United States Coast Guard BY WILLIAM H. THIESEN War of 1812 Revenue Cutter Operations and the Core Coast Guard Missions Cementing Coast Guard Core Missions: Revenue Cutter Operations in the War of 1812 oday, the United States Coast Guard supports nearly a dozen humanitarian, defense security and law enforce- Tment missions. While the Coast Guard has adopted many of these missions over the course of its long history, several existed in the first twenty years of the revenue cut- ters’ service, when the fleet numbered less than twenty ves- sels. During the War of 1812, the revenue cutters protected American commerce and enforced trade legislation, but they also performed defense and combat missions that were essential to the war effort and adopted permanently after the conflict. Maritime Protection of the New Republic Considered the founder of the United States Coast Guard, Alexander Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789 and, on April 22, 1790, he submitted a re- quest to Congress to build sea-going vessels to enforce tariffs and trade legislation. On August 4, 1790, Congress passed Secretary Hamilton’s request for these revenue cutters, mark- ing the “birth” of the Coast Guard. This new federal maritime fleet had no official name, so officials called it “the cutters” or “system of cutters.” The fledgling federal government disbanded the Continental Navy in 1785 and Congress did not allow for a navy initially under the Constitution, so between 1790 and 1798 these cut- Portrait of Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury ters were the only federal vessels protecting the coast, trade and founder of the Coast Guard’s predecessor service of the and maritime interests of the new republic. This is the reason Revenue Cutter Service (Department of Treasury). for the Coast Guard’s status as the United States’ oldest, Pre-War Neutrality and Enforcing the Embargo continuous sea service. In the 1790s and early 1800s, Great Britain and France fought a succession of wars that threatened American Peacetime Missions of the Revenue Cutters neutrality on the high seas. During this period, British ships The cutters were the primary defense against attempts to boarded United States vessels and impressed American sea- circumvent customs duties, the new nation’s only source of men into the Royal Navy, while French privateers preyed on income besides the sale of public lands. American merchant vessels. The United States did its best to The various peacetime tasks specifically assigned to the remain neutral, but despite these efforts, the conflict man- cutters included boarding incoming and outgoing vessels and aged to draw the young nation into the struggle. During the checking their papers; sealing cargo holds of incoming ves- late 1790s, in the Quasi War with France, revenue cutters sels; and seizing those vessels in violation of the law. In ad- comprised one-third of the American naval fleet. For much dition, the cutters deterred smuggling. Some smugglers tried of the war, these heavily armed cutters served under the to unload their cargoes directly on shore out of sight of major control and direction of the U.S. Navy, which Congress re- ports, while others loaded their goods on smaller “coaster” established in 1798. This marked the first of many conflicts vessels outside of busy harbors. The cutters interdicted this in which the revenue cutters performed combat duties. illegal trade by sailing out of their homeports and catching After the Quasi War concluded in 1800, the United the smugglers operating off shore and outside the harbors. States tried to remain neutral, but Britain and France con- Soon the government assigned the service more mis- tinued to violate American sovereignty on the high seas. sions not related to law enforcement including: enforcing Presidents Jefferson and Madison used economic pressure to quarantine restrictions; charting the local coastline; trans- enforce U.S. neutrality by enacting a series of embargoes and porting official passengers and papers; and carrying supplies trade restrictions. These included the Non-Importation Act to lighthouses. During this period, rescuing or assisting (1806), Embargo Acts (1807-08), Enforcement Act (1809), mariners in distress on the high seas fell unofficially upon Non-Intercourse Act (1809-1810), and Macon’s Bill Number the revenue cutter fleet since the cutters patrolled U.S. waters 2 (1810). The revenue cutters had to enforce these unpopu- regularly and responded to strandings and disasters at sea. lar laws, that put thousands of Americans out of work. The government eventually repealed the restrictive acts, but these trade measures contributed to mounting tensions between the 2 War of 1812 United States and Great Britain. By late 1811, conflict appeared imminent and the federal government began preparations for war. In early 1812, however, President Madison and Congress tried one last time to resolve their issues with the British through diplomacy and trade restrictions. Between February and July, Congress passed five acts targeting trade with the British. These trade restrictions required the revenue cutters to board, inspect, de- tain and, when necessary, seize offending merchant vessels. War is Declared and Cutter Operations Begin After a concerted effort to maintain its neutrality, the United States could no longer avoid involvement in the Eu- ropean conflict. On June 18, 1812, President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain and the war officially began. At that time, the United States faced the Royal Navy’s 600 ships with 16 navy vessels, a fleet of small navy gunboats, 14 cutters and a number of smaller revenue boats. On the day President Madison signed the declaration of war, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin sent a one-sentence circular to all of his customs collectors, who oversaw the revenue cutters, writing, “Sir, I hasten to inform you that War was this day declared against Great Britain.” He then ordered revenue cutters stationed along the East Coast to President James Madison tried to use diplomacy and economic dispatch the news to underway U.S. Navy vessels. pressure to avoid open conflict, but he ultimately signed the declaration of war on June 18, 1812 (National Portrait Gallery). While heavily armed American privateers and warships carried out a war against British ships on the high seas, a Theresa and Rising Sun from Eastport, Maine, back to Port- domestic maritime force of revenue cutters, navy gunboats land. Just a day after arriving in Portland, Commodore Barry and a few trapped American warships waged war against detained the schooner Nymph for carrying an illegal cargo. British ships stationed off the East Coast. This defensive By August 2, 1812, the revenue cutter had apprehended five force did their best to beat back British privateers, Royal smuggling vessels and, five days later, a local court adjudi- Navy warships and the barges they deployed for shallow wa- cated the cases of three more vessels seized by the Barry for ter operations; and this defensive force did its best to protect carrying illegal British cargoes. American merchant shipping. The diminutive revenue cutters would serve as frontline units protecting American ports and First to Fight: Early Captures and Battles shipping against enemy patrols and Royal Navy squadrons. As they would in future American conflicts, the revenue cutters went in harm’s way and participated in some of the Patrolling the Front Lines: Commodore Barry and the first encounters of the war. On June 25, 1812, Norfolk- Canadian Frontier based cutter Thomas Jefferson captured the British schooner During the war, revenue cutters pursued their primary Patriot bound from Guadeloupe to Halifax with a cargo of mission of interdicting smugglers. The busiest areas for this sugar. This was the first maritime capture during the War mission included the Gulf Coast around New Orleans, the of 1812. On July 4, 1812, according to at least one source, border area between Georgia and Spanish Florida, and the cutter Surveyor also captured a British brig bound from the U.S. border with Canada. To deal with smuggling between Caribbean. Canada and Maine, the Treasury Department relied on cut- Similar to the region between Canada and Maine on the ters, such as the Commodore Barry. northern border, the frontier area between Spanish Florida Purchased in Long Island in March 1812, the Commo- and the State of Georgia became an area where British ships dore Barry began service in the spring under the command transferred illegal cargoes to smugglers that transported the of Maine revenue cutter master Daniel Elliott. Over the sum- goods across the U.S. border. Before and during the war, mer months, the Barry patrolled the Passamaquoddy District Amelia Island, near St. Augustine, became a center for re- of Maine, located along the border with Canada. The revenue ceiving these British goods. On July 5, 1812, James Madison cutter apprehended numerous smuggling vessels and brought detained the British schooner Wade at Amelia Island after its them into port for adjudication by the local courts. On June capture by navy gunboats. The ship’s cargo included pine- 27, 1812, Commodore Barry seized the schooner Cranberry apples, turtles and 20,000 dollars in gold. for carrying British goods in Maine waters. The next day, the Early in the war, revenue cutter master George Brooks Barry escorted the Cranberry along with detained schooners armed and manned the cutter James Madison in a manner War of 1812 3 similar to heavily armed American privateers. Built in 1807 their missions in American waters despite regular patrols by in Baltimore, the cutter James Madison originally served in units of the Royal Navy. For example, during the summer that port before taking up station in Savannah in 1809. At of 1812, a British squadron comprised of the 38-gun frigate eighty-six feet in length on deck and twenty-two feet wide, HMS Spartan, 36-gun frigate HMS Maidstone, 18-gun brig Madison was one of the largest of the revenue cutters.