Lewis Warrington
Commodore, U.S. Navy

Lewis Warrington was born on 3 November 1782 in Williamsburg, VA. He was the son of Rachel Warrington and most likely Donatien Marie Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau; his parents did not marry. He attended the College of William and Mary briefly before accepting an appointment as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on 6 January 1800. His first duty, in the frigate USS Chesapeake, took him to the West Indies where his ship cruised with a squadron during the last year of the Quasi-War with France. His ship appears to have engaged in one action near the end of the cruise. On New Year's Day 1801, she took the French privateer La Jeune Creole.

Following the cessation of hostilities with France, Midshipman Warrington remained in the Navy. His ship spent most of 1801 in ordinary service at Norfolk, VA. The following year, Warrington was transferred to the frigate USS President for service in the Mediterranean against the Barbary pirates. Over the next five years, he remained with the Mediterranean Squadron, serving successively in President, USS Vixen, and USS Enterprise. Promoted to Lieutenant in 1805, he returned home in 1807 to assume command of a gunboat at Norfolk. In 1809, Lt. Warrington voyaged to Europe in USS Syren as a dispatch courier. He next served a tour of duty in USS Essex.

When the war with England began in June 1812, Warrington was in USS Congress serving as the frigate's First Lieutenant while she patrolled the North Atlantic. During his tour of duty in that warship, she made two successful war cruises, capturing nine prizes off the east coast of the U.S. during the first and four off the Atlantic seaboard of South America during the second.

Promoted to Master Commandant in July 1813, he took command of the sloop-of-war USS Peacock later in the year. On 12 March 1814, he put to sea with his new command bound for the naval station at St. Mary's, GA. After delivering supplies to that installation, he encountered the British brig Epervier off Cape Canaveral, FL. Peacock emerged victorious from a brisk 45-minute exchange with that opponent, inflicting 10 times her own losses on the enemy. For his role in the victory, Warrington received the thanks of Congress in the form of a Congressional Gold Medal, and of the state of Virginia in the form of a gold-hilted sword.

Warrington took his prize into Savannah, GA, and then embarked upon his second cruise on 4 June. On that voyage-which took him to the Grand Banks, the Irish coast, the Shetland Islands, and the Faroe Islands -he took 14 prizes.

After returning via the West Indies to New York, Warrington took Peacock on her third and final war cruise. His sloop-of-war stood out of New York with USS Hornet and USS Tom Bowline on 23 January 1815, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Indian Ocean. Unaware that peace had been concluded in December 1814 at Ghent, Belgium, Warrington led his little force on another successful foray against British commerce. After taking three prizes in the Indian Ocean, he entered the East Indies in search of more game. On 30 June, he encountered the East India Company cruiser Nautilus in the Sunda Strait and attacked her. After a sharp action which cost the British ship 15 men including her first lieutenant, she surrendered to Warrington and his force. At this point, Warrington learned of the peace; and he, therefore, released the prize and started for home. Peacock arrived back in New York on 30 October 1815.

In 1816, he commanded USS Macedonian briefly for a voyage to Cartagena, Spain, to convey there, Christopher Hughes, the representative of the U.S. at negotiations over the release of some Americans imprisoned by Spanish authorities. In 1819 and 1820, Captain Warrington commanded USS Java, followed by USS Guerriere in 1820 and 1821. Each ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron during his tenure as her commanding officer. Captain Warrington returned home and received orders to duty at the Norfolk Navy Yard. In February 1825, he relieved David Porter as commander of the West Indian Squadron during the latter stages of the piracy suppression campaign and thereafter bore the title, Commodore.

In 1826, Warrington returned home and served ashore for the remainder of his career. After four years in Washington, DC, -1826 to 1830-as one of three commissioners on the Navy Board, a body charged with the administration of naval materiel, Warrington returned to Norfolk for a decade as commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard. In 1840, he was reassigned to Washington for another two years as commissioner on the Navy Board. After the 1842 reorganization of the Navy Department, Warrington became Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks.

On 28 February 1844, he took over temporarily the duties of the Secretary of the Navy after Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer died as a result of wounds received when the large cannon "Peacemaker" exploded during a firing demonstration on board Princeton at Washington. Near the end of March, Warrington relinquished those duties to the new secretary, John Y. Mason, and resumed his former assignment. In 1846, he became Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, which office he held until his death on 12 October 1851.

Text of Congressional Gold Medal

Friday, 21 October 1814

Resolution, expressive of the sense of Congress relative to the victory of the Peacock over the Epervier.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be requested to present to Captain Lewis Warrington, of the sloop of war Peacock, a gold medal, with suitable emblems and devices, and a silver medal, with like emblems and devices, to each of the commissioned officers, and a sword to each of the midshipmen, and to the sailing master of the said vessel, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of the gallantry and good conduct of the officers and crew, in the action with the British brig Epervier, on the twenty-ninth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, in which action the decisive effect and great superiority of the American gunnery were so signally displayed.

Legacy

Three ships in the U.S. Navy have been named USS Warrington in his honor.

Death and Burial

Commodore Lewis Warrington died on 12 October 1851 in Washington, DC. He is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Norfolk, VA.