The capture of USS President was one of many naval actions fought at the end of the War of 1812. The American frigate USS President tried to break out of New York Harbor but was intercepted by a British squadron of four frigates and forced to surrender.

USS President was a prime target of the Royal Navy during the War of 1812 as it was seen to have insulted British honor after the Little Belt affair. By 1815, Commodore Stephen Decatur commanded President, he had captured the smaller British frigate HMS Macedonian on 25 October 1812, while in command of the frigate USS United States.

Napoleon's failed attempt at invading Russia in 1812 would relieve many British ships from European waters allowing them to impose a strict blockade on the United States. On 1 June 1813, Decatur tried to break out of New York in USS United States and USS Macedonian (which had been taken into the United States Navy), but he encountered a powerful British squadron which drove him into New London, Connecticut. The two frigates were effectively hulked or demilitarized in order to tow them far enough upriver to be safe from British cutting-out expeditions.

Coincidentally, this was the same day of the capture of USS Chesapeake which meant that in one day, nearly half of the United States frigates were incapacitated by British forces. By 1814, the US Navy was entirely contained with the exception of a few sloops. The frigate Essex was captured, the frigates Columbia, Boston, Adams and New York had been destroyed, and United States, Macedonian, Constitution, Congress, Constellation were blockaded. There was no chance of sailing in good weather, the only hope for escape was in the dangerous winter gales when the British forces would be blown offshore. Decatur tried to break out of New London in United States in early 1814, but turned back when he feared that pro-British local civilians were burning blue lights to alert the blockaders. He and his crew of United States were transferred to the faster President, which had been refitted in New York.

Meanwhile, the British squadron blockading New York consisted of the former ship of the line Majestic which had been razeed (cut down) to create a 32-pounder frigate, the 24-pounder frigate HMS Forth, and the 18-pounder frigates HMS Pomone and HMS Tenedos. Commodore John Hayes was in overall command as the captain of Majestic. The 24-pounder frigate HMS Endymion had attempted to cut out (send the boats to board and capture) the privateer Prince de Neufchatel and had lost many of her crew, and Captain Henry Hope had expected to be sent back to Britain as Endymion by that time was an old ship (built in 1797) and her crew had been weakened by the battle. To his surprise, however, Admiral Henry Hotham ordered Endymion to remain on the North American Station as Endymion was the fastest ship in the Royal Navy, and he ordered some replacement crew to be drafted from the 56-gun razee HMS Saturn. Hope went to unusual lengths to train his new crew in anticipation of imminent combat using the same methods as were used by Philip Broke on HMS Shannon. The combination of Endymion's handling, speed, 24-pounder armament and the crew's training meant that she was better prepared for battle than most other frigates. Endymion relieved her newer softwood sister ship Forth from the New York blockade, and Hayes' squadron now consisted of Majestic, Endymion, Pomone, and Tenedos.

President was in New York Harbor with the sloops-of-war USS Peacock and USS Hornet, and the schooner-rigged tender USS Tom Bowline. By 1815 President was overdue for repairs. Unlike the other five of the six frigates, President was not fastened with diagonal riders which caused her hull to be prone to hogging and twisting. They were preparing to break out past the British blockade to embark on cruises against British merchant shipping. A blizzard blew up from the northwest on 13 January, and the British ships were blown off their station to the southeast. Decatur determined to take advantage of the situation by breaking out with President alone. (He may have been accompanied by a merchant brig, also named Macedonian, carrying extra rations as a tender, but the brig does not feature in any subsequent events.) The plan was that the smaller warships would break out later and rendezvous with President off Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.

Decatur immediately met with disaster. He had ordered gunboats as harbor pilots to mark the safe passage across the shoal with anchored boats at the mouth of the harbor, but they failed to do so properly and President grounded on the bar and remained stuck there for almost two hours, enduring a pounding from the wind and heavy sea. The frigate was damaged by the time that it was worked free: some copper was stripped away from the hull, the masts were twisted and some of them had developed long cracks. Decatur claimed the hull was twisted, and the bow and stern hogged on the sand bar, although it is likely that this was the case before President had even left port as she was already overdue for repairs. Decatur decided that it was impossible for President to return to port, the wind was still strong. The logs from the British squadron claimed that the gale had stopped, though strong winds persisted. Decatur headed east, keeping close to the Long Island shore before heading southeast.

While President and her crew were struggling to float off the sand bar, the British blockading squadron was fighting to return to their blockading station. As the winds slowed, the British regrouped. Hayes realized that American ships might have taken the opportunity to leave port unobserved, so he left Tenedos to watch the Sandy Hook passage and headed north to watch the Long Island passage, rather than heading back to the harbor entrance.