The Revenue Cutter Service in the War of 1812

 The Revenue Cutter Service in the War of 1812

by Ed Doench

In 1790, a small fleet of revenue cutters was established at the request of Alexander Hamilton in order to enforce the legislation regarding trade and tariffs. Until the US Navy, which had been disbanded following the American Revolution, was reconstituted in 1798, the Revenue Cutter Service was the fledgling United States’ only armed maritime service.

At the onset of the War of 1812, the US Navy still constituted only six vessels, all of them frigates or smaller, with which to oppose the much larger and more powerful British Royal Navy. The Navy was thus augmented by the cutters of the Revenue Cutter Service, which was charged primarily with the defense of their local home ports and the protection of American merchant ships; this freed the frantically-expanding Navy to fight the Royal Navy further away from the American coast.

The War of 1812 provided a number of instances of bravery and resourcefulness among the Revenue Marine’s captains and crew, many of which would become part of the Coast Guard’s legend. In one of the most notable instances, the cutter Surveyor, under the command of Captain William S. Travis with a crew of 16 men and armed with six 12-pound light cannon, was anchored in the York River (in Virginia) on the night of 12 June 1813 when it came under attack by a surprise attack from the frigate HMS Narcissus, which attempted to board the Surveyor with a 90-man boarding party from an angle at which Surveyor could not bring her cannons to bear. Captain Travis armed each of his men with a pair of muskets, and they held their fire until the British boats were upon them. In the fierce hand-to-hand fighting that subsequently occurred, against 4-1 odds, only five Americans were wounded; the British suffered casualties of three dead and five wounded. British Lieutenant Cririe, who was first lieutenant of the Narcissus and was leading the attack, was so impressed by the courage of the Americans in the defense of the Surveyor that he returned Captain Travis’ sword to him after the battle, along with a note reading: “Your gallant and desperate attempt to defend your vessel…has excited such admiration on the part of your opponents as I have seldom witnessed.”

A second incident, which is probably the most famous of the Revenue Marine’s service in the War of 1812, is even today memorialized in the painting “Defense of the Revenue Cutter Eagle” on display at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. On 11 October 1814, the cutter Eagle, commanded by Captain Frederick Lee, was attempting to rescue the crew of the captured American merchant ship Suzan near Long Island, New York. The Eagle was pierced for ten guns, but only mounted two, and thus was badly outmatched by the HMS Narcissus and the HMS Dispatch, which were guarding the captured Suzan. Captain Lee ran the Eagle ashore in a narrow channel, and his crew dragged the cutter’s two cannon to the top of a 160-foot bluff overlooking the position. The battle raged all throughout the day and into the evening; when ammunition ran low, the Eagle’s crew, augmented by local militia, tore up the cutter’s logbook to use as wadding and dug British cannonballs out of the hillside to shoot back at the Dispatch. Three times during the battle, the Eagle’s flag was shot away, and each time crewmen ran down to replace it. Eventually, however, the British were able to send in boats to capture the Eagle and tow it away.

These are just two examples of the distinction with which the Revenue Cutter Service served during the War of 1812, and the War itself was just one conflict. Since its founding in 1790, the Revenue Cutter Service (and its successor, the U.S. Coast Guard) has served in some capacity in every armed conflict involving naval action in which the United States has been involved.

Source: “The Revenue Cutter Service in the War of 1812” https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/revenue-cutterservice-war-1812/