Quasi-War

Quasi-War
Date 1798–1800 Location North American coasts Result End of French Revolutionary piracy
Belligerents
United States	France
Strength
18 Frigates 4 Sloops 2 Brigs 3 Schooners 5,700 Sailors	Unknown
Casualties and losses
20 dead 42 wounded	Unknown

The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict is sometimes also referred to as the Undeclared War with France or Half-War.

Background

France had been America's major ally in the American Revolutionary War. But the new government of Revolutionary France viewed a 1794 commercial agreement between the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain, known as the Jay Treaty, as a violation of France's 1778 Treaty of Alliance with the United States. This treaty was both military and economic, and seeing that the United States had already declared neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and France, that American legislation was being passed for a British trade deal led only to further French outrage at its less than erstwhile ally.

The French began to seize American ships trading with their British enemies and refused to receive a new United States minister when he arrived in Paris in December 1796. In his annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, President John Adams reported on France's refusal to negotiate and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense." In April 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the infamous "XYZ Affair," in which French agents demanded a large bribe for the restoration of relations with the United States. The names of the French were substituted by Adams as X, Y, and Z. Hence, the issue was named the XYZ Affair.

The French inflicted terrific losses on American shipping. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering somberly reported to Congress on 21 June 1797 that the French had captured 316 American merchant ships in the previous eleven months.

The hostilities caused insurance rates on American shipping to skyrocket at least 500 percent, as French marauders cruised the length of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard virtually unopposed.

The administration had no warships to combat them; the last had been sold off in 1785. The United States possessed only a flotilla of revenue cutters and some neglected coastal forts.

Increased depredations by privateers from Revolutionary France required the United States Navy to protect the expanding merchant shipping of the United States. The United States Congress authorized the President to acquire, arm, and man no more than twelve vessels, of up to twenty-two guns each. Under the terms of this act, several vessels were purchased and converted into ships of war.

The Quasi-War started on July 7, 1798, when Congress rescinded treaties with France. United States Naval squadrons then sought out and attacked the French privateers. Deeply infuriated with the U.S for their actions against France, the French Naval Commander Jean de Beaune counterattacked with the destruction of the USS Virginia. This ultimately led to a rise of national pride in the U.S as they sought to avenge those who had died in that battle. The U.S then retaliated with the killing of 25 French sailors aboard one of the French frigates that ran in between Quebec and the Country of France which led to the belief that it was the work of a Pirate Crew by the name of Genive.

Naval engagements

See also: Category:Quasi-War American ships

The US Navy operated with a battle fleet of roughly 30 vessels. The Navy patrolled the southern coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean, seeking out French privateers. Captain Thomas Truxtun's insistence on the highest standards of crew training paid handsome dividends as the frigate Constellation captured L'Insurgente, and severely punished La Vengeance. Often, French privateers showed great audacity, as was the case with the privateer La Croyable, which was captured on July 7, 1798, by Delaware outside of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. The Enterprise captured over 20 French privateers. Experiment captured the Deux Amis, and Diane. Numerous American merchantmen were likewise recaptured by the Experiment. The Boston summarily pounded Le Berceau into submission. Silas Talbot engineered an expedition in the Puerto Plata harbor in St. Domingo, a possession of France's ally Spain, on May 11, 1800, in which sailors and marines of the Constitution under Lieutenant Isaac Hull cut out the French privateer Sandwich from the harbor and spiked the guns in the Spanish fort.

Of all of the vessels operating under command of the US Navy, only one vessel was captured—and later recaptured—by enemy forces: Retaliation. Retaliation was the captured privateer La Croyable, recently purchased by the US Navy. Retaliation departed Norfolk on October 28, 1798, with Montezuma and Norfolk and cruised in the West Indies protecting American commerce. On November 20, the French frigates L'Insurgente and Volontaire overtook Retaliation while her consorts were away on a chase and forced commanding officer Lieutenant William Bainbridge to surrender the out-gunned schooner. However, even as a prisoner, the clever young American officer managed to serve his country. He saved USS Montezuma and USS Norfolk by convincing the senior French commander that those American warships were too powerful for his frigates and induced him to abandon the chase. Renamed Magicienne by the French, the schooner again came into American hands on June 28, when a broadside from USS Merrimack forced her to haul down her colors.

Revenue cutters, the Coast Guard, also assisted in capturing two others. The cutter USRC Pickering, commanded by Edward Preble, made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes, one of which carried 19 guns throwing 150 pounds of iron compared to Pickering's 14 guns and total iron weight of only 56 pounds, and was manned by some 250 sailors, more than three times Pickering's strength.

In total, the US Navy captured 85 French ships.

By war’s end in 1800, the French were to seize over two thousand American merchant vessels. (source : "America’s First Limited War" by Lieutenant Colonel Gregory E. Fehlings, U.S. Army Reserve)

Although they were fighting the same enemy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy did not cooperate operationally, nor did they share operational plans or come to mutual understandings about deployment of their forces. The British did sell the American government naval stores and munitions. In addition, the two navies shared a system of signals by which each could recognize the other's warships at sea and allowed merchantmen of their respective nations to join their convoys.

Conclusion of hostilities

By October 1800, the United States Navy and the Royal Navy, combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the French toward America, produced a reduction in the activity of the French privateers and warships. In mid-December 1800, news reached Washington, D.C. that a peace treaty with France (the Treaty of Mortefontaine, September 30, 1800) ended the Quasi-War.

Further reading

• Alexander De Conde: The quasi-war: the politics and diplomacy of the undeclared war with France 1797–1801. New York: Scribner's, 1966
• Nathan Miller: The US Navy: An Illustrated History. New York: American Heritage, 1977
• Ian W. Toll: Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of The U.S. Navy. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006

External links

• Naval History Bibliography