Stephen Decatur was an American naval officer. He took part in the Quasi-War, the First Barbary War, the War of 1812, and the Second Barbary War, himself reaching the rank of Commodore.
Background
Stephen Decatur was born on January 5, 1779 in a log cabin in Sinepuxent (now Berlin) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where his mother had gone during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Brought soon afterward to the family home on South Front St. , he grew up in the pleasant companionship of his elder sister Ann and his younger brothers. From childhood he was daring and a bit belligerent, if we accept stories of his dives from the tips of jib-booms and defense of his mother against a drunken ruffian at fourteen.
Education
Decatur attended the Episcopal Academy and was for over a year at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
Impatient of studies, Decatur entered the employ of Gurney & Smith, a shipping firm in Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the naval war with France he was commissioned midshipman, April 30, 1798, and sailed in July in the United States, Commodore Barry, for the West Indies, and on a second cruise in November. Aptitude and advanced age gained him quick promotion on this cruise to acting lieutenant, his commission dating May 21, 1799.
During the summer of 1799, in a quarrel arising from recruiting duty in Philadelphia, he fought with the mate of a merchant vessel the first of the two duels in which he was a principal, wounding his opponent in the hip. In the winter he sailed in the United States with the peace commissioners for France: then, after a short cruise in the Norfolk, he was again in the United States on the Guadeloupe station until the close of hostilities. There is general testimony that in these early years Decatur won the hearts of his men and maintained excellent discipline.
After but three years' service, he was appointed first lieutenant of the Essex in Commodore Dale's squadron to Tripoli (May 1801 - July 1802), and, in August 1802, to the same responsible position in the New York, Capt. James Barron, in the second squadron which sailed in September. On this last cruise, acting as second for Midshipman Joseph Bainbridge in a duel with the secretary to the governor of Malta, Decatur protected his principal against an expert opponent by insisting on a distance of but four paces. The secretary was killed, and the American participants were sent home (March 1803).
In November 1803, Decatur was again in the Mediterranean in his first command, the Argus. shifting at Gibraltar to the schooner Enterprise (12 guns). This was the year of action in the Tripolitan War under Commodore Preble, and of Decatur's rise to fame. Off Tripoli he captured the ketch Mastico (4 guns), renamed Intrepid, and proposed to Preble her use for destruction of the frigate Philadelphia, which had stranded and fallen into the hands of the Tripolitans. This exploit, in words ascribed to Nelson "the most bold and daring act of the age, " was carried out on the evening of February 16, 1804.
With her Mediterranean rig, the ketch approached within 200 yards of the Philadelphia before she was hailed. A request from the Maltese pilot Catalano to moor alongside was granted, and in a moment the Americans, eighty-one all told, were leaping aboard the frigate. Completely surprised, the Tripolitan crew were for the most part swept overboard. Combustibles were placed and fired, and in twenty minutes the boarders, with but one man wounded, were back in the Intrepid and leaving the harbor, lighted by the burning frigate and under fire from shore batteries.
For this daring and effective blow Decatur was promoted to post captain, his commission arriving six months later. Meantime, in the first bombardment of Tripoli on August 3, 1804, with six gunboats procured from Naples, he commanded one of the two divisions. In this hard-fought action Decatur with twenty-three men boarded and cleared the decks of an enemy craft with a crew estimated at thirty-six.
Learning, as he towed out his prize, that his younger brother James, in command of another boat, had been treacherously killed, he reentered the enemy line and with but ten followers leaped aboard a second vessel. In the fierce fight that followed, Decatur, armed with a cutlass, attacked the Tripolitan leader, a huge man wielding a boarding pike. The two grappled and fell. A blow directed at Decatur by another Tripolitan was foiled by a devoted sailor, Daniel Frazier, who received the blow on his own head and was severely wounded. Decatur finally killed his opponent with a pistol, fired from his pocket, just as the Tripolitan, who was uppermost, was aiming a blow with his knife. These feats of dashing leadership and personal prowess made Decatur the most striking figure of the war.
He commanded a division in the second bombardment on August 7, 1804, and in subsequent attacks. In September, after receipt of his captain's commission, he was given command of the Constitution, then overhauling at Malta, but in November was shifted to the Congress. After peace with Tripoli in the next spring, the Congress was stationed for a time off Tunis, Decatur going ashore to negotiate with the Bey, and then, in September 1805, returning to America with the Tunisian envoy.
In 1806 he commanded the gunboat flotilla in the Chesapeake, and during the next winter he was head of the Norfolk Navy Yard. In 1808 he was given charge of naval forces on the southeastern coast, hoisting his flag in the Chesapeake and later (1810) in the United States.
He was a member of the court-martial that suspended Captain James Barron in 1808 after the Chesapeake-Leopard encounter, and president of the court of inquiry in 1811 after the President-Little Belt affair. Still in the United States at the outbreak of the War of 1812, Decatur joined his squadron of three vessels with those of his senior Rodgers in New York, sailing thence on June 21 for a cruise which netted only seven prizes.
Again with Rodgers he left Boston October 8, but this time separated from the other vessels, following his preference for independent cruising, and on the 25th, near Madeira, fought the Macedonian, gaining the second of the three famous frigate victories in the first year of the war. Having a slower ship but fifty percent superiority in artillery, Decatur maneuvered with wariness and great skill, using his longer-range guns when the Macedonian held off to windward, and upon her final approach shooting away all three of her topmasts, with but slight injuries to his own vessel. The casualties were 104 British to 12 American.
The United States with her prize entered New London in December, and thence proceeded to New York, where a series of festivities celebrated the victory. Attempting to get to sea through the Sound at the close of the following May, the two ships were driven by the blockading force into New London, remaining there till the close of the war. In May 1814, Decatur, taking along his devoted ship's company, was transferred to the President in New York, where during the summer and autumn he had charge also of the naval defenses of the port.
In a heavy northeaster, on the night of January 14, 1815, the President attempted escape to sea, but grounded for two hours on the bar with injuries which cut down her speed, and next morning off Long Island ran into the British blockading force - the razee Majestic (56 guns) and frigates Endymion (40), Pomone (38), and Tenedos (38). The chase continued till nightfall, when all the pursuers had been thrown off save the Endymion. With four to three superiority of broadside, Decatur now turned on the Endymion and in two hours left her stripped of sails, though meantime the President's crew had suffered severely from the enemy fire directed at her decks.
Unfortunately at eleven p. m. the President again came in contact with the pursuers, and now surrendered without further firing, "with one-fifth of my crew killed and wounded, my ship crippled, and a more than four-fold force opposed to me. " Only the Pomone seems to have been in actual range at the time, and Mahan remarks truly that the defense should not be called "desperate" or "heroic. " Decatur himself was painfully though not seriously wounded, and the constant strain of the preceding twenty-four hours, together perhaps with a recognition that the war was virtually over, influenced his decision to avoid further bloodshed.
After weathering a severe gale the prize was taken to Bermuda. Efforts to attribute the victory to the Endymion alone were hotly resented by the Americans, who found comfort however in Admiral Cochrane's comment, "She [the President] was completely mobbed. " Decatur was soon paroled, landing in New London on February 22. The court of inquiry ascribed his capture to injuries in crossing the bar, credited him with a victory over the Endymion, and gave him the highest praise. Offered by the secretary almost his own choice of future duties, he selected command of the first squadron of nine ships which sailed from New York, May 20, 1815, to settle with Algiers for injuries which had persisted since 1812.
After an extraordinarily fast passage, the squadron reached Gibraltar June 15. On the 17th it captured the Algerian flagship Mashuda, on the 19th drove another enemy vessel ashore, and on the 28th was off the port of Algiers. Decatur sent officers ashore giving the Dey choice of war or peace on American terms. Two days later, aboard the flagship Guerriere, a treaty was negotiated, ending tribute and requiring full payment for injuries to Americans. This was sent ashore for the Dey's signature. No truce was granted, and when in the interval an Algerian vessel approached the harbor Decatur was prevented from attack only by the hasty appearance of a boat with a white flag, the prearranged signal that the treaty was signed. On this occasion the Commodore wore full uniform, his "splendid figure" enhanced by "laced coat and hat, tight cassimere pantaloons, and long boots bound at the top with gold lace and having tassels of gold in front. " This was the costume of the Sully portrait in the New York City Hall.
The squadron proceeded to Tunis and then to Tripoli, exacting payment for injuries suffered during the British war. When Bainbridge arrived with a second squadron the work was already done, a result in large measure due to Decatur's energy and prestige with the Barbary powers. Fetes and dinners again greeted his return.
From November 1815 until his death Decatur served with Rodgers and Porter on the Board of Navy Commissioners. In this administrative work, Porter declares he was "arbitrary" and "interfering, " but he could ably defend his views, as evidenced by his well-argued report favoring Norfolk as chief base in the Chesapeake. On Octobet 10, 1818, he was second to his close friend Perry in a duel with a marine officer at Weehawken. Prize money had brought him considerable wealth, which he invested largely in Washington realty, building his own home on President's Square.
Decatur's death was an aftermath of the suspension of Captain Barron. As Navy Commissioner he vigorously opposed Barron's efforts to secure reinstatement, on the ground that Barron had not made proper efforts to reenter the service in 1812. A heated correspondence, in which Decatur was correct though not conciliatory, led to Barron's challenge. The meeting was at Bladensburg, near Washington. Decatur in deference to his opponent's faulty eyesight selected the shortest distance, eight paces, and stated privately that he would aim low to avoid mortal injury. At the first exchange both fell, Barron wounded in the thigh and Decatur shot through the body.
All official Washington attended the stately funeral on March 24. The body was placed in a vault on the Joel Barlow estate near Washington, but in 1846 was removed to St. Peter's churchyard, Philadelphia, and placed beside the bodies of Decatur's parents.
Achievements
Views
Quotations:
“Our country in her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong. ”
Personality
From childhood Decatur was daring and a bit belligerent, if we accept stories of his dives from the tips of jib-booms and defense of his mother against a drunken ruffian at fourteen.
In this administrative work, Porter declares he was “arbitrary” and “interfering, ” but he could ably defend his views, as evidenced by his well-argued report favoring Norfolk as chief base in the Chesapeake.
Decatur’s attractive personal qualities are best seen in the devotion of his crews, and in his genial relations with fellow officers.
A stickler for honor, passionate for glory, he was neither braggart nor bully.
Commanding only in single-ship actions, he attained not quite the first rank among American naval leaders, but has remained a popular favorite through his stainless character, winning personality, and the brilliant exploits of Tripolitan days.
Quotes from others about the person
"Mourn Columbia! for one of thy brightest stars has set, a son without fear and without reproach. "
Connections
Decatur met his future wife, Susan, the daughter of Luke Wheeler, a wealthy merchant and mayor of the city, in Norfolk; they were married on March 8, 1806.
The Decaturs were prominent in Washington society. Childless themselves, they were devoted to the daughters of Decatur's widowed sister, Mrs. McKnight.