Capture of H.B.M. Frigate Macedonian by U.S. Frigate United States, October 25, 1812

The rolling waves and swirls of smoke in this painting convey the noise and excitement of battle. To patriotic nineteenth-century Americans, the victory of the frigate United States over the British ship Macedonian in 1812 marked a triumph against British sea power. Off the Canary Islands, Stephen Decatur’s ship damaged the Macedonian​’s hull, dismasted, and captured her. Decatur became an American hero who famously proclaimed ​“Our country-…may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.“

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006