Macdonough had so admirably chosen his position that the British in rounding Cumberland Head were forced to stand nearly northwest and almost head on to the American line. They were thus subjected to a raking fire (lengthwise of the ship). The Confiance, being in the lead and having thus a concentration upon her of the American fire, suffered severely before anchoring within five hundred yards of the line. Within fifteen minutes her captain was dead. The day was finally won by “winding” the Saratoga (turning her end for end), for which excellent previous arrangements had been made. A new and, in great degree, uninjured broadside was thus brought into use, and shortly after, about 11, the Confiance hauled down her colors. The whole action lasted, by Macdonough’s report, two hours and twenty minutes.[41]
The immediate effect of the victory was Prevost’s retreat without delay into Canada. The general result was the end of the war, of which it was really the “decisive” battle. No longer could Castlereagh, the British foreign minister, hold Great Britain “entitled to claim the use of the lakes as a military barrier.”[42]
To Macdonough and Perry, the former under thirty-one, the latter but twenty-eight years old at the time of their victories, our country owes the preservation of its northern boundaries at the coming peace. It is a great debt.
CHAPTER XIX
The war had no more than begun when the question of peace was being considered. The United States had gone to war for two causes: the “Orders in Council” which bore so heavily upon our shipping; and the impressment of our seamen. The former were revoked on June 23d, five days after the declaration of war by Congress; peace was to be made without even a mention of the latter.
Actual steps toward peace were taken through Russia even as early as September, 1812. The whole is a long story, but on November 4th a direct negotiation was offered by England which was accepted by the United States on January 5, 1814, and commissioners were appointed, with Ghent as the place of meeting. It is well that action was thus early, for by April Great Britain’s hands were largely free in Europe, and she could turn her efforts more freely upon America, and this she did in the expedition against Louisiana (which was to end in almost unequalled disaster), and in the abortive invasion turned back by Macdonough’s victory. The British state of mind was expressed in a letter from Gallatin, then in London, to Monroe, the Secretary of State: “You may rest assured,” he said, “of the general hostile spirit of this nation, and of its wish to inflict serious injury upon the United States; that no resistance can be expected from Europe; and that no better terms will be obtained than the status ante bellum.” And so it turned out. On Christmas Eve, 1814, peace was signed, and though impressment was ignored, it was never again to be attempted. Nor was there cause, for there was not to be a naval war upon the ocean in which Britain was to be engaged for a hundred years.
Before hostilities on the water came to an end there were, however, to be several notable naval events, one of the most remarkable being the defence on September 26, 1814, of the privateer General Armstrong, Captain Reid, at Fayal, Azores, against a boat attack from three British ships, the Plantagenet, 74; Rota, 38; and Carnation, 18. The British were repulsed with the loss of 34 killed and 86 wounded. The next day the Carnation stood in to attack alone, and was driven off; but with a 74 present besides two other ships, the question of saving the little vessel was hopeless, and she was scuttled, the crew escaping ashore.
In those days news travelled slowly, and thus it was that after the peace the President, one of a squadron under Commodore Decatur, separated from her consorts, was captured, after she had driven off the Endymion frigate, by the squadron accompanying the latter. On February 20, 1815, the Cyane and Levant, sloops-of-war, were captured in a night action, 300 miles from Madeira, by the Constitution, Captain Stewart, who was to be the instrument of trouble many years after to Britain, through his grandfatherhood of Charles Stewart Parnell.
This action was remarkable for the brilliant handling of Stewart’s ship. The Levant was recaptured by a British squadron at Porto Praya, in the Cape Verdes, where she had taken refuge against the British squadron, which had vainly chased the Constitution. It was another instance, added to those of the Essex and the General Armstrong, of the disregard of the English of a neutrality so highly esteemed in these latter days.
The capture, on March 23d, of the British Penguin by the Hornet, Captain Biddle, of equal force, was the last real action of the war, that of the Peacock and British Nautilus in the Indian Ocean on June 30th, on account of the former’s superiority in force, not calling for any but mere mention.