Chapter 3: The War of 1812 - What Role For Sea Power?

How was the navy at the outbreak of war?

17 vessels, 5 needing repair, possessed a total of 500 guns

What was the British squadron like at the outbreak of war?

a ship-of-the-line and 5 frigates that were larger than the entire U.S. navy

U.S. had no vessel larger than a frigate

Who was the speaker of the House in 1806?

Nathaniel Macon

What did SOTH Macon say about the line of battleships?

in order to achieve proper management of the American navy, the U.S. lens its warships to another nation at war with the same enemy

Who fabricated the story in 1845?

Commodore Charles Stewart

Describe the fabrication of 1845.

President James Madison keeping all American ships in harbor to act as floating batteries; Commodore Charles Stewart and Commodore William Bainbridge saving the navy by persuading the cabinet to abandon this "foolish" plan

in reality, SECNAV Paul Hamilton suggests keeping the ships in port

President Madison quickly overruled this idea before the war properly began

Who were the senior captains that Hamilton wanted advice from?

John Rodgers, Stephen Decatur, and William Bainbridge

What was John Rodgers’s rank?

senior commander

What did Rogers recommend for the ships?

kept together in a single squadron led by himself, to surprise attack the British Isles

What did Rogers propose in June?

if the whole squadron gets to sea after a declaration of war, they might catch British squadron ships sailing singly or by 2s/3s and eliminate them 1 by 1 before news of war reached Halifax

What did Decatur suggest in contrast to Roger’s idea?

ships sent out singly or by 2s, sail at a distance from the coast to destroy enemy commerce

What was Decatur’s argument for his own proposal?

there were recent commerce raiding successes, and the loss would be less than if the whole navy were overwhelmed at a blow

Who agreed to Decatur’s proposal?

William Bainbridge

Why also did Decatur and Bainbridge want this proposal?

to gain fame from commanding single cruisers or small units than being subordinate commanders under Rodgers

Describe the battles administered by Hamilton.

Captain Issac Hull in Constitution (cruising singly) eluding pursuers and captured an enemy frigate

David Porter in Essex took the heavy sloop Alert

Rogers’s 5 big vessels captured 7 small merchantmen

Which proposal to Hamilton was followed thereafter the debates upon how the ships would be sent?

Decatur’s plan; frigates cruised singly or by 2s/3s

results were even; sloops and brigs being destructive commerce raiders, almost all were captured or blockaded at the end of the war

What was the book Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote?

Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812

What did Alfred Thayer Mahan criticize?

the American command for dividing its force

praised Rodgers’s plan saying it was the “most consonant with sound military views” (biased)

What did Mahan believe?

if Americans kept their ships together, the British squadron on the American coast would have also been forced to as well, making it easier for merchant ships to return safely to port

Who said “only consolation . . . from knowing that our being at Sea obliged the Enemy to concentrate a considerable portion of his most active force and thereby prevented his capturing an incalculable amount of American property that would otherwise have fallen a sacrifice”?

a senior officer (about John Rodgers’s rationale)

What did Rodgers do on the coast?

instead of drawing enemies off the coast, he telegraphed his departure, causing Captain Philip B. V. Broke to scatter his ships to different ports

What did Captain Isaac Hull do to Broke?

in Constitution, he eluded him off New York in July

sailed again from Boston to capture Guerriere near the Grand Banks in August

Who said “it appears the Enemy have been disappointed in blocking up the Squadron in New York. they can no separate into cruising squadrons which they probably will do”?

Captain Isaac Hull

Who said “you would occasionally hear glad tidings of us. If we are kept altogether in squadron or lying in [port] he whole are scarcely of more advantage than one ship would be — or rendered entirely useless with all the expense of action”?

William Bainbridge to SECNAV Paul Hamilton

Who wanted to stimulate naval expansion but was inclined to minimize commerce raiding?

Alfred Thayer Mahan

What did American naval and privateer commanders learn?

how to nibble at the flanks of a convoy

how to station themselves where convoys scattered for a final run into port

Which ships demonstrated these effective tactics by naval and privateer commanders?

Argus, burning 20 merchantmen in the English Channel in 1813

Wasp, doing the same in 1814 with two brigs of war destroyed

Essex, ending British whaling in the Pacific, making 14 prizes before being run down by 2 British frigates

How did American maritime forces do?

first year: won brilliant single-ship victories

remainder of the war: harassing British commerce

kept morale up

What happened after the coast was blockaded in 1813?

there was little hope of getting a sizable force to sea

American raiders (public & private) slipped out by 1s and 2s

How many captures did the American raiders make?

1,300 captures total

What was a known statement about the U.S. fleet?

they would have fought the war more effectively with a larger fleet

What did American raiders do in the war?

attacking British commerce

British blockade strangled American shipping at its berth

What did the American government rely on?

taxation of maritime commerce

bankrupt by 1814

What is to say about the American strategy?

though fumbling at the outset, their strategy was completely wrongheaded

What could be said about the strategies proposed at the beginning of the war?

decisions were made with more reference to personal ambition to the commander rather than to the welfare of the navy/nation

Decatur, Rodgers, and Bainbridge consciously believed their proposal was the best strategy

What was a serious handicap?

failure of administration: strategies made by officers and later mainly by force of circumstances

Who was South Carolinian?

Paul Hamilton

What could be said about Paul Hamilton during his time as a Secretary of the Navy?

had a position in cabinet for no reason

knew nothing about naval matters

deferred to officers’ judgments with mixed results

Why was Paul Hamilton a deeply troubled man?

wounded by congressional attacks and hostility from other cabinet members (Macon)

personal fortunes in Carolina were disappearing in his absence

creditors were selling his slaves by 10s/20s to recover against him

health suffered in Washington climate

attitude toward navy was affectionate, but defeatist

Who said Paul Hamilton was “fit for his place as the Indian Prophet would be for Emperor of Europe”

Congressman Nathaniel Macon (foe of the navy)

What happened to Paul Hamilton by 1812?

he was too drunk to attend business after noon

wartime responsibilities soon overwhelmed him

replaced in January 1813 by William Jones of Philadelphia

Who replaced Paul Hamilton in the position of Secretary of the Navy?

William Jones of Philadelphia

Why did Jones believe he knew much about the navy?

was a former privateersman and merchant captain

believed his background made him an expert in naval strategy/tactics & construction

Why was there a delay in completion of the construction of ships?

Jones’s meddling with the plans by making new drafts and time-consuming alterations of precut frames

Bainbridge and Hull were delayed at least a month in laying down the first two 74s, Independence and Washington (unsuccessful)

What problem did Hamilton face while deploying forces to meet what administration regarded as the most pressing needs?

protection of homeward-bound merchant vessels and defense of the Atlantic coast

Who were the only men who believed that American ships could beat the British?

the officers who inflicted damage on the enemy in his commercial/naval vessels

What did Captain Isaac Hull do when he was at Boston without orders?

chose to sail again without waiting long to receive them

feared being blockaded in Boston

Hamilton sent him a letter on July 29 (failed to receive by August 2) to remain at Boston until further orders

What was Hamilton unable to do about his commanders?

Unable to restrain his headstrong commanders

What was Jones like compared to Hamilton?

devoted to commerce raiding as the proper strategy for the navy at sea

more forceful than Hamilton

What did Jones say to his commanders similar to Britain’s Admiralty?

not to engage in British ships/American ships singly

sent a letter to John Orde Creighton in December 1813 on the brig Rattlesnake to avoid unnecessary contact with the cruisers of the enemy unless he was confident of a victory and just focus on commerce raiding

How many naval personnel were engaged in coastal defense?

at least half of all naval personnel

(in 1814) 6,512 men on coast, 3,250 on lakes, 450 at sea, 405 in British prisons

What were the majority of defenders of naval personnel doing?

manning flotillas of gunboats, barges, and other small craft in the principal harbors

Why was the majority of defenders not regular navy men?

unpopular service; let to enlistment of seamen and appointment of officers as a naval militia force (“sea fencibles”) with a promise that they would not be transferred from the port were they entered

some like Joshua Barney were excellent, others show usual character of militia

What did the Tripolitan boats act in?

in conjunction with a ring of heavy forts

without them they would be unable to defend Tripoli Harbor against an enemy fleet

What was significant in the few harbors with strong forts and effective flotillas?

New York did not suffer assault

at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, they were hampered by New England’s intransigence but Captain Isaac Hull was able to put a defensive combination of forts and gunboats together to resist attack

greatest fear was landing elsewhere at New York or Kittery, Maine, followed by an overland attack from the rear

Who did not allow Captain Hull to man all his boats until 1814?

SECNAV William Jones

What happened to the coastal defense?

was badly hampered by the transfer of men from ships and shore stations to the lakes

stripping was necessary

line of defense on lakes was the most vital perimeter for a successful outcome in the war

What did the drafting of men for the lake service cause?

kept a number of ocean cruisers in port and took much needed men from the Atlantic stations

What did British landing parties do in 1814?

raided and burned on the New England coast

seized half of Maine

cut off Nantucket Island from the mainland to force Islanders to declare themselves neutral

decimated shores of Chesapeake Bay

burned Washington

attacked Baltimore

Who suffered severely from the lack of an effective defense?

the population of the Atlantic seaboard

Why were the transfers on defense of the coast inevitable?

th war would be won or lost on the lakes

What was a fact of the War of 1812?

an impasse can be traced directly to the stalemate created on the lake frontier

Who told President James Madison that “the difference between the Lake and the sea service is, that in the former were are compelled to fight them man to man and gun to gun, whilst on the ocean five British frigates cannot counteract the depredation of one sloop-of-war”?

SECNAV William Jones

What strategy could not be used on the lakes?

the ocean strategy of commerce raiding

What did the inability of the strategy commerce raiding prove?

be bold and speedy, seizing the advantage before the overwhelming resources (ships) of England could be brought to bear (arrive)