In addition to being the site of a significant bombardment and home to one of the premier powder mills of the War of 1812, Delaware was home to many men who played significant roles in the war effort. Here is a look at five of them:
[caption id="attachment_26159" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Thomas Macdonough"]
Commodore Thomas Macdonough was born near Middletown in 1783 and joined the Navy in 1800. He served with distinction in naval operations against Tripoli from 1802 to 1804 during the First Barbary War. He returned to active service as war was declared in June 1812 and soon was assigned to command a squadron of gunboats defending Portland, Maine. By the end of the year, he was transferred to Burlington, Vt., where he commanded naval forces on Lake Champlain. After the British captured the only two American vessels on the lake in June 1813, Macdonough ordered construction of a corvette, a sloop and several gunboats. When British troops marched on Plattsburgh, N.Y., near the Canadian border, in September 1814, Macdonough and his new fleet were ready. When a British fleet supporting the army began firing, Macdonough ordered his cannons to blast away, severely damaging the British flagship and forcing its surrender. Other larger British vessels were captured or destroyed, while smaller boats retreated to Canada. By forcing the British from Lake Champlain, Macdonough ended any possibility of British territorial claims during peace negotiations at Ghent. He died in 1825. Commodore Macdonough Elementary School in St. Georges is named in his honor.
[caption id="attachment_26159" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Samuel Boyer Davis"]
Col. Samuel Boyer Davis was born in Lewes in 1766, and worked briefly in a counting house in Philadelphia before indulging his passion for the sea by joining the French navy. In 1796, weary of the uncertainties of the French Revolution, he gave up his military commission, settled in New Orleans, and began working for the Spanish government, which controlled Louisiana until it was ceded to France in 1800. He then served the French for several years, acquired a sugar plantation, retired a wealthy man and returned to Lewes, moving into a home on Pilottown Road called “Fisher’s Paradise.” Davis received a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and was placed in command of the defenses at Lewes when the War of 1812 broke out. After his successful defense during the bombardment of Lewes in April 1813, Davis was promoted to colonel and put in charge of the defenses at Sandy Hook, at the entrance to New York Harbor. After the war, Davis would live in Philadelphia, Wilmington and on his plantation in New Orleans. In 1837, at age 71, he married for a second time, to a woman 50 years younger, and they had five children together. Most notable are the names of the three sons from that marriage: New Castle Delaware, Kent Delaware and Sussex Delaware. (According to one history, New Castle thought his first name somewhat cumbersome, so he preferred to be called simply Delaware.) Davis died in 1854 and is buried in the Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery.
[caption id="attachment_26159" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Jacob Jones"]
Commodore Jacob Jones was born in Smyrna in 1768, and was a clerk for the Delaware Supreme Court before joining the navy as a midshipman in 1799. During the Barbary Wars, he was an officer on the frigate Philadelphia when it was taken by the Tripolitans. He remained in captivity for nearly two years. By 1810, he had become commander of the sloop Wasp. In October 1812, during the early months of the war, Jones took Wasp on an Atlantic cruise. Despite storm damage to his ship, he attacked a British convoy and captured the Royal Navy sloop of war Frolic. Although a larger British ship later captured the Wasp, Jones' achievement was widely admired. Returning to the United States after an exchange of prisoners, he received a gold medal from Congress and was promoted to captain. During the last year of the war he commanded the frigate Mohawkin the Lake Ontario theater. He served primarily at sea through 1829, then spent 21 years in commands ashore at Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia until his death in 1850.He is also buried in the Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery. The Navy has named two destroyers and a destroyer escort in his honor.
[caption id="attachment_26159" align="alignright" width="140" caption="James A. Bayard"]
Sen. James A. Bayard did not serve in the military but nevertheless played significant roles at the beginning and end of the war. Bayard, who was married to Anne Bassett, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Richard Bassett, served in the House of Representatives from 1797 to 1803 before being elected in November 1804 to the Senate, where he served until March 1813. In June 1812, he voted against the declaration of war, arguing that American military was not yet ready for combat, a view borne out by the infrequent successes of the army and navy in late 1812 and early 1813. Then, in 1814, after leaving the Senate, he was appointed by President Madison as the only member of the Federalist Party on the team that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent to end the war. The Bayards, who had six children, lived in a house at the southwest corner of Third and French streets in Wilmington. Bayard, who died in 1815 and is also buried in the Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery, was the father of two U.S. senators — Richard H. Bayard and James A. Bayard Jr. He was the grandfather of another, Thomas F. Bayard Sr., and great-grandfather of another, Thomas F. Bayard Jr.
[caption id="attachment_26159" align="alignright" width="140" caption="James Tilton"]
Dr. James Tilton, a native of Dover, studied medicine in Philadelphia and became head of military hospitals for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was a Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress in 1783-84, He moved to the Wilmington area around 1790. When the War of 1812 began, a reorganization created a number of new administrative and support positions. In June 1813, Tilton became the army’s first surgeon general, a position he held for two years. Tilton died in 1822 and is also buried in the Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery. Tilton Terrace Nursing Home in Wilmington is named after him.
