In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the United States polices the world through five global commands. It has more than half a million troops deployed around the world in 120 countries on five continents, and its naval forces patrol every ocean on the globe. Moreover, it does so with a decreasing dependence on allies or foreign bases. To increase flexibility, the Navy has modified the regular rotation of carrier battle groups at predictable intervals to allow the nation to respond (“surge”) to trouble spots on demand. Moreover, the ability of U.S. Navy surface ships to strike deep within an enemy’s territory using Tomahawk cruise missiles prompted another sea change with the establishment of something called the Expeditionary Strike Group, a force not built around the carriers but centered on an amphibious assault ship (LHA or LHD), essentially a helicopter carrier designed to insert troops onto hostile shores, accompanied by half a dozen other ships including guided-missile cruisers and destroyers. A Navy spokesman described the new policy as necessary in order to provide the president of the United States with a full quiver of arrows “ready to go” whenever the need called.19 Implicit in such a basing plan is the assumption that the United States will be ready to act not only quickly but unilaterally. One supporter of the policy called it “the Doctrine of the Big Enchilada” and concluded matter-of-factly that “power breeds unilateralism. It’s as simple as that.”20
One clear lesson of history, however, is that no single nation has ever risen to dominance and stayed there. As George Kennan wrote in 1999, “Purely military power, even in its greatest dimensions of superiority, can produce only short term successes.” One reason is that unilateral global policing is enormously expensive. And another is that the wielding of great power inevitably breeds resentment. Even when it is not intended to be deliberately imperious, policy decisions that overlook or ignore the views of other nations are perceived as imperial in character. In a speech to the graduating class at West Point in May 2003, President G. W. Bush declared that “America has no empire to extend or utopia to establish,” and in a subsequent talk to veterans at the White House he reiterated that “we don’t seek an empire.” But to much of the world, the United States in the twenty-first century looked very much like an empire: “always threatening, always demanding,” and nearly always humiliating. It is not an empire in the traditional sense of that term. Indeed, as Michael Ignatieff has noted, “it is an empire without consciousness of itself as such, constantly shocked that its good intentions arouse resentment abroad.”21
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the advent of the “war on terror” have redefined the mission of the U.S. Navy. No longer charged with confronting the Soviet Navy on its maritime doorstep or tracking Soviet submarines in the deep places of the earth, the Navy in the post-9/11 era focuses instead on patrolling the sea lanes of the world in an effort to break up and shut down efforts by America’s stateless enemies to deliver arms to places where American lives or American interests could be imperiled. In August 2002 the United States announced that its ships would begin inspecting vessels of any nationality deemed to be suspicious, and later, in May 2003, President Bush announced (while in Poland) that the United States claimed the right of its warships to stop vessels of any nationality anywhere in the world, to inspect their cargoes, and to impound any ships or cargoes found to be suspicious. In 1812 the United States went to war, in part at least, to protest similar policies carried out by the Royal Navy. But two hundred years later the U.S. Navy has become the new cop on the beat: not only in wartime, but also in the ubiquitous twilight of the “war on terror,” and not only in the Persian Gulf but everywhere on earth.
Whether that commitment represents a conscious effort at global empire, as its critics charge, or merely reasonable caution in a dangerous time, as its defenders insist, it is a far cry from the frontier squadron of Oliver Hazard Perry or even the gray steel armada that fought its way across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of Japan. It marks one more dramatic milestone in the history of the Navy, the history of the United States, and ultimately the history of the world.
[NOTES]
PROLOGUE: NAVAL BATTLES AND HISTORY
1. Burke Davis, The Campaign That Won America: The Story of Yorktown (New York: Dial Press, 1970), 149; Harold A. Larrabee, Decision at the Chesapeake (New York: Clarkston N. Potter, 1964), 185–86.
2. Cornwallis to Graves, July 26, 1781, in French Ensor Chadwick, ed., The Graves Papers and Other Documents Relating to the Naval Operations of the Yorktown Campaign, July to October 1781 (New York: Naval History Society, 1916), 98–99 (hereafter The Graves Papers).
3. Davis, The Campaign That Won America, 59.
4. “Translation of the French Account of the Action Off the Chesapeake,” November 27, 1781, printed in The Graves Papers, 253.
5. Larrabee, Decision at the Chesapeake, 189.
6. Hood to George Jackson, September 16, 1781, The Graves Papers, 86–87.
7. Ibid., plus “Enclosure 1,” 89.
8. Graves to Stephens, September 14, 1781, and “Addendum,” both in The Graves Papers, 68, 69–70.
9. “Enclosure 1” in Hood to Jackson, September 16, 1781, The Graves Papers, 91; Larrabee, Decision at the Chesapeake, 213.
10. The Graves Papers, 92–93.
11. “Translation of the French Account,” The Graves Papers, 255. Graves to Stephens, September 26, 1781, The Graves Papers, 111; Larrabee, Decision at the Chesapeake, 193.
PART ONE: THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE
1. David Bunnell, The Travels and Adventures of David Bunnell (Palmyra, NY: F. E. Grandin, 1831), 111.
2. W. W. Dobbins, History of the Battle of Lake Erie (Erie, PA: Ashby Printing Co., 1876), 29.
3. Usher Parsons, The Battle of Lake Erie (Providence: Benjamin T. Albro, 1854), 8.
4. Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840), 1:225.
5. Max Rosenberg, The Building of Perry’s Fleet on Lake Erie, 1812–1813 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1997), 11–14.
6. James F. Zimmerman, Impressment of American Seamen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1925), appendix.
7. Bradford Perkins, Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805–1812 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), 140–49.
8. Ibid.; Reginald Horsman, The Causes of the War of 1812 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962); Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), 20–24.
9. Sandy Antal, A Wampum Denied: Procter’s War of 1812 (Carleton, ON: Carleton University Press, 1997).
10. R. David Edmunds, “Tecumseh’s Native Allies: Warriors Who Fought for the Crown,” in W. J. Welsh and David C. Skaggs, War on the Great Lakes (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991), 56–57; David C. Skaggs and Gerard Altoff, A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997), 20.
11. Niles Weekly Register, March 7, 1812.
12. Clay to Thomas Bodley, December 18, 1813, The Papers of Henry Clay, ed. Thomas F. Hopkins (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959), 1:842.
13. Annals of Congress, 12th Congress, 1st session, 978.
14. Skaggs and Altoff, A Signal Victory, 7.
15. Samuel Taggert was the congressman, quoted in Antal, A Wampum Denied, 14.
16. The phrase “frontier constabulary” is borrowed from Skaggs and Altoff, A Signal Victory, 7.
17. Skaggs and Altoff, A Signal Victory, 8–9.
18. Antal, A Wampum Denied, 36.
19. Richard V. Barbuto, Niagara, 1814: America Invades Canada (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000), 28; Antal, A Wampum Denied, 51.
20. Hickey, War of 1812, 80–84.
21. Madison to Dearborn, October 7, 1812, quoted in Hickey, War of 1812, 128.
22. Hamilton to Chauncey, August 31 and September 4, 1812, in William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History (Washington, DC:
Naval Historical Center, 1985), 1:297–300, 302. Italics in original.
23. Charles O. Paullin, “Jesse Duncan Elliott,” Dictionary of American Biography, 3:96–97; Allan Westcott, “Commodore Jesse D. Elliott: A Stormy Petrel of the Navy,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, September 1928, 773–78.
24. Elliott to Chauncey, September 14,1812, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 1:313.
25. Ibid.
26. Elliott to Hamilton, October 9,1812, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 1:328–31.
27. Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794–1815 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 297.
28. Dobbins, Battle of Lake Erie, 9–10.
29. Hamilton to Dobbins, and two letters from Hamilton to Chauncey, all dated September 11, 1812, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 1:307–10.
30. Elliott to Dobbins, October 2, 1812, ibid, 1:321.
31. None of the full–length biographies of Perry is fully satisfactory. The earliest is John M. Niles, The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry (Hartford: William S. Marsh, 1820), followed by Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The Life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1831). Mackenzie was Perry’s friend and is very much an advocate as well as biographer. James Cooke Mills’ Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie (Detroit: John Phelps, 1913) is a centennial biography that is also largely hagiographic. Charles J. Dutton’s Oliver Hazard Perry (New York: Longmans, 1935) is better, as is Richard Dillon, We Have Met the Enemy: Oliver Hazard Perry, Wilderness Commodore (New York: McGraw–Hill, 1978). But none of these books employs either footnotes or a comprehensive bibliography. The best short overview is John K. Mahon, “Oliver Hazard Perry, Savior of the Northwest,” in James C. Bradford, ed., Quarterdeck and Bridge: Two Centuries of American Naval Leaders (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997), 59–75.
32. Perry to Jones, January 29,1813, and February 11 and 17, 1813, all in ”Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanders, 1804–1886,” National Archives, Record Group 45, microfilm reel 5 (hereafter ”Commanders Letters”).
33. Dobbins, History, 71–72; Mackenzie, Life, 127–30.
34. Samuel Hambleton Diary, April 1, 1813, Maryland Historical Society.
35. Dobbins, History, 17–18; Hambleton Diary, April 1, 1813.
36. Hambleton Diary, May 16,1813.
37. Dobbins, History, 75.
38. Ibid., 19–23, 32. The best general history of the building of Perry’s squadron is Max Rosenberg, The Building of Perry’s Fleet on Lake Erie, 1812–1813 (Harris–burg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1997).
39. Ibid., 28.
40. Hambleton Diary, June 9 and 25,1813.
41. Ibid., July 19, 1813.
42. Perry to Jones, June 19,1813; Jones to Perry, July 3,1813; and Perry to Chauncey, July 27, 1813, all in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:482, 487,530; Perry to Jones, July 23, 1813, “Commanders Letters,” reel 5. For detailed information about Perry’s manning problems see Gerard T. Altoff, Deep Water Sailors, Shallow Water Soldiers: Manning the United States Fleet on Lake Erie (Put-in-Bay, OH: Perry Group, 1993).
43. Chauncey to Perry, July 30,1813, in Dudley, The Naval War of 1812, 2:530; Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 78–79.
44. Perry to Jones, August 10,1813; and Jones to Perry, August 18,1813, both in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:532–33.
45. Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Li featSea (1843; reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 1981), 124; George Stockton to Perry, September 5, 1813, Perry Papers (No. 50), Clements Library, University of Michigan.
46. Report dated July 23,1813; Smith to Perry, August 23,1813; Perry’s General Orders dated August 23 and September 9,1813, all in Perry Papers (No. 42).
47. Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 84–86.
48. Dobbins, History, 45–46; William V. Taylor, ”Journal of the Sloop [sic] of War Lawrence,” August 3–4,1813, Newport Historical Society.
49. Hambleton Diary, August 3–5,1813; Affidavit of William Taylor, June 23, 1818, Perry Papers (No. 144).
50. Perry to Jones, August 4,1813, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:546.
51. Hambleton Diary, August 8,1813.
52. Ibid., August 22,1813. David Skaggs and Gerard Altoff estimate that with the addition of Harrison’s men, Perry had 356 sailors, 34 marines, and 195 soldiers and landsmen, for a total of 585. Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 83.
53. Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 53.
54. Ibid., 61–68. The Queen Charlotte formerly carried eighteen guns, but swapped four of her 24–pounders for three 12–pounders. See ibid., 186.
55. Barclay to Yeo, September 1, 1813, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:551–52.
56. Barclay to Prevost, July 16,1813; and Prevost to Barclay, July 21, 1813, both in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:545.
57. Barclay to Yeo, September 1 and September 12,1813, in Dudley, ed., The NavalWar of 1812, 2:551,555; Harrison to Perry, September 4, 1813, Perry Papers (No. 49).
58. Bunnell, Travels and Adventures, 112–13; Parsons, Battle of Lake Erie, 9–10.
59. Hambleton Diary, October 12, 1813.
60. Mackenzie, Life, 229–30; Anonymous Affidavit, Perry Papers (No. 183).
61. Affidavit by Thomas Holdup Stevens, June 10,1818, Perry Papers (No. 142).
62. Mackenzie, Life, 233.
63. Parsons, The Battle of Lake Erie, 12–13.
64. Mackenzie, Life, 241; Bunnell, Travels and Adventures, 114.
65. Mackenzie, Life, 238–39.
66. Bunnell, Travels and Adventures, 114.
67. Mackenzie, Life, 244; Dulaney Forrest to M. C. Perry, January 29,1821, Perry Papers (No. 167).
68. Taylor to his wife, September 15,1813, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:559–60.
69. Mackenzie, Life, 250.
70. Ibid.
71. Barclay to Yeo, September 12,1813, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:556.
72. Mackenzie, Life, 252–53.
73. ”Surgeon Usher Parsons’s Account,” n.d., in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:563.
74. Perry to Harrison, August 5,1813, D. E. Clanin, ed., ”The Correspondence of William Henry Harrison and Oliver Hazard Perry, July 5, 1813 - July 31, 1815,” Northwest Ohio Quarterly 60 (1988): 165; Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 147.
75. Perry to Harrison, and Perry to Jones, both dated September 10, 1813, in Dud ley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:553–54.
76. Mackenzie, Life, 263–64.
77. Perry to Jones. September 13, 1813, in Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812, 2:557–58.
78. Perry to Elliott, June 18, 1813, Documents in Relation to the Difference Which Subsisted Between the Late Commodore O. H. Perry and Captain J. D. Elliott (Washington, 1821), 21–22; Niles Weekly Register, December 4, 1813, in E. Cruik–shank, The Documentary History of the Campaign upon the Niagara Frontier in the Year 1813 (Welland: Tribune Office, 1905), 3:148.
79. Affidavit of Dr. Parsons, n.d., Documents in Relation to the Difference, 17; Affidavit of Usher Parsons, July 2, 1818, Perry Papers (No. 145).
80. Affidavit of Stephen Champlin, June 19, 1818, Perry Papers (No. 143).
81. Statement of W. H. Breckinridge, n.d., and Elliott to Perry, n.d., both in Documents in Relation to the Difference, 18–19.
82. Perry to Elliott, June 18, 1818, ibid., 8–15
83. Perry to Benjamin Hazard, June 6, 1819, and Hambleton to Perry, May 26, 1814, both in Perry Papers (No. 160 and No. 89).
84. Westcott, ”Commodore Jesse D. Elliott: A Stormy Petrel of the Navy,” 773–78.
PART TWO: THE BATTLE OF HAMPTON ROADS
1. Quoted in William C. Davis, Duel Between the First Ironclads (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1975), 85, italics added; William Keeler to his wife, May 7,1862, in Robert W. Daly, Aboard the USS Monitor: 1862 (Ann
apolis: Naval Institute Press, 1964), 106.
2. Background on Franklin Buchanan is in Craig L. Symonds, Confederate Admiral: The Life and War of Franklin Buchanan (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999), 1–3, 128–40.
3. Buchanan to Du Pont, May 20,1861, Du Pont Letters, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware.
4. Mallory to Buchanan, February 24, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894–1917), series I, 6:776–77 (hereafter cited as ORN); John R. Eggleston, “Narrative of the Battle of the Merrimac,” Southern Historical Society Proceedings 41 (1916): 168.
5. The best discussion of the causes of the Civil War is David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976); for a discussion of the war and historical memory, see David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2001).
6. Richmond Examiner, July 13, 1861.
7. The quotation is from James Chesnut, husband of the famous diarist Mary Chesnut, and is in James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 238.
8. For background on the technological developments in naval warfare in this era, see Robert Gardiner, ed., Steam, Steel & Shellfire: The Steam Warships, 1815–1905 (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992).
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