. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . nted him with the Toledo sword, whose handlewas shot away during the battle with the Cyaneand Levant. I reminded the admiral that he had not told meabout his being wounded. During the engagement one of the pigeons onboard became so terrified that it flew through therigging several times, and then alighted on myshoulder. At that moment, a musket-ball struckits foot at the toughest portion, where the toesjoin, and entered my shoulder. The hurt wouldhave been a bad one except for the pigeon; but asit w
. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . nted him with the Toledo sword, whose handlewas shot away during the battle with the Cyaneand Levant. I reminded the admiral that he had not told meabout his being wounded. During the engagement one of the pigeons onboard became so terrified that it flew through therigging several times, and then alighted on myshoulder. At that moment, a musket-ball struckits foot at the toughest portion, where the toesjoin, and entered my shoulder. The hurt wouldhave been a bad one except for the pigeon; but asit was the wound was slight. For Captain Stewarts brilliant victory with theConstitution Congress presented him with a goldmedal, and on his return to Boston he was the hero 12 OLD IRONSIDES. of the hour. It is worthy of note that this battle,like General Jacksons great victory at New Or-leans, was fought after a treaty of peace was de-clared between Great Britain and the UnitedStates. A ship was then speeding across the At-lantic with the momentous tidings, but she did c if? ^ t-^cUfc*-- - ~a*. CAPTAIN STEWART AND THE PIGEON. not arrive in time to prevent two of the mostfamous engagements of the war. How differentit would be in these days of ocean greyhounds andsubmarine cables! When it became evident that war was to occurbetween England and this country, our navy was OLD IRONSIDES. 13 so insignificant that President Madison and Con-gress decided to adopt the over-caution policy, andvirtually to make no contest on the sea, but toconfine the operations to land. The vigorous ar-guments and protests of Bainbridge and Stewartled to the abandonment of this timid policy, andgave our privateers and infant navy a chance towin imperishable glory. It was some years after the close of the warthat Commodore Decatur and Barren engaged intheir lamentable duel. Both were wounded andfell to the ground, and lying there they shooknands and forgave each other. Barren was cer-tain he was mortally wou
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