Naval War of 1812 55 



man, Irish, and Norse; and these three sources rep 

 resent the elemental parts of the composite English 

 stock in about the same proportions in which they 

 were originally combined mainly Teutonic, largely 

 Celtic, and with a Scandinavian admixture. The 

 descendant of the German becomes as much an An 

 glo-American as the descendant of the Strathclyde 

 Celt has already become an Anglo-Briton. Looking 

 through names of the combatants it would be diffi 

 cult to find any of one navy that could not be matched 

 in the other Hull or Lawrence, Allen, Perry, or 

 Stewart. And among all the English names on both 

 sides will be found many Scotch, Irish, or Welsh 

 Macdonough, O'Brien, or Jones. Still stranger ones 

 appear: the Huguenot Tattnall is one among the 

 American defenders of the Constellation, and an 

 other Huguenot Tattnall is among the British as 

 sailants at Lake Borgne. It must always be kept 

 in mind that the Americans and the British are two 

 substantially similar branches of the great English 

 race, which both before and after their separation 

 have assimilated, and made Englishmen of many 

 other peoples. 1 The lessons taught by the war can 

 hardly be learned unless this identity is kept in 

 mind. 2 



1 The inhabitants of Great Britain are best designated as 

 "British" English being either too narrow or too broad a 

 term, in one case meaning the inhabitants of but a part of 

 Britain, and in the other the whole Anglo-Saxon people. 



1 It was practically a civil war, and was waged with much 

 harshness and bitterness on both sides. I have already spoken 

 of the numerous grievances of the Americans; the British, 

 in turn, looked upon our blockade-runners which entered 



