# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Tattnall, James Barnwell

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​TATTNALL. (Commander, 1819. f-p., 11; h-p., 33.)
James Barnwell Tattnall was born 21 Sept. 1790.
This officer entered the Navy, in Sept. 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Leander 50, Capt. Fras. Wm. Fane, bearing the flag of Sir Andrew Mitchell at Halifax, where he continued to serve as Midshipman in the Boston 32, Capt. John Erskine Douglas, until the close of 1804. Joining, then, the Pallas 32, Capt. Lord Cochrane, he assisted in that frigate, while cruizing off the Azores, at the capture of four valuable Spanish vessels, one of the richest of which, laden with treasure, he carried as Prize-Master to Plymouth. On 6 April, 1806, while her boats with all but 40 of the crew were absent on an expedition up the Garonne, the Pallas gave chase to, and drove on shore, two corvettes and a large armed frigate-built store-ship, mounting in the whole 64 guns; and on this occasion Mr. Tattnall was the only quarter-deck petty officer left on board. In the course of the following month he witnessed the destruction of the semaphores along the French coast, and was present when the Pallas, having singly attacked the French 40-gun frigate La Minerve, in company with three 18-gun brigs, ran foul of the former in an attempt to board, and by the tremendous shock was reduced to a complete wreck. In Dec. 1806, shortly after he had been removed with Lord Cochrane to the Impérieuse 38, he was placed in charge of a prize in the ​Bay of Biscay and sent to England. On his passage, however, the vessel he was in was driven by stress of weather in a sinking state under the island of Belleisle, and was there taken possession of by a force sent for that purpose from the shore. On the following day he was sent over to Quiberon Bay, and thence marched to the dépôt at Verdun, a distance of 500 miles. At the end of 18 months he vras deprived, with all the Midshipmen then in France, of his parole and taken to Givet. Here he was placed with 1200 British seamen in close confinement in the barracks; and it was not until Dec. 1809 that, having failed in two attempts, he at length succeeded in effecting his escape in the disguise of a female and reaching Ostend; whence, through the agency of a smuggler, he was conveyed on board the British fleet. In the onsuing Jan. he passed his examination; and in May, 1810, he joined on promotion the Neptune 98, flag-ship in the West Indies of Sir Alex. Cochrane, who immediately nominated him Acting-Lieutenant of the St. Pierre 18, Capts. Flinn and Houstoun. In this sloop he returned to Portsmouth in July of the same year; and on 10 of the next Dec. he was again ordered to act as Lieutenant in the Racehorse 18, Capt. Jas. De Rippe; under whom (the appointment being confirmed 18 April following) we find him present, 20 May, 1811, when in company off Madagascar with the 36-gun frigates Astraea, Phoebe, and Galatea, at the capture (after a long and warmly-contested action with the French 40 gun frigates Renommée, Clorinde, and Néréide) of the Renommée, and, on 25 of the same month, of the Néréide and the settlement of Tamatave. Invaliding from the Racehorse about May, 1812, he was next appointed – 5 Jan. 1813, to the Portia 14, Capt. Henry Thomson, in the North Sea – 8 June, 1813, to the President 38, Capt. Fras. Mason, the boats of which ship he commanded at the capture, during the siege of St. Sebastian, of the island of Sta. Clara – and, 22 June, 1814, to the Tonnant 80, bearing the flag of Sir A. Cochrane on the coast of North America. While there he commanded the Tonnant’s boats at the destruction of Commodore Barney’s flotilla up the Patuxent; had charge of a gun-boat in the attack upon Baltimore, and again commanded the boats of the Tonnant, in company with those of a squadron under Capt. Nicholas Lockyer of th« Sophie 18, at the capture, on Lake Borgne, of five American gun-boats under Commodore Jones, which did not surrender until the British, in the course of a desperate conflict, had been occasioned a loss of 17 men killed and 77 wounded. In narrating the details of the latter very gallant affair Capt. Lockyer, in his despatch, says, “I cannot omit to mention the conduct of Lieuts. Tattnall and Roberts, of the Tonnant, particularly the former, who, after having his boat sunk alongside, got into another and gallantly pushed on to the attack -of the remainder of the flotilla.” We may add that the launch, the boat alluded to, had 16 of her crew killed and wounded. On the promotion of Capt. Lockyer Mr. Tattnall, having been the Senior-Lieutenant engaged, was ordered by Sir A. Cochrane to succeed him in the command of the Sophie. From Feb. to May, 1815, he acted as Captain of the Dictator 64 and Carron 20; and he was then placed on half-pay, without his promotion however being confirmed. At length, in March, 1819, on a partial change taking place at the Admiralty-Board, his case, without application on his part, was laid, by Sir Edw. Codrington, before Sir Geo. Cookburn, who at once placed him in acting command of the Spey 20, then on the eve of her departure for the Mediterranean. He was officially promoted 14 April following; and has not been since afloat.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 494.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1815, p. 446.