New Orleans, 1814-15. Winsor's America, 403-404: Schouler's United States, II, 457, 485-491. New The navy. the interior of the North was uncertain until the control either of the Great Lakes or of Lake Champlain was in their hands. The capture of New Orleans offered the best chance of permanent conquest: it was within reach of the sea, was far removed from the thickly settled part of the United States; and its possession would give the British important and far-reaching influence in the whole Mississippi valley. Pakenham, one of Wellington's Peninsular commanders, was given a formidable body of troops and ordered to attempt its capture; with him co-operated a large naval force. The command of the defense of the lower Mississippi and neighboring regions was confided to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. At first he seems to have misjudged Pakenham's purpose, and delayed preparations for defense until it was almost too late.. At last, when he was convinced that the British general designed to seize New Orleans, he made every possible preparation to repel the attack; in this he was greatly aided by the configuration of the country around New Orleans, which will be described when we reach Farragut's capture of that city (p. 564). Pakenham attacked vigorously, though with small strategic skill; he was repulsed with great loss to his army. The last assault on the defenses of New Orleans was made on January 8, 1815, two weeks after the signing of the treaty of peace at Ghent. A month later (February 11, 1815), the British captured an American fort on Mobile Bay, their only success during this arduous campaign. 243. The War on the Sea, 1812-15. — On the land, where their numbers gave them an advantage, the Americans were on the whole unsuccessful; on the water, where their guns were outnumbered one hundred to one, they won successes which still render the War of 1812 memorable in naval annals. At the beginning of the conflict, the British navy comprised over one thousand vessels, of which two hundred were line of battle ships of two or three decks; there was not even one two-decker in the United States navy. 1812] The War on the Sea 361 Moreover, the American vessels were not merely inferior in size to the British, there were very few of them,- seventeen vessels in all. Three of them, the United States, Constitution, and President, were large, heavy frigates rated as "forty-fours," and there were also four smaller frigates and several sloops of war and brigs. conflicts. America, 386. The government deemed it unwise to send these vessels Naval to sea to be captured by the fleets of Great Britain, and decided to use them as guard ships at the principal ports. A difficulty at once presented itself, however, for the vessels were not in the ports designed for them; and it was necessary to send them to sea to enable them to perform even this limited duty. Among the first to leave port was the Constitution, commanded by Captain Hull. On her way from the Chesapeake to New York harbor, her designated place of duty, she was sighted by a British squadron of five ships and chased from July 17 to July 20. In the end, Hull saved his ship and found refuge at Boston. Sailing thence, with no new orders, he cruised about for two weeks, until August 19, when he sighted the British frigate Guerrière in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The combat which followed has been made the subject of so much apology on the part of British writers that it is well to bear in mind the comparative size of the two ships. Mr. Henry Adams thus states the facts in his authoritative History of the United States during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison. The American frigate was one hundred and seventy-three feet long and forty-four feet wide; she carried thirty-two "long 24's" and twenty "32 lb." carronades, or fifty-two guns in all. Her sides were very solid for a ship of her class, but notwithstanding the extra weight she was very fast. The Guerrière was one hundred and fiftysix feet long and forty feet wide; she carried thirty "long 18's," two "long 12's," and sixteen “32 lb." carronades, or forty-eight guns in all. She was not so strongly built as her opponent, nor so fast, and she threw a much lighter broadside. Both Captain Hull of the Constitution and Effects of these victo ries. Captain Dacres of the Guerrière were skillful, brave men, For a The effect of these victories was tremendous. century and a half the British had enjoyed undisputed supremacy on the ocean; ship for ship, they had encountered the navies of France and Spain, and had been almost uniformly successful. Instead of seeking the true cause for these defeats, in the light armaments of their vessels and in the character of their impressed crews, the British public magnified the Constitution into a "line of battle ship in disguise," and suggested that in future it would be best for British frigates to sail in company. There were many other naval actions during the contest which are described at length in the histories of the war and need not be mentioned here. As the conflict progressed, the blockade of the American ports became closer and closer; few of the national vessels gained the open sea, and those that did were gradually captured. In the later years, the privateers 1814] The Privateers 363 almost alone displayed the flag of the United States on the ocean. commerce destroyers. 244. The Privateers. Mr. Henry Adams has suggested The that it would have been better policy for the United States to have used the national vessels to destroy the merchant vessels of England. Men-of-war capturing British merchantmen would have destroyed them; the privateers, whose interest was to make money from the sale of prizes, sent them home, and about one half were recaptured. As it was, the privateersmen dealt a terrible blow to Britain's commerce. In the course of the war they captured more than two thousand five hundred British vessels, some of them within sight of the coast of England. Rates of insurance on British vessels rose to almost prohibitory figures, even for the shortest voyages. English merchants and shipowners whose self-seeking had largely contributed to bring. on the war, now besought the government to conclude peace; to this consummation McDonough's victory on Lake Champlain powerfully contributed. policy of England. 245. Negotiations for Peace, 1812-14. From an inter- Mistaken national point of view, the War of 1812 was a terrible misfortune. Great Britain was then engaged in a deadly struggle with the military despotism that threatened to overwhelm popular freedom wherever it existed in the world. No doubt Napoleon had dealt a beneficial blow to feudal institutions, but he had already done all the good that he was likely to do in that way. In 1812 the cause of humanity and civilization demanded his overthrow. True policy dictated the alliance of Great Britain and the United States to destroy the master despot of the age. Instead of joining together against the common enemy, they came to blows, but this was the fault of Britain's rulers, not of the American people. Winsor's Four days after the declaration of war against Great The Czar Britain, Napoleon and the Czar renewed their former intervenes. enmity, because Russia would no longer close the Baltic ports to neutral commerce. The Czar at once offered to mediate between Great Britain and the United States, whose America, VII, 483. Negotiations for peace, 1814. Winsor's America, conflict could not fail to weaken the opposition of the former to Napoleon. Madison grasped at the proffered good offices of Russia, and appointed commissioners to represent the United States; but Great Britain would not accept this mediation. The British government could not afford to appear unmindful of the wishes of the Czar, its most powerful ally against Napoleon, and announced its willingness to negotiate directly with the United States; but it was not sincere in its desire for peace, and the commissioners did not come together until the summer of 1814. The Americans were five in number; among them were Albert Gallatin, John Vilbert Gallatin Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, and Henry Clay. the absence of Clay from Congress has been attributed much of the extraordinary imbecility of that body during this period. It is likely that the British government chose this moment to begin negotiations in the expectation that the successes of her armies in 1814 would induce the Americans to cede to Great Britain a strip of territory south of the Great Lakes. VII, 484-487. Brown's energetic defense of the posts on those lakes, and the collapse of the invasion by way of Lake Champlain, put an abrupt ending to these hopes, and the British negotiators were ordered to conclude the treaty as soon as possible. The treaty was signed at Ghent on December 24, 1814, before the fate of Pakenham's expedition was known, and even before the conflict which usually goes by the name of the battle of New Orleans had taken place. Treaty of 246. The Treaty of Ghent, 1814. The treaty provided for a restoration of conquests by both parties, and for the appointment of commissions to arrange the outstanding boundary disputes between the two powers and to settle some other matters of difference. The important issues which led up to the war were not even mentioned in the treaty of peace. The Orders in Council had been withdrawn before the conflict began, and the rights of neutrals |