This first volume of America Sails to War covers events leading up to the creation of a permanent Navy in 1798 and traces its growth through 1824, which was at the beginning mainly concerned with the establishment of armed naval vessels as a direct agent of protection for American commerce and the growth of the nation. That period was then followed by its first loosely structured venture into armed intercession on an international level during the Quasi War with France and then the same quasi-legal arrangement against the Barbary powers in the Mediterranean, prior to engaging in its first declared armed conflict against Great Britain. The commanders who led the early were truly men of great courage and fortitude; who with little command structure to guide them, depended on their own sense of justice and duty to guide their actions. They evidenced to the world that the United States was not only prepared, but willing and able, to establish their rights and position in the world order.