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taking a nice bite out of the British lion.
Keep biting! Even General Jackson says good things about the Navy, now that
Captain Lawrence won on Lake Erie. In the past Jackson would say that spending
public money on anything larger than a gunboat was just an Eastern way to
justify raising taxes and establishing banks.
Captain Lawrence kept us from being ground between the upper and lower
millstones. With our hold on
Lake Erie, the best Brock and Tecumseh can do is hold what they have at either
end, Niagara Falls and
Detroit. We can even pry them out of Detroit if General Harrison can get a few
more regulars up across
Ohio.
We could also use those regulars here against the Muskogee Nation (that's the
Creeks and Choctaws), but maybe not. If General Harrison came with them, I
don't know who would be fighting who. Harrison's regular commission outranks
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Jackson's militia one, but waving a regular commission in Old Hickory's face
is like waving a lighted torch over a barrel of turpentine. You don't want to
be anywhere close to where that's happening.
The word about what we might have to do to the south isn't good hearing. The
British have taken
Pensacola in West Florida, claiming to protect their allies (the Dons) from
French allies (us). They've also been sniffing around Mobile. God help us if
they take that and start landing shiploads of arms for the Red
Sticks' warriors.
I'm sure we could still stand them off if they came all the way north to try
us, particularly if the Cherokees hit them from behind. But the Red Sticks in
black paint are likely as not to go for Georgia, where the militia is thin as
ants in an empty jug, and the Cherokees would have to defend their own land.
We also just march south and pound the Creeks into the mud, because we don't
have enough men to do that and hold Tennessee and Kentucky the way the people
want us to. I don't know how many men would be enough for that, but we
certainly can't do it with less than four thousand, not with Jackson thinking
about his career after the war. He won't get elected governor if he lets
Indians run wild in places that haven't seen a scalping since the Revolution.
I've suggested that we muster a couple of companies of Rangers, to strike
across country into Georgia, make the Red Sticks wonder what's next, and
encourage the Cherokees. If this happens, I might be a captain of, or at least
in, one of those companies. I might volunteer anyway, and you likely won't
hear from me for some time. Still, it would beat sitting here, waiting to see
if you'll wake up with your scalp still on your head and if the next load of
whiskey is going to be worse than the last one..
This goes off tonight, toward the Ohio. I hope it reaches you before you
become even saltier, by sailing across the Atlantic. Don't stay up so late
working on the papers that you don't learn any of the French for charming the
ladies, or wear yourself out so that you can't charm even the ones who speak
English.
"
Joshua Parker to Thomas Parker, Nantes, France, September
19, 1813
Dear Brother, Your letter made me hope your undertakings prosper by land as
mine do by sea, although not all the news I send by this missive is good.
Two squadrons broke out of Boston, only days after your letter reached me. One
sailed under
Commodore Hull with
Constitution and
Chesapeake
, to trail their coat toward Halifax, and ours was the other. The British met
Hull and drove him back to port in an action where we took
Endymion and sank
Tenedos but Hull was killed. Both our frigates will also need much work, and
Commodore Stewart now commands in Boston, with Captain Perry in
Chesapeake
.
We sailed straight for France, in the strength of a ship of the line, La
Legion
(which means "legion"
although there is only one of her), four frigates, Le Malin
(which means "crafty"), United States
, President
, and
Constellation
, sloop of war
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Somers
, and no less than seventeen privateers. If our kin in
Baltimore do not hasten fitting out their ships, the New
Englanders will surely try to strip the seas bare of British sails.
Rodgers, being senior to Decatur, could not resist being the first American
commodore to fly his broad pennant in a two-decker. The man stands much on his
rank, and his dark and dour countenance well matches his choleric disposition.
However, he is a sound seaman and somewhat eased in mind and purse by the
award of prize money for bringing the
Macedonian into New York.
It also helped to have two commodores, because we could thus form two Navy
squadrons to attack the rich convoys, leaving the privateers to dispose of
single ships. The British certainly had guarded their convoys rather well
against frigates, but I do not think it was "dreamt of in their philosophies"
to see a well-found seventy-four flying American colors. As a ruse de guerre
, Rodgers also flew the British East
India Company's house flag, some of their larger ships being easily mistaken
for ships of the line.
Suffice it to say, we demolished a West India convoy, then we and
Constellation feinted at the Irish coastal trade, being now well supplied with
coffee and sugar from our prizes. For a gift of either, the Irish would gladly
supply us with information as to the whereabouts of the British Navy, so we
made a fine bag of English merchant ships and coast guard vessels, as well as
burning several shore stations.
Smugglers will go about their occasions unmolested for some time, in that part
of Ireland.
Commodore Rodgers took his portion of the squadron into Nantes, nearly losing
La Legion on a reef because the French were slow to send pilots. However, they
at once made amends, and now we at last are all safe in Nantes.
La Legion will need to be drydocked and refitted after her grounding. It is
well that she met that accident in France, for there is not a drydock in
America.
In truth, I have had no occasion to use my French to charm the ladies, and no
wish to use my prize money on those whose charms may be purchased. The ladies
of Nantes in any case mostly lack charm, and the French Navy is jealous of its
position in regard to them. (At times I think they are jealous also of
American victories over "Perfidious Albion.")
Few of us have as yet received much in specie, except for the division of the
moveable goods taken aboard our thirty-one prizes (to the Navy alone; I have
no count for the privateers) and is not being spent to repair the flagship.
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