Naval Events on the Ocean

Jackson moved upon Tohopeka with about two thousand soldiers, and on the 27th of March (1814) began an assault upon the stronghold, after planting small cannon on an eminence not far off. The Indians were in a fortified pen and were hopeful. The white men could make but very little impression upon their works, and were derided by the savages. Jackson called for volunteers to storm them. The first man who stepped out was Ensign Houston (afterward the eminent Sam Houston, governor of Texas), who was already wounded. Others followed. They set fire to the fortifications, and as the inmates tried to escape, they were shot down like wild beasts. Not one would surrender, and they were butchered without mercy. At the close of the conflict, almost six hundred Creek warriors lay dead, and the spoils of victory were more than three hundred Indian widows and orphans. The nation had received a deadly blow. Its power and spirit were broken forever. The chiefs of the remnant sued for peace, and agreed to a treaty upon the terms imposed by Jackson. Weatherford, their great leader, survived the destruction of his nation, and he sought the tent of Jackson. There he found the general alone. Standing erect, his magnificent figure assuming an attitude of quiet dignity, Weatherford folded his arms and with a firm voice said: "I am in your power; do with me what you please. I have done the white people all the harm I could. I have fought them, and fought them bravely. My warriors are all gone now, and I can do no more. When there was a chance for success, I never asked for peace. There is none now, and I ask it for the remnant of my nation." Jackson admired the pluck of the chieftain before him, and granted his request. So it has been time after time since the advent of the Europeans in America; the hands of the stronger have been laid upon the weaker until now nothing but remnants of once powerful nations are found.

There were important naval events on the ocean during the year 1813. We have observed that the Essex, Captain Porter, sailed on a long cruise, in the autumn of 1812. Having missed Bainbridge, Porter went southward, crossed the Equator on the 11th of December, 1812, and the next day captured his first prize, the British packet-ship Nocton, 10, with $55,000 in specie on board. He sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, with the intention of capturing the English whalers there, and to live on the enemy. While in those waters Porter seized twelve British whale-ships, with an aggregate of three hundred and two men and one hundred and seven guns. Some of them he armed, and at one time he had a fleet of nine vessels. The Essex finally met with disaster in the harbor of Val-paraiso, in the spring of 1813. There she was blockaded, with her consort Essex, Fr. (a prize vessel which Porter had manned with sixty choice men and armed with twenty cannon), by two British war-vessels--the frigate Phoebe, 36, Captain Hillyer, and the schooner Cherub, 20, Captain Tucker. At length Porter resolved to run the blockade. The sails of his vessels were spread for the purpose on the 28th of March, 1814, and both ships started for the open sea, when a squall partly disabled the Essex and both sought shelter in a bay. There they were attacked by the Phoebe and Cherub, and one of the most desperate and sanguinary battles of the war ensued. When at last the Essex was a helpless wreck and on fire, and her magazine was threatened--when every officer but one was slain or disabled--when, of the two hundred and twenty-five brave men who went into the fight on board of her, only seventy-five effective ones remained, Porter hauled down his flag. So ended the brilliant cruise of the Essex. Her gallant commander wrote to the Secretary of War: "We have been unfortunate, but not disgraced." Porter was publicly honored as the "hero of the Pacific."

When, after the capture of the Fava, Bainbridge sailed for the United States, he left the sloop-of-war Hornet, commander James Lawrence, to blockade an English vessel in a South American port. The Hornet was driven away by a larger British vessel, and on the 24th of February, 1813, fell in with the British brig Peacock, 18, Captain Peake, off the mouth of the Demarara River. They fought desperately fifteen minutes, when the colors of the Peacock were hauled down, and a signal of distress was run up. Her commander was slain, and she was sinking. So rapidly did she fill, that before all the wounded could be taken from her, she went to the bottom of the sea, taking down with her nine British seamen and three Americans. Lawrence immediately sailed for the United States; and the story of the exploit of the Hornet created a profound sensation. A Halifax newspaper said: "It will not do for our vessels to fight them single-handed. The Americans are a dead nip." Public honors were awarded to Lawrence, and Congress gave him thanks and a gold medal. To each of the commissioned officers of the Hornet they gave a silver medal. More precious than all was a public letter of thanks given to Lawrence by the officers of the Peacock, his prisoners, for his kind and generous treatment of them.