British Warship Attacks USS Chesapeake: War Tensions Rise
HMS Leopard fired three broadsides into the USS Chesapeake on June 22, 1807, off the Virginia coast, killing three sailors and wounding eighteen. The British captain demanded to board and search for Royal Navy deserters. Commodore James Barron, whose ship was unprepared for action with guns lashed down and decks cluttered, fired a single shot before striking his colors. The British boarding party seized four men, one of whom was hanged as a deserter. The attack provoked the most serious Anglo-American crisis since independence. President Jefferson demanded reparations and banned British warships from American waters. The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair directly contributed to the Embargo Act of 1807 and was a primary grievance cited in the American declaration of war in June 1812.
June 22, 1807
219 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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