|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Congressional Gold Medal.com |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
| |
Congressional Gold Medal Recipients
Isaac Hull, Stephen Decatur and Jacob Jones Isaac Hull
b. Huntington, Fairfield, Connecticut, 9 March 1773
d. Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 13 February 1843
Stephen Decatur b. Sinepuxent, Worcester, Maryland, 5 January 1779
d. Bladensburg, Prince George's, Maryland, 22 March 1820
Jacob Jones b. The Gap, near Smyrna, Kent, Delaware, March 1768
d. Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 August 1850
Friday, 29 January 1813 Resolution relative to the brilliant achievements of Captains Hull, Decatur, Jones, and Lieutenant Elliott. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby requested to present to Captain Hull of the frigate Constitution, Captain Decatur of the frigate United States, and Captain Jones of the sloop of war Wasp, each a gold medal, with suitable emblems and devices; and a silver medal, with like emblems and devices, to each commissioned officer of the aforesaid vessels, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of the gallantry, good conduct, and services of the captains, officers, and crews of the aforesaid vessels in their respective conflicts with the British frigates the Guerriere and the Macedonian, and sloop of war Frolic: and the President is also requested to present a silver medal, with like emblems and devices, to the nearest male relative of Lieutenant Bush, and one to the nearest male relative of Lieutenant Funk, in testimony of the gallantry and merit of those deceased officers, in whom their country has sustained a loss much to be regretted. Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is requested to present to Lieutenant Elliott of the navy of the United States, an elegant sword, with suitable emblems and devices, in testimony of the just sense entertained by Congress of his gallantry and good conduct in boarding and capturing the British brigs Detroit and Caledonia, while anchored under the protection of Fort Erie. 2 Stat. 830
Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN, (1779-1820) Stephen Decatur was born in Sinepuxent, Maryland, on 5 January 1779. His father, also named Stephen Decatur, commanded several privateers during the
American Revolution and served as a Captain in the young United States Navy during 1798-1801. Young Stephen also joined the Navy in 1798, as a Midshipman, and was active during the undeclared war with France over the next two years. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1799. Given command of the brig Argus in 1803, he took to the Mediterranean for war service against Tripoli. Once in the combat zone, Lieutenant Decatur commanded the schooner Enterprise and, on 23 December 1803, captured the enemy ketch Mastico. That vessel, taken into the U.S. Navy under the name Intrepid, was used by Decatur on 16 February 1804 to execute a night raid into Tripoli harbor to destroy the former U.S. frigate
Philadelphia, which had been captured after running aground at the end of October 1803. This daring and extremely successful operation made Lieutenant Decatur an immediate national hero, a status that was enhanced by his courageous conduct during the 3 August 1804 bombardment of Tripoli. In that action, he led his men in hand-to-hand fighting while boarding and capturing an enemy gunboat. Decatur was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain, and over the next eight years had command of several frigates. On 25 October 1812, while in command of USS
United States, he engaged and captured the British frigate Macedonian, an action that gained him further acclaim. The strong British blockade kept Decatur in port for most of the rest of the War of 1812, but he was able to break out of New York in the frigate President on 15 January 1815. Captain Decatur was wounded when his ship was captured the next day by a superior enemy force, but he soon recovered and was given command of a powerful squadron. With the war with Great Britain at an end, the United States had decided to deal once and for all with the North African Barbary powers' threat to American commerce. Commodore Decatur sailed his squadron to the Mediterranean Sea in May 1815 and, with the assistance of overwhelming force, persuaded Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli to sign treaties of peace. After returning home, he became a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners in Washington, D.C. In April 1816 he made a toast that would become a standard expression of American patriotism: "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong." In 1820 the strong-willed and spirited Decatur was challenged to a duel by a brother officer, Commodore James Barron. The contest, which took place at Bladensburg, Maryland, on 22 March 1820, resulted in wounds to both men. Barron survived, but Stephen Decatur died of his injuries shortly afterwards. The U.S. Navy has named five ships in honor of Stephen Decatur, including:
USS Decatur (1840-1865);
USS Decatur (Destroyer # 5), 1902-1920;
USS Decatur (DD-341), 1922-1945;
USS Decatur (DD-936, later DDG-31), 1956-____; and USS Decatur (DDG-73), 1998-____.
USS United States (1797-1861), later CSS United States
USS United States, a 1576-ton sailing frigate, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as one of the first warships of the new United States Navy. Commissioned in July 1797, she cruised vigorously during the 1798-1800 Quasi-War with France, taking several prizes. United States was again active in the 1812-13, this time against the British, and captured the Royal Navy frigate Macedonian on 25 October 1812. Following the War of 1812, United States was employed in the western Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the eastern Pacific and off Africa. She was laid up at the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1849 and was captured by the Confederates when they seized that facility in April 1861. Placed in Southern service as CSS United States, she was used as a receiving ship but was sunk when the Confederates abandoned Norfolk in May 1862. Though subsequently salvaged by the U.S. Navy, she was not worth repairing and was broken up following the Civil War.
USS Decatur (1840-1865)
USS Decatur, a 566-ton third-class sloop of war, was built at the New York Navy Yard. She was commissioned in March 1840 for a tour with the Brazil Squadron in the South Atlantic that lasted until February 1843. A cruise with the African Squadron followed in 1843-1845. Decatur's next active service was off eastern Mexico in 1847, during which her crew participated in wartime operations to attack Tuxpan and capture Tobasco. Early in 1848 the sloop returned to the anti-slave trade patrol off Africa, where she remained until November 1849. During the first years of the 1850s, Decatur served along the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean. She was sent to the Pacific in 1854, enduring a difficult passage through the Strait of Magellan before arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii, in late March 1855. The next four years were spent cruising in the eastern Pacific from South America northwards. Decommissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in June 1859, Decatur was thereafter laid up "in ordinary" except for Civil War duty as a defensive floating battery at San Francisco. She was sold in August 1865.
USS Decatur (Destroyer # 5), 1902-1920
USS Decatur, a 420-ton Bainbridge class destroyer, was built at Richmond, Virginia. Commissioned May 1902, she operated in the western Atlantic area with other torpedo vessels until December 1903, when she began a long eastbound voyage to the Orient by way of the Suez Canal. Upon arrival in the Philippines in April 1904, Decatur began more than thirteen years on the Asiatic Station. Brief periods out of commission punctuated her active service as part of the small Naval force the United States maintained in the Far East to look after its interests and to defend the Philippine Islands. The U.S. entry into World War I brought Decatur back to the Atlantic. Leaving the Philippines in early August 1917, she began anti-submarine patrol and escort duty out of Gibraltar a few months later. This lasted until the end of the fighting in November 1918. Soon afterwards Decatur returned to the U.S. East Coast. Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1919, the old destroyer was sold for scrapping in January 1920.
USS Decatur (DD-341), 1922-1945
USS Decatur, a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, was commissioned in August 1922, the last (by a few days) of the more that 270 similar "flush-deck" destroyers constructed during the World War I era. After several months out of commission in 1923 she began a steady period of active service, primarily in the Pacific but with occasional operational visits to the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast. In 1925 she participated in the Battle Fleet's cruise to New Zealand and Australia. Beginning in February 1937 Decatur was stationed in the Atlantic as a training ship, work that was supplemented by Neutrality Patrol assignments after World War II began in Europe. She was employed as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic from September 1941, remaining in that role when the United States formally entered the fighting in December of that year. In mid-1942 the destroyer's convoy operations shifted to the routes between the Eastern U.S. and the Caribbean and, in February 1943, Decatur began escorting ships across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. Her convoy service was interrupted in late 1943 by a tour with the anti-submarine task group centered on the escort carrier Card (CVE-11). A planned conversion to a high speed transport (with hull number APD-30) was cancelled, and Decatur remained a destroyer for the rest of her days. From mid-1944 she had nearly a year of escort and training duty in the Caribbean area. Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July 1945, USS Decatur was sold for scrapping at the end of November 1945.
USS Decatur (DD-936, later DDG-31), 1956-____
USS Decatur, a 2780-ton Forrest Sherman class destroyer built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was commissioned in December 1956. In 1957, she made her shakedown cruise through the Caribbean area, ran special trials, and steamed to northern Europe. Early in 1958 the new destroyer again crossed the Atlantic to begin her first Sixth Fleet tour in the Mediterranean Sea. Decatur made more such deployments during the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as serving as a spacecraft recovery ship in September 1961 and taking part in Cuban Quarantine operations in November and December 1962. On 6 May 1964, her superstructure was was heavily damaged in a collision with the aircraft carrier Lake Champlain (CVS-39). The unrepaired Decatur was placed "in commission, in reserve" later in the year to await modernization, and was formally decommissioned in June 1965. During the next two years Decatur was extensively modified at the Boston Naval Shipyard, Massachusetts. She was reclassified as a guided-missile destroyer in September 1966, receiving the new hull number DDG-31, and was recommissioned in April 1967. In September of that year she transferred to the Pacific Fleet, her assignment for the remainder of her commissioned service. Decatur's first Seventh Fleet deployment, in the Western Pacific, took place between July 1968 and February 1969. In this, and her next two Far Eastern tours in 1970 and 1971-72, she engaged in
Vietnam War operations and visited southern Pacific nations. Further "WestPac" cruises took place in 1973, 1974-75, 1976-77 and 1978-1979. The last deployment also took her into the Indian Ocean, an area of increasing interest to the U.S. Navy as the Persian Gulf region became unstable. In 1981 and again in 1982, Decatur steamed across the Pacific for more duty with the Seventh Fleet and, in 1983, in the Persian Gulf. At the end of June 1983, several weeks after returning from her last deployment, she was decommissioned and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. USS Decatur was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1988. Her name was cancelled sometime thereafter. However, the ship had a long career ahead of her as a Self Defense Test Ship (SDTS), a role for which she was converted in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Redesignated EDDG-31, and after late 1995 simply as STDS, she has been "in service" along the Pacific Coast, conducting trials of various systems for countering anti-shipping cruise missiles and other threats.
USS Philadelphia (1800-1803)
USS Philadelphia, a 1240-ton frigate, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a contribution to the Navy by the citizens of that city during the 1798-1800 Quasi-war with France. Commissioned in April 1800, the ship conducted wartime operations in the West Indies for several months, capturing five enemy armed vessels and recapturing six American merchant ships that had previously been taken by the French. In June 1801 Philadelphia sailed across the Atlantic for service against Tripoli, which had been conducting warfare against U.S. commercial shipping in the Mediterranean area. After nearly a year overseas, the frigate returned to the U.S. in July 1802 and was laid up. Philadelphia was recommissioned in May 1803 and again went to the Mediterranean Sea for operations against the North African Barbary states. In late August she retook an American merchantman from a Moroccan warship. Some weeks later, after the arrival of the larger frigate USS Constitution, under
Commodore Edward Preble, Philadelphia was sent eastwards to begin a blockade of Tripoli. On 31 October 1803 the American frigate ran aground while chasing an enemy corsair. Despite desperate efforts to get her afloat, she remained on the rocks and was soon forced to surrender in the face of an overwhelming force of Tripolitan gunboats. Philadelphia's Commanding Officer,
Captain William Bainbridge, and her entire crew became prisoners, a status they endured well into 1805. Soon refloated, Philadelphia was taken into Tripoli harbor, where she represented a constant menace to the now-weakened U.S. Naval force in the Mediterranean. To eliminate the threat she presented,
Commodore Preble organized a daring raid under the command of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur. During the night of 16 February 1804, Decatur and his men sailed the ketch Intrepid into Tripoli harbor, boarded the captured frigate, set her ablaze and escaped. The former USS Philadelphia was rapidly consumed by the flames and sank.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Articles & Breifings
