y so prominent
a part. These vessels were usually schooners or brigs of 200 or 300
tons, with crews varying from 75 to 100 men. They left all of our
principal ports, many of the swiftest and most effective going from
Baltimore, but twenty-six were fitted out in New York alone in the
summer of 1812. Probably the whole number engaged was about six hundred.
Of the four hundred British prizes captured in the second year of the
war, four-fifths were taken by privateers. A favorite cruising ground
was the West Indies, but some of the vessels ventured across the ocean
and displayed a degree of boldness that recalled the days of Paul Jones.
Among the most famous were the _Reindeer_, _Avon_ and _Blakeley_, built
in a few weeks, near Boston, in 1814. They were so large and well
equipped that more than once they attacked and defeated British
warships.

Some of the privateers which left Charleston, Bristol and Plymouth were
nothing but pilot boats, carrying twenty or thirty men each, who gave
their attention to the West Indies. They were often obliged to deplete
their crews to that extent in order to man their prizes that barely
enough were left to manage their own ships. In those days all, of
course, were sailing vessels, and they carried nothing in the shape of
armor. Their guns were cannon, loading at the muzzle and firing solid
shot. The most effective of these was the "Long Tom," which was
generally mounted on a pivot forward, and used in firing upon a fleeing
vessel.

[Illustration: GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON.]

(_Afterward President of the United States_.)

The most famous achievement was that of the privateer _General
Armstrong_, which carried nine long guns, the largest being 24-pounders,
or "long nines." She sailed with a large crew, which was depleted to
ninety on account of the number in charge of the prizes captured. Her
commander was Captain Samuel C. Reid, born in Connecticut in 1783, and
died in 1861. It was he who designed the accepted pattern of the United
States flag, with its thirteen stripes and one star for each State. The
fifteen-striped flag, which it has been stated was carried through the
War of 1812, remained the pattern until 1818, when the change referred
to was made.

While engaged upon one of his successful cruises, Captain Reid put into
the harbor of Fayal, one of the Azores, to provision his ship. He was
thus employed when Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, of England, reached the
same port and on the