Stephen Decatur

Stephen Decatur PDF Author: Spencer C Tucker
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251510X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Brave, energetic, intensely patriotic, Stephen Decatur is America's first great naval hero after John Paul Jones. His short and dramatic life is a story of triumph and tragedy told by the noted historian and author of some twenty books, Spencer Tucker. Decatur's raid into Tripoli Harbor in 1804 to burn the Philadelphia, a prized U.S. warship captured when it ran aground during the Barbary Wars, earned him international fame. An admiring Horatio Nelson described the feat as "the most bold and daring act of the age." Explaining the tremendous impact Decatur's action had on the early U.S. Navy, the author notes that it set a standard of audacity and courage for generations of future naval officers. At the age of twenty-five, Decatur was promoted to captain, becoming the youngest naval officer ever to attain that rank in the U.S. Navy. The book fully examines Decatur's astonishing achievements as it chronicles his rapid rise in the Navy, including his command of the Constitution and the United States, during the War of 1812, when he captured the British frigate Macedonian off the Azores. The book also recounts the cruise that many call his greatest triumph: Decatur sailed into the Mediterranean with a nine-ship American squadron to punish the dey of Algiers for taking American merchant shipping, securing peace with Algiers and keeping other Barbary states quiescent. Lionized by a grateful American public upon his return, Decatur offered a toast at a reception in his honor that is now legendary, "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!" In describing Decatur's life, the author also examines Decatur's relationship with James Barron, a Navy captain who fatally shot Decatur during a 1820 duel.

Stephen Decatur

Stephen Decatur PDF Author: Spencer C Tucker
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251510X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book

Book Description
Brave, energetic, intensely patriotic, Stephen Decatur is America's first great naval hero after John Paul Jones. His short and dramatic life is a story of triumph and tragedy told by the noted historian and author of some twenty books, Spencer Tucker. Decatur's raid into Tripoli Harbor in 1804 to burn the Philadelphia, a prized U.S. warship captured when it ran aground during the Barbary Wars, earned him international fame. An admiring Horatio Nelson described the feat as "the most bold and daring act of the age." Explaining the tremendous impact Decatur's action had on the early U.S. Navy, the author notes that it set a standard of audacity and courage for generations of future naval officers. At the age of twenty-five, Decatur was promoted to captain, becoming the youngest naval officer ever to attain that rank in the U.S. Navy. The book fully examines Decatur's astonishing achievements as it chronicles his rapid rise in the Navy, including his command of the Constitution and the United States, during the War of 1812, when he captured the British frigate Macedonian off the Azores. The book also recounts the cruise that many call his greatest triumph: Decatur sailed into the Mediterranean with a nine-ship American squadron to punish the dey of Algiers for taking American merchant shipping, securing peace with Algiers and keeping other Barbary states quiescent. Lionized by a grateful American public upon his return, Decatur offered a toast at a reception in his honor that is now legendary, "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!" In describing Decatur's life, the author also examines Decatur's relationship with James Barron, a Navy captain who fatally shot Decatur during a 1820 duel.

A Rage for Glory

A Rage for Glory PDF Author: James Tertius de Kay
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439119295
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Stephen Decatur was one of the most awe-inspiring officers of the entire Age of Fighting Sail. A real-life American naval hero in the early nineteenth century, he led an astonishing life, and his remarkable acts of courage in combat made him one of the most celebrated figures of his era. Decatur's dazzling exploits in the Barbary Wars propelled him to national prominence at the age of twenty-five. His dramatic capture of HMS Macedonian in the War of 1812, and his subsequent naval and diplomatic triumphs in the Mediterranean, secured his permanent place in the hearts of his countrymen. Handsome, dashing, and fearless, his crews worshipped him, presidents lionized him, and an adoring public heaped fresh honors on him with each new achievement. James Tertius de Kay is one of our foremost naval historians. In A Rage for Glory, the first new biography of Decatur in almost seventy years, he recounts Decatur's life in vivid colors. Drawing on material unavailable to previous biographers, he traces the origins of Decatur's fierce patriotism ("My country...right or wrong!"), chronicles Decatur's passionate love affair with Susan Wheeler, and provides new details of Decatur's tragic death in a senseless duel of honor, secretly instigated by the backroom machinations of jealous fellow officers determined to ruin him. His death left official Washington in such shock that his funeral became a state occasion, attended by friends who included former President James Madison, current President James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall, and ten thousand more. Decatur's short but crowded life was an astonishing epic of hubris, romance, and high achievement. Only a handful of Americans since his time have ever come close to matching his extraordinary glamour and brilliance.

Our Country, Right or Wrong

Our Country, Right or Wrong PDF Author: Leonard F. Guttridge
Publisher: Forge Books
ISBN: 1466839937
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Blazing sea fights and undercurrents of intrigue: these are among the compelling ingredients of a biography that brings to life the most illustrious and formidable figure of the United States Navy. His name is carried by more than two dozen towns and cities. Here at last is a full exploration of Stephen Decatur's complex character. Reckless in youth, cool yet audacious in combat, loved by those who sailed under his command yet plotted against by rivals in the race for glory, Decatur is brought to life in this enthralling sea story. Decatur's heroism became widespread news in 1804 when, sent to reclaim a captured U.S. vessel from Tripoli in the Barbary Wars, he ordered his men to set fire to the captured vessel and proceed to attack the sailors of the Tripoli fleet in hand-to-hand combat. His brilliance continued through the War of 1812, after which he was promoted to the highest naval rank of Commodore. Decatur not only proved dauntless on the quarterdeck but amazingly effective in Mediterranean diplomacy. His spectacular dealings with Islamic powers presaged America's twenty-first century involvement in the region. Readers will also learn the identity of the woman he forsook for a sophisticated beauty pursued by suitors as varied as Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother and Aaron Burr. Through freshly discovered documents, many official, some intensely personal, biographer Leonard Guttridge traces the elements that sped Decatur inexorably into the shadow of murder. Here, at last, is the full story of the man who raised the most memorable toasts in the history of American celebrations, when he declared in 1816 "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!" At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Life of Stephen Decatur

Life of Stephen Decatur PDF Author: Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Life of Stephen Decatur, a Commodore in the Navy of the United States

Life of Stephen Decatur, a Commodore in the Navy of the United States PDF Author: Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Admirals
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Life of Stephen Decatur, a commodore in the Navy of the United States

Life of Stephen Decatur, a commodore in the Navy of the United States PDF Author: Jared Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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The Library of American Biography: The life of Stephen Decatur

The Library of American Biography: The life of Stephen Decatur PDF Author: Jared Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Life of Stephen Decatur

Life of Stephen Decatur PDF Author: Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780795013317
Category : Admirals
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description


Scottsboro Unmasked

Scottsboro Unmasked PDF Author: Peggy Allen Towns
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1546226486
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
What is the picture of inequality? Is it race, gender, ethnicity, age, or place? Time and time again, our American history gives us the answer to that age-old question. In 1933, attorney Samuel Leibowitz argued that it was disparity in the jury pool and the innocence of nine. Sadly, the horrible malignancy of racism continues to exist and is the primary root of many prejudices and inequalities in our country today. This powerful historical narrative paints an amazing picture of the color line and the incredible bravery of people who took a stand for justice. The author resurrects the voices and the infamous case of the Scottsboro Nine. Their unmasked stories unfold against the backdrop of an economically depressed town, energized with an inferno of bigotry and violence. This groundbreaking research presents the courage of fearless men who rattled Americas conscience by challenging decades of discrimination and injustices within Alabamas legal system. On the other hand, the book reveals the sentiment of those who embraced the Old Souths ideology of inequality and exclusiveness, which put at risk the lives of nine innocent victims, young men who changed Americas judicial system. Fiat justitia rual coelomthis is Latin for Let justice be done though the heavens may fall. These are words that my grandfather, Judge James E. Horton, learned at his mothers knee. It seems he followed those wise words as he set aside the verdict and death sentence and ordered a new trial for Haywood Patterson. Though his decision cost him the next election, there were never any regrets. John Temple Graves, a Birmingham columnist, wrote of him, He does the right thing as he sees it, with no particular sense of the scene about him, but with an enormous sense of right-doing, ancestors gone and example-bound descendants to come. His social conscience is vertical rather than horizontal. We are the beneficiaries of his vertical conscience and I hope we will all strive to live by his example (Kathy Horton Garrett, Judge Hortons granddaughter).

Intrepid Sailors

Intrepid Sailors PDF Author: Chipp Reid
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511252
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Reid tells one of the greatest sea stories in the history of the U.S. Navy. Under Commodore Edward Preble, the Navy came of age fighting the scourge of the time, the infamous Barbary Pirates. Intrepid Sailors chronicles the Navy’s campaign to subdue the pirate leader of Tripoli, who declared war on the United States in 1801. After two failed campaigns, Preble took command of the U.S. squadron in the Mediterranean and served notice to world the U.S. Navy would be a force with which to reckon. Among the ships in Preble’s flotilla was a non-descript little ketch. Once a French supply boat, the ketch served Tripoli until the U.S. squadron captured her in 1803. Upon her capture, Preble incorporated the little boat into his force, re-naming her the Intrepid. She was the first ship in the United States Navy to bear the name of Intrepid and would play a central role in some of the primary feats of “Preble’s Boys.” The exploits of the officers and sailors in this campaign are the stuff of legend. In culling myth from fact, Reid went back to original sources, using the words of the men in the campaign to tell their story. Whether it is Decatur leading the daring raid to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia or the escape attempts of American prisoners in Tripoli, Intrepid Sailors brings to life a story many Americans once widely knew but that today has become little more than footnote. Unlike other books on the topic, however, Intrepid Sailors delves into the development of officers and sailors under Preble. Most were half the age of their commander and few had major combat experience. Under Preble, these men forged a legacy of professionalism to which the Navy still adheres. The book also examines one of the most famous friendships in American and Navy history – that of Decatur and Somers. Their thirst for glory and utter devotion to making the U.S. Navy a permanent, respected force inspired all around them but that quest for immortality never caused a breach in their friendship. Instead, that friendship grew stronger, providing even more inspiration. Intrepid Sailors offers a rare insight into the lives of men who today loom larger-than-life and who continue to inspire each new class of naval officer. Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers, Charles Stewart, James Lawrence, Edward Preble and a pantheon of early U.S. Navy heroes all come to life.