Commodore John Rodgers (July 11, 1772 – August 1, 1838) was a United States Navy officer who served during the Navy's formative years from the 1790s through to the late 1830s. He served under six presidents and for nearly four decades. His service took him through numerous military engagements of the Quasi-War, both Barbary Wars, and the War of 1812.

As a senior officer in the young American navy, Rodgers played a major role in the development of the standards, customs and traditions that emerged during this time. Rodgers was, among other things, noted for commanding the largest American squadron in his day to sail the Mediterranean Sea.Paullin, 1910 p.9Hagan, 1992 pp.60-61 After serving with distinction as a lieutenant, he was soon promoted directly to the rank of captain (the rank of Master Commandant did not exist at that time).McKee, Christopher (1991), A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. pp 297 During his naval career he commanded a number of warships, including , the flagship of the fleet that defeated the Barbary states of North Africa.

During the War of 1812, Rodgers fired the first shot of the war aboard his next flagship, , and also played a leading role in the reoccupation of Washington D.C. after it was occupied by British forces. His own hometown of Havre de Grace, Maryland was raided and burnt during the war. Later in his career he headed the Board of Navy Commissioners, and he served briefly as Secretary of the Navy.Paullin, 1910 p.325 Following in his footsteps, Rodgers' son, and several grandsons and great-grandsons, also became commodores and admirals in the United States Navy.Paullin, 1910 pp.74, 382, 402-403

Early life Rodgers's parents were part of a large wave of Scottish immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies in the years prior to the American Revolution. His father, John Rodgers, was born in Scotland in 1726. He emigrated to America and in 1760 married Elizabeth Reynolds (born 1742) from Delaware, who was also of Scots ancestry. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters; the younger John Rodgers was named for his father. Like many other Scots immigrants, his father became a proponent of the patriot cause and served as a colonel in the militia.

Rodgers was born in 1772 on a farm in a village near the "Susquehanna Ferry", on the north shore of the Susquehanna River (near today's Perryville) in Cecil County. This was near its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay. He was raised here for the first thirteen years of his life. While Rodgers was still a youth, the village on the south shore (in Harford County) was named "Havre de Grace" by Marquis de Lafayette after a famous French port of the same name. The young Rodgers was known to fish in the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay near his home. He attended local school, and read books about the seafaring life. He had often seen schooner-rigged ships in Havre de Grace but longed to see the large square-rigged vessels he had always read about.

Realizing Rodgers was determined to go to sea, his father helped arrange his apprenticeship with Captain Benjamin Folger, a master ship builder of Baltimore, and Revolutionary War veteran. He had served aboard merchant ships and as commander of Felicity, used in the capture of a privateer. By this time, Folger was captain and owner of Maryland. Rodgers served a five-year apprenticeship on this ship.Paullin, 1910 pp.18-21

In 1806 Rodgers married Minerva Denison;Paullin, 1910 p.398 they had three sons, Robert, Frederick and John, and two daughters together. Their son John Rodgers Jr. was born in Maryland in 1812. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, serving aboard the Baltimore-built and in the Mediterranean Sea. Later he was commissioned as a rear admiral during the Civil War. Rodgers also had several grandsons and great-grandsons who became officers in the U.S. Navy.Paullin, 1910 p.279

First command When Rodgers was seventeen, Captain Folger promoted him to first mate of the merchant ship Harmony. By the time Rodgers completed his five years of apprenticeship in 1793, Folger highly recommended him for command of Jane, a merchant ship regularly used in the European trade and owned by Baltimore merchants Samuel and John Smith.Paullin, 1910 pp. 20-21 Rodgers served as the captain of this ship between four and five years, sailing out of Baltimore for various ports in Europe. His first voyage took him to the Spanish port of Cádiz in the early months of 1793, returning home with a load of salt. Rodgers' next voyage sent him to Hamburg, Germany, but due to severe conditions on the North Sea, he was forced to put up in England for the winter and did not reach his destination until spring of the next year. In September 1795 he departed for Baltimore from Liverpool, arriving after a passage of three months. Logbooks of the Jane during Rodgers's command cover the period of July–August 1796 in detail, a time when France and Great Britain were still at war. During this period, Rodgers mastered the art of ship's command.

Rodgers and his crew were tested under severe conditions on the North Sea. Winds had carried the ship off course, provisions were almost exhausted, and three of his crewmen had frozen to death in one night. Most of the rest despaired of survival. When Rodgers ordered some of the crew to go aloft to secure ice-encrusted rigging, they refused. Outraged, Rodgers stripped off his jacket and shirt and, before going aloft, told the crew to watch what a man could do. While he climbed the frozen rigging bare-chested, the crew immediately rose to his aid. They soon secured the faltering rigging. Given the grim conditions, Rodgers put the matter behind him and days later, they safely reached port.Paullin, 1910 p.27

Naval career

Rodgers' service in the United States Navy extended through the Quasi War with France, the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War in North Africa and through the War of 1812. In 1815 he was appointed to the Board of Naval Commissioners, serving through the Second Barbary War until he retired in 1837.

Quasi War On March 8, 1798, President John Adams appointed junior officers for the first three ships constructed for the young American Navy; Rodgers was appointed second lieutenant of the frigate USS Constellation, under the command of Thomas Truxtun. All of these officers were expeditiously confirmed by the Senate the next day. Rodgers participated in the capture of the French Navy frigate L'Insurgente during Constellations engagement, and he immediately was made prize master of the surrendered French vessel. Rodgers, along with Midshipman Porter and eleven seamen, boarded the badly damaged L'Insurgente with the challenge of sailing her to a friendly port while also guarding more than 160 prisoners.Paullin, 1910 p.46 That evening, gale-force winds separated the two ships, leaving Rodgers, Porter, and the few American seamen aboard the now-renamed Insurgent to save the ship and to control the prisoners without support from the crew of Constellation nearby. To make matters worse, just before surrendering their ship, the crew of L'Insurgente had thrown overboard the gratings to the hold along with handcuffs and other items used to secure prisoners. Greatly outnumbered, Rodgers had seized all weapons and ordered their prisoners to the lower hold,Allen, 1909 p.102 giving orders to open fire with blunderbusses should they try to breach the passageway from their hold. After guarding the prisoners and navigating the captured vessel for two days and three nights through stormy winter weather, Rodgers arrived at Bassettere, the capital of the British colony of Saint Kitts, on February 13, 1799. Great Britain and France were still at war, so the inhabitants of Bassettere were pleased to see a captured French vessel arriving in American hands. For the Americans' effort, a British commander in St. Kitts sent Truxtun a letter of congratulations and offered him every service within his command.Paullin, 1910 p.47 The two ships were then refitted and supplied while Insurgent received a new crew. On March 5, 1799, Rodgers was promoted to captain and received written orders to take command of the captured ship.Paullin, 1910 p.49

In June 1799, Rodgers relinquished command of Insurgent, then at Norfolk, Virginia, receiving a letter from Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert ordering him to Baltimore to supervise the outfitting of , a sloop-of-war bearing 20 guns, and then to take command of that ship.Paullin, 1910 p.53 Three months later Maryland was commissioned under Rodgers' command. In March 1801, he delivered to France the ratified Convention of 1800 (Treaty of Mortefontaine), which ended the Quasi-War.Hickey, 1989, p.7

First Barbary War

Placed in command of on May 3 of the following year, Rodgers was ordered to sail for Tripoli to patrol its surrounding waters for three weeks, joining and , along with a number of other vessels. Upon his arrival he immediately approached the harbor fortifications of Tripoli and engaged the gunboats and batteries defending the city. During this time he also pursued and boarded several neutral ships that were attempting to bring grain and other supplies to Tripoli, the inhabitants of which were facing starvation and other difficulties because of the blockade.Allen, 1905, p.98 After twelve days John Adams encountered the Tripolian vessel Meshboha, bearing 20 guns, which Rodgers engaged and captured. The Tripolian vessel previously had been blockaded at Gibraltar and was carrying a load of military supplies to Tripoli.Paullin, 1910 p.106 His brilliant record fighting the corsairs won Rodgers appointment as commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron in May 1805. Since Commodore James Barron's health at this time had deteriorated, it was practically impossible for Barron to maintain command of the squadron. Receiving a letter dispatched to him by on May 22, Rodgers assumed command of the squadron consisting of the ships Constitution, President, Constellation, , Essex, , , , , , and , together with a number of gunboats (including No. 5) and bomb vessels. Rodgers was thus in command of the largest American squadron to assemble in the Mediterranean until the twentieth century. The blockading force was so overwhelming that, after much deliberation and appeals from the Dey, a peace treaty with Tripoli was negotiated by the end of July.Allen, 1905, pp.223-226

When news of the treaty reached Washington D.C. in the fall of 1805, President Thomas Jefferson ordered all of the ships home with the exception of a frigate and two smaller supporting vessels. Before returning home, Rodgers sailed to Malta and Syracuse to close down military hospitals and settle accounts. He stopped to pay a visit to the Dey of Algiers, who had learned of the US treaty with Tripoli, and extended every courtesy to Rodgers, allowing him to be armed in his presence. In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, Rodgers later wrote "I am the first Christian that has ever been permitted to visit the Dey of Algiers with sidearms...."Paullin, 1910 pp.164-165

Other service

A year later, Rodgers returned to the United States to take command of the New York Flotilla. After the Embargo Act of 1807 against trade with the British Empire was passed by Congress at the close of 1807, Rodgers commanded operations along the Atlantic coast enforcing its provisions.

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