant motto, i. 2, 46.
Douglas, Hon. Captain George, iii. 247;
surrenders, 255.
Douglas, Lord Howard, his views on armor-clad ships, iv. 198.
Downes, Lieutenant John, sent on a cruise in the _Georgiana_, iii. 10;
captures by, 10, 11;
in the _Essex-Phœbe_ fight, 28;
is appointed to command the _Epervier_, 1815, 343;
attacks and overpowers the Malays at Quallah Battoo, 373, 374.
Downes, Commander John, iv. 480.
Downie, Captain George, iii. 144, 145;
at the battle of Lake Champlain, 153, 154;
killed, 165.
Drayton, Captain Percival, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
Captain of the _Hartford_, 386;
of the _Passaic_, 480.
Drayton, General Thomas F., at Port Royal, iv. 170.
_Druid_, British brig, attacked by the _Raleigh_, i. 131, 132.
_Drummond_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Drummond_, British schooner, captured by Chauncey at Lake George,
ii. 353.
Drunkenness and debauchery promoted by gun-boats, ii. 394.
_D. Trowbridge_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by the _Sumter_,
iv. 415.
_Dublin_, British frigate, cruises off Callas, iii. 389.
_Duc de Lauzan_, American frigate, i. 287, 299.
Duckworth, Admiral Sir John T., on the cartel of the _Alert_, ii. 47.
Duddingstone, Lieutenant William, i. 4;
shot, 10.
Duelling in the American Navy, iii. 305–323;
at Gibraltar, 313, 314.
_Duke of Gloucester_, British ship captured by Americans at Toronto,
burned at the attack on Fort George, ii. 346.
Dummy monitor sent adrift by Porter’s men, iv. 357.
Dunmore, Lord, in Chesapeake Bay, i. 35.
Dunovant, Colonel R. M., at Fort Beauregard, iv. 170.
Dupont, Commander Samuel Francis, spikes the guns of San Blas, iii.
402;
takes command of a fleet to take possession of Port Royal, iv. 163.
Dynamite cruisers, construction of, iv. 542.
Eads, James B., ship-builder, takes a contract to build seven
ironclad gun-boats, iv. 242–244;
construction of, described, 245, 246;
Eads and Ericsson, 244.
_Eagle_, American sloop, in Macdonough’s squadron, ii. 354;
sunk by the British in the Sorel River, 355.
_Eagle_, American sloop, iii. 136, 138.
Earle, Commodore, attempts to capture the _Oneida_ and destroy
Sackett’s Harbor, ii. 266, 268.
_Eastport_, Confederate river steamer, captured by Lieutenant Phelps,
iv. 267.
_Eastport_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
_Eben Dodge_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Eclipse_, American merchant-ship, attacked and looted by Malays,
iii. 374–376.
_Edinburgh Review_ on the treatment of America by Great Britain, i.
384.
_Edwin_, American merchant-brig, captured by the Dey of Algiers, iii.
341, 351.
_Effingham_, American frigate, sunk, i. 188.
_Eliza_, merchant-schooner, David Porter’s first ship, ii. 33.
_Elizabeth_, British schooner, captured by Porter, iii. 4.
Ellet, Colonel Charles, Jr., converts seven river steamers into rams
on the Ohio River, iv. 298;
his part in the attack on Fort Pillow, 301.
Ellet, Colonel Charles R., sent by Porter to control the Mississippi
between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, iv. 351.
Elliott, Lieutenant Jesse D., sent to Buffalo to purchase vessels,
ii. 273;
capture of the _Detroit_, 276, 278, 279;
in command of the _Niagara_, 292;
brings up the gun-boats, 322;
criticized for inactivity, 335, 336;
acts as second to Commodore Barron in his duel with Decatur, iii.
319;
commands the _Ontario_ in an expedition against the Dey of Algiers
in 1815, 343.
Elliptical route plan condemned by Admiral Porter, iv. 101.
_Emily St. Pierre_, British merchant-ship, seized by United States
cruiser _James Adger_, iv. 58;
recaptured by her captain, _ib._
_Enchantress_, merchant-schooner, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 91.
_Endymion_, British frigate, attacks the _Prince de Neufchâtel_,
American privateer, iii. 202;
is defeated, 203;
assists in the capture of the _President_, 222.
England, greed of, in dealings with her colonies, i. 4;
tries to crush the new republic, 314.
English Navy of 1812 in American waters, ii. 25.
English officers offended by names given to Yankee ships, iii. 313.
English seaman in 1812, ii. 25.
Ensign, naval, first American, i. 46.
_Enterprise_, American brig, sent to South America to put down
piracy, iii. 331.
_Enterprise_, American schooner, captures the French privateer
_Seine_, i. 330;
sent to Tripoli in charge of Lieutenant Andrew Sterrett, 335;
battle with the war polacre _Tripoli_, 335;
the luckiest, naval ship of the War of 1812, ii. 372;
captures eight privateers, 373;
cruises in the Mediterranean, _ib._;
captures the _Tripoli_ and the ketch _Mastico_, _ib._;
changed to a brig and overloaded with guns, 374;
drives off English privateers under command of Master-commandant
Johnston Blakely, 375;
Lieutenant William Burrows takes charge of her, _ib._;
cruises for privateers, _ib._;
encounters the _Boxer_, _ib._;
her commander wounded, and Lieutenant McCall takes his place, 377,
378;
the _Boxer_ surrenders, 379;
after the battle Master-commandant James Renshaw appointed to
command, 386;
cruises off the southern coast, _ib._;
escapes from a British frigate, _ib._;
employed as harbor guard, 387.
_Enterprise_, American sloop, i. 89.
_Epervier_, British brig-sloop, captured by the _Peacock_, iii. 66–71;
taken into Savannah by Lieutenant John B. Nicholson, 76–78.
_Epervier_, American ship, lost at sea, iii. 354.
_Era_, Confederate steamer, captured by Federal fleet, iv. 352.
Erben, Captain Henry, at Fort Pillow, iv. 289.
_Ericsson_, a name given to the first monitor, iv. 215.
Ericsson, John, Swedish engineer, his screw propeller, iv. 10;
his boat the _Francis B. Ogden_, _ib._;
induced to come to America, 11;
plans the first screw steamship, 12;
Naval Board makes a contract with, for the _Monitor_, 191.
Erie, Pa., chosen as base of operations for gaining control of Lake
Erie, ii. 282;
ship-building at, 286.
_Espiègle_, British war-brig, chased by Captain Lawrence of the
_Hornet_, ii. 181;
again chased after sinking the _Peacock_, 190.
_Essex_, American frigate, sent to Tripoli, i. 335.
_Essex_, American frigate, ii. 33;
first cruise in War of 1812, 34–50;
British frigate _Minerva_ refuses to fight with, 39–41;
captures the _Alert_, 41–43;
crew of _Alert_ plan a rescue, 44;
chased by the _Shannon_, 47;
Farragut’s account of the crew, 49;
begins her second cruise, Oct. 8, 1812, iii. 1;
cruises off Port Praya, 2;
captures the brig _Nocton_, 2, 3;
dysentery among the crew, 4;
panic on board, 6;
painted and disguised, 8;
captures British whalers, _ib._;
refitted from the captured ships, 9;
captures the _Atlantic_ and the _Greenwich_, _ib._;
captures the _Charlton_, 13;
goes into the harbor of Nukahiva to refit, 18–21;
an incipient mutiny on, 21;
attacked by the _Phœbe_ and _Cherub_, 24–43;
losses of, 44;
sent to England to be added to the British Navy, 48;
her captures, 52;
amount of damage done to the enemy, _ib._
_Essex_, Federal armor-plated gun-boat, iv. 249;
in the battle of Port Henry, _ib._;
disabled, 262;
Flag Officer Foote’s warning to his crews about wasting shot, 261;
Commander Robert Townsend, 369.
_Essex Junior_, formerly the British whaler _Atlantic_, iii. 12;
in the fight between the _Phœbe_ and _Cherub_ against the _Essex_,
33–43;
is disarmed and sent to New York, 49.
_Estido_, Algerian brig, captured near Cape Palos by the American
Navy, iii. 348.
_Eurydice_, British frigate, ii. 16.
Evans, Surgeon Amos E., ii. 168.
_Experiment_, British frigate, captures the _Raleigh_, i. 194.
_Experiment_, American schooner, i. 330.
Exploring expeditions of the American Navy, iii. 464.
“Export powder,” an inferior quality of gunpowder, ii. 368.
_Fair American_, British brig, driven ashore by the _Hyder Ali_, i.
215.
Fairfax, Lieutenant D. M., takes Mason and Slidell off the _Trent_,
iv. 144–146.
Fairfax, Commander D. M., iv. 480.
Falcon, Captain Thomas Gordon, chased by the _Constitution_, iii. 247;
surrenders, 252.
Falmouth (now called Portland), Maine, attacked by British, i. 24–26,
32.
_Fame_, privateer of Salem, ii. 241.
_Fanny_, successful blockade-runner, iv. 63.
Farragut, Commodore David Glasgow, midshipman on the _Essex_, ii. 40;
his wit saves a rescue of the _Alert_ by her crew, 44;
his account of the crew of the _Essex_, 49;
as captain when only twelve years old, iii. 12, 13;
resumes his studies at Nukahiva, 19–21;
his account of the fight of the _Essex_ with the _Phœbe_ and
_Cherub_, 40–42;
in his home at Norfolk, Va., 1862, awaiting orders, iv. 311;
a member of the Naval Retiring Board, 313;
suggested by Porter as a suitable commander of the New Orleans
expedition, 313;
accepts the position, 314;
ships in his squadron, 314, 315;
disguises his ships, 317;
advances past the barriers, 324–330;
demands surrender of New Orleans from Mayor Monroe, 338;
pressed by the Administration to open up the Mississippi, 341;
his bold cruise practically fruitless, 342;
his fortune in the Gulf of Mexico, 357;
runs his squadron past the works of Port Hudson, _ib._;
captures Galveston and Corpus Christi, _ib._;
losses in his fleet, 358;
watches Confederates strengthen their works at Mobile, 384;
moves his fleet up to Fort Morgan, 389;
commences the battle, 392;
disregards the torpedoes, 396;
lashed to the mast, _ib._;
wins the battle when the _Tennessee_ surrenders, 403;
in his report gives special praise to members of his fleet, _ib._;
his place in history, 465.
Faunce, Captain John, iv. 99.
Federal Government, its great aim to strangle and starve the
Confederates, iv. 239.
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, Porter visits and communicates with
Bainbridge at, iii. 3;
Captain Semmes allowed to make his headquarters there, iv. 527.
Ferryboats as successful naval ships, iv. 37.
_Finch_, British gun-boat, iii. 143;
disabled in the battle of Lake Champlain, 161.
_Fingal_, Scotch iron steamer, erected into a Confederate ironclad,
iv. 486;
renamed the _Atlanta_, 488.
Fitch, Colonel, attacks Charles City, Ark., iv. 307;
storms and captures it, 308.
Flag. See _American Flag_.
_Flag_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
_Flambeau_, French privateer, captured by the _Enterprise_, ii. 373.
Flamborough Head, naval fight between the _Serapis_ and _Bonhomme
Richard_ near, i: 243.
Flannen Islands, the _Alliance_, of Paul Jones’s fleet, captures a
valuable prize off the coast of, i. 236.
Flores, General José Maria, paroled by Commodore Stockton, iii. 397;
breaks his parole, _ib._
_Florida_, Confederate cruiser built at Liverpool, iv. 416;
her first voyages, 417;
Captain John Newland Maffitt appointed to command of, 418;
is fired at by Captain Preble of the _Winona_, 419;
escapes, _ib._;
blockaded by the _Cuyler_, 420;
runs the blockade, 423;
Captain Charles M. Morris appointed to command of, 424;
rammed by the _Wachusett_ and taken to the United States, _ib._;
scuttled at Newport News, 429.
_Fly_, schooner of first American Navy, i. 40.
Foote, Admiral Andrew Hull, Lieutenant on the American brig _Perry_,
sent to Africa to assist in putting down the slave traffic,
iii. 363;
his sincere desire to stop the traffic, 364;
captures the slave-ships _Martha_ and _Chatsworth_, 364–366;
the “original prohibitionist of the navy,” 367;
is sent to Canton to protect American interests, 380;
is fired on by the Chinese forts, _ib._;
bombards and captures the forts, 380, 381;
relieves Commander John Rodgers of his command on the Mississippi,
iv. 250;
assembles a fleet at Paducah, 255;
inspects the crews, 256;
seeming insolence of Captain Walke to, 266;
joins the expedition to Fort Donelson, 268;
is seriously wounded, 271;
again, 272;
is relieved by Captain Charles H. Davis, 289.
_Forest Queen_, Federal army transport, in Porter’s fleet before
Vicksburg, iv. 364.
Fort Beauregard, on Bay Point, Charleston, S. C., Confederate fort
at Port Royal, iv. 169, 467.
Fort Donelson, strength of, iv. 268;
arrival of the _Carondelet_, _ib._;
the _St. Louis_, _Louisville_, and _Pittsburg_ arrive before, 271;
all three ships disabled, _ib._;
the fleet at a disadvantage, 272;
surrendered to General Grant, _ib._
Fort Erie, the Coney Island of Buffalo, ii. 273.
Fort Fisher, N. C., capture of, iv. 503–518;
fortifications of, 505;
General Butler’s plan of capture, 508–514;
garrison of, 514.
Fort Gaines shelled by Federal gun-boat _Chickasaw_, iv. 405.
Fort George attacked by the Americans under Winfield Scott, ii.
342–344;
Scott hauls down the British flag, 344.
Fort Gregg, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Henry, Tennessee River, Foote assembles a fleet at Paducah to
attack, iv. 255;
troops under Grant proceed up the river, _ib._;
storm clears the river of torpedoes, 256;
attacked by Foote’s fleet, 261–266;
a victory for the gun-boats, 266;
its importance to both armies, _ib._
_Fort Hindman_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Fort Jackson, Confederate fortification on the Mississippi, iv. 318;
bombardment of, 322–324;
surrendered to Porter, 339.
Fort Johnson, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Morgan, iv. 385, 386, 389.
Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Pillow, Federal fleet advances to, iv. 289;
evacuated by Confederates, 298.
Fort Pinckney, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Ripley, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Sumter, five monitors open fire on, iv. 491;
bombarded and reduced to a wreck, 493.
Fort Wagner, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467, 469, 490.
Fort Walker, on Hilton Head, Confederate fort at Port Royal, iv. 169.
Fortress Monroe, the _Monitor_ retires to, after the fight with the
_Merrimac_, iv. 226.
_Forward_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Forward_, filibuster craft, cut out by Lieutenant Brownson of the
United States frigate _Mohican_, iv. 553.
Foster, Lieutenant-commander J. P., iv. 369.
Foster, General John G., Captain Flusser appeals to him to go and
burn the Confederate ironclad _Albemarle_, iv. 454.
Fox, Augustus V., appointed assistant to Gideon Welles, Secretary of
the Navy, iv. 35.
_Fox_, Captain W. H. Cocke, iii. 333.
Foxardo affair, the unfortunate, iii. 337, 338.
France, United States Government abrogates all treaties with, July 7,
1798, i. 314.
_Francis B. Ogden_, Ericsson’s model boat, attains speed of ten miles
an hour, iv. 10;
Captain Stockton makes a trip on, _ib._
Franklin sails for France on the _Reprisal_, i. 114.
Franklin, Sir John, American expedition sent to search for the
remains of, iii. 464.
_Franklin_, American schooner, captures ten vessels and Governor
Wright of St. John’s, i. 203;
captures a quantity of war supplies, _ib._
_Freeborn_, Federal steamer, at Acquia Creek, iv. 81.
“Free trade” before “sailors’ rights,” the motto of Washington
politicians in 1812, ii. 18.
_Freely_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.
Frémont, John C. (“the Pathfinder”), takes possession of San Diego,
iii. 394;
commands in the Mississippi Valley, iv. 241.
French cruisers destroy American shipping, i. 314.
French troops enter Mexico, iv. 367.
_Friendship_, American ship, attacked and looted by natives of
Sumatra, iii. 368.
_Frolic_, American sloop, built at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1814, iii.
64;
Master-commandant Joseph Bainbridge appointed to, 65:
sinks a Carthagenian privateer, _ib._;
encounters the British frigate _Orpheus_ and schooner _Shelburne_,
_ib._;
surrenders, 66.
_Frolic_, British brig, encountered by the _Wasp_, ii. 106;
captured by the _Wasp_, 107–112;
comparison between the ships, 116;
recaptured by the _Poictiers_, 118.
Frontier posts retained by England contrary to treaty, i. 383;
posts used as Indian headquarters, _ib._
Fry, Captain Joseph, capture of, iv. 308;
captured and executed by the Spaniards in the _Virginius_
expedition, _ib._
Fulton ferryboat _Somerset_ captures the blockade-runner _Circassian_
off Havana, iv. 37.
Fulton, naval plans of, iv. 3, 4;
his first steam war-ship, the _Demologos_, 4;
report of commissioners appointed to examine her, 7, 8;
blown to pieces, 9.
_Fulton 2d_, launched in 1887, iv. 11.
Gadsden, Christopher, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Gaines_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 380.
_Galatea_, British frigate, chased by the _Congress_ and _President_,
ii. 151.
_Galena_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
_Gallinipper_, American barge, captures a pirate schooner, iii. 335.
Galveston, Texas, blockaded by the _South Carolina_, iv. 44;
bombarded by Captain James Alden of the Federal frigate _South
Carolina_, 121;
the foreign consuls protest against the bombardment, 123;
captured by Farragut, 357;
is retaken by the Confederates, _ib._
Gamble, Lieutenant Peter, killed in the battle of Lake Champlain,
iii. 157.
_Gaspé_, captured by men armed with paving-stones, i. 9.
_Gazelle_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Geisinger, Midshipman David, placed in charge of the captured ship
_Atlanta_, iii. 100.
_General Armstrong_, American privateer schooner, iii. 186;
owned by New York men, _ib._;
under Captain Tim Barnard captures nineteen prizes, 187;
sails from New York under command of Captain Samuel C. Reid, _ib._;
arrives at Fayal and encounters the _Carnation_, _Plantagenet_, and
_Rota_, _ib._;
is attacked by boats from the three ships, but beats them off, 189;
scuttled and abandoned by her crew, 200.
_General Bragg_, Confederate gun-boat, rams the _Cincinnati_ at Fort
Pillow, iv. 293;
raked by the _Carondelet_, 294;
surrenders, 302.
_General Monk_, British ship, attacked and captured by the _Hyder
Ali_, i. 209–215.
_General Pike_, American ship, burned at the attack on Fort George,
ii. 346.
_General Price_, Federal ram, in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, iv.
364.
_General Rusk_, Confederate steamer, blockaded in Galveston by the
Federal frigate _Santee_, iv. 137.
_Georgiana_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
Gerdes, F. H., Federal coast surveyor at New Orleans, iv. 322.
German troops hired by England to fight in America, i. 32.
Ghent, terms and conditions of the treaty of, iii. 209.
Gherardi, Commander Bancroft, iv. 389.
_Gibraltar_, formerly the _Sumter_. See _Sumter_.
Gibraltar, duels between American and English officers at, iii.
311–313.
Gillis, Captain John P., iv. 99;
of the _Seminole_ at Port Royal, 163.
_Glasgow_, British sloop-of-war, fight with Commodore Hopkins’s
American squadron, i. 59.
_Globe_, American privateer, ii. 250.
“God Save the King,” American sailors on British ships compelled to
bare their heads when played, i. 394, iii. 291.
Godon, Captain S. W., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
_Golden Rocket_, captured by the _Sumter_, iv. 410.
Goldsborough, Flag Officer L. M., in charge of expedition sent
against Roanoke Island, iv. 109;
in charge of a large fleet sent to ram the _Merrimac_, 235.
Gordon’s Landing, Red River, fort at, attacked by Ellet, iv. 352.
Gorringe, Master H. H., iv. 370.
_Governor_, Federal transport, sinks off Cape Hatteras, iv. 166.
_Governor Tompkins_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Governor Tryon_, British sloop, attacked by and strikes to the
American privateer _Thorn_, i. 209.
_Grampus_, American schooner, in fleet sent to punish pirates in
South America, iii. 331;
captures the _Pandrita_, 332.
Grand Gulf, Porter attacks fortifications of, and finds them
evacuated, iv. 367;
Grant makes it his base of supplies, _ib._
Grant, General Ulysses Simpson, attempts to dislodge Confederates
below Cairo, iv. 251;
attacks the Confederates at Belmont, 251, 252;
proceeds up the Tennessee, to attack Fort Henry, 255;
muddy roads prevents his taking part in the capture of the fort,
266;
at Fort Donelson, 268;
Captain Walker diverts the Confederates’ attention from him, 271;
Confederates surrender to him, 272;
fight with Confederates at Pittsburg Landing, 284;
arrives before Vicksburg, 351;
goes to New Carthage to surround Vicksburg, 363;
makes Grand Gulf his base of supplies, 367.
_Granville_, French privateer, in the fleet of Paul Jones, i. 234.
Graves, Admiral, destroys Portland, Maine, i. 24–26.
Grease as a protection on armor-plated ships, iv. 10.
Great Britain, sea-power of, in 1812, ii. 22;
European nations dread the power of, 23.
Greene, Lieutenant Charles H., iv. 386.
Greene, Captain P. B., blockaded in Bahia Harbor, ii. 179;
refuses Lawrence’s challenge, _ib._;
cowardice of, 180;
rescued by the _Montagu_, _ib._
Greene, Lieutenant S. D., executive officer of the _Monitor_, iv. 216;
takes charge of the guns in the turret, 219, 220;
takes command after Worden is disabled, 226;
his statement, 229, 230;
orders regarding the _Merrimac_, 235.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N. Y., the _Monitor_ constructed at, iv. 192.
_Greenwich_, British letter-of-marque whaler, captured by Porter,
iii. 9.
Greer, Lieutenant-commander James A., before Vicksburg, iv. 363, 369.
_Greyhound_, Captain John Porter, iii. 333.
_Growler_, American schooner, captured by the British, ii. 351;
recaptured by the Americans, 351.
_Growler_, American sloop, in Macdonough’s squadron, ii. 354;
grounded in the Sorel River, 355.
_Growler_, American sloop, iii. 135, 138.
_Guanabara_, Brazilian rebel warship at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
fired on by the United States cruiser _Detroit_, 553.
_Guerrière_, American frigate, built in 1814, iii. 64;
Decatur’s flagship in expedition sent against the Dey of Algiers,
346, 347.
_Guerrière_, British frigate, picking sailors from American ships,
ii. 6;
flees from an inferior force, 7;
stops the _Spitfire_, and takes off John Deguyo, an American
citizen, _ib._;
race with the _Constitution_, 55;
Captain Dacres in charge of, 55–60;
fight with the _Constitution_, 76–95;
surrendered and blown up, 95.
Gun-boats, the ideal navy, ii. 388;
description and build of, 389;
arguments in favor of, 390;
cheapness of, 392;
points against, _ib._;
cost of, 393;
difficulty of getting unanimity of captains in battle, 394;
lack of discipline on gun-boats, _ib._;
use of, in Long Island Sound, 395;
first encounter with gun-boats, _ib._;
uselessness again shown, 416.
Gunners of 1812 and 1861 compared, iv. 419.
Gunpowder, expedients for getting, by the United Colonies, i. 28.
Guns, penetrating power of long and short, iii. 142;
improvements made in, iv. 18–23.
Gwin, Lieutenant, supports Grant at Pittsburg Landing, iv. 284.
Hacker, Captain Hoysted, i. 79, 282, 283.
Haggerty, Captain F. L., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
_Halifax_, British war-ship, i. 406, 407.
Hallock, Captain William, i. 66.
Hambleton, Purser on the _Lawrence_ in the battle of Lake Erie, ii.
317.
_Hamilton_, American schooner, ii. 350.
Hamilton, Schuyler, suggests cutting through the trees of swamp from
the Mississippi to New Madrid, iv. 281.
Hampton Roads, the first point blockaded in the Civil War, iv. 40;
_Keystone State_ blockades, 45.
Hanchett, Captain, ii. 398.
Handy, Captain Robert, misunderstands signals, iv. 133, 134;
letter to Captain Pope, showing his fear of the _Manassas_, 136.
_Hannah_, a Providence packet, chased by the _Gaspé_, i. 5.
Harding, Captain Seth, surrenders to the _Orpheus_ and _Roebuck_, i.
298.
_Harriet Lane_, American revenue cutter, used as a war-ship, iv. 42;
Captain John Faunce, 99.
_Harriet Lane_, Federal frigate, captured in the Gulf of Mexico, iv.
357.
Harrison, Lieutenant Napoleon B., iv. 314.
_Hartford_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16;
flagship of Captain Farragut, 314;
set on fire by Confederate fire-raft, 329;
passes the batteries at Port Hudson, 358;
flagship of Rear-admiral Farragut, 386.
Hatteras, Cape, battle between the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ in the
tail of a gale off, ii. 107.
Hatteras, Fort, captured by Federal forces, iv. 106;
the first Union victory in the War of Secession, _ib._
Hatteras hurricane, a fleet of transports in a, iv. 166.
Hatteras Inlet, N. C., resort of the “Hatteras Pirates,” iv. 97.
_Hatteras_, merchant-steamer, captured and sunk by the _Alabama_ at
Galveston, iv. 432.
_Hawke_, American tender, captured by British off Long Island, i. 56.
Hawkins, Captain Richard, refuses to fight the _Essex_, ii. 39–41;
branded as a coward, 40.
Haymakers, Machias, attack of the, on the _Margaretta_, i. 21.
Haymakers and wood-choppers as Yankee seamen, iii. 82, 83, 86, 90, 95.
_Hazard_, American privateer, captured the British brig _Active_, i.
206.
Hazard, Captain, in the first naval battle of the Revolution, i. 57.
_Hebrus_, British frigate, ii. 420.
_Hector_, British letter-of-marque ship, captured by Lieutenant
Downes, iii. 10.
Heddart, Captain Francis, extracts from his account of the
_Serapis_-_Bonhomme Richard_ battle, i. 245, 257.
Henley, Midshipman John D., assists in the attack on the city of
Tripoli, i. 366.
_Henry Clay_, Federal army transport, in Porter’s fleet before
Vicksburg, iv. 364;
catches fire and sinks, _ib._
Hewes, Joseph, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Hibernia_, British transport, captured by Captain Hopkins, i. 281.
Hickman, on the Mississippi, evacuated by the Confederates, iv. 275.
_Highflyer_, British schooner, Captain Rodgers succeeds in getting
private signals from, ii. 23, 358.
Hillyar, Captain James, in the harbor of Valparaiso, iii. 25;
attempts to attack the _Essex_, but is scared off, 26;
attacks the _Essex_ in company with the _Cherub_, 30–43;
criticism on handling his ship, 46.
Hilton Head. See _Fort Walker_.
Hinman, Captain Elisha, i. 66;
sent to France for army supplies, 130;
his ship captured by the British, 133.
Hislop, Lieutenant-general, Governor of Bombay, on board the _Java_
in her fight with the _Constitution_, ii. 168;
Captain Bainbridge’s curious dream of, 172, 173.
Hoel, Lieutenant W. R., iv. 363, 370.
Hoffman, Lieutenant B. V., sent to take charge of the _Cyane_ when
she surrendered, iii. 252.
Hoke, General, advances on Plymouth, N. C., and captures it, iv. 455,
456.
Holdup, Thomas, in the battle of Lake Erie, chases and captures the
_Chippewa_ and _Little Belt_, ii. 326.
_Holland_, torpedo boat, launching of, iv. 543.
Holland, John P., inventor of submarine torpedo boats, iv. 542.
Honor, American Medal of, origin of, iv. 111.
Hope, Lieutenant David, horrible cruelty of, to sailors, i. 389;
wounded on the _Macedonian_, ii. 140;
his report on gunnery practice, 143.
Hopkins, Esek, Commander-in-chief of first American fleet, i. 42;
career of, 48;
dismissed from the service, 61;
dies near Providence, R. I., _ib._
Hopkins, Captain John Burrows, in command of the _Cabot_, i. 57.
Hopkins, Commodore Robert, receives his appointment through influence
of John Adams, i. 49;
sent to Chesapeake Bay in search of Lord Dunmore, 53;
goes to the Bahamas instead and attacks the British there, _ib._
Hopkins, Stephen, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Hornet_, sloop of first American Navy, i. 40.
_Hornet_, American sloop-of-war, blockades the British warship _Bonne
Citoyenne_ in Bahia Harbor, ii. 179;
raises the blockade on the approach of the _Montagu_, 180;
captures the _Resolution_, 181;
falls in with the _Peacock_, _ib._;
fight with the _Peacock_, 182–184;
encounters the _Penguin_, iii. 273;
the _Penguin_ surrenders, 274–280;
the _Hornet_ chased by the _Cornwallis_, but escapes, 282–284;
Captain Robert Henley appointed to command, 330;
detailed to South America to destroy pirates, 331.
Horses, wild, as weapons of offence, iii. 401.
_Housatonic_, Federal war-ship, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Howard, Lieutenant Samuel, iv. 370.
Howe, Captain Tyringham, i. 59.
Huger, Captain Thomas B., at New Orleans, iv. 321;
mortally wounded, 332.
Hull, Lieutenant Isaac, cuts the privateer _Sandwich_ out of Puerto
Plata, i. 329;
tricky conduct of the officers of two British frigates to, ii. 15;
the frigates turn and retreat, 16;
his opinion of the crew of the _Constitution_, 52;
his escape from a British squadron, after standing at his post for
two days, 53–69;
race with the _Guerrière_, 55;
fight with and capture of the _Guerrière_, 76–95;
reception on returning to Boston, 101;
Congress votes a gold medal to, 103.
Humphreys, Joshua, American ship-builder, statement of, in regard to
new ships, i. 311;
his theories accepted, 312.
Hunt, William H., Secretary of the Navy, appoints a board of naval
officers, with Rear-admiral Rodgers at its head, iv. 527.
_Hunter_, American ship, captured by the _Peacock_, ii. 191;
taken in charge by the _Hornet_, _ib._
_Hunter_, British ship, attacked by privateers, i. 200.
_Hunter_, British brig, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 296.
_Hussar_, Austrian war-ship, Martin Koszta, an American citizen taken
and detained on, iii. 385;
on demand of Captain Ingraham of the _St. Louis_ is given up, _ib._
Hutter, Midshipman, killed while assisting the Union wounded out of
the _Congress_, iv. 209.
_Hyder Ali_, American privateer, Captain Joshua Barney, attacks and
captures the _General Monk_, i. 212–215.
_Illinois_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534, 536.
Impressment, feeling of American seamen regarding the practice of,
ii. 18.
_Independence_, American privateer, Commander Thomas Truxton, cuts
out three big ships from the British fleet, i. 205.
_Indian Chief_, Confederate ship, iv. 499.
_Indiana_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534.
_Indianola_, Federal armored gun-boat, in attack on Port Hudson, iv.
352;
captured and sunk by the Confederates, _ib._
Indians, friendship of, cultivated by England to injure United
States, i. 383;
incited by British to attack pioneers, _ib._
Ingraham, Captain Duncan Nathaniel, demands the surrender of Martin
Koszta, an American citizen detained on the Austrian war-ship
_Hussar_, iii. 385;
medal presented to him by Congress, 386.
Inland navy an imperative necessity to reach the heart of the
Confederacy, iv. 241.
Inman, Lieutenant William, chases and captures a pirate schooner,
iii. 335.
_Insurgent_, French frigate, Captain Barreaut, captures the American
ship _Retaliation_, i. 316;
battle with the _Constellation_, 320–322;
surrenders, 321;
lost at sea, 330.
International law, a question of violation of, iv. 160.
_Intrepid_, formerly the _Mastico_, used as a fire-ship at the attack
on Tripoli, i. 371;
explodes, 378.
_Investigator_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Iowa_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534, 536.
Ironclad warfare, superior activity of the Confederates in preparing
for, iv. 184.
Ironclads, the Confederate Government the first to construct, iv. 185;
the _Merrimac_ launched, 188;
Congress makes appropriation for construction of, 190;
dilatory action of Naval Board in making contracts for, 191;
first battle between, 220.
_Iroquois_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16.
_Iroquois_, Federal screw corvette, iv. 314.
Irving, Washington, on Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, ii. 338.
_Isaac Smith_, Federal war-ship, in the Port Royal fleet, iv. 164.
Island No. 10, strongly fortified by the Confederates, iv. 275;
Foote’s flotilla arrives in front of, 276;
capture of, delayed two weeks by Foote, 281;
Captain Walke successfully runs the gauntlet of batteries on, 282,
283;
the island captured, 283, 289;
has disappeared under action of the current, 284.
Isle-aux-Noix, British fort at, iii. 136, 139.
Isle St. Mary, Paul Jones lands on and surrounds the house of the
Earl of Selkirk, i. 147, 148.
_Itasca_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 314;
breaks down barriers placed across the Mississippi, 323;
Lieutenant-commander George Brown, 389.
_Ivy_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 127.
James, Reuben, seaman, saves Decatur’s life, i. 364.
_James Adger_, American cruiser, captures the _Emily St. Pierre_, iv.
58;
the latter recaptured, _ib._
_Jamestown_, Confederate warship, captures several prizes in sight of
the _Monitor_, iv. 235.
Japan, condition of, in the sixteenth century, iii. 438;
experience with Christianity, _ib._;
Dutch trading at Nagasaki, _ib._;
introduction of Western civilization by the American fleet, 439;
Commodore M. C. Perry’s work in opening the ports of Japan, _ib._;
appointed to the Japan mission, 443;
Commodore Perry’s exhibition of power and dignity wins the respect
of, 444.
_Jason_, British transport, captured by Captain Hopkins, i. 281.