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From "The History of the United States Navy."
=_286._= NAVAL RESULTS OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Thus terminated the war of 1812, so far as it was connected with the
American marine. The navy came out of this struggle with a vast increase
of reputation. The brilliant style in which the ships had been carried
into action, the steadiness and rapidity with which they had been
handled, and the fatal accuracy of their fire, on nearly every occasion,
produced a new era in naval warfare. Most of the frigate actions had
been as soon decided as circumstances would at all allow, and in no
instance was it found necessary to keep up the fire of a sloop-of-war an
hour, when singly engaged. Most of the combats of the latter, indeed,
were decided in about half that time. The execution done in these short
conflicts was often equal to that made by the largest vessels of
Europe in general actions, and, in some of them, the slain and wounded
comprised a very large proportion of the crews.
It is not easy to say in which nation this unlooked-for result created
the most surprise, America or England. In the first it produced a
confidence in itself that had been greatly wanted, but which, in the
end, perhaps, degenerated to a feeling of self-esteem and security that
were not without danger, or entirely without exaggeration.
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