Reuben James

James was born in Delaware around 1776. By 1799, he was serving in the United States Navy aboard the frigate {{USS|Constellation|1797|6}} during the Quasi-War with France, participating in the victories over L'Insurgente and La Vengeance. During the First Barbary War, James was serving aboard the USS Enterprise when the frigate USS Philadelphia was captured by Barbary pirates after running aground near Tripoli, Libya.{{cite book |author=U. S. Navy Naval History Division |date=1976 |title=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dictionary_of_American_Naval_Fighting_Sh/v25052hy3pkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA85&printsec=frontcover |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |page=85 |isbn= |access-date=2025-05-02}}{{cite book |last=Wheelan |first=Joseph |date=2003 |title=Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror, 1801–1805 |url=https://archive.org/details/jeffersonswarame0000whee_n8r2/page/205/mode/2up/ |location=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |page=205 |isbn=0-7867-1404-2 |access-date=2025-05-02}}

During the naval blockade of Tripoli, the most intense engagement was the gunboat battle of August 3, 1804. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur boarded a Tripolitan gunboat that he believed was crewed by the men who had feigned surrender before mortally wounding his brother. While a wounded Decatur was locked in combat with the Tripolitan commander, another enemy sailor swung his sword at him. The Tripolitan's blow was absorbed by a sailor in Decatur's party, who suffered a head wound. Many traditional accounts credit James with saving Decatur's life, while modern scholarship credits Quartermaster Daniel Frazier.{{efn|In 1924, Charles Lee Lewis wrote that A. S. Mackenzie's Life of Stephen Decatur (1846) was the first work to attribute James as Decatur's savior, though even Mackenzie acknowledged that "Some have said this noble act of self-devotion was performed by Daniel Frazier, which left the name of the individual somewhat uncertain." Previous to Mackenzie, several authors, such as Thomas Clark (1814), S. Putnam Waldo (1822), and James Fenimore Cooper (1839) simply attributed the heroism to one of Decatur's crew. In Charles W. Goldsborough's Naval Chronicle (1824), he names Frazier as the hero.}}{{cite book |last=Whipple |first=A. B. C. |date=2001 |title=To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines |url=https://archive.org/details/toshoresoftripol0000whip/page/320/mode/2up/ |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press |page=154–155; 321 |isbn=1-55750-966-2 |access-date=2025-05-02}}{{cite magazine |last=Lewis |first=Charles Lee |date=March 1924 |title=Reuben James or Daniel Frazier? |volume=19 |number=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/marylandhistoric1919mary/page/30/mode/2up/ |magazine=Maryland Historical Magazine |pages=30–36 |access-date=2025-05-02}} As late as 1865, Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, a friend of Decatur's, said that "...Reuben James, a sailor, thrust out his arm and had it cleaved off by the blade of the weapon intended for his commander." Yet James was one of the few Americans to survive the battle uninjured, while Dr. Lewis Heermann, the surgeon aboard the Enterprise, described Frazier's injuries as "two incised wounds on the head, one of them severe; one bad wound across the wrist, and seven slightly about his hands." W. M. P. Dunne, writing for the U.S. Naval Institute's Naval History magazine, calls James taking the blow meant for Decatur "a myth."{{cite magazine |last=Dunne |first=W. M. P. |date=December 1993 |title=The Norfolk War Scare |url=https://archive.org/details/navalhistoryvol70000unse/page/6/mode/2up/ |volume=7 |number=4 |magazine=Naval History |page=7 |access-date=2025-05-02}} In 1937, Lieutenant Commander R. C. Bartman wrote that "[t]he service of each might be worthy of recognition without detracting from the other."{{cite book |last=Guttridge |first=Leonard F. |date=2007 |title=Our Country, Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur, the U.S. Navy's Most Illustrious Commander |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Our_Country_Right_or_Wrong/6mhaNWwGkysC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT230&printsec=frontcover |location=New York |publisher=Forge |page=230 |isbn=978-1-4668-3993-9 |access-date=2025-05-11}} Both men have had U.S. Navy ships named for them.

After the Barbary Wars, James continued his naval career, serving under Decatur during the War of 1812 aboard the {{USS|United States}}, participating in its capture of the {{HMS|Macedonian}}. James later served aboard the {{USS|President}}, and was taken prisoner when that vessel was captured by the British in January 1815. Later that year, he saw action in the Second Barbary War, sailing with Decatur in the fleet that captured the Algerian flagship Mashouda. Declining health forced his retirement in 1836, and an old musket ball wound necessitated the amputation of a leg.{{cite book |last=Maclay |first=Edgar Stanton |date=1906 |title=A History of the United States Navy from 1775 to 1901 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_History_of_the_United_States_Navy_from/fStCAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA659&printsec=frontcover |location=New York |publisher=D. Appleton & Company |pages=659–660 |isbn= |access-date=2025-05-02}} James died on December 12, 1838 at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Three United States Navy ships have been named the USS Reuben James:

• {{USS|Reuben James|DD-245|3}} (1919–1941), a {{sclass|Clemson|destroyer}}
• {{USS|Reuben James|DE-153|3}}, (1942–1971), a {{sclass|Buckley|destroyer escort}}
• {{USS|Reuben James|FFG-57|3}}, (1983–2017), an {{sclass|Oliver Hazard Perry|frigate}}

James Island in Washington state is also named for James.{{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Richard W. |title=Charles Wilkes and the Exploration of Inland Washington Waters: Journals from the Expedition of 1841 |date=2009 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |page=76 |isbn=978-0-7864-5397-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nD1F1dmFW5MC&pg=PA76}}

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Category:1770s births

Category:1838 deaths

Category:American military personnel of the First Barbary War

Category:United States Navy sailors

Category:American military personnel of the Second Barbary War

Category:Military personnel from Delaware