History of the United States Navy

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The second half of the article (from 1865) is completely missing. As long as that is the case, in my opinion, the article must even be postponed to history of the US Navy up to 1865
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The History of the United States Navy , the Navy of the United States , can be summed up in two continuities. The Old Navy (Engl .: "old Navy") constituted itself in the founding phase of the United States to a small, efficient navy from sailing ships , while the country changed from this to a powerful offshore navy , the New Navy , from the 1880s to form.

Old Navy

Beginnings in the War of Independence

Drawing of Bonhomme Richard (1765).

In 1775, the Continental Congress , a provisional forerunner of the United States Congress , passed a resolution calling on the individual colonies represented in it to build and operate ships. This was followed by representatives of the colony Rhode Iceland is mounted on 26 August and carried out from December 1775 draft law creating a single so-called " continental navy " ( Continental Navy foresaw). In the meantime, George Washington , then the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, had begun procuring ships for the imminent confrontation with the United Kingdom armed forces , paying for them out of his own fortune. The first ship of the continental navy was the schooner Hannah , which entered service on September 5, 1775. Because of its provisional character and lack of training, the Continental Congress soon put this ship out of service, even if it had always avoided its capture or sinking.

The United States Navy follows the tradition of its predecessor organization, the founding date of which is before that of the United States on July 4, 1776. In doing so, she explicitly refers to a resolution of the Continental Congress of October 13, 1775, which provided for the procurement of "two fast sailing ships".

George Bagby Matthews: John Paul Jones , ca.1890, oil on canvas

In the middle of 1776, ships of all types up to the ship class of a frigate were under construction for service in the continental navy. However, in terms of their armament, their maneuverability and the training of their crews, they were insufficiently equipped for a confrontation with the warring Royal Navy , the dominant naval force in the world at the time, so that by 1781 all official American warships were incapacitated. The young American nation attacked its enemy at sea much more severely by issuing large numbers of letters of war. Even if the documentation of these processes is not complete, the federal government of the United States today assumes that the nearly 1,700 pirate trips, which it approved individually at the time, caused damage to the British fleet of $  18 million (adjusted for inflation today about $ 302 Million). This accounted for a total of around 800 pirates who captured or sank around 600 British ships.

Similar to the other branches of the armed forces, the navy began to honor individual war episodes and participants, up to and including hagiographic hero transfiguration, which is typical of American military history , during the War of Independence . The defining figure of the military seafaring in the War of Independence was the Scottish ship commander John Paul Jones , who refused to stop the fire even though his ship, the Bonhomme Richard , was burning and listing. The British request from HMS Serapis to give up his ship should be with the words “ I have not yet begun to fight! ”(Analogously:“ The fight has only just started! ”), Although the wording in this pathetic version is controversial. The British surrendered three hours later.

Despite individual moments of outstanding fighting morale , the operation of the Continental Navy proved to be extremely costly and too inefficient in comparison with the caper strategy. Even during the fighting, it was exposed to a loss of importance that led to its de facto dissolution in 1785 after the victory of the United States. This was due to both the financial weakness of the federal government and the fact that a naval force was initially unable to legitimize it.

Constant service in the service of a young nation

Federal Navy

The decision to reduce the US military capacity to a minimum, including at sea, was shaped by the fear of many founding fathers of arbitrary and disproportionate billeting and the independence of the military, which would be detrimental to freedom and public order. Against the background of similar disputes, the federalists , who generally tried to strengthen the federal government , advocated the operation of a federal navy, while the anti-federalists tried to prevent this. In a letter to James Madison in 1784, Thomas Jefferson advocated a federal navy in order to protect the foreign trade of the United States, on which the country was completely dependent: “ We ought to begin a naval power, if we mean to carry on our commerce. Can we begin it on a more honorable occasion or with a weaker foe? "(Analogous translation:" We should start to found a naval force. Is there a time that would be more honorable for this than the present, in view of such a weak enemy? ")

However, three developments over the course of the next decade made clear to critics of a standing army the importance of a functioning navy. On the one hand, despite the lack of protection, foreign trade recovered quickly after the Revolutionary War and expanded as far as East Asia; on the other hand, piracy from North Africa and the Caribbean was rampant, which severely impaired shipping on the Atlantic . In addition, the federalists prevailed against their critics to the extent that the constitution, which was passed in 1789, provided for a taxation competence at the federal level.

The British leopard bombarded the American Chesapeake . Drawing from 1898.

These developments prompted Congress to commission six frigates that were supposed to be longer and more heavily armed than conventional frigates. These were the USS Constitution , USS United States , USS President , USS Constellation , USS Congress and USS Chesapeake . The Constitution is after successful efforts of Oliver Wendell Holmes sr. to keep it up to this day in service with the Navy as a sailing training ship .

The growth of the Navy put a strain on the Secretary of War, James McHenry, in his workload. The Treasury Department also lamented the increasing workload associated with running the navy, which was growing in size and importance. For this reason, Congress passed the proposal by President Adams and signed on April 30, 1798 to create the Department of the Navy . Benjamin Stoddert became the first incumbent . At the same time, Congress approved an expansion of the navy, as the United States felt increasingly threatened by French privateers who hunted British merchant ships off the coast.

Quasi-war

During this period, the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain came closer together through the Jay Treaty of 1794 and opened up trade relations with one another. France interpreted this as a violation of the American-French alliance of 1783. The XYZ affair of March 1797 sparked the quasi-war in which the French fleet tried to prevent all transatlantic trade between Great Britain and the United States. Secretary of the Navy Stoddert realized that it would be impossible in the short term to protect the entire Atlantic coast of the United States from the French, so he purposefully adopted an offensive strategy against French trade with the Caribbean . Meanwhile, the United States was steadily expanding its war fleet. Towards the end of the war in 1801, their staff numbers were almost 700 officers and 5,000 men. 14 members of the Navy were killed and 31 wounded as a result of the operation.

First barbarian war

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson took office as president and, as such, carried out a cut in the naval budget decided by Adams. Adams had feared that Jefferson would make this even more radical if he had been left with housekeeping in this regard. However, Jefferson found himself confronted with the barbarian states , which endangered the sea trade of the United States through their piracy. A tribute ultimatum of the ruler of Tripoli , Yusuf Karamanli , took Jefferson as an opportunity to send a fleet contingent into the Mediterranean , which triggered the American-Tripolitan War . Until 1805, American warships repeatedly bombed the barbarian cities, while the United States Marine Corps undertook expeditions to the appropriate areas, which were reflected in their anthem. Stephen Decatur advanced to become the outstanding military figure in this conflict, which ended with declarations of renunciation by the North African states on the slave trade , the taking of ship's crews and piracy . A total of 31 Navy sailors died while 54 were wounded.

British-American War

After the United States won the First Barbarian War, the United States remained embroiled in overseas affairs. The enemies France and Great Britain, who were hostile through the Napoleonic Wars , went over to massive economic warfare. While the United Kingdom tried to block the overseas trade of Napoleon Bonaparte- dominated Europe with a blockade, the latter announced the Milan Decree , which was directed against British trade. Affected by both measures, the United States Congress, on the recommendation of ruling President James Madison , declared war on the United Kingdom on July 9, 1812, which began the British-American War . While this was mainly due to the continued harassment of the Royal Navy, especially the pressure on seamen of American origin, American politicians hoped for expansion in Upper Canada after the acquisition of French North American territory .

Duel between the Constituion (left) and the Guerriere (painting by Michel Felice Corne in oil)

At the time of the declaration of war, the naval forces on either side were not prepared for war. The United States Navy consisted of about 40 ships, most of which were not in combat-ready condition. The Royal Navy was busy blocking French trade, which led to many ship duels off the east coast of the United States . In one of the most famous of these duels, the crew of the USS Constitution defeated the HMS Guerriere also because of the leadership of their commander Captain Isaac Hull . As the war increasingly unfolded in Upper Canada, the Commodores Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie and Thomas Macdonough on Lake Champlain achieved surprising victories against the British opponents, which strengthened the morale of the United States and averted an invasion of the northern United States.

The last attempt by the British to invade the United States led to the Battle of New Orleans in the south of the country. Commodore Daniel Patterson managed to weaken and delay the British onslaught at sea to such an extent that this enabled the land forces to strike a decisive blow against the remaining British forces. According to current knowledge, the war between June 18, 1812 and February 17, 1815 cost 265 members of the Navy their lives, while 439 sailors were injured.

Among other things, the USA owes it to its many state-sanctioned privateers that they could not be defeated by the British at sea. The congress issued letters of collapse to dozens of merchants, which, based on the experience with the British, were more uninhibited than in the War of Independence. The experience that this war brought to the politics of the United States made the state-theoretical concerns of the founding fathers about a tyranny of the military into the background, so that the Navy was significantly enlarged.

Second barbarian war

As early as 1807, two years after the first peace agreement, the barbares had returned to kidnap and coerce American merchant ships. The United States initially responded to the ransom and protective tariff demands of the North African states. Encouraged by the American-British conflict, they declared war on them in 1812. In the absence of an American presence off the North African coast, this declaration of war was ineffective. After the dispute with the United Kingdom ended, Congress approved a fleet of ten ships. Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge , both promoted to Commodores in the meantime, led these. Algiers and Tripoli experienced a massive show of force by the Navy, so that piracy in the Mediterranean experienced a steady decline until its final end from 1830.

Operations up to the civil war

The end of the Second Barbarian War marked the beginning of a period of relative calm and continuous expansion for the Navy. Between the Second Barbarian War, their activities shifted from routine missions to the Caribbean as the United States devoted itself to expansion south and west on land. This harbored potential for conflict with the colonial power Spain and various indigenous populations. The Navy was also affected by the violent resolution of these tensions. At the same time, like the American military in general, it became more professional. This can be seen in the establishment of the United States Naval Academy in 1845 , the prestige of which has steadily increased internationally since that time.

Shipbuilding and patrols against slave traders and pirates

The Perry brings up a slave dealer

After the end of the Second Barbarian War, Congress commissioned eight new ships of the line for the purpose of deterrence , which according to the resolution can carry no less than 74 cannons and should always be ready to sail. The procurement of the Columbus , which is already under construction , was legally legitimized again in this law. The names of the new ships were drawn by lot, as these were supposed to correspond to states, and at the end of the drawing lot were Alabama , Delaware , New York , North Carolina , Ohio , Pennsylvania , Vermont and Virginia . The overall supervision of the construction of the ships, with the exception of the Columbus and the Pennsylvania , which incidentally became the largest sailing ship in the Navy, was William Doughty . Doughty was the first shipbuilder to give the bow of the clippers built soon afterwards a previously unknown slope and stability. Between 1815 and 1840, the United States Navy built another 74 sailing ships.

On March 3, 1819, after being banned for the first time in 1808, the transatlantic slave trade was declared a crime under federal anti-piracy laws and allowed the President to take appropriate action. The Navy then patrolled the coasts of West Africa, South America and the Cuban coast with a comparatively small number of ships in order to curb the slave trade at sea on the spot. By the beginning of the civil war, she arrested around 100 slave couriers.

The discovery of the Spanish schooner La Amistad in the port of Montauk Point, New York, was made on August 26, 1839 by officers of the USS Washington .

In the 1820s, piracy experienced a boom in the Western Hemisphere , particularly in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico . When the brutality of the privateers, consisting of murder and torture, made the raids unbearable, the Navy formed a squadron for the West Indies (West India Squadron) in 1822 under the leadership of the Commodores James Biddle , David Porter and Lewis Warrington . Until 1830, this squadron persistently pursued privateers into their hiding places and thus contributed to the decline of piracy in the Caribbean.

Second Seminole War

The Second Seminole War broke out in 1835 over disputes with immigrant Indians in the state of Florida , especially Seminoles , who refused to settle reservations assigned to them by the federal government . The Navy remained without combat missions, as the parties involved fought the war almost exclusively on land, but nevertheless played an important support role for the troops of the Army , the Florida National Guard and numerous local vigilante groups by moving troops and delivering supplies.

The ships of the West Indies Squadron , whose main task was the neutralization of piracy, patrolled the Florida coast on the orders of the commander Thomas Jesup to intercept the supplies of weapons and supplies for the Seminoles, for which Jesup made Cuba mainly responsible. Commodore Alexander Dallas , who was entrusted with this job, later doubted the existence of such a smuggling.

The advance into the settlement area of ​​the Seminoles, the swampy Everglades, was a novelty for the Navy . Since their waterways only allowed small ships to pass, this restriction posed a constant risk to the Navy. Overall, the operation in the southeastern United States claimed the lives of eight sailors, while twelve were injured.

Mexican-American War

The Texan independence and the integration of Texas as a State into the Union strengthened the smoldering, long felt latent tensions between the US and Mexico, which ultimately to the American Mexican War resulted. The area of ​​operations of the United States Navy expanded suddenly, as the Pacific coast of the United States was now of importance for a war for the first time since its incorporation into the country. The Navy's Home and Pacific Squadron set out to seal off the coasts of Mexico while continuing to operate mostly undisturbed in their native waters. In addition to this permanent use, two missions by the Navy particularly stood out during this time. As against the Seminoles, smaller sailing ships and paddle steamers, under the supervision of Commodore Matthew Perry , penetrated the Mexican rivers from the Gulf of Mexico and in this way conquered important Mexican bases and supply depots. The most important single operation of the war from 1846-1848 was commanded by the Commodore David Conner when he landed 12,000 men at Veracruz on March 9, 1847 at the request of General Winfield Scott and then contributed important support fire. The war claimed the lives of 13 sailors while three others were wounded.

Civil War

After years of tensions and disputes over the rights of the individual states of the Union, the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 began the civil war between the United States and the Confederate States of America . The naval war was of central importance due to the strategic prerequisites: While the then President of the United States , Abraham Lincoln , imposed a blockade on the coast of the Confederation on April 19, the latter speculated that the failure of cotton exports would affect the European states concerned , led by Britain and France, on their side in the war include would. The blockade was part of a larger plan by Winfield Scott called the Anaconda Plan .

While it would be months before the Confederation was able to create an operational counterpart, the outbreak of war caught the United States Navy completely unprepared, even if the distribution of resources clearly spoke for the Union in naval warfare. Many of their 42 ships were in Europe or Japan, and Lincoln's publicly proclaimed mission overwhelmed their capacities. While Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles commissioned the construction of many ships, the Navy leadership decided to concentrate the blockade on those parts of the south coast from which the transport of potential supplies inland would be possible. This suggested blocking rivers and ports near railroad lines . By orienting the southern states to the north, the US Navy repeatedly succeeded in conquering Confederate naval bases on outlying islands.

The war finally drove the end of the sailing ship age forward. While the southern states re-designed their navy from scratch, the northern states sank many of their sailing ships at the beginning of the war as part of the evacuation of southern ports.

1861

Their first advanced base was captured by gunboat forces under Ben Butler and Silas Stringham in August 1861 on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina by destroying the artillery battery there and suppressing supplies and the presence of the south through their presence.

Until the completion of its own naval capacities, the Confederation limited itself to privateer strategies such as those used by the young United States against the British. In addition, they were convinced that forts would secure their ports and rivers against fleets. This assumption proved erroneous in September 1861 when New England troops aboard the USS Massachusetts made a landing on Ship Island , Mississippi . Despite the low use of materials and minor damage to the fortifications there, this island gave the US Navy maneuvering space and access to the two largest cotton-exporting ports in the world, New Orleans , Louisiana and Mobile , Alabama .

For this reason, the Confederation gave up its claim to defend its entire coast and sent the later war hero Robert E. Lee to South Carolina to inspect the fortress construction at strategically important points on the coast. In this state, on October 7, Union naval forces under Samuel du Pont had the forts in front of the important Atlantic port of Port Royal , South Carolina.

Despite this and similar achievements and nominal superiority, the ships of the US Navy were insufficient to block 3,500 miles of coastline and the ten major seaports of the Confederation. As a result, nine out of ten blockade breakers reached their destination in the first year. During the year the effectiveness of the blockade increased. Not only the growing number of ships contributed to this, but also the experience of the ship commanders on site, who refined their tactics in direct confrontation with blockade breakers and privateers, for example in the Bay of Apalachicola , Florida.

1862

As early as the first winter of the war, the US Navy succeeded in significantly increasing the effectiveness of the blockade by occupying numerous ports in the south or by conquering important forts. The Navy captured Jacksonville and St. Augustine in Florida, and Pensacola was evacuated by the Confederates. The access to Savannah, Georgia, was denied to the blockade breakers by the capture of Fort Pulaski. An overland push against Charleston, South Carolina, however, failed. An attack on New Orleans, Louisiana, however, was more successful. The most populous city in the south surrendered on April 28, 1862 to a US fleet under the command of David Glasgow Farragut , who was appointed first Rear Admiral of the Navy. Another southern port fell in October with Galveston, Texas, but was recaptured on New Year's Day 1863 by a mixed Confederate force under Major General John Bankhead Magruder . Galveston remained in Confederate hands until the end of the war.

Skirmish between Virginia (left) and Monitor (right) at close range

In order to break the blockade, the south relied on new weapons and built the ironclad Virginia (armored gunboats had already been used by both sides, but only on the rivers to the west). The north reacted quickly, however, and in turn built the armored ship Monitor , based on a design by John Ericsson . On March 8, the Virginia , under the command of Franklin Buchanan , sank or destroyed two wooden US ships on the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , demonstrating the superiority of the new ironclad ships. However, the following day she encountered the monitor . The first battle between armored warships ended in a draw, and the Virginia eventually withdrew. The threat she posed had been neutralized by the monitor . The Virginia was destroyed in May by the Confederates, when she lost her home port of Norfolk due to General McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

On the open sea, the southern pirate war became increasingly successful. The Alabama with British crew under Captain Raphael Semmes under the southern flag brought up 64 US merchant ships during its entire service and became the horror of the US merchant shipping.

1863

In 1863, Charleston, South Carolina was the most contested port in the south. In January the southern states attacked the blockade fleet, in April they repulsed an attack by Union ironclads. In July, the US Navy also took part in the battles around Fort Wagner and Morris Island. In doing so, African American associations demonstrated their high morale and fighting power.

The Union fleet looked in the spring for ways to test their ironclad ships. Small Confederate bases that offered little resistance and minimal damage to their own could be expected.

The David with her spar torpedo

The Confederates continued to experiment with new weapons. However, a test submarine , the HL Hunley , sank twice in Charleston Harbor. Another newly developed Confederate weapon was the David . The boat, equipped with a spar torpedo , attacked the US ironclad New Ironsides in the waters off Charleston in October and damaged it severely.

In Texas, the Confederates fended off a US Navy expedition to Sabine Pass. The Union succeeded in destroying a number of Confederation cargo ships in Florida.

In the meantime, the CS Navy pirate cruisers , especially the Alabama and Florida , spread fear and terror among the ships of the US merchant navy in the open sea . The fact that the Alabama and Florida , along with other CS pirate cruisers, were built in Great Britain led to diplomatic entanglements between the USA and the UK after the war (see Alabama question ).

1864

After two failed attempts with the Hunley test submarine, the Confederates succeeded in the first successful submarine attack in history in February 1864. The Hunley attacked the USS Housatonic with a spar torpedo and sank it. However, the submarine was also damaged by the explosion and sank as well. In April the Confederates commissioned the ironclad Albemarle , which was instrumental in the retaking of Plymouth, North Carolina. The Albemarle effectively secured the Roanoke in the period that followed. In October, Lieutenant William B. Cushing launched a spar torpedo attack on the Albemarle and sank it. This made it possible for US troops to retake Plymouth. In the meantime the blockade had become more and more effective, and due to the progressive occupation of southern ports, the blockade breakers ran out of opportunities to approach.

One of the few remaining southern ports was Mobile, Alabama. The city was defended from the seaside by sea ​​mines called torpedoes , several forts and a small flotilla. In August 1864, a US fleet under Admiral Farragut attacked the Confederate ships and fortifications; at the same time, a land force under General Gordon Granger went against the Confederate forts. The Battle of Mobile Bay turned into a great Northern victory: the forts Morgan and Gaines at the entrance to the bay were occupied by land troops, and the ships of the Confederate flotilla in the bay, including the ironclad Tennessee , were all sunk, captured, or used Forced to flee. The Confederate ships commander, Admiral Franklin Buchanan, was wounded and captured. Mobile itself remained in Confederate hands until April 1865, but was blocked from then on. Farragut was promoted to the newly created rank of Vice Admiral for his services .

The only remaining port on the Confederation's east coast was Wilmington, North Carolina. Fort Fisher protected the city and harbor. This was attacked in December by naval and land forces of the northern states, but was able to defend itself.

The US Navy achieved several successes against Confederate raiders on the open sea: on June 19, the frigate USS Kearsarge sank the dreaded CSS Alabama off Cherbourg , and on October 7, the CSS Florida was in the waters of Bahia , Brazil, by the USS Wachusett conquered. The attacks by Confederate cruisers nevertheless continued: in August 1864, the CSS Tallahassee attacked northern merchant ships, and on October 19, the Confederates put the British-built CSS Shenandoah into service.

1865

Towards the end of the war, the blockade was so effective that only one out of two ships reached its destination. At the beginning of January 1865, an amphibious expeditionary force again attacked Fort Fisher, which this time was captured. Wilmington, the last port on the east coast of the southern states, was also blocked and was occupied by the northern states a month later. Four days before Wilmington, on February 18, 1865, the long-contested Charleston was evacuated as part of Sherman's Carolina campaign. The last amphibious operation of the war was carried out by Union forces in the Florida Panhandle on St. Marks on March 6th. Galveston, Texas fell with the surrender of E. Kirby Smith on June 2nd.

The explosion of the Sultana

In the open sea, however , the CSS Shenandoah continued to hunt down Union merchant ships. The ship under the command of James I. Waddell attacked the US whaling fleet in the Pacific in the summer and fired the last shots of the war. Waddell learned of the Confederate surrender in August from a British ship. He decided to go to England. In Liverpool, the Shenandoah, the last Confederate ship , lowered her flag on November 6, 1865 and gave up.

Shortly after the end of hostilities on the Mississippi, the worst shipping disaster in US maritime history to date occurred: the paddle steamer Sultana , overloaded with exchanged US prisoners, sank on April 27 as a result of an explosion in its boiler. An estimated 1,700 people were killed. It could never be determined whether it was an accident or an attack.

Due to the four-year-long war and its demanding blockade role, the US Navy had grown enormously, so that by the end of the war it comprised around 670 warships. The US Navy was thus considered the strongest sea power in the world.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ " The Rhode Island delegates to the Continental Congress next moved to create a Federal Navy. The Colony's General Assembly instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to introduce a resolution in favor of a continental navy. The Congress adopted this resolution, and authorized the fitting out of two vessels to interdict British trade. ". Naval History in Rhode Island ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , December 27, 2004. Accessed December 28, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nuwc.navy.mil
  2. ↑ Hannah , in: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval Historical Center, as of July 6, 2009. Accessed February 16, 2010. [1]
  3. ^ " This resolution of the Continental Congress marked the establishment of what is now the United States Navy. “, In: Establishment of the Navy, October 13, 1775 in the FAQ section of the US Navy website, cited above. according to: Journal of the Continental Congress , 13 October 1775, cit. Adapted from: William Bell Clark (Ed.): Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 2, Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office , 1966, p. 442. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  4. ↑ On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy. The Birth of the Navy of the United States , in: Frequently Asked Questions , as of October 4, 2000. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  5. ↑ It is estimated that the total damage to British shipping by American privateers was about $ 18 million by the end of the war, or just over $ 302 million in today's dollars. John Frayler: Privateers in the American Revolution . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  6. ↑ Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700 Letters of Marque, issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Nearly 800 vessels were commissioned as privateers and are credited with capturing or destroying about 600 British ships. John Frayler: Privateers in the American Revolution . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  7. ↑ cf. "Did Jones Actually Say 'I have not yet begun to fight'?" , in E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell, Dennis M. Conrad, and Mark L. Hayes: Sea Raiders of the American Revolution: The Continental Navy in European Waters , Washington, DC, Naval Historical Center, 2003, p. 47.
  8. ^ "[...] Aboard his flagship, the Bonhomme Richard, Jones led his small squadron in the capture of seven merchantmen off of the Scottish coast. On September 23, 1779, Jones fought one of the bloodiest engagements in naval history. Jones struggled with the 44-gun Royal Navy frigate Serapis, and although his own vessel was burning and sinking, Jones would not accept the British demand for surrender, replying, "I have not yet begun to fight." More than three hours later, Serapis surrendered and Jones took command. “, In: " I have not yet begun to fight ": The Story of John Paul Jones , FAQ of the US Navy , as of May 18, 2001. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  9. ^ " With the end of the Revolutionary War, followed by the establishment of a new federal government, the infant US Navy went into decline. By war's end, in 1783, the Navy was down to five ships [...] Moreover, there were virtually no roles or missions that a small American navy could realistically be expected to play in the mid-1780s. ". Global Security: The Continental Navy . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  10. ^ "[...] and American independence was officially recognized with the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Congress demobilized the Continental Army, and the Navy was essentially forgotten. “ Naval Station Newport : History - After the Revolution ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Accessed May 28, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nsnpt.navy.mil
  11. ↑ cit. Adapted from: Christopher Hitchens: To The Shores Of Tripoli , TIME Magazine , July 5, 2004. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  12. ^ " The second development, less specific but more pertinent to the need for a navy, was the recovery of American maritime commerce. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  13. ^ " It wasn't long before the need for a new Navy was realized. America's small merchant fleet was being molested on the high seas. Pirate attacks upon American commerce in the Mediterranean and Caribbean further accentuated the need for a navy. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  14. ^ " The Constitution, as any student of United States knows, provided for a much more robust central government, subsuming many of the powers previously retained by the states. Among these was the power to tax, and now the federal government had the means of providing for military forces. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  15. ^ " They were to be of a new design - longer and more heavily armed than traditional frigates. They possessed a combination of firepower and speed. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed May 28, 2008.
  16. ^ " In response to the obvious need for an executive department responsible solely for, and staffed with persons competent in, naval affairs, Congress passed a bill establishing the Department of the Navy. President John Adams signed the historic act on April 30, 1798. Benjamin Stoddert, a Maryland merchant who had served as secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolution, became the first secretary of the navy. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed May 29, 2008.
  17. ^ " Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert realized that the navy possessed too few warships to protect a far-flung merchant marine by using convoys or by patrolling the North American coast. Rather, he concluded that the best way to defeat the French campaign against American shipping was by offensive operations in the Caribbean, where most of the French cruisers were based. Thus at the very outset of the conflict, the Department of the Navy adopted a policy of going to the source of the enemy's strength. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed June 7, 2008.
  18. ^ " When Stoddert became secretary in June 1798, only one American naval vessel was deployed. By the end of the year a force of twenty ships was planned for the Caribbean. Before the war ended, the force available to the navy approached thirty vessels, with some 700 officers and 5,000 seamen. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed June 7, 2008.
  19. ^ A b c d Department of the Navy : Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Wounded in Wars, Conflicts, Terrorist Acts, and Other Hostile Incidents . Accessed June 7, 2008.
  20. ^ " Congress, in a cost-cutting mood, adopted the Peace Establishment Act, which kept the frigates but eliminated construction of the ships of the line and drastically reduced the officer corps. Adams could have left this naval legislation to the new Jeffersonian Republican administration, which won the fall 1800 elections, but reasoned that the Jeffersonians might make even deeper cuts. In one of his last duties as president, he signed the act on March 3, 1801. “Global Security: The Federalist Navy 1787-1801 . Accessed June 7, 2008.
  21. ↑ cf. Christopher Hitchens: To The Shores Of Tripoli . Accessed June 7, 2008.
  22. ↑ [...] the most memorable of which was that by Captain Isaac Hull in USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") over HMS Guerriere. Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed July 31, 2008.
  23. ↑ Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's brilliant success in the Battle of Lake Erie placed the Northwest Territory hrmly under American control and sent the Nation's morale soaring. Another fleet victory by Commodore Thomas Macdonough on Lake Champlain turned back a British invasion from Canada. Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed July 31, 2008.
  24. ↑ Patterson's small naval squadron so delayed and harassed the advancing British with ship gunfire that General Andrew Jackson was enabled to prepare his defenses and gain the historic New Orleans victory. Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed July 31, 2008.
  25. ↑ “ The US Navy, greatly increased in size after the War of 1812, was able to send an entire squadron, led by Commodore Stephen Decatur, to the Mediterranean. ", In: Barbary Wars, 1801-1805 and 1815-1816 . US State Department Review of the History of American Foreign Policy. Accessed August 2, 2008.
  26. ^ " However, Jefferson's earlier statement that paying Barbary demands would only lead to more piracy was prophetic. By 1807, Algiers had returned to the practice of taking American ships and sailors hostage, and the United States returned to the practice of paying ransom. It was not until after the War of 1812 that the United States ceased forevermore paying tribute and ransom to the Barbary pirates, sparking the Second Barbary War. “, In: Jodie Gilmore: To the Shores of Tripoli ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The New American , April 17, 2008. Accessed August 2, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thenewamerican.com
  27. ^ " The resolution of Congress 3 March 1819 required that the 74-gun class ships building be named for States of the Union. Columbus, missed this privilege, having launched only 2 days previously. As the eight other ships-of-the-line neared completion, their names were determined by lot. The names drawn were Alabama, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia. All except Pennsylvania were largely complete by 1825. The policy was to have the 74s in readiness to launch and fit out as national interests might require. As a result, New York and Virginia never launched. Alabama (renamed New Hampshire in 1863) and Vermont were not commissioned until the Civil War when they served as huge floating naval depots for the Federal Blockading Squadron at Port Royal, SC. [...] The remaining seven warships were designed and built under directions of William Doughty. ". Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed August 4, 2008.
  28. ^ " William Doughty introduced the extreme type of clipper bow into large-sailing warships of the US Navy. "Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed August 4, 2008.
  29. ^ " From 1815 to 1840, the Navy continued to expand its sailing fleet. In fact, more than 74 sail warships were built during this period. "Global Security: The War of 1812 . Accessed August 4, 2008.
  30. ^ " The Congress first prohibited the foreign slave trade in an act effective January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted under the Constitution. Smugglers continued to transport enslaved Africans into the United States, and the Congress responded with a succession of acts intended to stop this illegal traffic. The act of 1819 was the first to grant the President significant authority to enforce the prohibition and was the first act to provide for the return to Africa of the illegally enslaved individuals. Earlier acts deferred to state laws, some of which permitted the pubic [sic] auction and enslavement of the newly-arrived Africans. “ Anti-Slave Trade Act of 1819 , after: Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789-1873 , Volume 3, pp. 532ff., 1845. Accessed August 4, 2008.
  31. ↑ cf. Naval History FAQ , August 7, 1996. Accessed August 4, 2008.
  32. ^ " On August 26, 1839, the officers of the US brig Washington made a shocking discovery: they found a Spanish slave schooner lying at anchor near Montauk Point, New York, clearly in distress. “ US Navy FAQ : The US Navy and the Amistad , March 31, 1998. Accessed August 5, 2008.
  33. ↑ US Navy FAQ : Operations Against West Indian Pirates 1822-1830s , March 31, 1998. Accessed August 5, 2008.
  34. ^ " As for the Navy, Jesup had no inclination of employing them as a major part of his force. During his first campaign, he employed almost the entire strength of the West Indies Squadron to search the Everglades and scour the river inlets. With the exception of one Navy detachment operating in the Everglades, he relegated the rest of Commodore Alexander Dallas's squadron to patrolling the coast and intercepting Cubans smuggling arms to the Seminoles. Dallas later claimed he found no evidence that such a smuggling operation existed. " American Military Strategy During The Second Seminole War , John C. White, Jr., 1995
  35. ^ " These features propelled the United States Navy into an Indian war that required commanders to employ naval assets against the nearly inaccessible enclaves of the Seminoles. [...] ", American Military Strategy During The Second Seminole War , John C. White, Jr., 1995
  36. ↑ US Navy FAQ : Mexican War 1846-1848 Campaign Streamer , July 15, 1996. Accessed August 11, 2008.
  37. ↑ a b cf. The Blockade , Ohio State University. Accessed August 20, 2008.
  38. ↑ a b James M. McPherson: Die für die Freiheit , p. 370.
  39. ↑ " The blockade tightened Gradually, HOWEVER, as the United States steadily added more ships to the effort. Union forces also replaced the original blockaders on the outskirts of Apalachicola with ships easier to maneuver and equipped with more firepower. Union navy officers also learned how to deploy smaller boats capable of moving around in the shallow bay while the large blockade ships remained on the perimeter. ", From: Sharyn Kane and Richard Keeton: Fort Benning: The Land and The People , chapter 16. Fort Benning, 1998. Accessed August 20, 2008.
  40. ↑ James M. McPherson: Die for Freedom , p. 538.
  41. ↑ Bernd G. Längin: The American Civil War , p. 253