“The battle of Feb. 9, 1799 was a significant accomplishment for the infant nation, and a major vindication for Truxtun as one of the foremost leaders of the U.S. Navy.” 

By Thomas Sheppard

THE UNITED STATES came into existence amid a bloody eight-year war of independence against Great Britain. America’s tumultuous birth was aided in no small part by England’s historic foe, France. The French, under King Louis XVI, proved to be an indispensable ally to the emerging American nation, furnishing the Continentals with weapons, money and even soldiers. So it’s one of history’s great ironies that the first warship taken in combat by the newly established U.S. Navy was actually a French frigate.

The clash between the USS Constellation and the French ship L’Insurgent is as forgotten to most Americans as the Constellation’s commanding officer, Captain Thomas Truxtun, but the battle of Feb. 9, 1799 was a significant accomplishment for the infant nation, and a major vindication for Truxtun as one of the foremost leaders of the U.S. Navy.

The existence of the U.S. Navy in 1798 was itself a major development. Once the United States had secured independence, it faced a drastic financial crisis. One way to balance the books was to abolish the navy altogether. The naïve hope was that in peacetime the nation’s commercial shipping could thrive without protection. The deeper reality however was that the United States was impoverished and laden with debt, and the funds for a naval force simply were not available.^[1] The ratification of the Constitution in 1788 created a federal government with the ability to raise revenue through taxes, yet Congress still did not choose to finance the creation a navy until 1794. It did so only when international crises made the need for a maritime force inescapable. One of those crises came in the form of America’s recent allies.

In 1789, the French famously followed the United States into revolution, eventually toppling the Bourbon dynasty and declaring the country a republic. War with Great Britain followed in 1793. Assuming that America would naturally join in France’s fight to defeat the common Anglo enemy, the revolutionary regime in Paris was infuriated when the United States chose neutrality instead. Ironically, following the War of Independence, Great Britain had become America’s largest trading partner; a war would disrupt trans-Atlantic commerce. In French eyes however, U.S. neutrality was tantamount to actively aiding Great Britain in its battle to topple the newly born French republic.

Despite its fury, France had no intention of actually declaring war on its former ally. It did, however, opt to suppress American trade with Britain by authorizing privateers to attack merchant ships.

Across the Atlantic, President John Adams, like his counterparts in Paris, had no desire for an outright war. The administration did however have to protect the ocean-borne commerce that was absolutely vital to America’s economy, even if it meant doing battle with armed vessels flying the French flag.

Thus, the two one-time allies steadily descended into hostilities. The undeclared conflict that raged from 1798-1800 has come to be known as the Quasi War.

As the fighting continued, the Adams administration oversaw a massive expansion of the navy, with the number of officers mushrooming from just three to over 700 over the course of the Quasi War.^[2] The most celebrated of this first generation of naval officers was Thomas Truxtun.

A man with a fiery temper and a passion for excellence, Truxtun ran a rigidly efficient ship. The USS Constellation, one of the country’s first frigates, boasted some of the most promising junior officers in the service, thanks in no small part to Truxtun’s commitment to training up his subordinates.^[3] Although he was remarkably hesitant to resort to flogging with enlisted seamen, he seldom spared reprimanding his junior officers – or even driving the unfit out of the service altogether. Those he saw as promising he worked to keep around, but in his own rough manner. When Midshipman David Porter complained of the treatment he received from his superiors and threatened to resign, Truxtun blasted him:

Why you dog! If I can help it you shall never leave the navy! Swear at you? Damn it sir – every time I do that you go a round on the ladder of promotion! As for the first lieutenant’s blowing you up every day, why, sir, ‘tis because he loves you and would not have you grow up a conceited young coxcomb. Go forward and let us have no more whining.^[4]

The outburst apparently worked, for although Porter never recalled his first commanding officer with any sort of fondness, he did remain in the navy and went on to a legendary career.

Not every officer on the Constellation grew as frustrated as Porter. John Rodgers, future head of the Board of Navy Commissioners, eagerly emulated his mentor throughout his naval career.

Andrew Sterrett, first victor of the soon-coming Tripolitan War, certainly absorbed Truxtun’s ideas about duty and honor. And for the moment, the captain of the Constellation actually feared a backlash from the rest of the officer corps given how many of his juniors received promotions.^[5]

Truxtun’s fixation on discipline was, according to his biographer, “always guided by one overriding idea…the winning of battles.”^[6] In this, he enjoyed brilliant success.

While cruising in the West Indies to protect American commerce, Truxtun encountered not just French privateers, but the L’Insurgent, one of the finest frigates in the French navy. Disregarding the niceties of whether the two countries were officially at war, the American gave chase.

The Feb. 9, 1799 pursuit, which took place mid-day off the island off the British colony of Nevis, lasted more than two hours, with the American warship pressing through a sudden storm to run down the fleeing enemy. Upon overtaking L’Insurgent, Truxtun ignored hails from the French vessel, closed to within 50 yards and opened fire with a broadside packed with double shot.^[7] What followed was 74 minutes of bloody ship-to-ship combat.

One American sailor survived a cannonball taking his foot, while another died a few hours later from losing his leg. One of Constellation’s sailors also suffered a broken back, and two others were fortunate to only receive bullet wounds.^[8] The only American to perish during the battle fell at the hand of one of his own officers. Lieutenant Andrew Sterrett ran through seaman Neal Harvey for displaying cowardice in the face of the enemy. Although Sterrett exaggerated when he bragged to his brother that “we would put a man to death for even looking pale on this ship,” his actions still generated controversy after the battle, but drew no formal rebuke from Truxtun or the Adams Administration.^[9]

The French ship’s suffering far exceeded its American attacker. Expert American fire devastated the French ship, but more importantly, the French captain “had failed to instill confidence and spirit in his crew,” in marked contrast to Truxtun.^[10] Twenty-nine men were killed and another 41 wounded, for a total of 70 casualties. In the heated aftermath of battle, not all the men of Constellation were willing to look charitably on their fallen French counterparts.

“Although I would not have you think me bloody minded,” John Rodgers wrote to the secretary of the navy, “I must confess the most gratifying sight my eyes ever beheld was seventy French pirates…wallowing in their gore.”^[11]

Truxtun’s victory led to wild celebrations when word of the encounter reached the United States. He even received plaudits from across the ocean in Great Britain.^[12] Three years later, Truxtun’s career was sadly cut short by his own hubris. Frustrated by a sense that the Navy Department did not give him the recognition he was due, Truxtun petulantly resigned his commission, and was shocked when the department accepted his resignation rather than gratify his demands.^[13] However unfortunate his exit, he left an indelible legacy on the service. David Porter, John Rodgers and Andrew Sterrett all went on to do great deeds for their country, and the zeal for his country’s honor that he displayed became the standard every other officer was expected to emulate. If he did not get the credit he wanted in life, he would no doubt be gratified to learn that six different vessels have been commissioned in the U.S. Navy bearing his name.

Thomas Sheppard is the author of Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic. He holds a doctorate in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Military History at the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College.

^[1] Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006), 18-19.

^[2] Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 38.

^[3] Thomas Sheppard, Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2022), 65-66.

^[4] Quoted in David F. Long, Nothing Too Daring: A Biography of Commodore David Porter, 1783-1843 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1970), 7.

^[5] Eugene S. Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation: The Life of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy, 1755-1822 (Baltimore: Johns-Hopkins Press, 2001), 2nd edition, 148; Sheppard, Commanding Petty Despots, 78-79, 96-97; Truxtun to John Barry, March 20, 1799, Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France (hereafter referred to as NDQW) seven volumes (US Government Printing Office, 1935-38), II: 491-492.

^[6] Ferguson, Truxtun, 148.

^[7] Michael A. Palmer, Stoddert’s War: Naval Operations during the Quasi War with France, 1798-1801 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1987), 98-99.

^[8] Ferguson, Truxtun, 164.

^[9] Sterrett to his brother, February 9, 1799, NDQW, II: 335.

^[10] Palmer, Stoddert’s War, 99.

^[11] Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, February 9, 1799, NDQW, II: 330; Rodgers to Secretary of the Navy, February 9, 1799, NDQW, II: 337.

^[12] Ferguson, Truxtun, 170-172.

^[13] Sheppard, Commanding Petty Despots, 87-88.