USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente

USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente
Part of the Quasi-War
Action of 9 February 1799, John William Schmidt
Date 9 February 1799 Location Off Nevis in the Caribbean Sea Result American victory
Belligerents
United States	France
Commanders and leaders
Thomas Truxtun	Michel-Pierre Barreaut
Strength
1 frigate	1 frigate
Casualties and losses
2 killed 2 wounded	1 frigate captured 29 killed 41 wounded

USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente, or the action of 9 February 1799, was a single-ship action fought between frigates of the French Navy and the United States Navy during the Quasi-War, an undeclared war that lasted from 1798 to 1800. The battle resulted in USS Constellation's capture of L'Insurgente, after an intense firefight in which both sides exchanged heavy broadsides and musket fire.

French privateering attacks against American vessels, begun a year prior, caused the conflict between the United States and France. An American squadron under Commodore Thomas Truxtun had been sent to patrol the Caribbean waters between Puerto Rico and Saint Kitts with orders to engage any French forces they found in the area. While Truxtun was sailing independently of his squadron in Constellation, his flagship, he met and engaged L'Insurgente. After chasing the French ship through a storm, Constellation forced L'Insurgente into an engagement that lasted an hour and fourteen minutes before the French frigate surrendered. The French sustained heavy casualties in the action, while the numbers of American dead and wounded were low.

After the action, L'Insurgente was taken to Saint Kitts and commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Insurgent. With this and later victories, American morale soared, and Truxtun returned home to honor and praise from the American government and the public at large.