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Proquest Dissertations NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI yyyyy u Ottawa l/Uniwrsitf'1 ammiionno C'fiisadii's umvvrshy FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES l===l FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universite canadierme Canada's university Henry Trim AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. (History) GRADE/DEGREE Department of History >7cTjlTOc"6LTblpW The Making of Stephen Decatur: A Study of Heroism and Myth Building in America TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Dr. Lofti Ben Rejeb DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE / THESIS EXAMINERS Dr. Ryme Seferdjeli Dr. Galen Perras Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The Making of Stephen Decatur: A Study of Heroism and Myth Building in America By Henry Trim Submitted to the Faculty of History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Ottawa University of Ottawa 2008 © 2008 Henry Trim Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48514-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48514-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada Abstract This thesis seeks to show how heroes are created, the role hero-making plays in the creation of national identity and how the mythology constructed around heroes affects historical memory, by examining the heroic narrative constructed around Commodore Stephen Decatur, United States Navy. Stephen Decatur became a hero during the first Barbary War in 1805, his abrupt rise to heroism was occasioned by a mix of luck, drama, partisan politics and nationalism. After his death, Decatur received very complimentary attention from nineteenth century biographers anxious to present Americans with national heroes. In the twentieth and twenty-first century Decatur remained popular, especially with American reengagement in the Middle East and the "War on Terror." Recent biographies of Decatur are of interest as they reveal the continuities and changes in the American heroic ideal over time, and how the momentum of a narrative can deeply shape our understanding of the past. 1 Acknowledgments Writing this thesis has been both and education and a pleasure. It would not have been possible, or as educating without the assistance and direction provided Dr Lotfl Ben Rejeb. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his help. I would like to thank the staff at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. for their assistance. The Inter-Library Loan Department at the University of Ottawa, whose hard work made researching my thesis possible, also deserve thanks for their efforts. Thanks to all of my peers at the University of Ottawa, whose enjoyable company made writing more difficult, but far more rewarding. Finally, I need to thank Christina Adam for her moral support and for listening to me talk about my thesis topic for over a year; I know it must have been difficult. ii The Making of Stephen Decatur: A Study of Heroism and Myth Building in America Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Introduction 2 Chapter 1: Concepts: Heroism, Nationalism, and Biography 9 Chapter 2: The Historical Context of Decatur's Rise to Heroic Status, 1798 to 1815...20 Chapter 3: Decatur from Average to Extraordinary, 1779 to 1820 30 Chapter 4: Decatur's Early Biographies and Myth Making in the Nineteenth Century...49 Chapter 5: Iconography of a National Hero in the Nineteenth Century 69 Chapter 6: Continuation of the Decatur Narrative to the Present 89 Conclusion: Heroic Mythology and History Ill Appendix 1: Chronology 117 Appendix 2: Naval Reports of the Burning of the Philadelphia by Commodore Preble, Lieutenant Stewart and Lieutenant Decatur 124 Bibliography 128 1 Introduction On March 26, 2003 Jessica Lynch, a private first class in the 507th Maintenance Company, was captured by Iraqi forces. Reports of her capture and subsequent detainment in an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriya fascinated the nation and grabbed inordinate press coverage across America.1 Then, on April 3, the Washington Post printed a story that would make her a national celebrity. Susan Schmidt and Vernon Loeb reported that despite being wounded during her unit's capture, Ms Lynch had fought on, killing a number of her attackers before finally being overpowered and cruelly stabbed by Iraqi soldiers.2 Lynch, hailed as a real life "Rambo," became a national hero. Anxious to keep the story alive, members of the George W. Bush administration pressured the military to award her a Medal of Honor. Although it later proved to be a fabrication, the story of Jessica Lynch's heroic resistance was very useful to the George W. Bush administration at the time. In the spring of 2003 the American public was beginning to question the adequacy of the invasion force. Ms Lynch's reported heroism and the "daring raid" mounted by Special Operations to rescue her distracted Americans from the larger picture of the war and demonstrated the ability and heroism of US forces in Iraq.4 The actions of March and April 2003 bear an eerie resemblance to a series of events that occurred two centuries earlier. At that time the United States was involved in the first Barbary War against the regency of Tripoli and the war was not going well. In late October 1803 American fortunes reached their nadir as one of the US Navy's most powerful warships, the Philadelphia and her crew of 308 men, were captured by the 1 Jim Yardley, "Families of Missing Hold Nervous Vigils for Loved Ones," New York Times, (March 26, 2003). 2 Susan Schmidt and Vernon Loeb, "She Was Fighting to the Death," Washington Post, (April 3, 2003). 3 Michael Delong, "Politics During Wartime," New York Times, (April 27, 2007). 4 "War News Gets Better," New York Times, (April 3, 2003). 2 Tripolitans. Then, just four months later, in February 1804, a young Lieutenant named Stephen Decatur led a daring raid into Tripoli's harbour, burned the Philadelphia under the very guns of the harbour defences and escaped without losing a single man.5 Thomas Jefferson's administration immediately seized on Decatur's heroic act to justify its handling of the war and defend its beleaguered naval policy against the attacks of Federalist critics. In support of Jefferson, and to raise flagging morale across America, newspapers published all they could about Decatur's raid, making the young man a national hero.6 Since 1804 Decatur has been immortalized in the names of numerous ships and twenty-five towns and counties across America.7 Songs, plays, biographical novels and the no less than thirteen full length biographies, four of them published since the year 2000, have been written about Decatur, and many paintings depicting him and his heroic actions have also been produced. This attention places him well within the American pantheon. Born during the American War of Independence, Decatur was a member of the second generation of Americans upon whom rested the hopes of their infant country.8 Involved in the Quasi War with France, the first and second Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, Decatur was part of many of the defining moments in early American diplomatic and military history. More importantly, Decatur's emergence as a hero and his continued 5 National Intelligencer, (Washington DC, May 23, 1804). 6 National Intelligencer, (Washington DC, May 28, 1804). 7 For a record of places named after Stephen Decatur, see Frank M. Abate, ed., American Place Dictionary: A Guide to 45,000 Populated Places, Natural Features and Other Places in the United States (Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 1994), Vol.1-4, espically Vol.3. The greatest concentration of places named after Decatur is in the Midwest, and the number of places named for him seems to have peaked during the late 1830s. Ben Birindelli in The 200 Year Legacy of Stephen Decatur, 1798-1998 (Gloucester Point ,VA: Hallmark, 1998), 75 and 141, records eight warships that have been named after Decatur, from a schooner launched in 1814 to a missile destroyer lunched in 1996.
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