CHAPTER XIX
The warhad 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 inalmost 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 thestatus 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 privateerGeneral Armstrong, Captain Reid, at Fayal, Azores, against a boat attack from three British ships, thePlantagenet, 74;Rota, 38; andCarnation, 18. The British were repulsed with the loss of 34 killed and 86 wounded. The next day theCarnationstood in to attack alone, and was driven off; but with a 74 present besides twoother 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 thePresident, one of a squadron under Commodore Decatur, separated from her consorts, was captured, after she had driven off theEndymionfrigate, by the squadron accompanying the latter. On February 20, 1815, theCyaneandLevant, sloops-of-war, were captured in a night action, 300 miles from Madeira, by theConstitution, 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. TheLevantwas 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 theConstitution. It was another instance, added to those of theEssexand theGeneral Armstrong, of the disregard of the English of a neutrality so highly esteemed in these latter days.
The capture, on March 23d, of the BritishPenguinby theHornet, Captain Biddle, ofequal force, was the last real action of the war, that of thePeacockand BritishNautilusin the Indian Ocean on June 30th, on account of the former’s superiority in force, not calling for any but mere mention.
But the history of the War of 1812 cannot close without mention of the crowning victory on land, New Orleans, on January 8, 1815. In this, perhaps the severest and completest repulse ever suffered by a British army, the navy bore a most important part, for by its efforts was prevented the flanking of General Jackson’s force from the river. The naval vessels, theLouisiana, with Commodore Patterson, and theCaroline, Lieutenant J. D. Henley, controlled the river situation on the British left flank until the latter was burned by hot shot from the British trenches. TheLouisianathen shifted to cover Jackson’s right. The situation forced the British to transport siege pieces from the fleet, seventy miles away; this gave time for Jackson to strengthen his position and time for reinforcements to join him. TheLouisiana’sguns were now landed and a battery established which would flank the newly established British battery as well as their attacking columns; the result was the destruction of the British batterysoon after it had opened fire. The British move, on the day of the main attack, to capture theLouisiana’sbattery on the right bank of the river, was finally successful through the flight of the supporting militia, but it was too late; the naval battery had already assisted in the bloody repulse of the main body, and there was nothing left to the capturing party but withdrawal.[43]
The war was now ended. It had been a second War of Independence, which had released America from the strong British influence which had still obtained and had established a real national spirit. The world recognized the birth of a new power upon the ocean, which the future was to reckon with, though America herself was slow to accept her new situation. We had, however, afloat in 1815, three line-of-battle ships, theWashington,Independence, andFranklin, and in this year we were to end, as has already been mentioned, our Barbary troubles forever by the action of Decatur in command of the largest fleet we were to have at sea for many years. We began a new life with a self-respect which had needed a war for its revival.
There was one note at least of dissatisfaction over the peace. The LondonTimes, commentingin its issue of December 30, 1814, said: “We have retired from the combat with the stripes yet bleeding on our backs. Even yet, however, if we could but close the war with some great naval triumph, the reputation of our maritime greatness might be partially restored. But to say that it has not hitherto suffered in the estimation of all Europe, and, what is worse, of America herself, is to belie common sense and universal experience. ‘Two or three of our ships have struck to a force vastly inferior!’ No; not two or three, but many on the ocean and whole squadrons on the lakes; and the numbers are to be viewed with relation to the comparative magnitude of the two navies. Scarcely is there an American ship-of-war which has not to boast a victory over the British flag; scarcely one British ship in thirty or forty that has beaten an American. With the bravest seamen and the most powerful navy in the world, we retire from the contest when the balance of defeat is so heavily against us.”[44]And more defeats were yet to come. Perhaps yet more would have come, for just as the war closed, the first war-steamer to be built for over ten years, theFulton, was ready for sea. With a double hullof such thickness as to be impervious to harm from any but the heaviest guns, moved by a wheel in the middle which was protected from shot, it seems almost a pity that she should not have been tried with her two 100-pound guns upon the ships blockading New York. But even as it was America had good reason to be well satisfied with the work of her navy.