Not a tale, though perhaps another miracle, is what happened only two days ago. A French ship of the line and a frigate sailed through the blockading squadron and entered Boston Harbor.
It seems that Their Lordships of the Admiralty feared our attacking the convoys that feed Wellington's army in Spain. I believe this has happened, and certainly many New England merchant ships that were once licensed to carry cargoes to Spain have been withdrawn, captured, blockaded, or even turned into privateers to prey on the commerce that they once carried!
However, the French supposed that the British might be weakening the blockade off the French naval ports, and ventured to send out a squadron of ships of the line, to raid the West Indies convoys. The British met and engaged them a week out from Bordeaux, taking two ships of the line and the supply vessels. A frigate was lost at sea.
The two French crews we have with us are scurvy-ridden, and not in a good state of discipline. However, the ships themselves are soun
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Thomas Parker to Joshua Parker, a camp near the Virginia line, late June, 1813
Salty Brother, It looks as if you are taking nicely to the sea and the Navy is 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 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.
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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 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.").