The USS Constitution had left Boston in December 1814, as negotiators in Belgium were putting the final touches on the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. By February 1815, as the nation was learning of the treaty and celebrating, Capt. Charles Stewart outmaneuvered two British warships, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant, capturing them both off the coast of Portugal, and after taking prisoners on board, Stewart had to place some of his men on each ship.

Benson Lossing in his Field Book of the War of 1812 explains, “Placing Lieutenant Hoffman on the Cyane, and Lieutenant…