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But supposing one of us had won-would it have been the same-the same as it was before she came the same as it is now?" "No," I answered.

"No," he cried. "Now for supperthen our pipes—all of us together-you in your chair and I in mine-and Captain and Colonel-just as it used to be."

T

XX

IM has gone back to the city after his first long vacation and here I am alone again. He wants me to be with him and live down there in a brick and mortar gulch where the sun rises from a maze of tall chimneys and sets on oil refineries. I said no. Some day I may, but that day is a long way off. In the fall I am to go for a week and we are to have a fine time, Tim and I, but Captain and Colonel will have to be content to hear about it when I get back. Surely it will give us much to talk of in the winter nights, when we three sit by the fire again-Captain and Colonel and I.

bald top of Thunder Knob to the tall pine on the Gander's head. I would have Tim stay here with me, but he says no. He wants to win a marble mausoleum. I shall be content to lie beneath a tree. But Tim is ambitious!

Just a few nights ago, we sat smoking in the evening, warming our hearts at the great hearthstone. Thunder Knob was all aglow, and the cloud coals were piled heaven-high above it, burning gold and red. Down in the meadows Captain and Colonel raced from shock to shock on the trail of a rabbit, and a flock of sheep, barnward bound, came bleating along the road.

Tim began to suppose. He was supposing me a great lawyer and himself a great merchant and all that. I lost all patience with him.

Suppose it all, Tim, I said. Suppose that you, the great tea king, and I, the statesman, sat here smoking. Would the cloud coals over there on Thunder Knob blaze up higher in our honor? And the quail, perched on the fence-stake, would she address herself to us or to Mr. Robert White down in the meadow? Would the night-hawk circling in the clouds strike one note to our glory? Could the bleating of the sheep swing in sweeter to the music of the valley as she is rocked to sleep? THE END.

Tim says it is lonely for me here. Lonely? Pshaw! I know the ways of the valley, and there is not a lonely spot in it from the

Old Captain.

[graphic]

Drawn by Henry Reuterdahl.

The capture of the Chesapeake by the Shannon.-The struggle on the quarterdeck.

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BRITISH OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS ON THE however reasonably to be accounted for

COAST, 1813-14.

T

HE further treatment of the War of 1812, within the space allotted to these articles, divides naturally under three heads: the offensive operations of the British upon the coast during the years 1813 and 1814; the reply to these operations made by the United States through the only maritime reprisals open to her-that of harassing the enemy's commerce; and, finally, the warfare along the northern frontier and the seacoast during the last twelve months of the war-peace being signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. It is to the first of these subjects that the present article is devoted.

The accumulation of force under the command of Sir John Warren enabled him, by April, 1813, to establish a satisfactory military blockade of the whole Atlantic coast, and to maintain in technical efficiency, against the trade of neutrals, the commercial blockade proclaimed from Narragansett Bay to the Florida line. Under the former it became practically impossible for the heavier American cruisers, the frigates, to leave port. This was a point upon which the instructions of the British Lords of the Admiralty laid particular stress. They were prepared, by the experience of twenty years of recent maritime war, to recognize the impossibility of wholly closing the seas to the light-armed marauders which preyed upon British commerce. It was to be expected that this should suffer, even heavily, from the operations of well-developed privateering enterprise, pursued by a people of particular maritime aptitudes, debarred from every other form of maritime activity; but the frigates carried with them the further menace, not indeed of serious injury to VOL. XXXVI.—56

by preponderance of force, were not patiently accepted by a people accustomed to regard themselves as invincible. Few things are more wearing than explaining adverse happenings; and the vexation of their Lordships under the necessity showed itself in their admonition to the commander-in-chief. Expressing themselves as disappointed with the results so far obtained, they wrote, January 9, 1813: "It is of the highest importance to the character* and interests of the country, that the naval force of the enemy should be quickly and promptly disposed of. Their Lordships, therefore, have thought themselves justified at this moment in withdrawing ships from other important services, for the purpose of placing under your command a force with which you cannot fail to bring the naval war to a conclusion, either by the capture of the American national vessels, or by strictly blockading them in their own waters."

Warren made little serious effort to get at the American ships, even in harbors most inadequately protected; but the large force at his disposal enabled him practically to shut up all the frigates, except during the boisterous months and dark nights of winter. John Rodgers, the most adroit of the American captains in running blockades, got away from Boston on the 30th of April, 1813,with the President and Congress, and on his return succeeded in entering Narragansett Bay with the President September 27th. He could not sail again until December. The Congress reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, December 14th, after which she did not get out during the war. The Constitution also remained shut up in Boston from April to December; while the Constellation at Norfolk, and the Adams in the Potomac, were barred from the sea by the enemy's occupancy of Chesapeake Bay. Decatur, with the frigates United States

*My italics.

485

and Macedonian, and sloop-of-war Hornet, after vainly waiting for an opportunity to run out by Sandy Hook, decided to try the route inside of Long Island. On May 24th he passed through Hell Gate, and on the 26th was off Fisher's Island, at the eastern entrance of the Sound. There he waited for definite information concerning the powerful division maintained in the neighborhood by the enemy, among which was known to be a ship-of-the-line. On June 1st the wind was fair, and the only British visible were to leeward, affording apparently a good chance to pass them. The squadron accordingly put out, but upon approaching Block Island, which was close to its course, two other hostile cruisers loomed up. The British groups manœuvred severally to get between the Americans and their ports of refuge-New London in the one quarter, Newport in the other. With this overwhelming force in plain sight, Decatur feared the results of attempting to slip out and beat back to New London. The enemy followed, and having now this division securely housed, instituted a close blockade. The American vessels depended for their safety, in Decatur's opinion, rather upon the difficulty of the channel than upon the defences of the place, which, like those of the coast in general, were in a most neglected condition. He wrote: "Fort Trumbull, the only work here mounted or garrisoned, was in the most unprepared state, and only one or two cannon were to be had in the neighborhood for any temporary work which should be erected. I immediately directed all my exertions to strengthening the defences. I think the place might be made impregnable; but the hostile force on our coast is so great that, were the enemy to exert a large portion of his means in an attack here, I do not feel certain he could be resisted successfully with the present defences." Six months later, in December, he reported that the squadron was moored across the channel, under Groton Heights, which had been fortified; while three gunshot distant, in the mouth of the harbor, was anchored a British division of a ship-of-the-line, a frigate, and two smaller vessels. Two more of the line, with several other cruisers, were under sail beyond. The squadron thus remained bottled up, even through the favorable winter season; but when spring enabled active operations to be resumed

elsewhere, the evident hopelessness of the situation caused the crews to be transferred to other stations. The ships themselves were lightened over a three-fathom bar, and removed fourteen miles up the Thames, where they remained in mortifying security to the end of the war.

The combined effect of the military and commercial blockade was to destroy American commerce. As this result became increasingly apparent, the fact was used tauntingly by Captain Broke, of the British frigate Shannon, to obtain from Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake the single combat between the two ships, to which he wished to provoke him. He lamented to Lawrence that Commodore Rodgers with the President and Congress "had eluded* us (the Shannon and Tenedos) by sailing the first chance, after the prevailing easterly winds had obliged us to keep an offing from the coast. He wished, perhaps, for some stronger assurance of a fair meeting," than the verbal messages from time to time sent. Broke then gave a statement of his force, and promise of an undisturbed encounter, in terms of unexceptionable politeness; concluding all with the words, "I doubt not that you will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combat that your little navy can now hope to console your† country for the loss of that trade it cannot protect." Lawrence needed no challenge; the Shannon's running close in to Boston light, showing her colors, and heaving to in defiance, proved provocation enough. Broke's letter never reached him. By whatever means forwarded, it crossed the Chesapeake leaving Boston harbor.

The Chesapeake had returned to Boston April 9th, from a four months' cruise. Being in excellent condition, she was ordered to fit out at once for sea. Lawrence was appointed to her on May 6th; the sailing orders issued to her former captain, Evans, being transferred to him on that date. He was to go to the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there to intercept military storeships, and transports with troops, destined to Quebec and Upper Canada for the campaign then just opening. "The enemy," wrote the Secretary," will not in all probability anticipate our taking this ground with our public ships of war, and as his convoys My italics. †Broke's italics.

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