The defense of the cutter Eagle was a battle on and around Long Island New York, that took place from October 10 to 13, 1814, between the British Royal Navy and the United States' Revenue Marine.

Once more she was beached, but after exhausting their ammunition over three days of fighting, the Eagle's crew was unable to prevent her from being towed off by the Royal Navy, which then sailed her back past the shoreline for a victory lap.

[2] The blockade was not total; American merchantmen carrying certain foodstuffs to Europe were issued transit passes by the Baron Hotham due to the British Army's provisioning needs for its forces engaged in Spain during the concurrent War of the Sixth Coalition.

[2] Nonetheless, by 1814, according to historian Melvin Jackson, the entire American seaboard "lay all but deserted" to maritime traffic leaving the United States essentially cut-off from the rest of the world.

[3][4] On October 9, 1814, the American packet ship Susan left New York bound for New Haven, Connecticut, hugging the coast so as to avoid violating the British blockade.

To protect the ship, Lee ordered his crew to salvage Eagle's guns, which were hauled to the top of a nearby bluff and from there began returning fire against Dispatch in an effort to drive her away.

[3][6] Another account of the battle, published in the New York Evening Post, reported that: Having expended all the wadding of the four-pounders on the hill, during the warmest of the firing, several of the crew volunteered and went on board the cutter to obtain more.

[4] It is one of two paintings commissioned by the Coast Guard of the battle, neither of which are considered accurate, the mural showing an unrealistic representation of the geography of Negro Head and the other work omitting the presence of the Connecticut soldiers.

[13] Three of the ships involved in the battle, Eagle as well as Narcissus and Dispatch, are among the six legendary vessels celebrated in the second verse of the Coast Guard march "Semper Paratus":[14] Surveyor and Narcissus, The Eagle and Dispatch, The Hudson and the Tampa, These names are hard to match; From Barrow's shores to Paraguay, Great Lakes or Ocean's wave, The Coast Guard fights through storms and winds To punish or to save.