The American Navy

by French Ensor Chadwick

The Essex thus anchored at Valparaiso on January 12, 1814. She had in company one of her captured merchantmen, renamed the Essex Junior with 60 men, ten long 6’s, and ten 18-pound carronades. She was of course wholly unfit to meet a regular cruiser. On February 8th the Phoebe, 36, Captain Hillyar, and the Cherub, 18, Captain Tucker, appeared. There was an evident design on the part of Hillyar to run aboard the Essex, but a very near approach revealed the latter’s crew at her guns, and he backed his yards, inquiring, meanwhile, of Captain Porter’s health. Porter politely replied, but warned Hillyar not to fall foul, adding later, “You have no business where you are; if you touch a rope-yarn of this ship I shall board instantly.” It had been well had the two ships fought then and there, for later the Essex was to be taken at a much greater disadvantage. The two British ships established a blockade, and on Porter’s endeavor to fight the Phoebe singly on February 27th she ran down and joined her consort. On March 28th, however, Porter, who had already decided to go to sea, parted his port cable in a gale of wind and dragged his other anchor in the deep roadstead and very difficult anchorage, under the best of circumstances, at Valparaiso. He had, by several trials, assured himself of the superior speed of the Essex, and now, under way, was sure of getting clear of his enemies. In rounding the outermost headland of the bay, his ship was struck by a heavy squall, which careened her to the gunwale and carried away the maintopmast. The Essex attempted to regain the harbor, but an adverse wind and her crippled condition prevented this. She thus stood northward and anchored three miles north of the town and half a mile from a small Chilean battery. She was within pistol shot of the shore and far within neutral waters. But our British kindred have never recked of such small matters as neutrality unless such stickling served their purpose. Both British ships thus stood in with flags and mottoes at every masthead, deliberately took position out of range of the short-range carronades of the Essex (which carried but about 300 yards), and opened fire. The time was 4:00 P.M. Now was made apparent the justice of Porter’s demand for a battery of long-range guns which he had made before leaving the United States, but which was refused him. He thus had to fight the action with but his six long 12-pounders. The result was the loss of the ship, but never was ship more gallantly fought. Near the end she caught fire and a quantity of powder exploded below. Many men were knocked overboard and some, jumping into the water to swim ashore when the ship had become a total wreck, succeeded. At 6:20 the ship was surrendered. Of the 255 of the crew 58 had been killed, 66 wounded, and 31 drowned; 24 reached the shore. The Phoebe had lost 4 killed, including her first lieutenant, and 7 wounded; the Cherub 1 killed and 3 wounded. Such were the benefits of being able to fight at long taw. Captain Hillyar is not to be blamed for so doing; his business was to capture the Essex, and he did this with as little loss to himself and consort as might be. But all the honors were with the American. Hillyar’s flagrant violation of the neutrality of Chile was in British eyes but an easily condoned incident, and he received all the praise and regard which would have been due for taking the Essex in fairest fight. He gave at least every credit to the brave defenders of our ship. As usual in modern British accounts of this notable battle, no reference is made to the crippled state of the Essex, nor to her being in neutral waters, nor to the fact that she had a battery incomparably inferior in range, nor that two ships were employed against one to do the work. The “American frigate Essex was captured by the British frigate Phoebe,” and British self-respect thereby saved.

One officer who did his duty bravely and well in the Essex, as did all, was later to achieve fame as the most brilliant naval officer of his time: David Glasgow Farragut, then aged twelve years and eight months. Farragut continued his battle even after the surrender in a stand-up fight aboard the Phoebe for the preservation of his pet young pig, Murphy, an animal always a favorite of sailors. He won.

The Constellation, of noble record, was a victim of the blockade, and, beyond aiding in the defence of Norfolk, had to remain passive. The Adams, after a successful cruise so far as affecting the enemy’s trade very seriously, had to be burned while careened in the Penobscot to escape capture by an overwhelming force. The Peacock, of 11 guns, captured the British brig Epervier, of 9, with $118,000 in specie aboard, on April 29, 1814. The Wasp, 22, in a daring and successful cruise of destruction in the English Channel, met and captured on June 28th the British Reindeer, 18, of considerably less force, in an action which was honorable to the captains and crews of both ships. On September 1st, after a brilliant night action, she captured the Avon, of 18 guns. The Wasp was driven off by the approach of three new antagonists, who had to go to the assistance of the Avon, which sank after the removal of several of her crew. The Wasp, after taking a number of prizes, spoke on October 4th a Swedish brig and received from her Lieutenant McKnight and Master’s Mate Lyman, both on their way home from the Essex. This was the last ever heard of her and her brilliant and lamented captain. The last memento of her, besides that of October 9th in the journal of the Swedish brig, the Adonis, was a prize, the Atlanta, which reached Savannah November 4th under Midshipman Geisinger.

CHAPTER XVIII

There was to be one other battle on the lakes, that of Lake Champlain, which was to have momentous consequences quite equal to that of Lake Erie, and place the name of young Thomas MacDonough high on the list of benefactors of his country. MacDonough, on September 28, 1812, had been directed to proceed immediately and take command on the lake, the control having previously been under a young lieutenant, Sydney Smith. There was, however, little to command. The Americans had three armed sloops and a few small gunboats and galleys (the latter propelled only by oars). But this was larger than that of the British, until on June 3, 1813, two of the sloops, the Growler and the Eagle, in pursuit of some of the British flotilla which had ventured into the American part of the lake, found themselves in the narrow reaches of the north end with a south wind against which it was impossible to work back. Here they were attacked both by gunboats and by troops on both shores of the narrow waters, and had to surrender. Thenceforward, until May, 1814, the British by the addition of the captured American sloops were in control. Manned temporarily by seamen from the sloop-of-war Wasp at Quebec, the British flotilla raided Plattsburgh on June 30, 1813, destroyed the public buildings there and at Swanton in Vermont, and threatened the destruction of the new vessels building by MacDonough. On April 11, 1814, he launched the ship Saratoga. By the end of May he was afloat with the Saratoga, of 26 guns, 8 of which were long 24-pounders, the remainder being 32 and 42 pounder carronades; the schooner Ticonderoga, the sloop Preble, and ten galleys. Once more the Americans were in control. The British, however, were urging forward with all haste, to assist in the coming invasion, a ship much more than the Saratoga’s equal. This was the Confiance, of 37 guns, 27 of which were long 24-pounders and the others carronades of 24 and 32 pounds. On August 25th she was launched. With her tonnage of over 1,200 against the 734 of the Saratoga and with her great superiority in long guns, she was an enemy to be reckoned with.

The European wars had now closed. Four brigades of Wellington’s army had been sent to Canada from Bordeaux. They came with orders to “give immediate protection to his Majesty’s possessions in America,” by the entire destruction of Sackett’s Harbor and of the naval establishments on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain.[39]

The governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, who also was in command of the army, now had, exclusive of officers, 29,437 men, nearly all of whom were regulars seasoned by years of service under Wellington. He decided to advance by the west side of the lake reporting that as “Vermont has shown a disinclination to the war, and, as it is sending in specie and provisions, I will confine offensive operations to the west side of Lake Champlain.”[40]

On August 31st Prevost moved south with an army variously estimated at from 11,000 to 14,000 men. The American army under General Alexander Macomb was less than 2,000, but by September 4th came in 700 militia from the neighborhood, and by the 11th “other militia from New York and volunteers from Vermont ... in encouraging contrast to their fellow-citizens who were making money by abetting the enemy.” The British entered Plattsburgh on the 6th. Macomb retreated across the Saranac, a small, fordable river on which the town stands, and entrenched. Had Prevost had the courage to attack Macomb with his large and seasoned army, Macdonough would have had either to withdraw up the lake or risk a battle in the open lake, where the Confiance would have been more than a match for his whole squadron. He had anchored under Cumberland Head, somewhat over a mile from the west shore with the Eagle, Saratoga, Ticonderoga, and Preble in a line from north to south in the order named. West of this line were his ten gunboats. His fourteen vessels totalled but 2,244 tons, with 86 guns and 882 men. The British commodore, Downie, had sixteen vessels, amounting in all to 2,402 tons, with 92 guns and 937 men, but his flagship, as mentioned, was nearly twice the size and force of the Saratoga.

But now came to the aid of the Americans the nervousness of the incapable British general who insisted upon immediate action by the British squadron in his support. The Confiance had only been launched on August 25th; to make her ready for action in seventeen days was a task of Hercules, and that she was, in a way, made ready, reflects the highest credit upon the energy and ability of those in charge. Commodore Downie had joined only on September 2d; the crew had been hastily gathered from ships at Quebec, the last detachment coming aboard only the night but one before the battle. The men were thus largely unknown to the officers and to one another. The ship hauled into the stream on September 7th with the artificers still hard at work on the hundreds of fittings so necessary in the equipment of a man-of-war. They did not leave her until two hours before the beginning of battle. The situation of unpreparedness was very comparable to that of the Chesapeake in like circumstances, except that Macdonough’s own ship had been launched but four months earlier.

Prevost, by the fact of his position as governor-general, was in a position to command obedience, and his peremptory insistence caused Downie to move earlier than he should, undoubtedly against the latter’s better judgment. He thus on the morning of September 11, 1814, stood up the narrow reaches of the northern part of the lake, with a fair wind from the northeast. He had every reason to expect a simultaneous attack by Prevost on the American troops, but none came. Having passed Cumberland Head, it was too late to await any action by Prevost.