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mburnamfink 's review for:
Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War With Britain On The High Seas, 1812-1815
by Stephen Budiansky
Perilous Fight focuses on the naval side of the War of 1812, and especially the character of the American officers and sailors. The war had been brewing for years over the issue of impressment, taking sailors off of American ships and enrolling them into the Royal Navy and American ships carrying trade between blockaded France and her colonies. However, the Navy was in an awful state, due to the doctrine of President Jefferson that an expensive navy was a step towards debt and tyranny.
The US Navy was anchored by the six "super-Frigates" of the Constitution-class (see Toll's Six Frigates for details), which started the war by winning a series of sharp single-ship actions against the British Royal Navy. Some of this was due to larger more heavily gunned ships, but the key element was human. American sailors were well-paid volunteers and their officers promoted by meritocracy. The British Navy was a colossos that strode the world, but their ships had been sailing on blockade duty for years, the sailors were impressed by violence and trickery, and gunnery practice was discouraged.
Single-ship victories could raise morale, but Secretary of Navy William Jones recognized that the war was an economic one, and the path to victory would be in causing enough damage to British trade that mercantile interests would force a treaty. Fast sailing sloops of war wrought havoc across the Atlantic. The frigate USS Essex made the long journey into the Pacific, leading an epic campaign against British whalers that had them interfering in Polynesian tribal wars, before finally being sunk by the British in Valparaiso.
This economic warfare was also carried out by privateers, private ventures to capture ships with a government license. Privateers made a mixed contribution, while they amplified the power of the small Navy, their profit-minded mission meant capturing ships rather than burning them, and privateers and their prizes were often recaptured. Thousands of American sailors wound up in Dartmoor Prison, with some of the better sections focusing on their experience.
Toll's Six Frigates is a better picture of the era, though one focused more on the Barbary Corsairs than the more consequential War of 1812. As a naval history, the land campaigns get short shrift, with the raid on Washington DC the only land battle with significant page count. Still, this is a great book for the era.
The US Navy was anchored by the six "super-Frigates" of the Constitution-class (see Toll's Six Frigates for details), which started the war by winning a series of sharp single-ship actions against the British Royal Navy. Some of this was due to larger more heavily gunned ships, but the key element was human. American sailors were well-paid volunteers and their officers promoted by meritocracy. The British Navy was a colossos that strode the world, but their ships had been sailing on blockade duty for years, the sailors were impressed by violence and trickery, and gunnery practice was discouraged.
Single-ship victories could raise morale, but Secretary of Navy William Jones recognized that the war was an economic one, and the path to victory would be in causing enough damage to British trade that mercantile interests would force a treaty. Fast sailing sloops of war wrought havoc across the Atlantic. The frigate USS Essex made the long journey into the Pacific, leading an epic campaign against British whalers that had them interfering in Polynesian tribal wars, before finally being sunk by the British in Valparaiso.
This economic warfare was also carried out by privateers, private ventures to capture ships with a government license. Privateers made a mixed contribution, while they amplified the power of the small Navy, their profit-minded mission meant capturing ships rather than burning them, and privateers and their prizes were often recaptured. Thousands of American sailors wound up in Dartmoor Prison, with some of the better sections focusing on their experience.
Toll's Six Frigates is a better picture of the era, though one focused more on the Barbary Corsairs than the more consequential War of 1812. As a naval history, the land campaigns get short shrift, with the raid on Washington DC the only land battle with significant page count. Still, this is a great book for the era.