Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812. Volume 2

197

Campbell to Navy Department, Jan. 4, 1814. Captains' Letters.

198

For full particulars see Captains' Letters (Campbell), June 12, 1813; Jan. 2 and 4, Aug. 20, Sept. 3, Oct. 8, Oct. 15, Dec. 4, 1814.

199

Campbell, Dec. 2, 1814. Captains' Letters.

200

Dent to Navy Department, Jan. 28, 1815. Ibid.

201

Campbell, Feb. 3, 1815. Ibid.

202

June 7, 1813. Navy Department MSS.

203

Captains' Letters, Sept. 3, 1814.

204

Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, vol. v. p. 202.

205

Dec. 10, 1813. Niles' Register, vol. v. pp. 257-260.

206

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 194.

207

Ibid., vol. viii. p. 234.

208

Ibid., vol. vii. p. 168. Quoted from a Charleston, S.C., paper.

209

Captains' Letters, May 3, 23, 24; June 27, 29; August 7, 17; Nov. 9, 13, 23, 1813.

210

Niles' Register, vol. viii. p. 311. Quoted from a Norfolk paper.

211

American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. i. p. 1017.

212

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 12.

213

American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. ii. p. 87.

214

Ibid., vol. i. p. 1017; vol. ii. pp. 12, 87.

215

Ante, vol. i. pp. 402-404.

216

Admiralty's Letter to Warren. Feb. 10, 1813.

217

Captain Allen to Navy Department. Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 46.

218

The American official report of this action can be found in Niles' Register, vol. viii. p. 43. The British is in the Naval Chronicle, vol. xxx. p. 247. Niles also gives it, vol. v. p. 118.

219

The prize data have been taken from the successive volumes of Niles' Register.

220

Data concerning American vessels captured by British ships have been drawn chiefly from prize lists, or official reports, in the Naval Chronicle.

221

Ante, p. 19.

222

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 175.

223

Niles gives an abstract of the log of the "Scourge," vol. vi. p. 269.

224

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 90.

225

Ibid., vol. vi. p. 69.

226

For Morris' letter see Niles' Register, vol. vi. p. 180.

227

Ibid., vol. iv. p. 86.

228

Ibid., vol. vii. p. 366.

229

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 413. Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxi. p. 25.

230

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 414; vol. vi. p. 151.

231

Stewart's Letter is dated April 4, 1814, and, with the enclosures mentioned, will be found among the Captains' Letters, Navy Department MSS.

232

For the official reports of this cruise, and list of prizes, see Niles, vol. vi. pp. 69-71.

233

Niles' Register, vol. v. pp. 14, 15. Naval Chronicle, vol. xxx. p. 348.

234

Niles' Register, vol. vi. pp. 225, 371.

235

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 293, gives both the American and British accounts.

236

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 293.

237

Niles' Register, vol. vii. pp. 128, 290.

238

Niles' Register, vol. viii. p. 61.

239

It may not be amiss here to quote an incident similarly creditable to privateersmen, a class usually much abused, and too often with good cause. It was told by a British colonel to Colonel Winfield Scott, while a prisoner in Canada. This gentleman with his wife had been passengers from England in a transport captured near Halifax by an American privateer. Although there was no fighting, the wife, who was in a critical state of health, was dangerously affected by the attendant alarm. As soon as the circumstances were mentioned to the captain of the cruiser, he placed at the husband's disposition all that part of the vessel where their quarters were, posting a sentry to prevent intrusion and to secure all their personal effects from molestation. Scott's Autobiography, vol. i. p. 70.

240

Afterwards Rear-Admiral Emmons.

241

The new United States sloop of war "Frolic," named after the vessel taken by the "Wasp," was captured by the frigate "Orpheus," April 20, 1814.

242

Ante, p. 3.

243

Porter to the Secretary of the Navy, July 3, 1814. Niles' Register, vol. vi. p. 338.

244

Porter's Report of this action is to be found in Niles' Register, vol. vi. pp. 338-341. Hillyar's in Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. pp. 168-170.

245

The Secretary of the Navy to Blakely, March 3, 1814. Navy Department MSS.

246

Blakely to the Navy Department, Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 115.

247

The particulars of this action are taken from the minutes of the "Wasp," enclosed in Blakely's Report, Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 115.

248

Blakely's Report, Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 192.

249

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 173.

250

James says that two of these guns were 18-pounders; but the first lieutenant of the "Peacock," who brought the prize into port, and from there wrote independently of Warrington, agrees with him in saying eighteen thirty-twos. Niles' Register, vol. vi. pp. 180, 196.

251

In a "Synopsis of Naval Actions," between British and American vessels, contributed to the Naval Chronicle by a "British naval officer on the American station," occurs the remark relative to the defeat of the "Avon": "Miserable gunnery on our side, attributable … above all to not drilling the men at firing at the guns; a practice the Americans never neglect." Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxiv. p. 469.

252

For Captain Warrington's report of this cruise, see Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 155.

253

Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 244. See also, Ibid., pp. 211, 218.

254

London paper, quoted in Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 175.

255

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 190. Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 244.

256

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 190.

257

Writings of James Monroe.

258

Captains' Letters, Dec. 11, 1814. Bainbridge's italics.

259

It will be remembered that after the repeal of the Orders in Council, June 23, 1812, impressment remained the only sine quâ non of the United States.

260

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 704. Author's italics. This was the result of a Cabinet meeting held the same day. "June 27, 1814. In consequence of letters from Bayard and Gallatin of May 6-7, and other accounts from Europe of the ascendancy and views of Great Britain, and the dispositions of the great Continental Powers, the question was put to the Cabinet: 'Shall a treaty of peace, silent on the subject of impressment, be authorized?' Agreed to by Monroe, Campbell, Armstrong, and Jones. Rush absent. Our minister to be instructed, besides trying other conditions, to make a previous trial to insert or annex some declaration, or protest, against any inference, from the silence of the Treaty on the subject of impressment, that the British claim was admitted or that of the United States abandoned." (Works of Madison, vol. iii. p. 408.)

261

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 190.

262

Navy Department MSS.

263

For Porter's and Perry's correspondence on this subject see Captains' Letters, Navy Department MSS., Oct. 14 and 25, Nov. 29, Dec. 2, 9, and 25, 1814; Jan. 9, 1815.

264

Porter to Secretary, Feb. 8, 1815. Captains' Letters.

265

Benton's Abridgment of Debates in Congress, vol. v. p. 359, note.

266

Ante, pp. 118-121.

267

Documentary History of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier in 1814, by Ernest Cruikshank, Part I. p. 5.

268

Captains' Letters, Feb. 24, March 4 and 29, 1814.

269

Canadian Archives, C. 682, p. 32.

270

Niles' Register, Feb. 5, 1814, vol. v. pp. 381, 383.

271

Canadian Archives. C. 682, p. 90.

272

Armstrong, Notices of the War of 1812, vol. ii. p. 213.

273

Canadian Archives, C. 683, p. 10.

274

Ibid., pp. 53, 61-64.

275

Ibid., C. 682, p. 194.

276

Niles' Register, April 9, 1814, vol. vi. p. 102.

277

Captains' Letters, April 11, 1814.

278

Writings of Madison, Edition of 1865, vol. ii. p. 413.

279

Wilkinson's letter to a friend, April 9, 1814. Niles' Register, vol. vi. p. 166. His official report of the affair is given, p. 131.

280

Yeo's Report, Canadian Archives, M. 389.6, p. 116.

281

The armaments of the corresponding two British vessels were: "Prince Regent", thirty long 24-pounders, eight 68-pounder carronades, twenty 32-pounder carronades; "Princess Charlotte", twenty-four long 24-pounders, sixteen 32-pounder carronades. Canadian Archives, M. 389.6, p. 109.

282

Captains' Letters.

283

Canadian Archives, C. 683, p. 157.

284

Woolsey's Report, forwarded by Chauncey June 2, is in Captains' Letters. It is given, together with several other papers bearing on the affair, in Niles' Register, vol. vi. pp. 242, 265-267. For Popham's Report, see Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 167.

285

Canadian Archives, C. 683, p. 225.

286

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, pp. 18-20.

287

Writings of Madison (Edition of 1865), vol. iii. p. 403.

288

Captains' Letters.

289

Ibid.

290

Yeo to Admiralty, May 30, 1815. Canadian Archives, M. 389.6, p. 310. For Chauncey's opinion to the same effect, see Captains' Letters, Nov. 5, 1814.

291

Captains' Letters, June 15, 1814.

292

Armstrong to Madison, April 31 (sic), 1814. Armstrong's Notices of War of 1812, vol. ii. p. 413.

293

These official returns are taken by the present writer from Mr. Henry Adams' History of the United States.

294

Cruikshank's Documentary History of the Niagara Campaign of 1814, p. 37.

295

Cruikshank, Documentary History.

296

Ibid., p. 4.

297

Scott's Autobiography, vol. i. pp. 130-132.

298

Cruikshank's Documentary History, p. 31.

299

Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 38.

300

Captains' Letters.

301

Secretary of the Navy to Chauncey, July 24, 1814, Secretary's Letters.

302

Secretary to Chauncey, Aug. 3, 1814. Ibid.

303

Ibid., Dec. 29, 1813.

304

Chauncey to Brown, Aug. 10, 1814. Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 38.

305

August 27. Cruikshank's Documentary History, pp. 180-182. The whole letter has interest as conveying an adequate idea of the communications difficulty.

306

This word is wanting; but the context evidently requires it.

307

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, pp. 58, 60.

308

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, p. 134.

309

Captains' Letters. Aug. 19, 1814.

310

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, p. 191.

311

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, p. 68.

312

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814. Riall to Drummond, July 20, 21, 22, pp. 75-81.

313

Ibid., p. 87.

314

Ibid., p. 78.

315

"Sir James Yeo has not been nearer Sackett's Harbor than the Ducks since June 5." Captains' Letters, Aug. 19, 1814.

316

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, pp. 82, 84.

317

Brown's Report of Lundy's Lane to Secretary of War, Aug. 7, 1814. Ibid., p. 97.

318

Drummond's Report of the Engagement, July 27. Cruikshank, pp. 87-92.

319

Brown's Report. Ibid., p. 99.

320

Brown to Governor Tompkins, Aug. 1, 1814. Cruikshank, p. 103.

321

Ibid., p. 207.

322

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, p. 131. Author's italics.

323

The American account of this total is: killed, left on the field, 222; wounded, left on the field, 174; prisoners, 186. Total, 582.

Two hundred supposed to be killed on the left flank (in the water) and permitted to float down the Niagara.

324

Aug. 16. Cruikshank, pp. 146-147.

325

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, pp. 199, 200. Author's italics.

326

Bathurst was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.

327

Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, pp. 229, 245.

328

Ibid., p. 207. Brown to Tompkins, Sept. 20, 1814.

329

Cruikshank's Documentary History, p. 205.

330

An interesting indication of popular appreciation is found in the fact that two ships of the line laid down by Chauncey in or near Sackett's Harbor, in the winter of 1814-15, were named the "New Orleans" and the "Chippewa." Yeo after the peace returned to England by way of Sackett's and New York, and was then greatly surprised at the rapidity with which these two vessels, which he took to be of one hundred and twenty guns each, (Canadian Archives, M. 389.6, p. 310), had been run up, to meet his "St. Lawrence" in the spring, had the war continued. The "New Orleans" remained on the Navy List, as a seventy-four, "on the stocks," until 1882, when she was sold. For years she was the exception to a rule that ships of her class should bear the name of a state of the Union. The other square-rigged vessels on Ontario were sold, in May, 1825. (Records of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, Navy Department.)

331

Izard to Secretary of War, May 7, 1814. Official Correspondence of the Department of War with Major-General Izard, 1814 and 1815.

332

Izard Correspondence, p. 64.

333

Izard Correspondence, p. 65.

334

Ibid., p. 69.

335

Ibid., p. 63.

336

Izard Correspondence, p. 93.

337

Ibid., p. 98.

338

Oct. 6, 1814. Cruikshank's Documentary History, 1814, p. 240.

339

Izard Correspondence, p. 102; Cruikshank, p. 242.

340

Cruikshank, p. 240.

341

Izard Correspondence, p. 103.

342

Captains' Letters.

343

Canadian Archives, C. 685, pp. 172-174.

344

Ibid., M. 389.6, p. 222.

345

The Reports of Captain Dobbs and the American lieutenant, Conkling, are in Cruikshank's Documentary History, p. 135.

346

Captains' Letters, Sept. 12, 1814.

347

This account of naval events on the upper lakes in 1814 has been summarized from Sinclair's despatches, Captains' Letters, May 2 to Nov. 11, 1814, and from certain captured British letters, which, with several of Sinclair's, were published in Niles' Register, vol. vii. and Supplement.

348

"Some Account of the Life of Sir George Prevost." London, 1823, pp. 136, 137. The author has not been able to find the despatch of June 3, 1814, there quoted.

349

Warren to Croker, Feb. 26, 1813. Admiralty In-Letters MSS.

350

Croker to Warren, March 20, 1813. Admiralty Out-Letters.

351

Warren to Croker, Jan. 28, 1814. Canadian Archives MSS.

352

Cochrane to Bathurst, July 14, 1814. War Office In-Letters MSS.

353

Bathurst's Instructions to the officer in command of the troops detached from the Gironde. May 20, 1814. From copy sent to Cochrane. Admiralty In-Letters, from Secretary of State.

354

Gallatin to Monroe, London, June 13, 1814. Adams' Writings of Gallatin, vol. i. p. 627.

355

Sinclair, Erie, May 13, 1814. Captains' Letters.

356

Cruikshank's Documentary History of the Campaign of 1814, p. 18.

357

Ibid., p. 74.

358

Cruikshank's Documentary History, pp. 414, 415.

359

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 693, 694.

360

Cochrane to Prevost, July 26, 1814. Canadian Archives MSS., C. 684, p. 231.

361

Report on Canadian Archives, 1896, p. 54.

362

Life of Sir Edward Codrington, vol. i. p. 313.

363

See Map of Chesapeake Bay, ante, p. 156.

364

This account of Barney's movements is summarized from his letters, and others, published in Niles' Register, vol. vi. pp. 244, 268, 300.

365

Report of Admiral Cochrane, Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 342.

366

Report of Admiral Cochrane, Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 342.

367

American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i. p. 524.

368

The finding of the Court of Inquiry was published in Niles' Register for Feb. 25, 1815, from the official paper, the National Intelligencer. Niles, vol. vii. p. 410.

369

Report of Secretary Armstrong to a Committee of the House of Representatives. American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i. p. 526.

370

Ibid., pp. 538, 540, 524.

371

Ibid., p. 524.

372

Works of Madison (Ed. 1865), vol. iii. p. 422.

373

Winder's Narrative. American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i pp. 552-560.

374

Ross's Despatch, Aug. 30, 1814. Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 338.

375

Narrative of Monroe, the Secretary of State. American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i. p. 536.

376

Winder's Narrative.

377

Barney's Report, Aug. 29, 1814. State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i. p. 579.

378

Barney's Report.

379

American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i. p. 530.

380

Ross's Despatch.

381

Report of Rear-Admiral Cockburn, Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxii. p. 345.

382

Ante, p. 213.

383

Report of Brigadier-General Stricker of the Maryland militia. Niles' Register, vol. vii. pp. 27, 28.

384

Ibid.

385

Niles' Register, vol. vi. p. 317.

386

Ibid., pp. 118, 133, 222.

387

Ibid., p. 317.

388

Maine was then attached politically to Massachusetts.

389

Sherbrooke to Prevost, Aug. 2, 1814. Canadian Archives MSS., C. 685, p. 28.

390

Sherbrooke to Prevost, Aug. 24, 1814. Ibid., p. 147.

391

Morris' reports (Captains' Letters, Navy Dept.) are published in Niles' Register, vol. vii. pp. 62, 63; and Supplement, p. 136.

392

Sept. 21, 1814. Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 117.

393

Ibid., p. 347, and vol. viii. pp. 13, 214.

394

Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh. Series iii. vol. ii. pp. 86-91.

395

Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. pp. 86-91.

396

Castlereagh to Liverpool (Prime Minister), Aug. 28, 1814. Ibid., pp. 100-102.

397

Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 9, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. pp. 186-189.

398

Canadian Archives, C. 680, p. 46. The date is Sept. 10, 1813.

399

Letter of Captain Evans, commanding N.Y. Navy Yard, Aug. 6, 1813.

400

Canadian Archives, C. 679, pp. 348, 362.

401

Izard says two. Official Correspondence of the Department of War with Major-General Izard, 1814 and 1815, p. 7.

402

British Court Martial Record.

403

Confidence.

404

Account of the Public Life of Sir George Prevost, p. 136.