In the battle the _Saratoga_ had twenty-eight men killed and twenty-nine wounded, more than a quarter of her entire crew; the _Eagle_ lost thirteen killed and twenty wounded; the _Ticonderoga_, six killed and six wounded; the _Preble_, two killed; and the galleys, three killed and three wounded. The _Saratoga_ was hulled fifty-five times, and had caught on fire twice from the hot shot fired by the _Confiance_. The latter vessel was reported to have lost forty-one killed outright and eighty-three wounded. In all, the British loss was eighty-four killed and one hundred and ten wounded. Macdonough received substantial testimonials of gratitude from the country at large, the Legislature of New York giving him one thousand acres of land and the State of Vermont two hundred. Besides this, the corporations of Albany and New York City made him the present of a valuable lot, and from his old command in the Mediterranean he received a handsome presentation sword. XVI THE LOSS OF THE “PRESIDENT” [January 15th, 1815] In recording the actions of the war of 1812 that gave lustre to our navy and added to the records of its heroes, we have already included two in which the results were defeat and capture of American ships. The _Essex_ and the _Chesapeake_ are here referred to, the latter being the only case in which the opposing forces approached an equality. There is one other action still to be touched upon, which, though disastrous, cannot but reflect honor upon those connected with it. Stephen Decatur, the idol of the American service, had been given the command of the frigate _President_, which had been refitting in the harbor of New York. On the evening of the 14th of January, 1815, he sailed into the lower bay, intending to make his way to sea under cover of the night, as it was known that a heavy squadron of the English had been hovering along the coasts of New Jersey and Long Island. In leaving the harbor near Sandy Hook, owing to some mistake of the pilot, the _President_ grounded heavily on a sand-bar, and for an hour and a half she struck continually in her efforts to escape, breaking several of her rudder-braces and straining her seams so badly that she commenced to leak very fast. Decatur determined to return to the harbor, as he suspected, what was afterwards proved to be true, that the _President_ had carried away part of her false keel, and was badly hogged (_i. e._, broken and bent near her keelson). Owing to a strong wind rising, it was found impossible to put the _President_ about, and the tide being at the flood, it became necessary to force her over the bar at all hazards. By ten o’clock that night she had succeeded in freeing herself, and shaped her course along the shore of Long Island, steering southeast by east.