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)
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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!"
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