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the naval career of thomas holdup stevens 177 “A Gallant and Valuable Officer” The Naval Career of Thomas Holdup Stevens, 1809–1841 Charles E. Brodine Jr. On 13 September 1813, three days after securing a bloody, hard-fought victory over the British fleet on Lake Erie, Oliver Hazard Perry sat down to compose a detailed after-action report to Secretary of the Navy William Jones. In this report, meant for public as well as official consumption , Perry vividly described how the two opposing squadrons had fought for supremacy in the waters off Put-in-Bay.1 Before concluding his letter, Perry singled out eighteen officers whose gallant behavior had contributed to the American triumph. Tellingly, he withheld mention of the four officers who had commanded the vessels at the rear of his battle line, among them Lieutenant Thomas Holdup, captain of the one-gun sloop Trippe. For Holdup, Perry’s silence was particularly mortifying, as he had performed well in the battle, aggressively bringing his little sloop into action against the two largest ships in the British squadron, the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, and later overhauling and capturing the fleeing sloop Little Belt at the contest’s close.2 Through the intercession of senior squadron officers, Perry soon discovered that he had erred in failing to praise Holdup in his 13 September report. To make amends, the commodore promised to give his young subordinate “every justice” on visiting Navy Department officials in Washington.3 While Perry honored his pledge to Holdup, even becoming the latter’s short-lived patron, this episode is emblematic of how Holdup’s meritorious wartime services have failed to receive the recognition they deserve. Only recently have historians begun to detail his contributions to the 1813 Erie campaign, though his spirited conduct in operations on the Niagara River in 1812 and on Lake Huron in 1814 remain largely untold.4 This essay is a contribution toward telling that story and giving Thomas Holdup, who later took the name Thomas Holdup Stevens, the recognition due him. – 177 – 178 consequences ThomasHoldupStevens’snavalservicesbeforeandaftertheWarof1812are equally deserving of treatment. These include enforcing the nation’s maritime laws, surveying harbors and coastlines, fighting pirates in the West Indies, assisting diplomatic missions in the Mediterranean, supervising recruiting stations, and administering major shore installations. Taken in their entirety, these services illustrate the wide range of challenging duties U.S. naval officers performed in the early nineteenth century. Sketching Thomas Holdup’s career not only highlights the accomplishments of this 1812 sailor but also reveals how the navy defended and advanced American interests in the first decades of the new republic. The information on Stevens’s early life is scarce and sometimes conflicting. In all likelihood he was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the city in which he was raised. The date most frequently given for his birth is 22 February 1795, though strong evidence exists that he was born in 1794.5 Stevens first appears in the historical record as “Thomas Holdrupe,” an eight-year-old inmate of the Charleston poor house who was bound over to the city orphanage on 24 November 1803. As two other poor house boys bearing the surname Holdrupe entered the Orphan House at or near this time, it seems reasonable to conclude that Stevens had two brothers, both younger, with whom he was institutionalized.6 What tragic family event left the Holdup boys parentless and wards of the city is unknown. In all probability, both mother and father died after contracting one of the more virulent diseases—yellow fever, smallpox, cholera—that struck down Charlestonians in large numbers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The city’s poor and indigent classes, to whom the Holdups doubtless belonged, were especially vulnerable to such health threats.7 The Holdup children were fortunate to find asylum at the Charleston Orphan House. Established by the Charleston City Council in October 1790, the Orphan House was the first publicly funded institution of its kind in the United States. It “provided a safe, structured environment for abandoned, orphaned, or needy children.”8 A council-appointed board of commissioners oversaw the Orphan House’s management while a small staff of administrators , instructors, and custodians tended to the children’s day-to-day needs. Children were maintained and educated until they were old enough to be apprenticed to a trade, usually at age thirteen for girls and fourteen for boys.9 Thomas Holdup spent just over five years at the Charleston Orphan House. The full...

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