The War of 1812

Amos A. Evans (1785-1848)
Journal from the USS Constitution,
ca. 1813-1814
Page 2
Manuscript Division
Gift of Walter Edwin Rex III, 2005 (22A.8)

Amos A. Evans (1785-1848)
Medical notebook,
ca. 1813-1814
Page 2
Manuscript Division
Gift of Walter Edwin Rex III, 2005 (22A.9)

The journal kept by surgeon Amos Evans aboard the American frigate USS Constitution is one of two Naval medical journals known to have survived from the period. It contains the only detailed first-person account of the Constitution's famous August 19, 1812, battle at sea with the La Guerrière, in which the British ship was vanquished. As shipboard physician, Evans witnessed firsthand both the heroism and the human costs of the war. By way of epigram for his journal he quoted the poet William Cowper: "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness . . . Where rumor . . . Of unsuccessful or successful war / Might never reach me more!"