U. S. Coast Guard - A Historical Overview - Part Five_48835

Military Readiness The Coast Guard, through its forefathers, is the oldest continuous seagoing service and has fought in almost every war since the Constitution became the law of the land in 1789. Following the War of Independence (1776-83), the Continental Navy was disbanded and from 1790 until 1798,imitation rolex watches, when the U.S. Navy was created, the revenue cutters were the only national maritime service. The Acts establishing the Navy also empowered the President to use the revenue cutters to supplement the fleet when needed. Laws later clarified the relationship between the Coast Guard and the Navy. The Coast Guard has traditionally performed two roles in wartime. The first has been to augment the Navy with men and cutters. The second has been to undertake special missions, for which peacetime experiences have prepared the Service with unique skills. During the Quasi-War with France (1798-99), eight cutters operated along our southern coast in the Caribbean Sea, and among the West Indies Islands.Cutters captured 18 prizes unaided and assisted in the capture of two others. The cutter Pickering made two cruises to the West Indies and captured 10 prizes, one of which carried 44 guns and 200 men, three times her own force. Augmenting the Navy with shallow-draft craft evolved out of the War of 1812 into a continuing wartime responsibility. During the opening phases of the war, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin addressed Congress. He said, "We want small, fast sailing vessels...there are but six vessels belonging to the Navy, under the size of frigates; and that number is inadequate." During the last two centuries, cutters have been used extensively in "brown water" combat. A cutter made the first capture of the war. One of the most hotly contested engagements was between the cutter Surveyor and the British frigate Narcissis. The Surveyor was captured. The British Captain wrote to Captain Samuel Travis on the following day, "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 so ably used in testimony of mine... I am at 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 defense of the cutter Eagle against the attack of the British brig Dispatch and an accompanying sloop,chanel mens watches, is one of the most dramatic incidents of the War of 1812. The cutter was run ashore on Long Island. Her guns were dragged up on a high bluff and from there the crew of Eagle fought the British ships from 9 o'clock in the morning until late in the afternoon. When they had exhausted their shot, they tore up the ship's logbook as wads and fired back the enemy's shot that lodged against the hill. During the engagement the cutter's flag was shot away three times and was as often replaced by volunteers from the crew on the hill. Finally, the British took the beached cutter with overwhelming numbers. Revenue cutters fought a tenacious riverine war (1836-39) with the Seminole Indians in Florida. Cutters attacked parties of hostile Indians, broke up their rendezvous, picked up survivors of massacres, carried dispatches, transported troops, blockaded rivers to the passage of Indian forces, and landed riflemen and artillery for the defense of the settlements. These duties covered the whole coast of Florida. At the outbreak of the Mexican War (1846-48), the Navy was once again critically short of small steamers and schooners; cutters filled the void. Here, the shallow-draft revenue steamers assisted in amphibious operations against the Mexicans by towing ashore naval craft packed with Marines and seamen. Military preparedness has never been limited to declared war. Second Lieutenant James E. Harrison, of the Revenue Cutter Jefferson Davis stationed in Puget Sound, accompanied Company C, 4th US Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter, USA, during the Indian uprising in the state of Washington in 1855. The Service had been assisting the Army throughout the Puget Sound area and Harrison was acting as second in command. On December 3, while in camp, Indians ambushed the company and killed Lt. Slaughter, placing the command of a regular army company on Lt. Harrison. He immediately rallied the company and engaged in a hot firefight to beat off the attackers. Harrison then led his company back to Fort Steilacoom, arriving on 21 December 1855. In 1858, the cutter Harriet Lane was part of a naval squadron sent to blockade Paraguay. "If any men attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Secretary of the Treasury John A. Dix telegraphed this message on the evening of January 15, 1861, attempting to retain under Federal control the cutter Robert McClellan, then lying in the port of New Orleans. As within the country, the sympathies of the cutter force were divided between the North and the South. Principal wartime duties of those cutters serving the Union were patrolling for commerce raiders and providing fire support of troops ashore; those serving the Confederacy were used principally as commercial raiders. Cutters were involved in individual actions. Harriet Lane, under the command of Captain John Faunce, fired the first naval shots of the Civil War. On 11 April 1861, she challenged the steamer Nashville with a shot across its bow (above, left). In December 1862, the cutter Hercules battled Confederate forces on the Rappahannock River. The cutter Miami carried President Abraham Lincoln and his party to Fort Monroe in May 1862, preparatory to the Peninsular Campaign. Cutter Reliance engaged Confederate forces on Great Wicomico River in Virginia in 1864. Her commanding officer was killed in the action. On April21, 1865, cutters were ordered to search all outbound ships for the assassins of the President. In the Spanish-American War, cutters fought in the Caribbean and Far East. Eight cutters, carrying 43 guns,chanel j12 black, were in Admiral William Sampson's fleet and on the Havana blockade. McCulloch, carrying six guns and manned by 10 officers and 95 crewmen, was at the battle of Manila Bay and, subsequently, was employed by Admiral George Dewey, USN, as his dispatch boat. At the battle of Cardenas, 11 May 1898, the cutter Hudson sustained the fight against the gunboats and shore batteries of the enemy side by side with the torpedo boat USS Winslow. When Ensign Bagley, USN, and half the crew had been killed and her commanding officer wounded, Hudson rescued the craft from destruction while under furious fire from the enemy's guns. In recognition of this act, Congress authorized that a gold medal be presented to Lieutenant Frank Newcomb, USRCS, a silver medal to each of his officers, and a bronze medal to each member of his crew.