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Focusing on the oceanic war rather than the war in the Great Lakes, this study charts the War of 1812 from the perspectives of the two opposing navies at sea—one of the largest fleets in the world and a small, upstart navy just three decades old. While American naval leadership searched for a means of contesting Britain’s naval dominance, the English sought to destroy the U.S. Navy and protect its oceanic highways. Instead of describing battles between opposing warships, McCranie evaluates entire cruises by American and British men-of-war, noting both successes and failures and how they translated into broader strategies. In the process, his study becomes a history of how the two navies fought the oceanic war, linking high-level governmental decisions about strategy to the operational use of fleets in the Atlantic and Caribbean and from the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

Unlike other books on the subject, this work offers a balanced appraisal of the war on the high seas, taking into account the strategic considerations of both sides and how the leadership from each side assessed, planned, and implemented operational concepts. Drawing on a wealth of British and American archival sources, McCranie guides the through the strategic decision making processes on both sides of the Atlantic.  He demonstrates vividly their impact of those decisions on the course of the war at sea, where the contest was close and deadly.  Indeed, the author's action-packed accounts of battles hold special appeal.

Kevin D. McCranie is a professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College in Newport, RI, who holds a PhD in history from Florida State University. A specialist in the naval history of the Age of Sail, he is also the author of the award-winning Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War against Napoleon. He lives in West Greenwich, RI.

PRAISE FOR UTMOST GALLANTRY

“McCranie’s thought-provoking, well-written book puts the primary naval events of this war in a fresh perspective. Utmost Gallantry is an outstanding scholarly work, a book that is easy to recommend for anyone’s maritime library.”

— Sea History, Spring 2012

“Kevin McCranie takes the refreshing high road to history in this absorbing page turner that makes the War of 1812 exude the immediacy of having happened yesterday….This effort is definitely one of the better new books to examine a war of far more significance than history usually accorded it.”

— Sea Classics, April 2012

“Utmost Gallantry is an important, balanced view of the War of 1812. McCranie offers a fresh perspective on both U.S. and British strategic considerations.”

—CLAUDE BERUBE, U.S. Naval Academy, co-author of A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution

“McCranie's fine book provides both a comprehensive review of the seaborne deployments during the 1812 war and insightful analyses of the strategic choices of the combatants. But it’s most intriguing contribution may be the examples it gives of the difficulties that faced the strategic and tactical decision makers as a result of slow communications combined with faulty and/or incomplete intelligence. It ignores the heroics to show a reader the true fog of war.”

—GORDON S. BROWN, author of The Captain Who Burned His Ships: Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750–1829

“Based on a wide range of sources, Kevin McCranie offers an impressive account of the naval dimensions of the War of 1812—an account alive to tactical, operational, and strategic aspects.”

—JEREMY BLACK, professor of history at the University of Exeter and author of The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon

“Professor Kevin McCranie skillfully portrays the blue-water strategy and tactics of the naval high commands in Great Britain and the United States during the War of 1812. McCranie’s thoroughly researched study is a valuable addition to the naval literature of this important conflict.”

—GEORGE C. DAUGHAN, author of 1812: The Navy’s War and If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy from the Revolution to the War of 1812