CHAPTER XVII
Ourarmy efforts on the frontier of Canada had been great failures. In the very beginning of the war General William Hull, Governor of Michigan, had been obliged to surrender his small army at Detroit for the simple reason that he was faced by starvation. He was tried and sentenced to death, but was reprieved by President Madison. But the fault was not wholly Hull’s. It was, along with Hull’s age and inefficiency, the ineptitude of our own administrative and legislative authorities in Washington. Our northern defence was thus to fall upon the navy.
There was in 1813 no vessel of war on Lake Erie, and but one, theOneida, of 116 tons, built four years before the war, on Ontario. The British had long had a force on this lake, and in 1812 there were six vessels, carrying in all about 80 guns; the largest was theRoyal George, of 22. Had the British commander been competent he could easily have controlled the lake.He attacked Sackett’s Harbor in July, but Lieutenant Woolsey, commanding theOneida, landed his guns, and with the batteries thus formed beat him off. Commodore Isaac Chauncey was now, in August, 1812, sent to command both lakes. Guns, officers, shipwrights, and stores were transported from New York, and by November a small fleet was ready. Before this, however, Lieutenant L. D. Elliot, who had been sent to Buffalo to look after Lake Erie, had made a brilliant expedition against theDetroit, which had been surrendered at the time of Hull’s disaster, and another vessel, theCaledonia. Both were captured on the Canada side of the lake at Fort Erie by boarding, a small army detachment assisting. TheDetroitwas burned.
On November 8th Chauncey made a spirited attack on the harbor of Kingston, and kept up his activities until navigation was closed by ice early in December. The winter was spent in building. A new ship, however, named theMadison, had already (November 24th) been launched at Sackett’s Harbor. Nine weeks before her timber had stood in the forest.
By the opening of navigation in 1813 each combatant had a considerable fleet on Lake Ontario, though nearly all were but mere gunboats.The British, recognizing the immense importance of control of the lakes, had selected an able officer, Sir James L. Yeo, to command. The outcome of the season’s operations, however, for the detail of which one should look to larger books, was that the Americans were left in naval control. In the course of the summer the hostile squadrons were three times engaged. Chauncey’s courage and spirit have received, and deserved, high praise for “the rapidity and decision with which he created a force, as it might be in a wilderness, the professional resources which he discovered in attaining this great end, and the combined gallantry and prudence with which he manœuvred before the enemy ... while the intrepidity with which he carried his own ship into action off York has always been a subject of honest exultation in the service to which he belongs.” This high praise from one so able to judge as Fenimore Cooper, himself in early life a naval officer, holds to this day.
What Chauncey did on Lake Ontario, Perry was to do, and much more, on Erie. He had been reared in Preble’s school at Tripoli, but by 1806 he was at Newport superintending the building of some of Jefferson’s absurd gunboats,and to duty such as this he was kept for six years, an inglorious inaction for such a spirit. No attention was paid by a nerveless Secretary of the Navy for his application for the lakes until it was pressed by Chauncey, on which he was ordered to report at Sackett’s Harbor with his best men. Receiving his orders on February 17th, fifty men were on their way before sunset; a hundred more followed, and Perry himself on the 22d. He reached Sackett’s Harbor on March 3d, and, after two weeks, was ordered to Erie. Sailing-master Dobbins and Noah Brown, master shipwright, already had three gunboats well under way and keels laid for two brigs. The timber for their construction had been but a few days before trees in the forest.[36]But nothing had been provided in the way of armament, cordage, stores, men, or officers. These dribbled in through the appeals and constant personal work of Perry. In five months he had his little fleet fairly ready. On August 10th he went in search of the British. He had the brigsLawrenceandNiagara, of 20 guns each, and eight schooners carrying, one three, the others two and one guns each. The British commodore, Barclay, had the shipDetroit, of 19 guns; theQueen Charlotte, of 17; theLady Prevost, a schooner of 13, and three small craft of 10, 3, and 1. Perry had in all 416 men fit for duty; Barclay 440. On September 10th they met.
The action began at 11:45. How Perry fought his ship unsupported by theNiagarauntil theLawrencewas a wreck and but 20 of his 100 men were left unhurt; how he fired himself the last heavy gun from his ship with the help of the purser and chaplain, and then jumped into a small boat, pulled by his brother and four seamen, boarded theNiagara, took personal command, and carried her to victory, make a story of courage and resource unsurpassed in any of the sea fights of history. Never did one man more personify a victory.
The British flag was struck at 3:00P.M., after a most gallant struggle. Twenty-nine Americans were killed or mortally wounded and 94 wounded. The British lost 41 killed and 94 wounded. The moral effect throughout the country, which covered itself with bonfires and rejoicings, was almost equal to that of the victory of theConstitution. But besides this there was the great concrete result of the evacuation of Detroit and Michigan by the British andtheir occupancy by the Americans. To Perry’s victory and Chauncey’s success on Lake Ontario is due that we preserved our northwestern frontier in the coming peace.
The winter of 1813-1814 was passed on Lake Ontario by both antagonists in building ships for the next campaign. The largest put afloat at Sackett’s Harbor by the Americans, the arming and equipping of which was under enormous difficulties of transportation through the then almost roadless forest, was theSuperior, of 62 guns; but the British built a much larger, theSt. Lawrence, of 112 guns. But it was not until October 15th that she was in service, too late in the season to affect the situation. Had the war continued, the lakes would have been the scene of naval operations greater than any carried on by us upon the sea, aided curiously enough by the British blockade of our coast, which caused the transfer to the lakes of the crews of the blockaded frigates. We shall hear a little later of still another momentous battle on our inland waters. For the moment we turn again to the ocean.
It may be remembered that theEssex, under Captain David Porter, was to form part ofBainbridge’s command when the latter left Boston October 26, 1812, with theHornet. Porter was then in Delaware River. He left on October 28th, but when he reached the rendezvous appointed his consorts had gone. On his way thither a British brig transport, theNocton, was captured, with $55,000 in specie, which in the circumstances to come was to be a most valuable aid. The prize was sent with a crew of seventeen men to the United States, but was overhauled by a frigate and captured after passing Bermuda. Porter continued on to the second rendezvous off Cape Frio, where he arrived December 25th, four days before the capture of theJava. Porter remained on the Brazilian coast until near the end of January, 1813, when, hearing no news of his consorts, he started for the Pacific, where for a full year he was to cruise at will, capturing nearly every British whaler in that ocean, arming some, destroying others, and recapturing and protecting our own. British commerce was swept from what was then called the South Sea. The story of this cruise in which the captain of theEssexshowed a surpassing boldness, energy, and resource is one of the most romantic in history.
After nearly a year of continuous success incrippling the enemy’s commerce, during which theEssexsupported herself and armed her consorts entirely from her prizes, Porter was desirous of meeting a British man-of-war, and hearing of the dispatch of the frigatePhoebe, of 36 guns, to the Pacific, he went to Valparaiso to await her coming. But instead of one ship came two, theCherubaccompanying the former. This cruising in couples was the outcome of one of the most remarkable orders ever issued by the British Admiralty; its issuance was the highest compliment ever paid any navy. The order in full cannot be omitted, it read:
“My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received intelligence that several American ships-of-war are now at sea, I have their lordships’ commands to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage, single-handed, the larger class of American ships, which, though maybe called frigates, are of a size, complement, and weight of metal much beyond that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships.“In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’sship; but if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing, he should endeavor to manœuvre, and keeping company with her, without coming to action, in the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of success.“It is their lordships’ further directions that you make this known as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s ships.”[37]
“My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received intelligence that several American ships-of-war are now at sea, I have their lordships’ commands to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage, single-handed, the larger class of American ships, which, though maybe called frigates, are of a size, complement, and weight of metal much beyond that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships.
“In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’sship; but if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing, he should endeavor to manœuvre, and keeping company with her, without coming to action, in the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of success.
“It is their lordships’ further directions that you make this known as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s ships.”[37]
There is a delightfully ingenuous recognition of the alarm that had been inspired by our victories in the hope that we might be attacked by two together, “with a reasonable hope of success.” It was absurd to compare our frigates with line-of-battle ships. They were undoubtedly heavier than the usual frigate, though some then in the British navy were quite as powerful. But the fact that our ships were as good as any of their class and better than most was all the more to the credit of their designers. But theConstitution, one of our best, was “but very little more thanone halfthe force of one of the smallesttrueliners England possessed!”[38]
TheEssexthus anchored at Valparaiso on January 12, 1814. She had in company one of her captured merchantmen, renamed theEssex Juniorwith 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 thePhoebe, 36, Captain Hillyar, and theCherub, 18, Captain Tucker, appeared. There was an evident design on the part of Hillyar to run aboard theEssex, 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 theEssexwas to be taken at a much greater disadvantage. The two British ships established a blockade, and on Porter’s endeavor to fight thePhoebesingly 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, underthe best of circumstances, at Valparaiso. He had, by several trials, assured himself of the superior speed of theEssex, 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. TheEssexattempted 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 theEssex(which carried but about 300 yards), and opened fire. The time was 4:00P.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 resultwas 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. ThePhoebehad lost 4 killed, including her first lieutenant, and 7 wounded; theCherub1 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 theEssex, 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 theEssexin 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 theEssex, nor to her being in neutral waters, nor to the fact thatshe had a battery incomparably inferior in range, nor that two ships were employed against one to do the work. The “American frigateEssexwas captured by the British frigatePhoebe,” and British self-respect thereby saved.
One officer who did his duty bravely and well in theEssex, 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 thePhoebefor the preservation of his pet young pig, Murphy, an animal always a favorite of sailors. He won.
TheConstellation, of noble record, was a victim of the blockade, and, beyond aiding in the defence of Norfolk, had to remain passive. TheAdams, 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. ThePeacock, of 11 guns, captured the British brigEpervier, of 9, with $118,000 in specie aboard, on April 29, 1814. TheWasp, 22, in a daring and successful cruise of destruction in the English Channel, met and captured on June 28th the BritishReindeer, 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 theAvon, of 18 guns. TheWaspwas driven off by the approach of three new antagonists, who had to go to the assistance of theAvon, which sank after the removal of several of her crew. TheWasp, 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 theEssex. 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, theAdonis, was a prize, theAtlanta, which reached Savannah November 4th under Midshipman Geisinger.