Perilous Fight

by Stephen Budiansky

  Napier, William Francis Patrick. The Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier, G.C.B. 4 vols. London: John Murray, 1857.

  A Narrative of the Capture of the United States’ Brig Vixen, of 14 Guns, by the British Frigate Southampton. West Chester, Pa.: Wm. Reed Lewis, 1814.

  Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers. 6 vols. Edited by Dudley W. Knox. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1939–44.

  “Naval Recollections of the Late American War.” United Service Journal, April 1841, 455–67; May 1841, 13–23.

  The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History. 3 vols. Edited by William S. Dudley and Michael J. Crawford. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1985–2002.

  Orne, William B. [Octogenarian]. “Reminiscence of the Last War with England.” Historical Magazine 7 (1870): 31–33.

  Osgood, David. A Solemn Protest Against the Late Declaration of War, in a Discourse, Delivered on the Next Lord’s Day After the Tidings of It Were Received. Cambridge, Mass.: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1812.

  Palmer, Benjamin F. The Diary of Benjamin F. Palmer, Privateersman. New Haven, Conn.: Acorn Club, 1914.

  Parsons, Usher. “Surgical Account of the Naval Battle on Lake Erie, on the 10th of September, 1813.” New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery 7 (1818): 313–16.

  ________. Battle of Lake Erie: A Discourse Delivered Before the Rhode Island Historical Society. Providence: Benjamin T. Albro, 1854.

  ________. Surgeon of the Lakes: The Diary of Dr. Usher Parsons, 1812–1814. Edited by John C. Fredriksen. Erie, Pa.: Erie County Historical Society, 2000.

  Pierce, Nathaniel. “Journal of Nathaniel Pierce of Newburyport, Kept at Dartmoor Prison, 1814–1815.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 73 (1937): 24–59.

  Porter, David. Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean. 2nd edition. 2 vols. New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1822.

  ________. Constantinople and Its Environs. 2 vols. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835.

  Porter, David Dixon. Memoir of Commodore David Porter; of the United States Navy. Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1875.

  Ray, William. Horrors of Slavery: or, the American Tars in Tripoli. Troy, N.Y., 1808.

  Rea, John. A Letter to William Bainbridge, Esqr., Formerly Commander of the United States’ Ship George Washington: Relative to Some Transactions, On Board Said Ship During a Voyage to Algiers, Constantinople, &c. Philadelphia, 1802.

  “Reminiscences of a Dartmoor Prisoner.” Knickerbocker 23 (1844): 146–58, 356–60, 517–22; 24 (1844): 457–63, 519–24.

  Roads, Samuel, Jr. The Marblehead Manual. Marblehead, Mass.: Statesman Publishing, 1883.

  Scott, James. Recollections of a Naval Life. Vol. 3. London: Richard Bentley, 1834.

  Scott, James Brown, ed. Prize Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1918. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.

  Smith, Margaret Bayard. First Forty Years of Washington Society. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1906.

  Smith, Moses. Naval Scenes in the Last War: or, Three Years on Board the Frigate Constitution, and the Adams; Including the Capture of the Guerriere. Boston: Gleason’s, 1846.

  [Stephen, James]. War in Disguise; or, The Frauds of the Neutral Flags. London: C. Whittingham, 1805.

  A System of Naval Tactics. 1797.

  U.S. Court of Claims. Decision of the Case of the Private Armed Brig General Armstrong, Sam C. Reid and Others, Claimants, vs. the United States. Washington, D.C., 1855.

  Valpey, Joseph. Journal of Joseph Valpey, Jr., of Salem, November, 1813–April, 1815, with Other Papers Relating to His Experience in Dartmoor Prison. Detroit: Michigan Society of Colonial Wars, 1922.

  Waterhouse, Benjamin. A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts. 1816. Reprint. New York: William Abbatt, 1911.

  Whipple, Pardon Mawney. Letters from Old Ironsides, 1813–1815, Written by Pardon Mawney Whipple, USN. Edited by Norma Adams Price. Tempe, Ariz.: Beverly-Merriam Press, 1984.

  NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

  Albany Argus (Albany, N.Y.)

  Boston Daily Advertiser (Boston)

  Boston Gazette (Boston)

  Boston Patriot (Boston)

  Boston Post-Boy (Boston)

  City Gazette & Daily Advertiser (Charleston, S.C.)

  Columbian (New York)

  Columbian Centinel (Boston)

  Commercial Advertiser (New York)

  Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Conn.)

  Connecticut Herald (New Haven, Conn.)

  Connecticut Journal (New Haven, Conn.)

  Daily Advertiser (New York)

  Essex Register (Salem, Mass.)

  Federal Republican (Baltimore, Md., and Georgetown, D.C.)

  Hagers-Town Gazette (Hagerstown, Md.)

  National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.)

  Naval Chronicle (London)

  New-England Palladium (Boston)

  Newport Mercury (Newport, R.I.)

  New-York Gazette (New York)

  Port Folio (Philadelphia)

  Portland Gazette (Portland, Maine)

  Repertory (Boston)

  Republican Star (Easton, Md.)

  Repertory (Boston)

  Rhode-Island Republican (Newport, R.I.)

  Salem Gazette (Salem, Mass.)

  Statesman (New York)

  Time Piece (New York)

  Times (London)

  United States Gazette (Philadelphia)

  Weekly Messenger (Boston)

  Weekly Register (Baltimore)

  Yankee (Boston)

  BOOKS AND ARTICLES

  Adams, Charles F. “Wednesday, August 19, 1812, 6:30 P.M.: The Birth of a World Power.” American Historical Review 18 (1913): 513–21.

  Adams, Henry. History of the United States of America During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson. 2 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1889.

  ________. History of the United States of America During the Second Administration of Thomas Jefferson. 2 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1890.

  ________. History of the United States of America During the First Administration of James Madison. 2 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1890.

  ________. History of the United States of America During the Second Administration of James Madison. 3 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1891.

  ________. The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1918.

  “Aid to Glory.” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 36 (May 1902): 182–86.

  Allen, Gardner W. “Naval Songs and Ballads.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society n.s. 35 (1925): 64–78.

  Balinky, Alexander. “Albert Gallatin, Naval Foe.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 82 (1958): 293–304.

  Bauer, K. Jack. “Naval Shipbuilding Programs, 1794–1860.” Military Affairs 29 (1965): 29–40.

  Berube, Claude, and John Rodgaard. A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2006.

  Blake, Nicholas, and Richard Lawrence. The Illustrated Companion to Nelson’s Navy. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1995.

  Bolster, W. Jeffrey. “ ‘To Feel Like a Man’: Black Seamen in the Northern States, 1800–1860.” Journal of American History 76 (1990): 1173–99.

  ________. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.

  Brant, Irving. “Timid President? Futile War?” American Heritage, October 1959.

  Brodine, Charles E., Jr., Michael J. Crawford, and Christine F. Hughes. Against All Odds: U.S. Sailors in the War of 1812. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004.

  ________. Interpreting Old Ironsides: An Illustrated Guide to USS “Constitution.” Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2007.

  Brown, Kenneth L. “Mr. Madison’s Secretary of the Navy.” United States Naval Institute Proceedings 73 (1947): 966–75.

  “Business and the Coffee House.” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, May 1928, 11–13.<
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  Calderhead, William L. “U.S.F. Constellation in the War of 1812—an Accidental Fleet-in-Being.” Military Affairs 40 (April 1976): 79–83.

  ________. “Naval Innovation in Crisis: War in the Chesapeake, 1813.” American Neptune 36 (1976): 206–21.

  Carter, Edward C., II. “Mathew Carey, Advocate of American Naval Power, 1785–1814.” American Neptune 26 (1966): 177–88.

  Cassell, Frank A. “Slaves of the Chesapeake Bay Area and the War of 1812.” Journal of Negro History 57 (1972): 144–55.

  Chapelle, Howard I. The History of the American Sailing Navy: The Ships and Their Deployment. New York: Norton, 1949.

  Chapple, William Dismore. “Salem and the War of 1812.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 59 (1923): 289–304; 60 (1924): 49–74.

  Clark, Allen C. Life and Letters of Dolly Madison. Washington, D.C.: W. F. Roberts, 1914.

  Coggeshall, George. History of the American Privateers, and Letters-of-Marque, During Our War with England in the Years 1812, ’13, and ’14. 3rd edition. New York, 1861.

  Cox, Richard J. “An Eyewitness Account of the Battle of Lake Erie.” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, February 1978: 67–74.

  Craig, Hardin, Jr. “Notes on the Action Between Hornet and Neptune.” American Neptune 11 (1951): 73–77.

  Crawford, Michael J. “The Navy’s Campaign Against the Licensed Trade in the War of 1812.” American Neptune 46 (1986): 165–72.

  Cray, Robert E., Jr. “Remembering the USS Chesapeake: The Politics of Maritime Death and Impressment.” Journal of the Early Republic 25 (2005): 445–74.

  Crosby, Alfred W. “Richard S. Smith, Baltic Paul Revere of 1812.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 86 (1962): 42–48.

  De Kay, James Tertius. Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian: 1809–1922. New York: Norton, 1995.

  ________. A Rage for Glory: The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur. New York: Free Press, 2004.

  Dietz, Anthony G. “The Use of Cartel Vessels During the War of 1812.” American Neptune 28 (1968): 165–94.

  Dodds, James, and James Moore. Building the Wooden Fighting Ship. New York: Facts on File, 1984.

  Dudley, Wade G. Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003.

  Duffy, Stephen W. H. Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001.

  Dunne, W. M. P. “ ‘The Inglorious First of June’: Commodore Stephen Decatur on Long Island Sound, 1813.” Long Island Historical Journal 2 (1990): 210–20.

  Dye, Ira. “Seafarers of 1812—a Profile.” Prologue, Spring 1973, 2–13.

  ________. “Early American Seafarers.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 120 (1976): 331–60.

  ________. “American Maritime Prisoners of War, 1812–15.” In Ships, Seafaring and Society: Essays in American Maritime History, edited by Timothy J. Runyan. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987.

  ________. “Tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796–1818.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 133 (1989): 520–54.

  ________. “Physical and Social Profiles of Early American Seafarers, 1812–1815.” In Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour, ed. by Colin Howell and Richard J. Twomey. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Acadiensis Press, 1991.

  ________. The Fatal Cruise of the Argus: Two Captains in the War of 1812. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1994.

  Eckert, Edward K. “William Jones: Mr. Madison’s Secretary of the Navy.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 92 (1972): 167–82.

  ________. The Navy Department in the War of 1812. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1973.

  Eddy, Richard. “ ‘… Defended by an Adequate Power’: Joshua Humphreys and the 74-Gun Ships of 1799.” American Neptune 51 (1991): 173–94.

  Elias, Norbert. “Studies in the Genesis of the Naval Profession.” British Journal of Sociology 1 (1950): 291–309.

  Emmons, George F. The Navy of the United States, from the Commencement, 1775 to 1853. Washington, D.C.: Gideon, 1853.

  Estes, J. Worth, and Ira Dye. “Death on the Argus.” Journal of the History of Medicine 44 (1989): 179–85.

  Forester, C. S. The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812. 1956. Reprint. Sandwich, Mass.: Chapman Billies, 1995.

  Frederiksen, John C. War of 1812 Eyewitness Accounts: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.

  Gafford, Lucile. “The Boston Stage and the War of 1812.” New England Quarterly 7 (1934): 327–35.

  Gardiner, Robert, ed. The Naval War of 1812. London: Caxton Editions, 2001.

  Garitee, Jerome R. The Republic’s Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced by Baltimore During the War of 1812. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1977.

  Gilkerson, William. Boarders Away, with Steel: Edged Weapons and Polearms of the Classic Age of Fighting Sail, 1626–1826. Lincoln, R.I.: A. Mowbray, 1991.

  Gleaves, Albert. James Lawrence, Captain, United States Navy: Commander of the “Chesapeake.” New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904.

  Goddard, Jonathan Charles. “The Navy Surgeon’s Chest: Surgical Instruments of the Royal Navy During the Napoleonic War.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 97 (2004): 191–97.

  Harris, Thomas. The Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge, United States Navy. Philadelphia: Carey Lea & Blanchard, 1837.

  Heintze, James R. “Gaetano Carusi: From Sicily to the Halls of Congress.” In American Musical Life in Context and Practice to 1865, edited by James R. Heintze. New York: Garland, 1994.

  Henderson, James. Frigates, Sloops & Brigs. Reprint. Barnsley, U.K.: Pen & Sword, 2005.

  Hickey, Donald R. “American Trade Restrictions During the War of 1812.” Journal of American History 68 (1981): 517–38.

  ________. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

  ________. Don’t Give Up the Ship! Myths of the War of 1812. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.

  Horsman, Reginald. The Causes of the War of 1812. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1962.

  ________. “The Paradox of Dartmoor Prison.” American Heritage, February 1975.

  Hoyt, William D., Jr. “Logs and Papers of Baltimore Privateers, 1812–15.” Maryland Historical Magazine 34 (June 1939): 165–74.

  Hume, Edgar Erskine. “Letters Written During the War of 1812 by the British Naval Commander in American Waters.” William and Mary Quarterly 10 (1930): 281–301.

  Humphrey, Carol Sue. The Press of the Young Republic, 1783–1833. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.

  Jordan, Douglas S. “Stephen Decatur at New London: A Study in Strategic Frustration.” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, October 1967, 60–65.

  Langley, Harold D. Social Reform in the United States Navy, 1798–1862. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1967.

  Lavery, Brian. Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1793–1815. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1994.

  Leavitt, William. “An Account of the Private Armed Vessels Belonging to Salem, Mass., During the War of 1812.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 2 (1860): 57–64.

  Leiner, Frederick C. “Saving the Big-Ship Navy. United States Naval Institute Proceedings, July 1977, 76–77.

  ________. “The Norfolk War Scare.” Naval History, Summer 1993, 36–38.

  ________. Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1999.

  ________. “A Ruse de Guerre Gone Wrong: The Sinking of the Eleanor.” Maryland Historical Magazine 101 (2006): 167–84.

  ________. “The Squadron Commander’s Share: Decatur v. Chew and the Prize Money for the Chesapeake’s First War of 1812 Cruise.” Journal of Military History 73 (2009): 69–82.

  Lewis, Michael. A Social History of the Navy, 1793–1815. 1960.
Reprint. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 2004.

  Lohnes, Barry J. “British Naval Problems at Halifax, During the War of 1812.” Mariner’s Mirror 59 (1973): 317–33.

  London, Joshua E. Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2005.

  Long, David F. Nothing Too Daring: A Biography of Commodore David Porter, 1780–1843. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1970.

  ________. “The Navy Under the Board of Naval Commissioners, 1815–1842.” In In Peace and War: Interpretations of American Naval History, 1775–1978, edited by Kenneth J. Hagan. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978.

  ________. “William Bainbridge and the Barron–Decatur Duel: Mere Participant or Active Plotter?” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 103 (1979): 34–52.

  ________. Ready to Hazard: A Biography of Commodore William Bainbridge, 1774–1833. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1981.

  Lossing, Benson J. The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.

  Lushington, Godfrey. A Manual of Naval Prize Law. London: Buttersworths, 1866.

  Maclay, Edgar Stanton. A History of American Privateers. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, 1900.

  Madison, James. Selected Writings of James Madison. Edited by Ralph Louis Ketcham. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing, 2006.

  Mahan, A. T. Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1905.

  Mahon, John K. The War of 1812. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972.

  Maloney, Linda M. “The War of 1812: What Role for Sea Power?” In In Peace and War: Interpretations of American Naval History, 1775–1978, edited by Kenneth J. Hagan. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978.

  ________. The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986.

  Martin, Tyrone G. A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of “Old Ironsides.” Chester, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 1980.

  ________. “Isaac Hull’s Victory Revisited.” American Neptune 47 (1987): 14–21.

  Mason, Matthew. “ ‘Nothing Is Better Calculated to Excite Divisions’: Federalist Agitation Against Slave Representation During the War of 1812.” New England Quarterly 75 (2002): 531–61.