While there is no intention of entering into an examination of the causes of the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1812, yet in order to carry out the design of the author to show that in this war,—like all others in which the government of the United States has been engaged,—the negro, as a soldier, took part, it is deemed necessary to cite at least one of the incidents, perhaps the incident, which most fired the national heart of America, and hastened the beginning of hostilities.

The war between England and France gave to the American merchant marine interest an impetus that increased the number of vessels three-fold in a few years; it also gave command of the carrying trade of the West Indies, from which Napoleon's frigates debarred the English merchantmen. In consequence England sought and used every opportunity to cripple American commerce and shipping. One plan was to deprive American ships of the service of English seamen. Her war vessels claimed and exercised the right of searching for English seamen on board American vessels. During the year 1807, the English Admiral Berkeley, in command of the North American Station, issued instructions to commanders of vessels in his fleet to look out for the American frigate Chesapeake, and if they fell in with her at sea, to board her and search for deserters, as all English seamen in the American service were regarded by England. With the instructions, were the descriptions of four sailors, three negroes and one white man, who were missing.

The persons who deserted from the Melampus, then lying in Hampton Roads, were William Ware, Daniel Martin, John Strachan, John Little and Ambrose Watts. Within a month from their escape from the Melampus, the first three of these deserters offered themselves for enlistment, and were received on board the Chesapeake, then at Norfolk, Va., preparing for sea. The British consul at Norfolk, being apprized of the circumstance, wrote a letter to the American naval officer, requesting the men to be returned. With this request, the officer refused to comply, and the British lost no time in endeavoring to procure an order from the American government for their surrender. On receipt of the application, the Secretary of the Navy ordered an examination into the characters and claims of the men in question. The examination resulted in proof that the three negroes, Ware, Martin and Strachan were natives of America. The two former had "protections," or notarial certificates of their citizenship;[8] Strachan had no "protection," but asserted that he lost it previous to his escape. Such being the circumstances, the government refused to give the men up, insisting that they were American citizens, and though, they had served in the British navy, they were pressed into the service and had a right to desert it.

The Chesapeake was one of the finest of the frigates in the American Navy, and after receiving an outfit requiring six months to complete at the Gosport Navy Yard, at Norfolk, Va., started for the Mediterranean. The English frigate Leopard, which lay in the harbor at Norfolk when the Chesapeake sailed, followed her out to sea, hailed her and sent a letter to her commander, Commodore James Barron, demanding the surrender of the deserters. Barron sent a note refusing to comply with the demand, whereupon the Leopard fired several broadsides into the Chesapeake. Barron struck his colors without firing a shot, and permitted the officers of the Leopard to board his vessel and search her. The British captain refused to accept the surrender of the Chesapeake, but took from her crew the three men who had been demanded as deserters; also a fourth, John Wilson, a white man, claimed as a runaway from a merchant ship.

The white sailor, it was admitted by the American government, was a British subject, and his release was not demanded; he was executed for deserting the British Navy. Of the negroes, two only were returned by the British government, the other one having died in England. Says an American historian:

Nearly four years elapsed before the final settlement of the Chesapeake affair, and then the English government insisted upon its right to, and issued orders for the search for British sailors to be continued; thus a cause for quarrel remained.

The principal grounds of war, set forth in a message of the President to Congress, June 1st, 1812, and further explained by the Committee on Foreign Relations, in their report on the subject of the message, were summarily:

On these grounds, the President urged the declaration of war. In unison with the recommendation of the President, the Committee on Foreign Relations concluded their reports as follows:

War was declared by Congress on the 17th of June, and proclaimed by the President on the second day following.

The struggle was principally carried on upon the water, between the armed vessels of the two nations, consequently no great armies were called into active service upon the field. This was indeed fortunate for America, whose military establishments at the time were very defective. Congress called for twenty thousand men, but a very few enlisted. The President was authorized to raise fifty thousand volunteers and to call out one hundred thousand militia for the defence of the seacoast and frontiers; but officers could not be found to nominally command the few thousand that responded to the call; which state of affairs was no doubt largely due to the opposition to the war, which existed in the New England States.

Since the peace of 1783, a class of marine merchants at the North had vied with each other in the African slave trade, in supplying the Southern planters. Consequently the increase in negro population was great; in 1800 it was 1,001,463, and in 1810, two years before war was declared, 1,377,810, an increase of 376,347. Of the 1,377,810, there were 1,181,362 slaves, and 186,448 free. Of course their increase was not due solely to the importation by the slave trade, but the aggregate increase was large, compared with the increase of the white population for the same period.

The free negroes were mainly residents of the Northern States, where they enjoyed a nominal freedom. They entered the service with alacrity; excluded from the army, they enlisted in the navy, swelling the number of those who, upon the rivers, lakes, bays and oceans, manned the guns of the war vessels, in defense of Free Trade, Sailor's Rights and Independence on the seas as well as on the land. It is quite impossible to ascertain the exact number of negroes who stood beside the guns that won for America just recognition from the maritime powers of the world. Like the negro soldiers in the Revolutionary war who served with the whites, so the negro sailors in the war of 1812 served in the American Navy; in the mess, at the gun, on the yard-arm and in the gangway, together with others of various nationalities, they achieved many victories for the navy of our common country. The best evidence I can give in substantiation of what has been written, is the following letter from Surgeon Parsons to George Livermore, Esq., of the Massachusetts Historical Society:

Dr. Parsons had reference to the following correspondence between Captain Perry and Commodore Chauncey, which took place in 1813, before the former's victory on Lake Erie. As will be seen, Perry expressed dissatisfaction as to the recruits sent him to man the squadron then on Lake Erie, and with which he gained a decisive victory over the British fleet, under command of Capt Barley:

Commodore Chauncey then rebuked him in his reply, and set forth the worth of the negro seaman:

The battle of Lake Erie is the most memorable naval battle fought with the British; of it Rossiter Johnson, in his "History of the War of 1812," in the description of the engagement, says:

It was not left to Commodores Chauncey and Perry, solely, to applaud them; there was not an American war vessel, perhaps, whose crew, in part, was not made up of negroes, as the accounts of various sea fights prove. And they are entitled to no small share of the meed of praise given the American seamen, who fought and won victory over the British. Not only in the Navy, but on board the privateers,[9] the American negro did service, as the following extract will show:

As in the late war of the rebellion, the negroes offered their services at the outset when volunteers were called for, and the true patriots at the North sought to have their services accepted; but the government being in the control of the opponents of universal freedom and the extension of the rights of citizenship to the negro, the effort to admit him into the ranks of the army, even in separate organizations, was futile. At the same time American whites would not enlist to any great extent, and but for the tide of immigration, which before the war had set in from Ireland, the fighting on shore would probably not have lasted six months; certainly the invasion of Canada would not have been attempted.

The reverses which met the American army in the first year of the war, slackened even the enlistment that was going on and imperiled the safety of the country, and the defences of the most important seaports and manufacturing states. Battle after battle had been lost, the invasion of Canada abandoned, and the British had turned their attention southward. The war in Europe had been brought to a close, and Napoleon was a captive. England was now at liberty to reinforce her fleet and army in America, and fears were entertained that other European powers might assist her in invading the United States. The negro soldier again loomed up, and as the British were preparing to attack New Orleans with a superior force to that of Gen. Jackson's, he sought to avail himself of every possible help within his reach. Accordingly he issued the following proclamation:

GENERAL JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO THE NEGROES.

When the news of Gen. Jackson arming the free negroes reached the North it created no little surprise, and greatly encouraged those, who, from the commencement of hostilities, had advocated it. The successes of the summer were being obliterated by the victories which the British were achieving. The national capitol was burned; Maine had virtually fallen into their hands; gloom and disappointment prevailed throughout the country. Enlistment was at a stand-still, and as the British were threatening with annihilation the few troops then in the field, it became evident that the States would have to look to their own defence. New York again turned her attention to her free negro population; a bill was prepared and introduced in the legislature looking to the arming of her negroes, and in October, a month after Gen. Jackson issued his appeal to the negroes of Louisiana, the Legislature passed a bill of which the following are the most important sections:

"An Act to authorize the raising of Two Regiments of Men of Color; passed Oct. 24, 1814.

The organization of negro troops was now fairly begun; at the South enlistment was confined to the free negroes as set forth in Gen. Jackson's Proclamation. In New York, the slaves who should enlist with the consent of their owners were to be free at the expiration of their service, as provided in the Sixth section of the law quoted above.

Animated by that love of liberty and country which has ever prompted them, notwithstanding the disabilities under which they labored, to enter the ranks of their country's defenders whenever that country has been assailed by foes without or traitors within, the negroes responded to the call of General Jackson and to that of New York, with a zeal and energy characteristic only of a brave and patriotic people. Inspired by the hope of impartial liberty, they rallied to the support of that banner which Commodore Barron lowered when he failed to protect them from British aggression, but which Commodore Decatur gallantly and successfully defended.

The forcible capture and imprisonment of Ware, Martin and Strachan, the three negroes taken from the Chesapeake, and who were recognized by the United States authorities as citizens of the republic, was sounded as the key-note and rallying cry of the war; the outrage served greatly to arouse the people. The fact that the government sought to establish the liberty of the free negroes, and the further fact that she regarded them as citizens, heightened their indignation at the outrage committed by the British, and appealed to their keenest patriotic sensibilities. New York was not long in raising her two battalions, and sending it forward to the army, then at Sacket's Harbor.

On the 18th of December, 1814, following the issuing of his Proclamation, Gen. Jackson reviewed the troops under his command at New Orleans, amounting to about six thousand, and of this force about five hundred were negroes, organized into two battalions, commanded by Maj. Lacoste and Maj. Savory. These battalions, at the close of the review, says Parton, in his Life of Jackson, had read to them by Edward Livingston, a member of Jackson's staff, the following address, from the Commander of the American forces:

Thus in line with the white troops on the soil of Louisiana, amid a large slave population, the negro soldiers were highly praised by the commanding General. The British had already made their appearance on the coast near the mouth of the Mississippi, and at the time of their landing, General Jackson went out to meet them with two thousand one hundred men; the British had two thousand four hundred. This was on the 23rd of December. The two armies met and fought to within a few miles of the city, where the British general, Pakenham, who had arrived with reinforcements, began on the 31st to lay siege. On Jan. 8th the short but terrible struggle took place which not only taxed the energies and displayed the great courage of both forces, but made the engagement one of historic interest. In the short space of twenty-five minutes seven hundred of the British were killed; fourteen hundred were wounded and four hundred were taken prisoners. The American army was so well protected that only four were killed and thirteen wounded. It was in this great battle that two battalions of negroes participated, and helped to save the city, the coveted prize, from the British. The two battalions numbered four hundred and thirty men, and were commanded by Maj. Lacoste and Maj. Savory. Great Britain also had her negro soldiers there,—a regiment imported from the West Indies which headed the attacking column against Jackson's right,—they led her van in the battle; their failure, with that of the Irish regiment which formed also a part of the advance column, lost the British the battle. The conduct of the negro soldiers in Gen. Jackson's army on that occasion has ever been applauded by the American people. Mr. Day, in Nell's "Colored Patriots of the American Revolution," says:

"From an authenticated chart, belonging to a soldier friend, I find that, in the battle of New Orleans, Major-General Andrew Jackson, Commander-in-Chief, and his staff, were just at the right of the advancing left column of the British, and that very near him were stationed the colored soldiers. He is numbered 6, and the position of the colored soldiers 8. The chart explanation of No. 8 reads thus:—'8. Captains Dominique and Bluche, two 24 pounders; Major Lacoste's battalion, formed of the men of color of New Orleans and, Major Daquin's battalion, formed of the men of color of St. Domingo, under Major Savary, second in command.'

"They occupied no mean place, and did no mean service.

"From other documents in my possession, I am able to state the number of the 'battalion of St. Domingo men of color' to have been one hundred and fifty; and of 'Major Lacoste's battalion of Louisiana men of color,' two hundred and eighty.

"Thus were over four hundred 'men of color' in that battle. When it is remembered that the whole number of soldiers claimed by Americans to have been in that battle reached only 3600, it will be seen that the 'men of color' were present in much larger proportion than their numbers in the country warranted.

"Neither was there colorphobia then. Major Planche's battalion of uniformed volunteer companies, and Major Lacoste's 'men of color,' fought together; so, also, did Major Daquin's 'men of color,' and the 44th, under Captain Baker."