Lieutenant Fitz Henry Babbitt (10 October 1790 – 15 January 1815) was an officer of the United States Navy who served during the War of 1812, and was killed during the capture of USS President. Biography Babbitt was probably born in Brookfield, Massachusetts, and was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 2 April 1804. He accepted his warrant on 28 May 1804 and entered into service on board the 32-gun frigate , that same day. He served in Essex and in the bomb ketch in the Mediterranean Sea between 1804 and 1806. Returning home to the United States in Spitfire in August 1806, Babbitt joined the frigate in 1807 and had charge of her quarterdeck guns on the occasion of the battle with on 22 June 1807. He was appointed an acting lieutenant and ordered to the brig on 1 February 1810. He cruised the waters along the east coast of the United States in Argus until late October, at which time he was furloughed. Babbitt received his lieutenant's commission on 4 March 1811, with seniority to date from 5 June 1810. On 19 February 1812, he received orders to join and served in her until 17 July 1812 when a British squadron – built around the 64-gun ship-of-the-line and the frigates and – captured Nautilus off the northern New Jersey coast. Babbitt spent several weeks as a prisoner of war in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before being exchanged. Following his return, he was assigned to the frigate on 30 November 1812 and helped in the futile effort to get that ship ready for sea after her modification into a sloop of war. Though the work was completed by the end of 1812, the British had Adams blockaded in Chesapeake Bay by then, and she remained so until early in 1814. Babbitt's assignment to Adams, however, lasted only until the spring of 1813. On 6 April 1813, he received orders to join the frigate ; but those orders were apparently changed later in the month, and he went to Sackett's Harbor along with the officers and men of the blockaded Adams. In September 1813, Babbitt again received orders to United States to serve as that ship's first lieutenant. United States, however, languished at New London – along with her recent prize, , by then also in American service, and the sloop of war – under a blockade imposed by a