In 1813 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry defied odds and achieved an encouraging victory over the British on lake Erie. Upon victory, Captain Perry sent a simple message to General William Henry Harrison: "Dear Gen’l: — We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, O.H. Perry." This simple message of victory lifted a discouraged country and was like a bolt of lightning for General Harrison's men.
In early 1813, Navy master Commandment Oliver Hazard Perry was sent to the town of Erie Pennsylvania, then known as Presque Isle to lead a command of fleets to take control of Lake Erie. But when Perry arrived, there was only a improvised shipyard containing a few semi-finished vessels with only one cannon. Perry was expecting fifty carpenters, caulkers, ship-joiners and sawyers but none of them had arrived. Even the town itself was mostly deserted in fear of the British and their allied Indians. Perry refused to give up, he had fought for many years to make a career in the Navy and his father was a successful merchant ship who joined the navy to fight in the Quasi-war. Perry was hard at work, doing everything in his power to build a fleet of fighting ships. By July, his shipbuilding program was almost complete. Perry and his men had constructed two 110-foot 500 ton brigs with twenty guns each. He now had a fleet that outgunned the British on Lake Erie. But, he had only 120 of the the 740 men needed to man the fleet. Then on July 31, Perry was awakened by some startling news. The British squadron had set sail and their location was unknown. It was rumored that the British Captain Barclay had been invited to a dinner honoring him on the Canadian shore. Barclay had indeed gone to the dinner assuming that the Americans would never be ready to leave their ports.
Perry sprang into action, somehow he had to get his ships into the open waters of the lake ready for an attack. But the port was separated from the deep waters of the lake by a sand bar of only 4 to 6 feet of water. Perry decided to use sophisticated floating devices calling camels to lift and float the ships over the sand bar. The British apparently never expected the Americans to have or know how to use such devices. But after, several days of frantic efforts Perry finally got both of his frigates, the Lawrence and the Niagara over the bar and into the open waters but without enough men to instigate an actual attack. Still, the British commander was caught off-guard and in fact was short men as well. Perry continued in pursuit as if to make a full-attack. Barclay retreated; the bluff had worked. Then finally some good news finally arrived. Jesse Duncan Elliott was on his way with 89 seamen including two acting lieutenants. With reinforcements, and after a bout of sickness the Lawrence and the Niagara were ready for action. Perry commanded the Lawrence while Elliot the Niagara.
The Lawrence was the first to encounter the British as it closed in on the British ship Detroit. In still waters, Detroit's long guns had the advantage and opened a furious fire on the Lawrence. The Lawrence took much damage, but pressed on and finally drew within range to fire a broadside, but were dismayed when the saw it made little impression on the fortified Detroit. As the Lawrence then closed within 300 yards of the Detroit, many of his men were dead or wounded, yet Elliot and the Niagara seemed content to stay far back. Soon the Lawrence fired it's final shot. Against the protests of many wounded on the ship, Perry lowered the mainmast, they thought he was surrendering and so did the British. But , Perry's eyes were on the Niagara. He ordered his personal battleflag to not give up the ship, and then boarded a smaller vessel with four oarsmen and headed to the Niagara to take charge of that vessel. With a stroke of some very strange luck, one of Niagara's long guns tore though a topsail of a the British frigate Charlotte and she veered into the Detroit. Perry took advantage of this accident, and put the Niagara into position to bombard the Detroit with thirty-two pounders. Perry then sailed past the Detroit and Charlotte and fired broadsides on the smaller ships of the British fleet. Two additional British ships surrendered and smaller boats were also captured. It was the first time that an entire British naval squadron had surrendered.
President James Madison had the pleasure of sharing this great news with Congress. Madison described the actions of Captain Perry as both skillful and daring. Perry deserved the admiration and gratitude of his country. It was a victory like no other victory before, one that "will fill an early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster".
"On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry having met the British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster, however much it may have been in magnitude."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29455
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Hazard_Perry
http://www.historynet.com/war-of-1812-battle-of-lake-erie-oliver-perrys-miraculous-victory.htm
William Henry Powell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Battle_erie.jpg
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