56 Naval War of 1812 



To understand aright the efficiency of our navy, 

 it is necessary to take a brief look at the character 

 and antecedents of the officers and men who served 

 in it. 



When war broke out the United States Navy was 

 but a few years old, yet it already had a far from 

 dishonorable history. The captains and lieutenants 

 of 1812 had been taught their duties in a very prac 

 tical school, and the flag under which they fought 

 was endeared to them already by not a few glorious 

 traditions though these, perhaps, like others of 

 their kind, had lost none of their glory in the telling. 

 A few of the older men had served in the war of 

 the Revolution, and all still kept fresh in mind the 

 doughty deeds of the old-time privateering war 

 craft. Men still talked of Biddle's daring cruises 

 and Barney's stubborn fights, or told of Scotch Paul 

 and the grim work they had who followed his for 

 tunes. Besides these memories of an older genera 

 tion, most of the officers had themselves taken part, 

 when younger in years and rank, in deeds not a whit 

 less glorious. Almost every man had had a share in 

 some gallant feat, to which he, in part at least, owed 



the French ports exactly as we regarded, at a later date, the 

 British steamers that ran into Wilmington and Charleston. 

 It is curious to see how illogical writers are. The careers of 

 the Argus and Alabama, for example, were strikingly similar 

 in many ways, yet the same writer who speaks of one as a 

 "heroic little brig," will call the other a "black pirate." Of 

 course there can be no possible comparison as to the causes 

 for which the two vessels were fighting; but the cruises 

 themselves were very much alike, both in character and 

 history. 



