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But the crews cheered lustily and the fight went on. When at last the crew of the Wasp boarded the Frolic, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the Wasp. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate Poictiers bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of the Frolic, and took the Wasp in addition.

During 1813 the Constitution took the Java; the Hornet sank the Peacock; the Enterprise captured the Boxer off Portland, Maine. These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there were British victories also. The Argus, after destroying twenty-seven vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the Pelican; the Essex, after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two frigates. The Chesapeake was forced to strike to the Shannon.

The Chesapeake was at anchor in Boston harbor, in command of James Lawrence, when the British frigate Shannon ran in and challenged her. Lawrence went out at once, and after a short, fierce fight was defeated and killed. As his men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he cried, "Don't give up the ship!" words which Perry, as we have seen, afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have never since forgotten.1

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268. The British blockade the Coast. - Never, in the course of her existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats as we inflicted on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record of those years caused a tremendous excitement in Great Britain, all the vessels she could spare were sent over, and with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the United States was declared to be in a state of blockade.2 In New England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island

1 On the naval war read Maclay's History of the Navy, Part Third; Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70–108.

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2 All except New England had been blockaded since 1812; and in 1813 the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged.

quickly fell. A British force went up the Penobscot to Hampden, and burned the Adams. The eastern half of Maine was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut, was bombarded.

269. Burning of Washington. Further down the coast a great fleet and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, came up the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Maryland, and marched to Washington. At Bladensburg, a little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a feeble show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an August night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached Washington, marched to the Capitol, fired a volley through the windows, entered, and set fire to the building. When the fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn led the troops to the President's house, which was sacked and burned. Next morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building and to the Departments of State and War. Several private houses and a printing office were also destroyed before the British began a hasty retreat to the Chesapeake.'

270. Baltimore attacked. Once on the bay, the army was hurried on board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where for a day and a night they shelled Fort McHenry.2 Failing to take it, and Ross having been killed, Cockburn reëmbarked and sailed away to Halifax.

271. The Victory at New Orleans. The army was taken to Jamaica in order that it might form part of one of the greatest war expeditions England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the finest ships her navy could furnish, mounting 1000 guns and carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran soldiers and sailors, had been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the autumn of 1814, and in November sailed for New Orleans.

News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he

1 Adams's History, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6; McMaster's History, Vol. IV., pp. 135-148; Memoirs of Dolly Madison, Chap. 8.

2 Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the British ships, composed the words of The Star-Spangled Banner while watching the bombardment.

had given the duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, one of the most extraordinary men our country has produced. The British landed at the entrance of Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks of the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them. Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he hastened from the city and with all possible speed threw up a line of rude earthworks, and waited to be attacked. This line the British under General Pakenham attacked on January 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful loss of life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army. The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. Jackson lost seventy-one men. Five British regiments which entered the battle 3000 strong reported 1750 men killed, wounded, and missing.1

272. Peace. - For a month after this defeat the British lingered in their camp. At last, in February, the army departed to attack a fort on Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two days later the news of peace put an end to war. The treaty

was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it did not reach the United States till February, 1815.

In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of our sailors, nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders in Council, nor about inciting the Indians to attack our frontier, all of which Madison had declared to be causes of the war. Yet we gained much. Our naval victories made us second to no nation on the sea, while at home the war did far more to arouse and consolidate the union and make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred.

SUMMARY

1. The land war may be divided into

A. War along the frontier.

B. War along the Atlantic coast.
C. War along the Gulf coast.

1 Adams's History, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 182 190.

2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side. In 1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and failed to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at Frenchtown, but defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephenson, and at the Thames River, and recovered Detroit. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie. The Americans failed in the attempt to take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the British burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of Canada. McDonough won the battle of Lake Champlain.

3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of Long Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded till 1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washington was taken and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked.

4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans. 5. The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were about half as numerous as the victories.

6. Peace was announced in February, 1815.

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THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR

COUNTRY

CHAPTER XIX

PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815

273. Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to the Pacific. 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there were eighteen states and five territories.

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274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration. Sparse as was the population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky. Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping down the valley of the Tennessee River.1

1 For an account of the movement of population westward along these routes, see The First Century of the Republic, pp. 211–238.

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