The Battle of New Orleans 287 



APPENDIX D 



IN the "Historical Register of the United States" 

 (Edited by T. H. Palmer, Philadelphia, 1814), 

 Vol. I, p. 105 (State Papers), is a letter from Lieut. 

 L. H. Babbitt to Master-commandant Wm. U. 

 Crane, both of the Nautilus, dated Sept. 13, 1812, 

 in which he says that of the six men imprisoned 

 by the British on suspicion of being of English 

 birth, four were native-born Americans, and two 

 naturalized citizens. He also gives a list of six 

 men who deserted and entered on the Shannon, of 

 whom two were American born the birthplaces of 

 the four others not being given. Adding these last, 

 we still have but six men as the number of British 

 aboard the Nautilus. It is thus seen that the crack 

 frigate Shannon had American deserters aboard her 

 although these probably formed a merely trifling 

 fraction of her crew, as did the British deserters 

 aboard the crack frigate Constitution. 



On p. 1 08 is a letter of Dec. 17, 1812, from 

 Geo. S. Wise, purser of the Wasp, stating that 

 twelve of that ship's crew had been detained "under 

 the pretence of their being British subjects" ; so 

 that nine per cent of her crew may have been British 



