For young naval officer James Lawrence, the spring of 1813 would see his star reach its zenith. Born in Burlington, N.J., in 1781 into a Loyalist family, he had spent much of his life trying to escape the stigma. Lawrence joined the Navy as a midshipman at the age of 17, and as the Navy grew in importance, so did Lawrence, serving in the quasi-war with France and the battles against the Barbary pirates.