Life of Hiram Paulding, rear-admiral, U. S. N.

Preface

The United States of America with its extended coast line may well look to its Navy as an important factor in its existence and for its defense; and we, who enjoy the blessings won for us through stormy days of struggle, hold in appreciative remembrance the names of those who in the infancy of the republic did good and valiant service in their country's cause.

Before the memory of the old Navy is effaced by the glories of the new, and the old '4ine-of-battle-ship" is forgotten in the presence of our magnificent floating engines of war, a sketch of one of the officers of the older days may not be without interest.

The effect of the strong personality of a brave and just man, with cool head and good judgment to meet the emergencies arising in a public career, is sometimes as potent a factor in the country's hour of need as a leader in battle could be. Hiram Paulding, enrolled on his country's honor list from 1811 to 1878, was one whose vi PREFACE

career and example, whether afloat or ashore, are worth remembering.

In taking up a work of biography one asks, ^'Who was he?" '^What was he?'^ ''What did he do ? '' ''Why is his past worth recaUing?''

This book, which lays no claim to literary merit, is an attempt, on the part of his children, to tell to those who care to hear it the story of one of our public men, a chivalrous hero of the old days, ''sans peur et sans reproche,'^ whose official life is interwoven with his country^s history, whose home life was a rarely beautiful one, and whose example is worthy of imitation.

Even in these days bristling with stories of heroes of fact and fiction, of the field and of the sea, this may have interest for some who esteem faithfulness to duty a cardinal virtue.

R. P. M.

Contents

CHAPTEB

FAOB

I Hiram Paulding's Ancestors .... 1

CHAPTER I HIRAM Paulding's ancestors

The life of Hiram Paulding would be incomplete without a few words concerning his antecedents. The earliest record we have is that during the days when New York was still ^'Nieu Amsterdam '^ and when the dwellings in the town were so sparsely distributed that on Broadway at a short distance from the Bowling Green one passed orchards and gardens, one Joost Pauldinck, a cord wain er and bolter,^ came here from Holland bringing his wife Caterjna, and established himself in the city, where he remained for many years, being made a ''freeman of the city'' in 1683. He obtained with Colonel Heathcote and others a

1 As nearly as we can learn, the work of a cordwainer was that of adapting French and Spanish leather to the embellishment of walls and the covering of furniture. Bolting had to do with the sifting of flour — as we find from the "Bolter's act" which affected the flour merchants. 1 large grant of land near White Plains, and there is a record that for a time he Hved near Tarrytown and was deacon in the old church at Sleepy Hollow for a year. He was part owner in the privateer Wheel of Fortune, commanded by Abraham Van Lare. Business took him again to New York, but in 1703 and 1706 he sold out his interest there.

His sons were Abraham and Joseph and two others, names unknown. Joseph, who was admitted freeman in 1735, married Susannah White, and in 1753 removed to Tarrytown.

Previous to this he had leased a part of what was then known as the ''Commons," now City Hall Park, New York, and in 1741 established a brick-yard not far from the poor house erected there in 1736. Only two of his children grew to manhood, Pekt, or Peter, and John, born in 1758, who in 1775 was a private in a militia regiment. Peter was an ensign in the first militia regiment of this country. At the close of the war John was made major in Colonel Van Cortlandt's regiment of militia. This branch of the family are all buried at Sleepy Hollow and have tombstones in the churchyard there.

John Paulding Born 1758 — Died 1818

From a miniature

HIRAM PAULDING'S ANCESTORS 3

As John was the father of the naval officer, we follow him to his farm in Westchester County, where most of his life was spent. Militia duty in that locality was no sinecure during the Revolution, and John Paulding made his presence felt wherever active vigilance was needed, and his readiness and alertness in the capture of Major Andre showed him a man not easily deceived or Hghtly to be regarded. The story of the capture of Andre by John Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart is well known in the annals of the country. John Paulding was made prisoner several times, and narrowly escaped with his life, as his exploits had roused great hostility on the part of the Tories. At the close of the war Congress presented to each of the captors a medal v/ith the word '^Fidelity" inscribed on one side. The Paulding medal is in the possession of the descendants of the eldest son, George. Copies of the original were made for two other members of the family.

John was married three times and left a large family of children. His first wife, Sarah Teed, was the daughter of a Tory neighbor. One only of her children, Nancy, lived to mature years. The next wife, mother of Hiram, was Esther Ward, who died in 1804, leaving eight children, Hiram, the fifth child, being only seven years of age and his sister Susan an infant. Little is known of the boy's life on the farm. He often spoke of the faithful care of the old colored servant who filled as well as she could the place of mother to the motherless children till the father married again. George, the eldest of the family, was a resident of New York. His son Leonard, a naval officer of merit and distinction, is' well known in history as one of the heroes of our victories at Forts Donelson and Fisher. He was a man of charming character, brave and true, and beloved by all who knew him. He died while on service in the Pacific, at the end of a long cruise, and on the eve of promotion.

, CHAPTER 11

In an atmosphere charged with romance and patriotic aspirations, where every hill and valley has its story of love and war, at Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York, December 11, 1797, Hiram Paulding was born. Doubtless his young mind was filled with stories of the achievements of his neighbors, the militiamen, for it was his father whose good fortune it had been to be instrumental in foiling the traitor's plans; to save to us for all time the beautiful fortress of West Point; failing which a death-blow might have been given to the independence of America, and the chance of this refuge for the oppressed forever lost to the world.

At a very early age Hiram met with that greatest possible loss, the death of a good mother. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, and his educational advantages were limited to the primitive country schools of those days, but he eagerly 5 availed himself of the opportunity these afforded.

Animated with a desire to emulate the brave deeds of his father and his father's friends, he early determined to be a soldier, and application was made for admission to the Army. For some reason his application for the Army was unsuccessful, but through the kindness and influence of his friends, on the 1st of September, 1811, he received from President Madison an appointment as midshipman in the Navy, and at once began the study of mathematics and navigation under Master Gibbons, an Irish exile skilled in those sciences. He was then less than fourteen years of age. When war with England was declared, he was ordered to report for duty on the Northern Lakes, and in 1813 his official life began.

I do not believe that the parting from his home was a sad one, for the mother of the little children there was not his own mother, but there was one to whom his boy heart went out with all its fulness, for his own sister was doubtless heart-broken to have her brother exposed to the hardships incident to a sailor's life in time of war. In a package brown with age, long after, when in the fulness of years Hiram Paulding had been called to his reward, the writer found the endorsement, in a youthful hand, ^^ Letters from Sue," and these letters tell not only of the deep sisterly affection, but of loving appreciation of all the kindnesses he had shown her.

The young midshipman, v/ith orders to report to the schooner Thompkins at the scene of the war, stood upon the banks of the Hudson, with a small trunk containing his meager outfit. The steamer Fulton , which in those days made her passage to Albany in forty-eight hours, had passed up the river during the night, but the watchman who had promised to call him had failed to, and, as a week would elapse before the return trip of the Fulton^ he availed himself of an oyster-boat which was passing up the river and was landed at Albany. Thence he took stage to Utica, where he found a friend in the Drum Major of a marching regiment who was endeavoring to reach his command, and together they secured places in a country wagon which was conveying the mail to the Army. This ride over corduroy roads was always vivid in Hiram Paulding's recollection. When within about forty miles of Sackett's Harbor, where he was to join Commodore Chauncey's squadron, the roads became obstructed by supply wagons and other maUriel for the Army. So the mail bags were thrown across the back of the horse and the wagon was abandoned. Fortunately, about this time Colonel Tuttle with his marching regiment was overtaken and the midshipman's trunk was placed in the Colonel's baggage wagon. Noticing his extreme youth and delicate appearance, the officers of the command urged him to take place beside it, but with boyish vanity he deemed it beneath his dignity as an ^'officer," and insisted on marching with the regiment.

The enemy were expected to land at any moment at Sackett's Harbor and Colonel Tuttle's regiment was moving to the front as rapidly as possible. At the end of the day thirty miles had been covered, and when, late at night, they went into camp, the young midshipman was invited by the officers to join them in a meal which was secured for them in a pubUc house near by. Young Hiram seated himself at table, but from that moment until the sun was high the next day he was unconscious of all that happened, for when the tired boy fell asleep at table, his friends had placed him comfortably in bed. He arose hurriedly, and having partaken of some refreshment provided for him, he resumed the march alone. He found that the enemy had landed and had been repulsed — and as he hurried along the road he met wounded men marching and being carried away. This was his first glimpse of the horrors of war.^

Commodore McDonough being in need of officers, service on Lake Ontario was of short duration and uneventful, and Paulding soon found himself in the midst of that wonderful work being done on Lake Champlain, where within six months a fleet was built and fitted out which was to achieve one of the greatest naval victories of the war. He was first transferred to the President on Lake Champlain, flag-ship of Master Conunandant McDonough, an officer of great spirit and experience; and it was a fortunate thing for the young midshipman to have such a leader so early in his naval career. His service there was short and we next find him in 1814 on board the Ticonderoga, commanded by Lieutenant- Commander Cassin.

During the winter of 1813-14 Mc- Donough had superintended the building

^The above account of his first appearance is from a more detailed description written by him for his children.

of a squadron that should control Lake Champlain, as it became necessary now to oppose the British force, which evidentlyhoped to make this a base of supplies for its armies en route to Albany. There were many sharp skirmishes on the lake and at one time, when the British Army — nearly 12,000 strong — appeared before Plattsburg, one of our gunboats in opposing their march along the shore became disabled, and with some of the cutters of the squadron. Midshipman Paulding was sent to tow the gunboat to a place of safety. In the teeth of a gale and under heavy fire, with great difficulty and some loss of Ufe, he accomplished to the satisfaction of his superiors this his first responsible service.

At last, on the 11th of September, 1814, a calm and beautiful Sunday morning, the final decisive battle on the lake was fought, after which, until the close of the war, the frontier was clear of the enemy. Cooper's "Naval History," chapter XXIII, gives a detailed account of the fight, and of the American victory with its far-reaching results. The American squadron being short of officers, Paulding, under seventeen years of age, was entrusted with a lieutenant's duties and had charge of the second division of great guns on board the Ticonderoga, which vessel bore the whole brunt of the attack of the British row-galleys and was magnificently fought. Says Cooper in his ''Naval History ^^ ''There was a common feeling of admiration at the manner in which the Ticonderoga defended the rear of the line and of the noble conduct of all on board of her. Once or twice the nearest vessels thought her to be in flames in consequence of the awful rapidity of her fire.'' Cassin, meanwhile, walked his taffrail amid a shower of murderous missiles, perfectly cool, seeming to bear a charmed life while he directed the firing.

Paulding had charge of the quarter-deck guns, under his eye, to train the cannon upon the advancing foe, and his ready resource was shown when, the ''matches" having given out, he substituted the flash of his loaded pistol and there was no cessation of the firing. The boy was not conscious that he had performed any very special service; his pride and gratification then may be conceived when in the darkness of the ensuing night he overheard his commander, Cassin, say to one of the lieutenants, "That youngster Paulding is a brave little fellow.'' These few words of commendation gave him heart and courage for any duty that might come, and when, later, he received a sword and $1500 prize-money from Congress for his ''gallant service" he was encouraged to feel that he had proved abiUty in his profession. The sword and letter accompanying it are in the possession of a member of the family, Hiram Paulding, 2d, his son.

"In this memorable battle, which broke the power of great Britain on the Lakes and freed the State of New York from all fear of further British incursion, the American squadron consisted of fourteen vessels mounting eighty-six cannon and carrying eight hundred and fifty men. The British squadron, as is well known, was virtually annihilated, its commodore killed, and all its vessels captured save a few row-galleys which had previously struck their colors and then dishonorably escaped because the Americans really had too few men and were in too battered a condition themselves to pursue and recapture them."

Many years later the following letter was received by Paulding:

Commodore Hiram Paulding, U. S. N.

Dear Sir: The citizens of Plattsburg and Clinton County, remembering your gallantry and active participation in the naval battle fought off this village, on the 11th. of September 1814, request the pleasure of your company to unite with them in celebrating the coming anniversary of that event.

We are, with very distinguished considerations, Your Obedient Servants

Theodorus Bailey L. Stetson G. M. Palmer P. G. Ellsworth Smith M. Weed

Committee of Invitation

Plattsburg,

August 26th, 1858.

Chapter III Maturity

When peace was declared, Paulding joined the frigate Constellation in the squadron of Commodore Decatur, fitting out to demand redress of the Barbary powers, and in June, 1815, participated in the capture of the Algerine vessels Mashoudah and Estidio, So great was the terror of Decatur's name and the prestige won by our Navy in the war with Great Britain that all grievances were promptly redressed.

In 1816 Paulding was made lieutenant and served on the Independence for a time, then made a cruise on our coast in the brig Prometheus. In the summer of 1818 he joined the frigate Macedonian and made a three years' cruise in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1821, the cruise being over, he took a leave of absence and, realizing his deficiency in certain branches of education, spent eighteen months in hard study at Norwich in the military academy of Captain Par-

MATURITY 15

tridge, which has since helped to equip many of our naval officers. ^ Finding after a time that his health suffered from too close application to study, he spent some months in the disguise of a sailor in a rigging loft in Boston where Mr. McClellan superintended the rigging of ships. This work and some surveying of the Navy Yard of Boston and vicinity, although it could hardly be called restj enabled him to return to his duties invigorated. Long years after, a gray-haired, vigorous man came to see him at his home. He said that when a young fellow he had been carpenter on the Macedonian, where Mr. Paulding was lieutenant. Three or four years later, being in Boston and going to McClellan' s rigging loft on business, he was astounded to see the Lieutenant in sailor dress working with the others. ' ' Mr. Paulding ! " he exclaimed . ^ ^ I beg your pardon,'' rejoined his former shipmate, ^^Mr. Brown, if you please." But the disguise was no longer possible, and, having mastered the details of this branch of equipment, he returned to his studies with new zest. It

^ Many of the distinguished officers of the Army and Navy are graduates of this Academy — now the University of Norwich — among them Admiral George Dewey. See "History of Norwich Academy," by Wm. A. Elhs, B.S.

must be borne in mind that there was no Naval Academy in those days, and the opportunities afforded by the Government to its naval officers for acquiring a knowledge of the scientific branches bearing on the profession were of the most meager description. Paulding's wise foresight, characteristic of the man, enabled him to take rank with the best informed men in the Navy.

His next cruise was as first lieutenant of the Sea Gull, the first steamer employed by the Government as a man-of-war in a squadron commanded by Commodore Porter, for the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. After a few months' service in her he returned, under orders from the Department, in the Peacock, and joined the frigate United States fitting out for the Pacific Ocean.

He was absent nearly four years, during which time he performed special service in conveying through the deserts of Peru and over the Andes secret despatches from Commodore Hull to General Bolivar, traversing on horseback about fifteen hundred miles. His account of this journey, which he published after his return under the title of ^* Bolivar in his Camp, " was most interesting. In this trip to the camp of the ''Lib-

Lieutenant, U. S. N.

About 1828

From a miniature (artist unknown)

MATURITY 17

erator" he had an arduous and dangerous journey, traversing a belt of wild, arid, and mountainous country; after many days, having overcome almost insuperable difficulties, reaching the General and accomplishing the errand.

While attached to the United States in 1826 he volunteered for duty on the schooner Dolphin, and, as her first lieutenant, went to the then savage Mulgrave Islands in search of the mutineers of the American whale-ship Globe. The Dolphin on this occasion was commanded by Lieutenant John Percival, better known in the service as ^^Mad Jack," a seaman of uncommon ability and fearlessness, but extremely eccentric. Among the midshipmen was the late Rear-Admiral Charles Henry Davis, who said that the boldest act he ever witnessed was performed by Lieutenant Paulding in the seizure of one of the mutineers in face of a mob of infuriated savages, several hundred in number, armed with clubs and spears. With only a cutter's crew, Paulding landed, and while holding a parley suddenly seized his man and, covering his own body with his human prize, marched him rapidly to the boat, holding a cocked pistol to his ear. The natives, who were friendly to the mutineers, were so much surprised by the audacity of the proceeding that they made no attempt at recapture until too late to do so.^

A very interesting account of this cruise was written by Paulding and published in New York in 1831, the preface being so quaint and humorous as to show beyond dispute that all the wit of the family had not been confined to the author of the ''Dutchman's Fireside. " ^

1 From Life of Admiral C. H. Davie, by his son.

2 James K. Paulding.

Chapter IV Paulding^s Visit To Bolivar In His Camp*

^'In the month of May, 1824, our frigate anchored in the bay of Callao. An interval of four years had elapsed since my first visit here, and, as far as the eye could discover from our deck, no material change had taken place. From the bay everything bore the same gloomy and forbidding aspect. There was the sandy waste, the mud walls, and gray thatch of the wretched town. The red and yellow stripes of Spain floated from the ramparts of the castle, and the island of San Lorenzo was there with its frowning cliffs warring with the ocean swell and rearing aloft its peaks enveloped in fantastic clouds and ever-changing mist.

Over the Valley Rimac the once gorgeous city of Lima was indicated by its numerous spires elevated above all intervening objects, and skirted in amphitheatre by the first

1 Reprinted from "Bolivar in his Camp," by Hiram Paulding. New York, 1834. Out of print. 19 range of mountains that, rising one above the other, terminated in the Andes.

I dwelt with pleasure on the scenes I had witnessed in that beautiful city in bygone years. Ere the commotions of civil war had broken the ties of law and of nature, changing the face of everything in its irresistible course, Lima was perhaps unequalled in all the western world in its splendour and its luxury, as well as the more homely comforts of life, united with every facility for their acquisition. Well might it be called la (k ciudad dorado.

A cloudless sky, the delicious perfume of orange groves, and the shady "almada," united in effect to charm the senses of the stranger as he approached the entrance of the city. The wide and well paved streets received an air of cheerfulness from the fresco-painted walls, and babbling rivulets that lined the sidewalks or were sent meandering through the middle of the principal avenues of the city.

The dwellings of the gentry were accommodated with large courts in front, excluded from the streets by gateways, and the interior and exterior of the houses were brilliant in the highest degree with mirrors and gilded ornaments, as well as the most costly furniture. The churches, rich with the spoil of two centuries, proclaimed the wealth of the city and power of the priests. I still remember with pleasure the formal courtesy and dignified bearing of the Spanish gentry of Lima, who never passed us in the street without a salutation, and even the priests, who, from policy as well as religious prepossession, could ill conceal their aversion to our presence, scarcely ever failed in the observance of the same polite attention. The Plaza was enlivened with the gay merchandise of Spain and the East, arranged in neatly shaded booths; in the midst of the square gushed with unceasing play a magnificent fountain, and not far from it the River Rimac murmured over its pebbly bed on its way to the ocean, passing through one of the loveliest valleys under the sun. Peace and plenty and contentment seemed to pervade all classes of society, but it was the stillness that precedes the bursting of the thunder-cloud.

Had the unchanging climate of Peru given place to the impetuous fury of a tornado, desolating the whole face of nature in its wild career, the beautiful villas and fair fields of the Rimac would not have presented a scene of such utter ruin as was caused by the revolution. Occupied alternately by Royalists and Patriots, whatever escaped from the rapacity of the one became a prey to the other. If the inhabitants had not fled from personal apprehension, they were torn by violence from their dwelhngs and consigned to a prison or the military shambles. Their horses and cattle and the fruits of the earth were, without reserve, the spoils of war. The villages and haciendas occupied by the soldiery often became scenes of the most desperate forays between the contending parties, so that in two or three years ruin and devastation usurped the place where previously everything was to be found necessary to minister to the comfort and luxury of the ill-fated inhabitants. With a wantonness peculiar to the bitter hostility inspired by civil war, even the choicest fruits and the finest specimens of art were unsparingly swept away. The city of Rome, when conquered, plundered, and enslaved by barbarians, did not exhibit more savage traces of ignorance and cruelty. Lima passed through the terrible ordeal in somewhat happier circumstances than the surrounding country, but in the succession of events it was visited by an ample share of calamity. Society was razed to its very foundations. Banishment, confiscations, and forced loans reduced the wealthiest famihes to beggary. Their plate, their furniture, and indeed everything available were sacrificed for the means of present subsistence, and in many instances their splendid houses were occupied by soldiers of fortune. All sources of revenue were cut off. Whatever remained of commerce was in the hands of foreigners who, somewhat protected by their neutral character, profited by the calamity of the times. Indeed, such was the state of things that almost any change could scarcely fail to be for the better.

At the time we arrived the Spanish generals were in possession of Callao and Lima, all of upper Peru, and the seacoast from Callao to the deserts of Atacama; whilst the Patriots occupied most of the country and coast to the north.

Under such circumstances, with two powerful parties contending for the sovereignty of the country, it was to be expected that conflicting interests would lead to difficulties of a national character.

The Spanish Vice-king, who had been twice driven from the capital and could claim no obedience whatever from the people without heading his army of fifteen thousand men which he had assembled in upper Peru, still claimed the right, through his subordinates on the coast, to capture neutral vessels under the laws of the Indies, whilst Admiral Guise, in command of his patriot naval forces and having the supremacy at sea, issued his paper blockade of the whole coast occupied by the Spaniards without a demonstration of force for their protection. There was no safety for neutral ships, and that did not in all cases secure our ships from capture and condemnation. Our merchants, always first in enterprise of difficulty and danger, were first amongst the sufferers, and the naval Commander soon found that the duties devolving upon him were of so multifarious and delicate a nature that the most wary discrimination afforded but an imperfect prospect of a satisfactory adjustment of the evils complained of. Individual sympathy as well as national considerations prompted us by all means to avoid a conflict that might injure the patriot cause, and the Spaniards had nothing upon which we could make reprisals for their illegal seizure, if we had been so disposed.

With a due regard for our commercial interests and the preservation of friendlyrelations with the Patriots, it finally became apparent that recourse must be had to General Bolivar, who, then at the head of the combined armies of Colombia and Peru, was making his way through the Andes to meet the Viceroy, Lacerna. When this /^^ was determined upon as the course to be pursued, the individuals interested were called upon for the necessary proofs of the spoliation upon their property by the Peruvian naval Commander, and, all things being in readiness, I was ordered to proceed to the headquarters of General Bolivar as bearer of despatches to him from Commodore Hull. A partial knowledge of the Spanish language procured for me this interesting service, and I entered upon it with all the zeal its novel character was calculated to inspire.

Great uncertainty prevailed as to the situation occupied by General Bolivar, and the most profound ignorance was betrayed, by all of whom we made inquiries, respecting the roads by which his line of march could be approached. On the 4th of June, 1824, I embarked in the schooner Dolphin, and on the 6th landed at the little town of Huacho to the north of Lima. Meeting there with an officer of the Peruvian army, from whom I obtained some information, I determined to take my departure from thence, and, accordingly, having landed my baggage, I took up my abode with the Governor of the place for my accommodation for the night and such assistance as it was necessary I should receive from him for the prosecution of my journey.