These vessels were designed to be capable of taking on any pirate ship they might encounter. This act, designed to combat Barbary pirates engaged in the capture of American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, allowed for the construction of the famous six frigates, United States, President, Chesapeake, Constellation, Constitution, and Congress. Only with the passage of the Act to Provide a Naval Armament in 1794 would there be further naval shipbuilding. For nine years after the decommissioning of the USS Alliance, there were no active ships serving in the US Navy. Following the Revolution, the Navy had effectively ceased to exist. Thanks in part to the general mistrust of standing military forces during the years following the Revolution, the American Navy was still in its infancy during the War of 1812.

The US Navy was, much like the rest of the country, not prepared for the War of 1812. Despite this lack of interest the War of 1812 was an important period for the US Navy, which performed well against an opponent regarded as the best in the world.

Most historians appear to also have avoided the topic, with relatively few books on the topic being published. Even at the time of the war it was only on the periphery of the British public, whose main interest was in the massive Napoleonic Wars taking place across the English Channel. More recent and much larger wars from the past century remain at the forefront of many when thinking of their nations’ military history. The War of 1812 today tends to fall into a list of wars that are commonly forgotten by both Americans and British.

Though it was not the first conflict that the still fledgling US Navy had taken part in, the War of 1812 would be the first real test of the Navy’s mettle.

Us navy during the war of 1812