In February 1813, Admiral John Warren led a flotilla into the Chesapeake Bay to enforce the British naval blockade and make the Americans feel the pain of war. The flotilla set fire to warehouses and ships in Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Fredericktown and Georgetown, and destroyed the Principio Ironworks, one of the United States’ most important cannon foundries, before rejoining the fleet at Hampton Roads. In early June, Warren received reinforcements and sailed to the Elizabeth River to destroy the USS Constellation anchored five miles upstream at the Gosport Navy Yard near Norfolk. The entrance to the river was guarded by Craney Island and a contingent of 700 men. A strong artillery battery and a line of gunboats awaited the British.

Incurring the wrath of the Royal Navy during the War of 1812 was a desperate and dangerous business, and, during the war, nearly one-third of all privateers were captured. Besides losing a ship came the cost of losing the men, and by the end of the war, 20,000 Americans, mostly privateersmen, were prisoners of war. Many suffered deplorable conditions being housed on prison ships, while some were transferred to Dartmoor Prison in England and densely packed into solid stone buildings with nothing but a little straw thrown on the floor for their comfort. By the end of 1814, there were over 6,000 Americans at Dartmoor, making it the largest war prison for American captives until World War II. 

America’s relatively small navy left President James Madison few offensive options with which to strike the British. Consequently, his administration waged war against the very thing that Great Britain held most dear and attacked its merchant fleet from the West Indies to the English Channel. This fight was undertaken primarily by privateers, ships that were owned and equipped by private citizens but authorized by the government to plunder vessels from enemy nations. The most successful privateer ship was a two-masted schooner built for speed and agility but armed heavily 

enough to be a formidable fighter. Known as Baltimore Clippers, they could capture any merchant ship they wanted but were fast enough to escape from any ship they could not overpower.

The United States Navy enjoyed some remarkable successes at the start of the War of 1812, including winning all three single ship engagements with Royal Navy frigates. But in February 1813, the British began a blockade of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, and Admiral John Warren, commander of the North American squadron, extended the blockade to all other ports except those in New England. As goods and crops piled up on wharves, local prices fell dramatically and merchants and farmers suffered financial hardships. Besides the American merchant fleet, national warships suffered as well, and, by the end of 1814, the US Navy had been essentially swept from the sea.

In August 1813, Captain David Porter aboard the USS Essex sailed for the Washington Islands, an archipelago 3,000 miles southwest of the Galapagos, to find more British whalers to capture and, more importantly, to repair the vessel far away from the Royal Navy. With his ships refitted, Porter sailed from Nukahiva and arrived at Valparaiso in February 1814, and five days later, Royal Navy ships HMS Phoebe and HMS Cherub arrived as well. Captain James Hillyer, commander of Phoebe, asked Porter to surrender to the stronger British squadron, but Porter would have none of it, replying, “You shall never take my ship without fighting for her.”

The longest cruise of a United States Navy ship during the War of 1812 was that of the USS Essex, a frigate built and paid for in 1799 during a wave of patriotic fervor by the citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts, who wanted to help their country and President John Adams build our Navy. Commanded by Captain David Porter, the Essex was ordered to rendezvous off Brazil with a squadron led by Captain William Bainbridge. But, unable to link up with Bainbridge, Porter decided upon a bold venture. Recognizing he must strike the British where they were most vulnerable, Porter sailed for the Pacific Ocean, where dozens of British whaling vessels were plying their lucrative trade. And, because no American warship had yet sailed its waters, there were no Royal Navy ships in the Pacific, leaving the British whalers relatively unprotected.

Captain Phillip Broke, perhaps the most capable captain in the Royal Navy, had commanded HMS Shannon for seven years, relentlessly drilling his crew, especially in gunnery, and had made her the most dangerous frigate in the British fleet. He greatly desired to engage an American frigate in a single-ship combat to showcase its talents and sent several messages into Boston requesting any of the three American frigates then in the harbor to come out and fight. Captain James Lawrence, who commanded the Chesapeake, wanted the fight as desperately as Broke and, on June 1, 1813, sailed from Boston Harbor to the cheers of a thousand spectators, anxious to see “Captain Jim” punish the Brits. Just before 6 p.m., both vessels opened with broadsides, but Shannon’s were more rapid and more accurate than Chesapeake’s. Soon the American vessel was in trouble, its deck strewn with dead and wounded, including Lawrence, who was shot in the right knee but continued to direct the fight.

Besides the frigates, of which the American Navy was justifiably proud, there were eight smaller vessels called sloops-of-war that also recorded two notable victories, contributing to the growing respect for our country’s navy. The first was fought on October 18, 1812, between the USS Wasp and HMS Frolic off Cape Hatteras. Four months later, on February 24, 1813, the USS Hornet fought HMS Peacock off the coast of South America. The American ships emerged victorious in both battles, with the British suffering high casualties.

On August 19, 1812, lookouts on the USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, spotted the HMS Guerriere sailing alone 500 miles southeast of Halifax. As the ships came together in this first ever frigate-on-frigate engagement between the United States and British navies, the Constitution poured broadside after broadside into the Guerriere, devastating the British ship. Later that fall, Captain Stephen Decatur in the USS United States came upon the HMS Macedonian, commanded by Captain John Carden near the Azores, and crippled the ship in battle, forcing Carden to surrender. And finally, in December, the Constitution, this time under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, destroyed the HMS Java off the Brazilian coast in quick fashion.

At the outset of the War of 1812, the only ships ready for sea were the President, commanded by Commodore John Rodgers, the United States, commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur, the Congress, and the Argus. The rest were either not seaworthy or struggling to find an adequate crew, as in the case of the Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull. The Constitution left Annapolis and arrived off the New Jersey coast on Friday, July 17, sighting five distant sails making straight for the ship. Hull realized this was a British squadron under Captain Philip Broke and wisely took flight, thus starting one of the great chases in the age of sail.

The foundation for the later successes of the United States Navy was laid with the Naval Act of 1794, legislation passed by Congress at the urging of President George Washington, which authorized the construction of six frigates. Their design allowed the American frigates to carry heavier guns than their European adversaries, firepower that would prove decisive in the years ahead. The first training ground was the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war that began in 1798 when President John Adams retaliated against France for seizing American merchant ships. The American frigates outclassed their French adversaries in virtually every encounter. The Quasi-War ended in September 1800, but less than a year later, the Navy was again called on to defend American maritime rights. This time the adversaries were the Barbary States of North Africa.

The United States Navy that performed so well in the War of 1812 was first established by Congress on October 13, 1775. Naturally, the American fleet was not expected to compete on the high seas against the Royal Navy, the strongest in the world. While the initial squadron consisted of fewer than ten vessels, all of which were refitted merchantmen, the Royal Navy initially had over 250 warships, and that number doubled by the end of the Revolutionary War. Although outnumbered and under-equipped, there were numerous instances of American warships and fighting men performing well, including Benedict Arnold and his fleet at the Battle of Valcour Island and John Paul Jones, considered by many to be the Father of the U.S. Navy, at the Battle of Flamborough Head.

One of the most strategically impactful battles in the War of 1812 was the naval contest for the control of Lake Champlain, the two-hundred-mile waterway that had served as the main invasion route for American, British, and French troops since the 1750s. The British fleet was commanded by Captain George Downie, while the American navy was entrusted to 31-year-old Captain Thomas Macdonough. On the morning of September 11, the first broadside from the British ship Confiance was devastating to the American vessel Saratoga, with forty sailors killed or wounded. But Macdonough reorganized his men and began a murderous fire on the Confiance. Fifteen minutes later, a shot from Saratoga hit a cannon on Confiance, which sent the gun hurtling across the deck and crushed Captain Downie, a critical loss to the Brits.

After the collapse of Napoleon’s empire in the spring of 1814, Great Britain sent 28,000 veteran troops to North America, one quarter of which were sent to Lower Canada to invade the Champlain Valley and punish the United States for initiating a war Great Britain never wanted. The British army entrusted with this task was one of the finest ever put into the field in North America and was commanded by Sir George Prevost, Governor General of the Canadas. Strategically for Great Britain, it was critical to secure a direct overland route from the St. Lawrence River to an ice-free port on the Bay of Fundy, and to gain this route, they needed the northern portion of Maine.

In July 1813, Secretary of War John Armstrong chose General James Wilkinson to lead the northern army and General Wade Hampton to command a contingent at Burlington on Lake Champlain. The plan was for Wilkinson and Hampton to join forces above Montreal and then assault the city. It was an interesting choice, as Hampton and Wilkinson were bitter enemies, and yet the two generals would have to work hand in hand for the campaign to be successful. Concerned that his generals would fight themselves as much as the British, Secretary of War John Armstrong transferred his headquarters to Sackett’s Harbor to act as a buffer between the two antagonists. In late September, Hampton establishedhis base camp at Four Corners near the Chateaugay River, a tributary of the St. Lawrence. From this strategic position, Hampton could threaten both Montreal and the British line of communication with Upper Canada. On October 18, Hampton headed down the Chateaugay River to confront a 1,500-man British army.

The American fleet conveying General James Wilkinson’s army to Montreal entered the St. Lawrence River on November 5, 1813. The Americans paused near a farm owned by John Crysler, a Canadian militia captain, to prepare for their descent through an eight-mile stretch of rapids. Recognizing the Canadian side of the river must be secured before confronting the rapids, Wilkinson dispatched Generals Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott to clear the shore ahead of the American flotilla and General John Boyd with three brigades to drive off Colonel Joseph Morrison’s British army in the American rear. The battle, in which the Americans outnumbered their British adversaries by almost three to one, was an embarrassing and costly loss for the Americans.

Henry Dearborn was tasked by President James Madison with conducting the right wing of the American invasion of Canada, but the responsibility was too much for the 62-year-old general who was in poor health and had not seen active military service since the American Revolution. Secretary of War John Armstrong reassigned Dearborn and began searching for a replacement, and he essentially had two choices: Andrew Jackson and James Wilkinson. Armstrong knew Wilkinson and was unfamiliar with Jackson, and, in a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” Armstrong entrusted this command to Wilkinson. Ultimately, Wilkinson decided on a two-prong offensive, leading his command of 7,000 men down the St. Lawrence from Sackett’s Harbor while another 4,000-man army under General Wade Hampton marched north from Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. The two armies would then rendezvous above Montreal, and the combined army under Wilkinson’s command would capture the city.

By late July 1814, General Jacob Brown’s army had dwindled to 750 men in fighting condition and Brown, who was recovering from wounds sustained at Lundy’s Lane, withdrew the army to Fort Erie and brought in General Edmund Gaines to take command. Gaines was instructed to hold Fort Erie at all costs. In early August, British General Gordon Drummond commenced a siege of Fort Erie and, after several days of a largely ineffective bombardment, ordered an assault. For three vicious hours, British and Americans vied for control of the northeast bastion before the British withdrew. The following month, to force the British to lift the siege, General Brown ordered a sortie against the British lines. The fighting was desperate and three battalion commanders were killed before the Americans disengaged and returned to Fort Erie, where General George Izard, who assumed command from General Brown, made the painful decision to blow up the fort and return to American soil.