The result was partly determined by this personal equation in an action in which the _Macedonian_ was outgeneraled as well as outfought.

And again gunnery was a decisive factor.

Observers said that the broadsides of the _United States_ flamed with such rapidity that the ship looked as though she were on fire.
Early in the fight Captain Carden bungled an opportunity to pass close ahead of the _United States_ and so rake her with a destructive attack.
Then rashly coming to close quarters, the _Macedonian_ was swept by the heavy guns of the American frigate and reduced to wreckage in ninety minutes.

The weather was favorable for the Yankee gun crews, and the war offered no more dramatic proof of their superbly intelligent training.
The _Macedonian_ had received more than one hundred shot in her hull, several below the water line, one mast had been cut in two, and the others were useless.

More than a hundred of her officers and men were dead or injured.