Part 18
The little force that Congress was enabled to detach for that service--their limited means of annoyance--the treachery and ferocity of their barbarous antagonists, created a deep responsibility in the officers, and conspired to introduce a system of masculine intrepidity, severity of discipline, and promptitude of obedience, of which, even to the present hour, we reap the benefits. The treachery of our opponents taught our men to be ever on the alert, and their cruelty made them bold and resolute, even to rashness. Knowing how much was expected, and how scanty were their means, they supplied every deficiency by skill and courage. Contempt of danger was so rigidly enforced, that when one of our subordinate officers showed symptoms of fear in an engagement, and was tried by a court martial, the commodore assigned for his acquittal, a reason no less curious than just: viz., that the bare supposition that one coward existed on board of the American fleet was, of itself, a greater injury than the condemnation of this man could possibly be a benefit, _as it would establish the fact_. The British squadron in the Mediterranean minutely watched the movements of our little fleet for the purpose of sarcasm and jest. Their sarcasms were, however, soon converted into expressions of warm admiration. Amidst such a band of brave and kindred spirits, our young midshipman learned to smile at danger, while he grew familiar with it, and felt his ideas expanded and enlarged. Returning to the United States, in July, 1807, he obtained a lieutenancy on board the frigate Chesapeake, where he remained until June, 1810, when he was appointed acting lieutenant on board the schooner Enterprize, to cruise on the coast, and to enforce the embargo laws. In this service he remained till 1810, when he was appointed to carry dispatches to our minister at the court of Great Britain. For a short time after his return, he served in the John Adams, from which he was transferred to the Argus, as first lieutenant. On the 5th of April, 1812, he married the daughter of William Vaughan, Esquire, of Norfolk, Virginia. He had no sooner entered that happy state, than he was obliged to relinquish the sweets of domestic life for the hardier scenes of battle. War was declared against England, and he, with all speed, repaired to New York, to rejoin the vessel from which he had been furloughed, and to his mortification, found that she had already sailed. Commodore Chauncey, being on the eve of departing on a secret and novel expedition, to which he cordially assented, had applied to the proper department to receive his instructions. Lieutenant Elliott was immediately appointed to the command on Lake Erie, and received orders to repair thither, with all possible dispatch, purchase what private vessels he could, build two ships of twenty guns, and as early as possible have his fleet in readiness to meet that of the enemy. Lieutenant Elliott, aware of the importance of the command of the lakes in our war against Canada, and the difficulty and delay which would attend the building of the vessels, to say nothing of the expense, had purchased some vessels, but was much embarrassed with the difficulty in getting up the Niagara, and into the lake. After revolving in his mind all these obstacles, he formed the resolution of boarding and capturing two British brigs-of-war, called the Detroit and Caledonia, lying under the protection of the batteries of Fort Erie.
He accordingly embarked in two boats, with fifty men in each, and put off from the mouth of Buffalo creek, and at one o’clock in the morning came along side of the enemy.
He boarded, and captured the two vessels, and secured all the prisoners in ten minutes. Unfortunately the wind was not strong enough to enable him to make head against the rapid current in the lake. He was compelled to anchor opposite the enemy’s forts, within four hundred and fifty yards of their batteries, exposed to a heavy and incessant fire of round, grape and canister shot, from a number of pieces of heavy ordnance, and their flying artillery.
The Caledonia was, however, beyond the reach of the enemy’s guns, under one of the batteries at Black Rock. Lieutenant Elliott ordered all the guns of the Detroit to be mounted on one side, whence he kept up a constant fire against the enemy’s batteries as long as his ammunition lasted. He determined then to drop down the river out of reach of their cannon, and make a stand against the flying artillery. At this instant, he discovered, for the first time, that his pilot had deserted him. He, however, cut the cable, and falling astern, made good his way to Square Island. He sent the boarding boat ashore with the prisoners, himself and four others only remaining in the Detroit, directing the officer to return for him, and what property they might be able to save from the brig.
The officer was unable to return on account of the rapidity of the current. At length, discovering a skiff under the stern, he made for the shore in her with the remaining part of the crew.
During all this time, an incessant fire was kept up from both sides of the river, on the brig.
She received twelve shots of large dimensions in her bends, her sails were reduced to ribbons, and her rigging cut to pieces. Finding all attempts to carry off the Detroit were unavailing, he dismantled her of all her ordnance and stores, and set her on fire. The Caledonia was found to be a vessel belonging to the Northwest Company, loaded with peltry. Lieutenant Elliott’s party consisted of one hundred men. He was fortunate enough to capture one hundred and thirty prisoners with their officers, and to release from captivity forty of his own countrymen, belonging to the fourth United States regiment. Lieutenant Elliott, on boarding, opposed three of the enemy with no other weapon than his cutlass. During the hottest of the fire from the batteries, a cannon shot passed through, and striking a large silver wedge deposited in a trunk belonging to one of the officers, bent it double. This wedge is still preserved as a curiosity. As a proof of the gallantry displayed in this exploit, Congress presented to Lieutenant Elliott a splendid sword, with suitable emblems and devices, in testimony of the just sense entertained by that body, of his gallantry and brave conduct in boarding, and capturing the British brigs Detroit and Caledonia, while anchored under the protection of Fort Erie.
Shortly after this brilliant exploit, Lieutenant Elliott joined Commodore Chauncey at Sacket’s Harbor, and proceeded with six schooners, in quest of the enemy’s fleet. The next day he fell in with the Royal George, and followed her into Kingston channel, where he engaged her and the batteries for an hour and three-quarters, and determined to board her in the night, but from adverse winds, the pilot refused to take charge of the vessels; and the commodore was reluctantly compelled to forego his determination. Lieutenant Elliott, shortly after, was promoted over thirty lieutenants to the rank of master-commandant, and having the command of the Madison in Commodore Chauncey’s fleet, in the preparation for the attack on York, Upper Canada, he discovered that the ships could not be brought into action from the shoalness of the water. He asked, and obtained the commodore’s permission to lead the small vessels employed in covering the troops while they were landing and attacking the batteries. The troops under General Dearborne, amounting to seventeen hundred men, were embarked on board Commodore Chauncey’s fleet, and arrived at York, while the squadron taking a position to the westward and southward of the fort, covered the debarkation of the troops. The riflemen landed under a heavy fire, and seven hundred regulars, with one hundred Indians, marched to oppose the landing of the American army. General Pike, with seven hundred men, having effected a landing, routed the enemy, and pushed direct for the principal batteries. At this time the enemy blew up his magazine, and during the confusion precipitately retreated. Thirty-eight of our men were killed by this explosion, amongst whom we have to lament the gallant Pike, and two hundred and thirty were wounded. The town surrendered by capitulation, and Captain Elliott was appointed by Commodore Chauncey to see that the articles were carried into execution on the part of the navy.
In the beginning of August, 1813, Captain Elliott was directed to proceed to Lake Erie and take the command of the Niagara, under the orders of Commodore Perry. The battle of Lake Erie, which resulted in the capture of the entire fleet of the enemy, was fought on the 10th of September following. Of the conduct of Captain Elliott on this occasion, it will suffice to state here, that Commodore Perry, in his official account of the battle, dated September 13th, said, “Of Captain Elliott, already so well known to the government, it would be almost superfluous to speak. In this action he evinced his characteristic bravery and judgment, and since the close of the action has given me the most able and essential assistance.”
Let the highest authority known to our laws speak for themselves, on this occasion. Congress passed the following resolution:--“Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to cause gold medals to be struck, emblematic of the action between the two squadrons, and to be presented to Captain Perry and to Captain Jesse Elliott, in such manner most agreeable to them,” &c. (_See_ Plate XI.)
In October following, Commodore Perry left the lake service, and Captain Elliott succeeded him in the command of the naval forces on Lake Erie. On this station he did not remain long, but at his own request, he obtained the command of the sloop-of-war Ontario. Peace with Great Britain being proclaimed, Captain Elliott, in the Ontario, joined the squadron which sailed in the spring of 1815 to the Mediterranean to exact reparation from the Barbary powers for injuries to our commerce. This service being performed, he returned to his own country and remained with his own family until 1817. From that time until 1824 he was employed as one of the commissioners to examine the coast of the United States. From 1825 to 1827, with a promotion to captain in the navy, he commanded the United States ship Cyane, cruising on the coasts of Brazil and Buenos Ayres, to protect our commerce in that quarter. Captain Elliott’s next appointment in 1829, was to the command of the squadron on the West India station, consisting, besides the Peacock, of five sloops-of-war and two schooners. On this station he remained three years. In 1833 he was appointed to the charge of the navy yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1835 he sailed for the Mediterranean to take command of the squadron there; and during the several years spent in that service, he visited some of the most interesting parts of the world, of Italy, Greece, Constantinople, Palestine, Egypt, &c. &c., at the same time making collections of such objects of curiosity as would add to the interest of our institutions. After several years’ absence from the United States, he returned, and in November, 1844, was appointed to the command of the Philadelphia navy yard. His health soon after began to decline, and he died on the 10th of December, 1845. Commodore Elliott was a strict disciplinarian, yet his personal friends can bear unequivocal testimony to the amiability of his deportment in his intercourse through life. The excellence of his private character was never called in question. His correspondence at different times with the functionaries of foreign governments, was highly creditable to him. He possessed much useful knowledge, the result as well of his own observation as of his reading.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.
To Captain Jesse Duncan Elliott, of Baltimore, second in command, for gallantry in the action on Lake Erie. Decreed January 6th, 1814.
OCCASION.--Victory on Lake Erie.
DEVICE.--Bust of Captain Elliott.
LEGEND.--Jesse D. Elliott, nil actum reputans si quid supresset agendum.
REVERSE.--A fleet engaged.
LEGEND.--Viam invenit virtus aut facit.
EXERGUE.--Inter class Ameri. et Brit. Die 10th Sept., 1813.
LIEUT. WILLIAM BURROWS.
William Burrows was born at Kenderton, near Philadelphia, on the 6th of October, 1785. His father was wealthy, and not wishing to confine the genius of his son to any particular pursuit, apprehending that his wealth was amply sufficient to the support of his son in the style and character of a gentleman, he was accordingly left principally to his own guidance, dallying with books as he would with toys, regarding them rather as matters of amusement than as objects of serious concern.
Knowing how essential to the character of a gentleman it was to become familiar with the living languages, his father warmly exhorted him to turn his attention to them; in this he but partially succeeded. To the French language he betrayed an insurmountable reluctance. In the acquisition of German, Burrows was more successful, and at the age of thirteen years he could converse in that language with great fluency. This may be considered as the broad outline of his early years, as far as regards those pursuits which often have an important bearing in the formation of the future character of the man. In a boy so amiable, so retiring and reserved, little did his parents dream that the flame of ambition had ignited that bosom, and was burning strong and intense. This passion, which he had guarded with such scrupulous and jealous care, was discovered by his father by an incident which afforded an outlet to those passions which had so long occupied his musing and solitary hours. He was receiving instructions in drawing, but none seemed to arrest the attention of Burrows but the delineation of a ship of war. With astonishment and regret his father discovered the cause of his contemplations in retirement, and that indifference which he discovered to his allotted studies and pursuits. He labored to give his ambition another turn, but so deeply rooted was his passion for ocean chivalry, that his efforts were unavailing; he, therefore, found it best to lend his aid towards the gratification of a passion he was incapable of repressing, and accordingly seconded his application to the Secretary of the Navy for an appointment, and Burrows was appointed a midshipman in November, 1799. He now devoted his hours to the study of navigation, but the requisite proficiency could not be made in so short a time, for in January, 1800, he received orders to repair on board the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, Captain McNeil, bound to France.
The Portsmouth did not return to the United States for nearly a year. Burrows now became sensible of the necessity of becoming better acquainted with his preparatory studies, and obtained a furlough for the purpose of applying himself to the science of navigation with renewed ardor. From 1800 to 1803, he served on board different ships of war, in cruises, some of a longer and some of a shorter date, unimportant as far as regards the glory of the navy. This was, notwithstanding, a necessary school, which prepared him for more important services.
In the year 1803 he was transferred to the frigate Constitution, bound to the Mediterranean, commanded by Commodore Preble. This officer, famous for his sagacity in the discernment of character, soon discovered in our young midshipman, under a cold and repelling exterior, a character of noble and intrepid daring, waiting only a proper season to burst forth in all its resplendence. Under these impressions, Burrows was appointed an acting lieutenant, in which character he served during the war with Tripoli. In 1807, Lieutenant Burrows returned from the Mediterranean, and in the following year he was attached to the Philadelphia station, and employed in the bay and river Delaware, as commander of gun-boat No. 119. It became then his duty to enforce a rigid observance of the embargo law. In a service at once so delicate and invidious, he exhibited traits of character by which he was enabled to make a painful duty an amusement. The inhabitants found, while the laws of the Union were enforced, that this was done from higher and more honorable motives than personal hostility towards them. His moments of relaxation from duty were sedulously devoted to the acquisition of their confidence and good-will, and to render the obligations imposed upon him, by duty, less painful, irritating and severe. Alternately preventing the least infractions of the law, and then becoming, at their tables, a hospitable guest, he was enabled to conciliate the esteem, while he rigidly enforced the duties of his office. In 1809 he joined the President under Captain Bainbridge. From this ship he was transferred to the sloop-of-war Hornet, as first lieutenant, under Captain Hunt. In a dangerous and heavy gale, his brother officers have reported that, by his superior skill and intrepidity as an officer, the ship and the crew were both preserved from what they deemed inevitable destruction. In 1812 he found his circumstances were embarrassed, and that it was indispensable to extricate himself in the best possible way. He accordingly applied for a furlough, which was granted, and he went on board the merchant-ship, Thomas Penrose, from Philadelphia, bound to Canton, under the command of Captain Ansley. On the return passage the ship was captured and carried into Barbadoes; Lieutenant Burrows arrived in the United States in June, 1813.
Soon after his return, Lieutenant Burrows took the command of the United States sloop-of-war Enterprise, and left the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 5th of September. On the following day he fell in with his Britannic majesty’s brig Boxer, mounting sixteen eighteen pound carronades and two long nine pounders. The Boxer fired a shot as a challenge, hoisted English colors, and immediately bore down upon the Enterprise. The American vessel was now employed in tacking and making preparations for action. Having obtained the weather-gage, she manœuvred for some time to try her sailing, and to ascertain the force of her antagonist. At length she shortened sail, hoisted three ensigns, and fired three shot in answer to the challenge. The action now grew warm; the Boxer bore within half-pistol shot of the Enterprise, and, giving three cheers, fired her starboard broadside. She was answered by three cheers and a larboard broadside from the Enterprise, and the action became general.
The Enterprise, having the advantage of the wind, ranged ahead of her enemy, rounded to on the larboard tack, and commenced a raking broadside. The enemy’s main-topsail and topsail yards came down, and the Enterprise, taking a position on the starboard bow of the Boxer, and opening a raking fire, compelled the enemy to cry for quarter. Their colors were nailed to the mast and could not be hauled down. This action lasted for forty-five minutes, during which time the Boxer received much damage in sails, rigging, spars and hull. The Enterprise had but one eighteen pound shot in her hull, one in her main-mast, and one in her fore-mast. Her sails were much cut with grape shot, and a great number of grape were lodged in her side. The Boxer had twenty eighteen pound shot in her hull, most of them at the water’s edge, with several stands of eighteen pound grape in her side. Lieutenant M’Call states our loss to have been four killed, and ten wounded.
The number killed on board the Boxer is uncertain. The same officer states, from the best information which he was able to procure, that there were, of the enemy, between twenty and twenty-five killed, and fourteen wounded.
At the very first fire, Lieutenant Burrows was mortally wounded by a musket ball. He refused, notwithstanding, to be carried below, and during the whole of the action his life’s blood was streaming on the deck. With his dying lips he requested that the flag might never be struck. When the sword of his gallant enemy was presented to him, he clasped his hands together, and exclaimed, “I am satisfied! I die contented!” He was then carried below, and expired shortly after. The bodies of Captain Blyth of the Boxer, and of Lieutenant Burrows, were conveyed to Portland and interred at the same time with all the honors due to their rank and character. Having paid the debt which they owed to their respective countries, they now slumber side by side, awaiting the day of the resurrection together. The following resolution was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress.
“_Resolved_, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:
“That the President of the United States be requested to present to the nearest male relative of Lieutenant Burrows, of the brig Enterprise, a _gold medal_, (_see_ Plate XI.,) with suitable emblems and devices, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress, of the gallantry and good conduct of the officers and crew, in the conflict with the British sloop Boxer, on the 4th of September, 1813.”
It is rare to find a character more distinctly defined than that of Lieutenant Burrows. He could accommodate himself to the circumstances in which he was placed, and suspend the exercise of a darling passion, when the season would not admit of its indulgence. His heroism maintained a long and obstinate contest with the king of terrors, and he was only cold and insensible to the charms of glory, when he was invested with the coldness and insensibility of death. It is much to be lamented that no likeness of this distinguished young officer now exists. The mind, in cases like the present, labors to supply the defect, and to form for itself a sort of sensible image, for we never read of high and illustrious actions without associating them with a body.
MONUMENT OF BURROWS.
The following record must be read by every American, with pride and pleasure, at such an instance of liberality and honorable munificence to the memory of the brave.
A gentleman from New York, _Matthew L. Davis, Esquire_, while passing through Portland, some time since on a tour eastward, had accidentally taken a walk into the burying-ground. His attention was attracted to the neglected grave of the late Captain Burrows. The only guide to the spot, where is deposited one who had so much heroic merit, and who deserved so much of his country, was the tombstone of his deceased competitor, Captain Blyth, of the Boxer, which had been but recently erected by the surviving officers of that ship. The thought was instant. Mr. Davis immediately gave orders for an elegant marble monument to be erected over the grave of Burrows, without the sparing of labor or expense.
It was done! and its style of execution does credit to the ingenious artist, and the inscription is highly creditable to the taste, judgment, and modesty of the generous donor, and worthy the hero whom it is designed to commemorate.
THE TOMB OF BURROWS.
I saw the green turf resting cold On Burrows’ hallow’d grave; No stone the inquiring patriot told Where slept the good and brave. Heaven’s rain and dew conspired to blot The traces of the holy spot.
No flow’rets deck’d the little mound, That moulder’d on his breast, Nor rural maidens, gathering round, His tomb with garlands drest; But sporting children thoughtless trod On valor’s consecrated sod.
I mourn’d, who for his country bleeds Should be forgot so soon, That fairest fame and brightest deeds Should want a common boon. But oh! the rich have hearts of steel, And what can Penury more than feel?
At length “a passing stranger” came Whose hand its bounties shed; He bade the sparkling marble claim A tribute for the dead: And, sweetly blending, hence shall flow The tears of gratitude and woe!