War of 1812 

Revenue Cutter Operations and the Core Coast Guard Missions 

United States Coast Guard 

By William H. THiesen
Cementing Coast Guard Core Missions: Revenue Cutter Operations in the War of 1812 

Today, the United States Coast Guard supports nearly a 

dozen humanitarian, defense security and law enforcement 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 cutters’ service, when the fleet numbered less than twenty vessels. 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 request 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, marking 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 cutters were the only federal vessels protecting the coast, trade 

and maritime interests of the new republic. This is the reason 

for the Coast Guard’s status as the United States’ oldest, 

continuous sea service. 

Peacetime Missions of the Revenue Cutters 

The cutters were the primary defense against attempts to 

circumvent customs duties, the new nation’s only source of 

income besides the sale of public lands. 

The various peacetime tasks specifically assigned to the 

cutters included boarding incoming and outgoing vessels and 

checking their papers; sealing cargo holds of incoming vessels; and seizing those vessels in violation of the law. In addition, the cutters deterred smuggling. Some smugglers tried 

to unload their cargoes directly on shore out of sight of major 

ports, while others loaded their goods on smaller “coaster” 

vessels outside of busy harbors. The cutters interdicted this 

illegal trade by sailing out of their homeports and catching 

the smugglers operating off shore and outside the harbors. 

Soon the government assigned the service more missions not related to law enforcement including: enforcing 

quarantine restrictions; charting the local coastline; transporting official passengers and papers; and carrying supplies 

to lighthouses. During this period, rescuing or assisting 

mariners in distress on the high seas fell unofficially upon 

the revenue cutter fleet since the cutters patrolled U.S. waters 

regularly and responded to strandings and disasters at sea. 

Portrait of Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury 

and founder of the Coast Guard’s predecessor service of the 

Revenue Cutter Service (Department of Treasury). 

Pre-War Neutrality and Enforcing the Embargo 

In the 1790s and early 1800s, Great Britain and France 

fought a succession of wars that threatened American 

neutrality on the high seas. During this period, British ships 

boarded United States vessels and impressed American seamen into the Royal Navy, while French privateers preyed on 

American merchant vessels. The United States did its best to 

remain neutral, but despite these efforts, the conflict managed to draw the young nation into the struggle. During the 

late 1790s, in the Quasi War with France, revenue cutters 

comprised one-third of the American naval fleet. For much 

of the war, these heavily armed cutters served under the 

control and direction of the U.S. Navy, which Congress reestablished in 1798. This marked the first of many conflicts 

in which the revenue cutters performed combat duties. 

After the Quasi War concluded in 1800, the United 

States tried to remain neutral, but Britain and France continued to violate American sovereignty on the high seas. 

Presidents Jefferson and Madison used economic pressure to 

enforce U.S. neutrality by enacting a series of embargoes and 

trade restrictions. These included the Non-Importation Act 

(1806), Embargo Acts (1807-08), Enforcement Act (1809), 

Non-Intercourse Act (1809-1810), and Macon’s Bill Number 

2 (1810). The revenue cutters had to enforce these unpopular 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, detain 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 European 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 

dispatch the news to underway U.S. Navy vessels. 

While heavily armed American privateers and warships 

carried out a war against British ships on the high seas, a 

domestic maritime force of revenue cutters, navy gunboats 

and a few trapped American warships waged war against 

British ships stationed off the East Coast. This defensive 

force did their best to beat back British privateers, Royal 

Navy warships and the barges they deployed for shallow water operations; and this defensive force did its best to protect 

American merchant shipping. The diminutive revenue cutters 

would serve as frontline units protecting American ports and 

shipping against enemy patrols and Royal Navy squadrons. 

Patrolling the Front Lines: Commodore Barry and the 

Canadian Frontier 

During the war, revenue cutters pursued their primary 

mission of interdicting smugglers. The busiest areas for this 

mission included the Gulf Coast around New Orleans, the 

border area between Georgia and Spanish Florida, and the 

U.S. border with Canada. To deal with smuggling between 

Canada and Maine, the Treasury Department relied on cutters, such as the Commodore Barry. 

Purchased in Long Island in March 1812, the Commodore Barry began service in the spring under the command 

of Maine revenue cutter master Daniel Elliott. Over the summer months, the Barry patrolled the Passamaquoddy District 

of Maine, located along the border with Canada. The revenue 

cutter apprehended numerous smuggling vessels and brought 

them into port for adjudication by the local courts. On June 

27, 1812, Commodore Barry seized the schooner Cranberry 

for carrying British goods in Maine waters. The next day, the 

Barry escorted the Cranberry along with detained schooners 

President James Madison tried to use diplomacy and economic 

pressure to avoid open conflict, but he ultimately signed the 

declaration of war on June 18, 1812 (National Portrait Gallery). 

Theresa and Rising Sun from Eastport, Maine, back to Portland. Just a day after arriving in Portland, Commodore Barry 

detained the schooner Nymph for carrying an illegal cargo. 

By August 2, 1812, the revenue cutter had apprehended five 

smuggling vessels and, five days later, a local court adjudicated the cases of three more vessels seized by the Barry for 

carrying illegal British cargoes. 

First to Fight: Early Captures and Battles 

As they would in future American conflicts, the revenue 

cutters went in harm’s way and participated in some of the 

first encounters of the war. On June 25, 1812, Norfolkbased cutter Thomas Jefferson captured the British schooner 

Patriot bound from Guadeloupe to Halifax with a cargo of 

sugar. This was the first maritime capture during the War 

of 1812. On July 4, 1812, according to at least one source, 

cutter Surveyor also captured a British brig bound from the 

Caribbean. 

Similar to the region between Canada and Maine on the 

northern border, the frontier area between Spanish Florida 

and the State of Georgia became an area where British ships 

transferred illegal cargoes to smugglers that transported the 

goods across the U.S. border. Before and during the war, 

Amelia Island, near St. Augustine, became a center for receiving these British goods. On July 5, 1812, James Madison 

detained the British schooner Wade at Amelia Island after its 

capture by navy gunboats. The ship’s cargo included pineapples, turtles and 20,000 dollars in gold. 

Early in the war, revenue cutter master George Brooks 

armed and manned the cutter James Madison in a manner 

War of 1812 3 
similar to heavily armed American privateers. Built in 1807 

in Baltimore, the cutter James Madison originally served in 

that port before taking up station in Savannah in 1809. At 

eighty-six feet in length on deck and twenty-two feet wide, 

Madison was one of the largest of the revenue cutters. On 

July 17, 1812, Brooks announced he was departing Charleston to chase six British unescorted merchantmen up the coast 

from Jamaica and, on July 23, 1812, the Madison captured 

the 300-ton British brig Shamrock after an eight-hour chase. 

Bound from London to Amelia Island with a cargo of arms 

and ammunition, Shamrock carried six cannon and a crew of 

sixteen men. In addition, on August 1, Madison captured the 

Spanish brig Santa Rosa, near Amelia Island, and brought it 

to Savannah for adjudication. 

Under the command of former U.S. Navy captain, 

master Daniel McNeill, the cutter Gallatin also enjoyed early 

success in capturing British merchantmen bound for Spanish Florida. On August 1, 1812, Gallatin captured the British 

brig General Blake sailing from London to Amelia Island, 

and brought it to Charleston for adjudication. The British 

ship flew Spanish colors and carried an illegal cargo including African slaves. 

Commodore Barry and the Battle of Little River 

During the course of the war, revenue cutters pursued 

A modern rendering of becalmed Cutter James Madison (Coast 

Guard Collection). 

their missions in American waters despite regular patrols by 

units of the Royal Navy. For example, during the summer 

of 1812, a British squadron comprised of the 38-gun frigate 

HMS Spartan, 36-gun frigate HMS Maidstone, 18-gun brig 

HMS Indian and 12-gun brig HMS Plumper patrolled off 

the Maine coast near the Canadian border. The first battle 

pitting a revenue cutter against Royal Navy forces took place 

between the cutter Commodore Barry and elements of this 

squadron. 

By the beginning of August 1812, the Commodore Barry 

had rounded up five smuggling vessels and was escorting 

them back to the customs house for adjudication. On August 

2, Master Daniel Elliott learned of a Royal Navy patrol 

and heard distant gunfire as the British captured American 

vessels not far from his anchorage. For self-defense, Elliott 

anchored next to the American armed privateer Madison in 

the harbor of Little River, Maine, east of Machias. Anticipating a British attack, the Americans beached their vessels 

and set up shore batteries behind defenses improvised from 

cordwood. On August 3, the British sent in five armed barges 

with approximately 250 officers and men to attack the small 

American force. The British paid dearly for the attack, suffering several dead and wounded, but they carried the day. 

All but three of the cutter’s crew escaped into the 

woods, and these three cuttermen became the first POWs 

in U.S. Coast Guard history. The British took the three men 

to Halifax, where they became the first revenue cuttermen 

incarcerated at the British military prison on Melville Island. 

After the battle, the cutter’s Royal Navy captors refloated the cutter and sailed it to Saint John, New Brunswick. 

Local authorities there had been searching for a vessel to 

protect local merchant shipping from American privateers 

and purchased the Barry to fill that role. Saint John authorities fitted out the former cutter, re-named it Brunswicker and 

sailed it until July 4, 1815, when they sold the vessel. 

James Madison and Guerre de Course Tactics at sea 

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the 

French developed a naval strategy termed guerre de course 

that relied on warships and armed vessels to attack enemy 

merchant shipping. Not a mandated mission of the Treasury 

Department’s cutters during the war, only the James Madison 

pursued this strategy. To increase the offensive capability of 

the Madison, Master George Brooks added four extra cannon 

to the standard cutter armament of six guns, increasing the 

cutter’s armament to ten guns, including carronades. Brooks 

also more than tripled the cutter’s complement of fifteen men 

to support boarding operations and accommodate prize crews 

for captured vessels. Brooks had turned the Madison into 

a tool for carrying out guerre de course tactics against the 

enemy. 

On August 13, 1812, James Madison set sail on a cruise 

out of Savannah in company with privateers Paul Jones and 

Spencer, to prey on British merchantmen. By August 22, 

James Madison located a British convoy and attacked that 

night, mistaking the 32-gun frigate HMS Barbadoes for a 

large merchantman. According to reports, Brooks ordered the 

4 War of 1812 
Cutter James Madison captures the armed British brig Shamrock on July 23, 1812 (Coast Guard Collection). 

cutter to fire several guns and attempted to board the British 

frigate before realizing his mistake. For seven hours afterward, the Barbadoes chased the Madison, which jettisoned 

two guns to escape, but the wind eventually died. The frigate 

finally captured the cutter after deploying barges to tow the 

enemy warship to the cutter’s position. Barbadoes’s captain, Thomas Huskinsson, noted that he had already chased 

Madison once before and complimented the cutter on its fast 

sailing qualities. 

After the capture of the James Madison, another convoy 

escort and a ship-of-the-line, HMS Polyphemus, sent a prize 

crew of officers and twenty men on board Madison to sail the 

cutter to England. On its arrival, the Royal Navy chose not 

to take possession of the Madison and, on June 16, 1813, the 

ex-James Madison was sold to the second Earl of Belmore of 

Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. He had the masts and sails reconfigured into a brig rig, converted the cutter into an armed 

yacht and re-named the vessel Osprey. 

On October 7, 1812, James Madison’s captors formally 

designated the cuttermen as “prisoners of war” and processed 

the men for parole or internment. The British paroled the 

officers and, on November 24, 1812, the Madison’s officers 

arrived by ship at New York. The British sent nine enlisted 

men to Halifax and four of them to Boston. They placed the 

rest of the enlisted crew in prison at Chatham, England. Four 

men considered black slaves were captured with Madison as 

well as three men described as “mulatto,” who were considered free “men of color.” A member of the latter group, 

fifteen-year-old Beloner Pault of Savannah ranks as the 

youngest POW in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard. On 

May 28, 1813, Madison seaman John Barber (or Bearbere) 

died on board the British hospital ship Le Pegase at Chatham. He is considered the first Coast Guardsman to die in 

captivity. 

Law Enforcement in Wartime: Cutters Thomas Jefferson, 

Gallatin and Eagle 

During the war, the revenue cutters did not operate 

under the direction of the navy, as they had during the Quasi 

War with France. Instead, the cutters took their orders from 

the Department of Treasury through the local customs collector and the Treasury Department did not sanction high 

seas revenue cutter combat operations. Treasury still required 

cutters to enforce tariffs and trade laws, and protect American maritime commerce, so the number of enemy ships taken 

should not be the only measure of success of the wartime 

cutters. 

In addition to the Non-Intercourse Act, which was in 

force throughout the conflict, cutters had to enforce seven additional trade restrictions passed by Congress during the war. 

American shippers and ship captains would often challenge 

in court any seizures, forfeitures or detentions of ships they 

believed to be illegal or wrongful. This meant that wartime 

cutter officers and crew had to be literate and well versed in 

the fine print of these numerous trade laws. 

Built in Norfolk, Virginia, and commissioned in 1802, 

the Thomas Jefferson serves as a prime example of a revenue 

cutter enforcing federal maritime laws. The cutter served 

out of Savannah until 1809, when James Madison took up 

station there and the Jefferson returned to Norfolk. Master 

William Ham worked his way through the junior officer 

ranks, serving in Norfolk cutters as a mate starting in 1791 

War of 1812 5 
Modern watercolor showing a revenue cutter attacking a British privateer during the War of 1812 (Coast Guard Collection). 

and receiving his master’s commission in 1804. Ham commanded the Jefferson through the war and several years afterward. While the Jefferson detained many vessels entering 

the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads, the local newspapers noted only a few cases. For example, on September 2, 

1812, the Jefferson seized the brigs Ariadne and Rockland 

for carrying illegal cargoes and escorted them into Norfolk, 

Virginia. And, on January 1, 1814, the Baltimore newspaper 

reported that the Thomas Jefferson boarded the schooner 

Despatch and sent it into Norfolk for breaching the embargo. 

Built in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1807, the revenue cutter 

Gallatin sailed south to take up station at Charleston. While 

most cutters had one or, at most, two masters over the course 

of the war, Gallatin had three. Master Daniel McNeill commanded the Gallatin until August of 1812, when the Treasury Department transferred the cutter to Norfolk. In July of 

1812, Norfolk merchant captain Edward Herbert received a 

revenue cutter master’s commission and took command of 

Gallatin in August, when it arrived in Norfolk. Some of the 

highlights of Gallatin’s brief career in Norfolk included the 

August 12, 1812, release of the 12-gun schooner HMS Whiting, the first naval vessel captured in the war. Whiting was 

on a diplomatic mission at the start of the war, so American 

authorities ordered its release. On September 2, 1812, Gallatin escorted into Norfolk the ship Tom Hazard, which carried 

an illegal cargo of British goods. And, on October 10, 1812, 

Gallatin detained vessels Active, of London, and Georgiana, 

of Liverpool. Herbert remained in command of Gallatin, 

which served together with Thomas Jefferson, until Gallatin 

returned to Charleston in October 1812. 

The cutter Eagle also apprehended both British merchant ships and American merchantmen carrying illegal British cargoes. For example, On August 7, 1812, Eagle stopped 

brig Harriot of Bristol, England, and a brig from Liverpool, 

both bound for New York; and sent them into New London 

for adjudication. On October 3, 1813, Eagle apprehended 

brigs Patriot, Harriet and Ann McLane and sent them into 

New Haven laden with illegal British cargoes. 

Serving on the Southern Frontier: Battling the Smugglers 

of Barataria Bay 

Smuggling operations focused not only on the U.S. border regions of Canada and Spanish Florida, but also around 

New Orleans, a city recently acquired by the United States 

through the Louisiana Purchase. Here smugglers proved very 

aggressive and their activities verged on the piratical. 

The Treasury Department built the revenue cutter Louisiana in Baltimore to control smuggling and enforce federal 

laws on shipping flowing through the port of New Orleans. 

A Baltimore shipyard completed the cutter in December 

6 War of 1812 
of 1804 and it set sail for Louisiana that same month. The 

cutter’s master and commander, Angus Frazer, received his 

commission in 1810 and took command later that year. 

In a strange twist of fate, the Louisiana was lost in a severe hurricane on August 11, 1812. The cutter capsized at the 

port of New Orleans with the loss of all hands except Master 

Angus Frazer. On September 27, 1813, nearly a year after 

the cutter’s loss, Acting Treasury Secretary William Jones 

wrote the New Orleans customs collector, “It is not thought 

advisable during the continuance of the existing state of 

things to authorize the procuring of another Revenue Cutter . 

. . .” The New Orleans station would remain without another 

cutter until after the war. 

Despite the loss of his cutter, Captain Frazer served in 

conjunction with navy and army units to curtail waterborne 

smuggling into New Orleans. On October 10, 1812, he commanded an armed party and small boat that apprehended 

armed smugglers and their delivery boat near Barataria Bay. 

The smugglers managed to escape only to return the next 

day to capture Frazer, his men and the boat. Not bound or 

tied, Frazer and his men managed to escape the smugglers on 

Sunday night, but their captors pressed on to New Orleans 

to sell their illegal goods. A local newspaper described the 

struggle with the smugglers as “perhaps the most impudent 

daring act of smuggling, ever attempted in the U[nited] 

States”. 

Port and Coastal Security: Cutters Gallatin, 

Massachusetts and Diligence 

Under orders from the local customs collector, each 

revenue cutter took responsibility for the security of its 

homeport and surrounding coastal waters. Cutters Massachusetts, Gallatin and Diligence proved worthy examples 

of cutters securing their respective East Coast ports. Built in 

Wilmington, North Carolina, the cutter Diligence received its 

commission in 1807. The vessel was the fourth of six cutters 

to bear the name and called Wilmington home like the other 

cutters named Diligence. The cutter’s master and commander 

was Joseph Burch, an officer who received a mate’s commission in 1797 and became a revenue cutter master in 1809. He 

served as captain of Diligence throughout the War of 1812. 

Based in Charleston, South Carolina, cutter Gallatin 

patrolled, or “cruised,” the coastal waters between Savannah and Charleston and served for a time out of Norfolk, 

Virginia. On October 25, 1812, Gallatin departed Charleston 

on a cruise under newly commissioned master John Hubbard Silliman. On November 7, 1812, Gallatin joined famed 

privateer Saucy Jack to hunt the British privateer Caledonia 

off the coast of Charleston. They returned empty handed. 

On March 31, 1813, Gallatin arrived in Charleston after a 

five-day cruise from Savannah and reported to authorities 

the location of Royal Navy warships sailing off Port Royal, 

South Carolina. 

In addition to the loss of the Louisiana due to a catastrophic hurricane, human error caused the destruction of the 

cutter Gallatin. On April 1, 1813, at 11:00am in the morning, 

while Gallatin’s crew cleaned the ship’s muskets, the powder 

room exploded and blew off the cutter’s stern and quarterdeck, killing three crewmembers and seriously wounding 

five more. The cutter sank immediately at its anchorage several yards off Blake’s Wharf in Charleston Harbor. Captain 

Silliman was on shore when the accident occurred. 

Commissioned in 1801, the Massachusetts sailed under 

the command of famed Revolutionary War privateer, and one 

of the original revenue cutter captains, John Foster Williams. 

Like many of the cutters, Massachusetts was sixty feet long 

on deck and about eighteen feet wide. Massachusetts was the 

third cutter to bear the name and patrolled the port of Boston 

and local coastal area. On June 18, 1812, Treasury Secretary 

Gallatin ordered the Massachusetts dispatched to the Passamaquoddy District of Maine, near the border with Canada, 

to notify locals of the declaration of war with Great Britain. 

On May 10, 1813, the Massachusetts stopped a schooner 

carrying papers to sail for Halifax, discovered illegal correspondence and returned one illegal passenger to Boston. On 

June 24, 1814, seventy-year-old John Foster Williams died of 

natural causes while still in command of the Massachusetts. 

The British Blockade the East Coast 

Within a month of the war’s declaration, in June 1812, 

Royal Navy squadrons began patrolling off the Eastern Seaboard. There were local cases of Royal Navy blockades, such 

A War of 1812 illustration showing larger units of the Royal 

Navy supporting an attack against the U.S. mainland (Library of 

Congress). 

War of 1812 7 
as the ports in South Carolina and Georgia in November of 

1812. However, over the course of the war, the Royal Navy 

gradually tightened a blockade around all major ports along 

the nation’s East Coast. 

The British Admiralty began the blockade on November 

27, 1812, sending orders to Admiral John Warren, commander-in-chief of the North American Station, to blockade 

the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. Probably due to winter 

conditions and the cessation of the sailing season, Warren did 

not begin enforcement of the orders until February 1813. On 

February 4, a British fleet under Rear Admiral George Cockburn anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to begin a close 

blockade of the Chesapeake Bay. In response, on March 15, 

1813, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin ordered the Norfolk 

customs collector to “immediately extinguish” the lights and 

remove the lamps, oil and “other moveable apparatus” in all 

lighthouses located in the Chesapeake Bay “for the purpose 

of preventing the enemy again putting up the lights.” In the 

spring, the Royal Navy began a campaign of attacking and 

burning Chesapeake’s coastal towns, such Maryland’s Havre 

de Grace, Georgetown and Fredericktown. This campaign of 

coastal attacks and infiltration served to cut off local commerce and shipping. 

Next, on March 30, 1813, Admiral Warren extended the 

blockade beyond the Delaware and Chesapeake bays, adding 

the major American port cities of New York, Charleston, 

Port Royal (South Carolina), Savannah and New Orleans. 

By summer, the blockade closed in around Southern ports 

and, on September 15, 1813, a British officer landed at 

Ocracoke, North Carolina, under a white flag and delivered 

to the deputy customs collector a notice declaring Ocracoke 

“and all others of note to the southward of this, in a state of 

blockade.” The officer also noted that the Royal Navy had 

sealed off ports as far north as Boston. By October 17, 1813, 

the British 18-gun brig HMS Recruit also instituted a close 

blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina. 

The British in Hampton Roads and the Thomas Jefferson 

The Norfolk-based cutter Thomas Jefferson distinguished itself many times during the war, such as in April 

1813. The enforcement of a tight blockade of the Chesapeake 

Bay early in 1813 saw Royal Navy warships and their armed 

barges patrolling parts of the Hampton Roads area in search 

of unlucky American merchantmen. 

These armed barge patrols would meet their match on 

April 11, 1813, in the James River. On that day, cutter Thomas Jefferson together with a pilot boat and a contingent of 

local militiamen caught three Royal Navy barges. The armed 

barges attempted to escape up the James, but the Thomas Jefferson ran them down so fast that the flotilla hove to. Just as 

Captain William Ham was about to order his gunners to fire a 

broadside, the British commander ordered the white flag displayed and surrendered. Ham ordered the nearly sixty British 

officers and men ashore under an armed guard of about forty 

riflemen. The cutter and militiamen also repatriated the crew 

of the American merchantman Flight, captured earlier by the 

Royal Navy barges. 

Cutter Thomas Jefferson had fulfilled its mission to 

protect Americans against enemy operations. However, while 

the revenue cutters experienced successes such as these 

during the British blockade of the Chesapeake, they were 

still vulnerable to attack in waters outside the safety of their 

homeports. 

Surveyor and the Battle of Gloucester Point 

The British blockade of the East Coast had brought the 

naval war to home shores, especially in the Chesapeake Bay. 

On June 12, 1813, Captain Samuel Travis anchored the Cutter Surveyor off Gloucester Point, near Yorktown, Virginia. 

Not knowing the proximity of British naval forces to his 

cutter, Captain Travis set out a picket boat with a small crew 

and installed boarding nets around the cutter’s deck. The 

customs collector for the port of Baltimore built the cutter 

Customs flintlock pistol 

from 1810 similar to 

those used by cuttermen 

during the War of 1812 

(Coast Guard Collection). 

8 War of 1812 
Battle for the Surveyor showing the vastly outnumbered cutter crew defending their ship on June 12, 1813 (Coast Guard Collection). 

Surveyor to serve the Baltimore station and commissioned 

it in 1807; however, during the British blockade, the cutter 

served in the southern Chesapeake Bay. The cutter measured 

sixty-eight feet on deck, nineteen feet wide, and drew about 

six feet of water; and it carried a crew of about twenty-five 

officers and men, and the usual cutter armament of six sixpound cannon. 

At about midnight that evening, barges carrying a party 

of over fifty British officers and men from the 32-gun frigate 

HMS Narcissus approached through the evening haze with 

muffled oars. They managed to close within 150 yards of 

the cutter before the picket boat detected them and fired a 

warning shot. The British navigated their barges away from 

Surveyor’s main armament of six-pound carronades, rendering the cutter’s guns ineffective; so Travis armed each man 

with two muskets and ordered them to wait until the British 

rowed within about fifty yards, when he would give the word 

to fire. The Surveyor’s crew of eighteen fought stubbornly, 

killing three attackers and wounding seven more. However, 

the British boarding party managed to gain the cutter’s deck, 

overwhelmed the outnumbered crew and captured the cutter. 

The lieutenant in charge of the attacking flotilla returned 

Travis’s sword, which had been given as a sign of surrender, commending him for the valiant defense of his ship in 

the face of overwhelming enemy forces: “Your gallant and 

desperate attempt to defend your vessel against more than 

double your number excited such admiration on the part of 

your opponents as I have seldom witnessed, and induced me 

to return you the sword you had so ably used...I am at a loss 

which to admire most, the previous arrangement on board 

the Surveyor or the determined manner in which her deck 

was disputed inch-by-inch.” 

The battle of the Surveyor proved one of the most hotly 

contested revenue cutter engagements of the war. Ironically, 

on June 19, 1813, a week after the fight, the Baltimore customs collector wrote that the seven-year-old Surveyor “was 

an old vessel, scarcely worth repairing.” Within days, the 

British fleet occupying Hampton Roads would land troops at 

Hampton, Virginia, and sack the city using the captured cutter ex-Surveyor to help cover the landings. The ultimate fate 

of the gallant cutter is still unknown. 

After the battle, Captain Samuel Travis and his crew 

found themselves prisoners on board the British 44-gun frigate HMS Junon. 

Surveyor’s two officers and 16 enlisted men were sent 

to a British military prison at Halifax. Captain Travis would 

fare better, with the British paroling him at Washington, 

North Carolina, on August 7, 1813. Travis returned to Virginia after his release and lived in Williamsburg for much of 

the remainder of his life. 

War of 1812 9 
Cutter Vigilant attacks and captures the enemy privateer Dart of Block Island on October 4, 1813 (Coast Guard Collection). 

“Brown Water” Operations: Mercury Foils the Invasion 

of North Carolina 

It was during the War of 1812 that revenue cutters 

undertook new missions and established their reputation as 

effective shallow water, or “brown water,” naval vessels. 

The sailing warships of the U.S. Navy were too large to enter 

many inland waterways of the American coastline; however, 

revenue cutters were intended to catch smugglers in coastal 

waters and proved effective in navigating such areas. 

During the British invasion of the North Carolina coast, 

the revenue cutter Mercury proved the value of small maneuverable vessels in these shallow sounds and inland waterways. Homeported in the city of New Bern, North Carolina, 

Mercury was perfect for operating in North Carolina’s shallow coastal waters. The cutter’s master, David Wallace, came 

from a prominent family from the state’s Outer Banks and he 

had an intimate knowledge of the coast. By late May 1813, 

the British blockade began to encircle the Southern port cities, including Ocracoke, North Carolina. Located next to a 

channel through the Outer Banks that served as the entrance 

to North Carolina’s inland sounds, Ocracoke proved easy 

prey for British attackers. On May 21, the brazen British 

privateer Venus of Bermuda, attempted a surprise attack on 

cutter Mercury and American vessels anchored at Ocracoke. 

The local inhabitants detected the plot and raised an alarm 

10 War of 1812 

before the British privateer could spring its trap. The enemy 

raider managed to escape and searched for easier prey sailing 

offshore. 

In mid-summer a more ominous threat loomed on the 

horizon, as a Royal Navy squadron appeared off Ocracoke. 

On July 12, 1813, the cutter Mercury saved the day after the 

squadron launched a surprise attack. Fifteen armed barges, 

supporting approximately 1,000 British officers and enlisted 

men, captured two American privateer brigs, but Mercury 

managed to escape with the local customs house papers and 

bonds by “crowding upon her every inch of canvas she had, 

and by cutting away her long boat.” The British had hoped 

to take the cutter, so their barge flotilla could enter Pamlico 

Sound and capture the city of New Bern. Mercury thwarted 

those plans by outrunning the barges, sailing quickly to New 

Bern and warning city officials of probable attack by British 

troops. Mercury’s early warning allowed locals the time to 

muster the necessary army and militia forces to defend the 

city and the British reversed their invasion plans. Afterward, 

Mercury remained active in North Carolina waters. On 

November 12, 1814, the cutter captured the ship Fox, used as 

a tender by ship-of-the-line HMS Ramilles, and delivered to 

New Bern the vessel and its crew of a Royal Navy midshipman and seven enlisted men. 
Vigilant Defeats the Hated Privateer Dart 

To keep regional waters secure for American commerce also meant fighting British privateers that patrolled 

off East Coast ports and preyed on American merchantmen. 

Fights between cutters and privateers occurred regularly and 

included the battle between Vigilant and the British privateer 

Dart. 

This engagement was one of the most impressive 

captures of an enemy ship by a revenue cutter. It involved 

the sloop Dart, formerly an American ship captured by the 

British and converted into an enemy privateer. The heavily 

armed raider carried one twelve, two nine and two six-pound 

cannon, as well as four swivel guns. By October 1813, Dart 

had amassed an impressive capture record of over twenty 

American merchantmen. Similar to other cutters, the Vigilant 

measured sixty feet on deck and nineteen feet wide and carried an armament of six cannon. The cutter had a crew of 17 

and its master, John Cahoone, came from a prominent shipping family of Newport, Rhode Island. 

News of the privateer arrived in Newport on October 4, 

1813, so Captain Cahoone prepared the cutter for a fight and 

raised an armed contingent of local militia to supplement the 

cutter’s crew for boarding and sailing home any captured 

vessels. Vigilant sailed out of Newport and located Dart that 

evening off the east end of Block Island. Cahoone pursued 

the armed privateer and ordered Vigilant’s cannon fired at 

the raider. After firing his cannon, Cahoone steered the cutter 

alongside the privateer and Vigilant’s boarding party chased 

the privateer’s crew below decks and took the ship. 

Cahoone’s prize crew sailed Dart back to Newport after 

the battle. This would not be the last vessel captured by Vigilant, but it proved to be the last successful use of boarding by 

a revenue cutter in the Age of Sail. 

Cutter Operations with the United States Navy 

During the war, the Treasury Department did not officially sanction the use of cutters for combat missions against 

British convoys or ship-to-ship actions with units of the 

Royal Navy. On the other hand, revenue cutters did operate 

together with units and flotillas of the U.S. Navy. One of 

the more active cutters to operate with navy vessels was the 

New Hampshire. The Treasury Department commissioned 

the cutter in 1803 and Master William Parker Adams commanded it through most of 1812. By the end of the year, the 

Portsmouth customs collector replaced Adams with first mate 

Nathaniel Kennard, who commanded the cutter for the rest 

of the war. In 1813, the New Hampshire operated temporarily with Commodore Isaac Hull’s flotilla of USS Enterprise, 

USS Rattlesnake and two navy gunboats, based out of 

Portsmouth. On November 3, the cutter sailed out of Portsmouth with the flotilla in pursuit of two Royal Navy brigs. 

The flotilla eventually returned to port after it appeared that 

the brigs were setting a trap with an enemy frigate waiting 

offshore. In the summer of 1814, Captain Kennard commanded the cutter when, together with the navy’s Gunboat 

88, New Hampshire captured the armed tender for the British 

38-gun frigate HMS Tenedos and an American prize ship the 

War of 1812 vintage painting of a revenue cutter and British brig 

(Peabody Essex Museum Collection). 

tender had captured. 

Other cutters served temporarily with units of the U.S. 

Navy. On August 25, 1812, the General Greene and navy 

gunboats stopped and boarded the ship Superior loaded 

with illegal British goods. During the summer of 1813, the 

cutter Active sailed through the British squadron blockading 

Commodore Stephen Decatur’s flotilla of USS United States, 

USS Macedonian, and USS Hornet on the Thames River, 

near New London. Cutter Active provided force protection 

for Decatur’s warships and delivered reports, messages and 

naval intelligence between Decatur’s flotilla and authorities in New York. In April 1814, Congress recognized this 

important service partnership by passing “An Act granting 

pensions to the officers and seamen serving on board the 

revenue cutters in certain cases.” which provided pensions 

for revenue cuttermen that received wounds in connection 

with navy operations. 

Escorting Convoys on the East Coast 

One of the cutters’ primary wartime missions was to 

protect American merchantmen against marauding enemy 

privateers and Royal Navy warships. After implementation of the British blockade in 1813, this mission became 

especially important to those coasting vessels navigating the 

sounds, bays and inland waterways of the East Coast. 

A number of revenue cutters carried out the mission of 

escorting convoys of merchantmen, a revenue cutter tradition 

established during the Quasi War with France. One of these 

cutters was the Active. Purchased in 1807, the Active served 

out of New York City under the command of master Caleb 

Brewster. Eagle began convoy duties by the middle of 1813 

and escorted several convoys from Connecticut ports, such 

as New London and New Haven, to New York. Typically, 

War of 1812 11 
Active would escort vessels under cover of night and each 

convoy consisted of several coasters or merchantmen. Cutter 

Eagle, of New Haven, also kept busy escorting merchantmen 

in 1813 and 1814. Eagle’s convoys generally sailed only between New Haven and New York. The numbers within each 

of Eagle’s convoys ranged from three vessels up to twenty. 

Maritime Interdiction and the Case of the Fair American 

Unlike U.S. Navy vessels, revenue cutters regularly 

boarded merchant vessels to enforce maritime laws. This 

maritime interdiction role often exposed criminal activity, 

such as smuggling, defrauding the government and failing to 

observe federal laws and legislation. 

One such case occurred on January 22, 1814, near Sandy 

Hook, New Jersey, when a boarding party from the cutter 

Active inspected the merchant ship Fair American, which 

had special papers to sail for Liverpool, England. In what became a rather sensational story at the time, Caleb Brewster’s 

crew found eleven men with no passports concealed in the 

ship’s hold and several men of wealth disguised as seamen. 

They caught others among the crew trying to destroy illegal 

documents. Active’s boarding party found bills, orders, and 

drafts for supplying the Royal Navy and the British military 

in Canada and the West Indies and arrested a number of passengers, including two smuggled British POWs. 

Rescue Operations during the War 

During the war, the revenue cutters carried on the tradition of rescue and life saving. The revenue cutters had supported this role since the establishment of the fleet. Rescuing 

mariners in distress has always been a tradition of the sea, 

and since the revenue cutters regularly patrolled U.S. waters, 

it frequently fell upon the cutters to perform this humanitarian service. 

While revenue cutters likely performed numerous 

rescues during the conflict, newspapers and journals only 

recognized a few of them. On August 12, 1812, the crew of 

Portsmouth-based cutter New Hampshire rescued five out of 

seven American privateersmen whose small boat capsized in 

severe weather at Winter Harbor, Maine. 

In November of that year, newspapers noted a rescue 

in Philadelphia, where members of General Greene’s crew 

used axes to cut open the bow of the brig Rattlesnake, which 

had capsized during a severe storm. The cuttermen saved 

eighteen men and one boy, who all nearly died after spending four hours in chin-deep water with limited air. That same 

month, Diligence rescued survivors of the American brig 

Defiance, bound from New York to Savannah. The vessel had 

capsized in a violent storm, drowning three passengers and 

washing the vessel ashore near Wilmington, North Carolina. 

The cuttermen rescued the survivors, helped save some of 

the brig’s cargo and assisted in burying the dead. 

Master Daniel Elliott Fights on the Canadian Border 

As with Louisiana’s master Angus Frazer, Master Daniel 

Elliott continued to serve as the primary customs naval officer for his district even after the loss of his revenue cutter, 

12 War of 1812 

A rare miniature portrait of Captain Frederick Lee. This is the 

only contemporary illustration of a cutter captain known to exist 

(Madison Historical Society, Madison, Conn.). 

the Commodore Barry. 

After the capture of the Barry, Elliott took command of 

the smaller, but swift revenue boat Income, stationed out of 

Machias, Maine. By September of 1813, the newspapers reported that the revenue boat had captured a former prize ship 

captured by the British privateer Dart and sent to Halifax. 

The captured schooner had a British prize crew on board, except for one remaining American, who piloted the schooner 

through thick fog to the patrolling revenue boat. In February 

1814, while sailing off Jonesport, Maine, Elliott encountered 

the British privateer Hare of St. Johns. Elliott beached the 

Income at nearby Sawyer Cove and his crew took cover with 

small arms. An armed landing party rowed from the privateer to shore to seize the revenue boat. With the aid of local 

militiamen, Elliott’s crew killed one and wounded two of the 

British landing party before the enemy escaped back to the 

privateer. In addition, on March 4, 1814, Elliott took possession of British prize vessel Porpoise from the American 

privateer Nonsuch and sent the captured vessel to Machias 

for adjudication. 

On the Front Lines in the Great Lakes 

In the early nineteenth century, the Treasury Department 

stationed customs collectors at ports on the Great Lakes, 

such as Detroit, and Buffalo and Rochester, New York. During the war, these port cities were on the front lines of the 
Modern painting illustrating the gallant defense of Cutter Eagle (Coast Guard Collection). 

conflict between opposing forces in the U.S. and Canada. For 

example, on July 13, 1812, Genesee District customs collector Caleb Hopkins wrote from Rochester, N.Y., to Treasury 

Secretary Albert Gallatin, “The shores being lined with Soldiers has induced me to dismiss all of my Deputies . . .” 

Early in the nineteenth century, the port cities dotting the 

shores of the Great Lakes were too small to merit a revenue cutter, so most used “revenue boats,” small schooners 

generally no more than half the size of a standard revenue 

cutter. These boats became easy targets for British attacks 

on the American ports. On July 19, 1812, a British squadron 

from Lake Ontario, including the 20-gun sloop HMS Royal 

George and the 16-gun ship HMS Prince Regent entered 

Sacket’s Harbor, New York, and captured its revenue boat. 

The British kept the boat as a prize and returned the crew to 

Sacket’s Harbor. On July 21, 1812, the HMS Prince Regent 

trapped the revenue boat at Ogdensburg, New York. On 

October 6, 1812, British officers and men on barges launched 

from the HMS Royal George captured the revenue boat 

stationed near Rochester, New York. On March 15, 1814, the 

Plattsburgh (New York) Republican reported that the revenue 

boat for Lake Champlain barely escaped the powerful British 

flotilla unleashed on the lake after the winter ice thawed. 

And, in May 1814, the Oswego District customs collector 

Nathan Sage lost his revenue boat to American militia forces 

that confiscated the vessel to help defend Oswego, New 

York, against a British assault. 

Revenue Cutters Adopt an Intelligence Gathering Mission 

With naval vessels cruising at sea and naval gunboats 

often stationed in port cities, revenue cutters became an effective maritime intelligence gathering tools. They did their best 

to monitor enemy naval movements, locate British privateers, 

and provide news regarding American merchantmen. Because 

of their speed and agility, the revenue cutters proved the most 

reliable source of this naval intelligence. Revenue cutter 

captains gathered and shared this information with customs 

collectors, local officials, newspapers and military personnel. 

Of the revenue cutter masters, Active’s captain Caleb 

Brewster proved the most efficient intelligence gatherer. 

As member of a spy ring supplying enemy information to 

General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, 

Brewster had plenty of experience in gathering military intelligence. On May 26, 1813, a New York newspaper reported 

that cutter Active braved a “strong south gale” near Montauk 

Point, Long Island, to maintain surveillance of three British men-of-war about ten miles out to sea. Using local small 

craft, Captain Brewster passed the information to Commodore Stephen Decatur, whose squadron was anchored in Long 

Island Sound. Brewster continued providing military intelligence to New York officials regarding enemy naval operations until the war’s end. 

War of 1812 13 
A War of 1812 cartoon making fun of British naval defeats by American warships (Library of Congress). 

During the British blockade of Delaware Bay, the 

primary mission of cutter General Greene was to monitor 

the enemy. Built in 1810, the General Greene measured 

sixty feet on deck with a twenty-one foot width. Master 

Joseph Sawyer served as an officer on revenue cutters based 

out of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, from 1799 

until 1811, when he took command of the General Greene. 

On March 20, 1813, the Wilmington, Delaware, customs 

collector ordered General Greene to observe and report all 

activities and movements of Royal Navy forces blockading 

the Delaware Bay. On September 6, 1814, the Committee of 

Defense for the Delaware River requested Treasury Secretary George Campbell send cutter General Greene on daily 

trips to monitor enemy movements. Within two weeks, the 

Wilmington customs collector received instructions to send 

General Greene on regular reconnaissance missions in the 

Delaware Bay. While the Active and General Greene proved 

the most notable intelligence gathering revenue cutters, the 

rest of the cutters also reported important military intelligence, such as numbers and positions of enemy ships, landing of troops, and provisioning of enemy vessels. 

Gallant Defense of the Eagle 

Built in Connecticut in 1809, the cutter Eagle had a 

design similar to several wartime revenue cutters, including dimensions of sixty feet long on deck and eighteen 

feet wide, and it carried six six-pound cannon. Connecticut 

native Frederick Lee, one of the most noted revenue cutter 

captains at that time, commanded Eagle out of its home port 

of New Haven, Connecticut. On May 30, 1814, Captain Lee 

learned that the British privateer Liverpool Packet had just 

captured a locally owned sloop outside New Haven Harbor. 

Lee brought on board Eagle forty-four volunteer militiamen 

and pursued the British privateer along with another armed 

vessel. Eagle and its consort were forced to turn back after 

sighting a British frigate and two other enemy warships lying 

off the harbor. 

On October 10, 1814, news arrived in New Haven that 

a privateer in Long Island Sound had captured an American 

merchantmen. Captain Lee showed no hesitation in pursuing 

the enemy. He assembled local militia to join his cutter and 

sailed into the night to re-capture the American vessel and 

take the British vessel as well. The next morning, Lee found 

his cutter dangerously close to the 18-gun brig HMS Dispatch and a tender and managed to escape capture from enemy barges by running the cutter onto the northern shore of 

Long Island. The cutter’s crew and militia stripped the cutter 

of its sails, dragged Eagle’s cannon up the bluffs on shore 

and dueled with the British warship. After they exhausted 

their large shot, Eagle’s men tore up the ship’s logbook 

to use as wadding and fired back the enemy shot that had 

lodged in the hill. During the engagement, the British shot 

away the cutter’s flag three times, but crewmembers volunteered to replace it each time. This gun duel ended without 

a decisive outcome, however, an American captive on board 

the captured merchantman recounted that the battle badly 

damaged Eagle, which appeared to be a wreck. 

After fighting for two days, HMS Dispatch departed in 

search of reinforcements. Meanwhile, Lee patched up and 

refloated his damaged cutter. However, on October 13, the 

British gun brig and its tender returned with the 32-gun frigate HMS Narcissus. Later that day, the Royal Navy flotilla 

delivered an overwhelming force of seven armed barges, 

whose officers and men fell upon Lee’s crew and the volun14 War of 1812 
teer militia to capture the damaged cutter. Lee later commented: “The officers and crew, together with the volunteers, 

on board the cutter, have done their duty as became American sailors.” Eagle was the last cutter lost during the war. 

New Cutter Mission: Transporting Military Cargoes 

Best suited to swiftness and agility, revenue cutters 

provided a multi-mission platform during the war. Beside 

their primary mission of law enforcement and their newly 

adopted combat missions, the cutters also delivered sensitive 

military papers, naval dispatches and treaties. For example, 

in February 1815, the general in command of American 

forces in New York sent cutter Active out to sea with papers 

from Secretary of War James Monroe notifying the blockading British squadron that a peace treaty had been signed and 

hostilities were at an end. 

The cutters also transported high-ranking government 

officials and military personnel. For example, between August 8 and 9, 1812, Cutter Diligence transported Major General Thomas Brown and his staff between Wilmington, North 

Carolina, and his headquarters at nearby Smithville. On November 5, 1812, newspapers reported that General William 

Hull, governor of Michigan Territory, used a revenue cutter 

for local travel before his military defeat at the hands of British forces. In addition, on July 30, 1813, cutter Mercury carried New Bern militia officers to the Outer Banks to identify 

islands suitable for erecting new fortifications. 

Peace Treaty and Conclusion of the War 

Early in the nineteenth century, correspondents had to 

communicate by ship or the slower overland routes, so the 

process of ending the war took months. On Christmas Eve, 

1814, representatives of the United States and Great Britain 

signed the peace treaty, the Treaty of Ghent, at a ceremony in 

Ghent, Belgium. However, in North America the war continued in full effect until February 1815. 

In the period between the treaty’s signing in Ghent and 

President Madison’s final signature nearly two months later, 

other developments took place. On January 8, 1815, the 

Americans commanded by General Andrew Jackson defeated 

a large British army in the Battle of New Orleans. This was 

the last major land engagement of the war. On February 4, 

1815, Congress passed “An Act to prohibit intercourse with 

the enemy, and for other purposes,” requiring the revenue 

cutters to enforce yet another trade restriction aimed at cutting off illegal trading with the enemy. On February 11, the 

18-gun sloop HMS Favorite delivered the peace treaty to 

New York City under a white flag, however, the war did not 

officially conclude until President Madison signed the treaty 

on February 16, 1815. 

War’s Aftermath and the Way Forward 

Over the course of February and March 1815, word 

spread that the war had ended. On March 3, 1815, Congress 

repealed “the acts prohibiting the entrance of foreign vessels 

into the waters of the United States,” thereby rescinding 

many of the trade restrictions imposed before and during the 

The illustration “The Peace” drawn after the conclusion of the 

war (Library of Congress). 

war. In May, Treasury Secretary Alexander Dallas began the 

process of rebuilding the depleted revenue cutter fleet, writing the New York customs collector about building one or 

more schooner-rigged cutters to replace those lost in the war. 

Multi-Mission Revenue Cutters in War and Peace 

In the early 1790s, the revenue cutters served primarily 

as a maritime law enforcement fleet, carrying out Alexander 

Hamilton’s mission to protect American commerce, enforce 

U.S. trade laws and tariffs, and interdict maritime smuggling. Over the course of the decade, the law enforcement 

role expanded to include enforcing quarantine restrictions, 

facilitating the operation of lighthouses and, unofficially, 

conducting rescue operations. In addition, the Quasi-War 

with France in the late 1790s demonstrated the effectiveness 

of heavily armed cutters in high seas combat operations and 

convoy escort duty. 

Before the War of 1812, the revenue cutters already 

served a multi-mission role in service of the federal government. Nevertheless, the war solidified the cutters’ law 

enforcement and defense readiness roles and added new 

missions, including port and coastal security, brown-water 

combat operations, intelligence gathering and several new 

naval support missions.✦

War of 1812 15 
Revenue Cutter Operations and the Core Coast Guard Missions 

For information contact: 

U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office 

Commandant (CG-09224) 

U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters 

2100 Second Street SW 

Washington, DC 20593 

Mural image from the Coast 

Guard Academy showing 

the defense of Cutter Eagle 

(Coast Guard Collection). 

War of 1812