Chapter 20
Section 20 of Great Men and Famous Women, Volume 2. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Great Men and Famous Women, Volume 2, by Charles F. Horn. Oliver Hazard Perry, 1785-1819 Oliver Hazard Perry was born in Rhode Island, August 23, 1785.
The late Commodore McKenzie of the Navy, who possessed what we may term a fine biographical facility, has traced in his interesting narrative the life of Perry, with fond minuteness, the early incidents of the boy's career. The chief characteristics, he tells us, were an uncommon share of beauty, a sweetness and gentleness of disposition which corroborated the expression of his countenance, and a perfect disregard of danger, amounting to apparent unconsciousness.
This biographer gives some curious anecdotes of his school days. Suffice it to say that the family were moving to Newport about this time, Perry found good opportunities of education at that place and availed himself of them in a manly spirit. He was especially instructed in mathematics
and their application to navigation and nautical astronomy. As proof of the boy's ingeniousness and the interest he excited in intelligent observers, it is related that Count Rochambeau, the son of the General of the Revolution, then residing at Newport, was particularly attracted to him, and that Bishop Seabury, on his visitation, marked him as a boy of religious feeling. These traits which shape the man, we shall find them
reappearing in the maturity of Perry's life, in his worth, humanity, and refinement. The boy was but 13 when his father, in 1798, was called into the naval service of his country in the spirited effort made by President Adams to resist the aggressions of France upon the ocean. He took the command of a small frigate, built under his direction in Rhode Island, named the General Green, and carried with him to see his son Oliver as a midshipman at the express solicitation of the youth.
The General Green was actively employed in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, giving all its officers abundant opportunity for practice in the infant service. The French war flurry after a while blew over as the directory, the mainspring of these aggressions, lost power. Peace was patched up, and Jefferson shortly after inaugurated an unwholesome Pacific policy by a sweeping reduction of the Navy, as if it were not small enough already.
In this mutilating operation, the Elder Perry was dropped, the younger one fortunately retained. The Navy, however, was soon revived by the demands of the nation to resist the iniquitous and insulting depredations upon life and property inflicted by the Barbary powers. The United States had borne far too patiently with these injuries, though she had the honor of being in advance of the old powers of Europe in resisting them. The Mediterranean became the scene of many a chivalrous exploit of our early officers, a score of whom, headed by Preble, Bainbridge, Decatur, Somers, and others of that stamp of fiery and indomitable valor,
gained immortal laurels by their deeds of daring in conflict with the infidel. The young Perry served as midshipman in the frigate Adams, which sailed from Newport in 1802 to join Commodore Morris's command at Gibraltar. His ship was for some time employed in blockading a Tripolation at that port, a tedious but instructive service in maneuvering, at the close of which Perry, in consequence of his accomplishments, was promoted by his captain to the duties of a
lieutenant. The frigate was then employed as a convoy, making the tour of the northern ports. This gave Perry an opportunity to study scenes of the old world, which can never lose their influence in the formation of a man of education and refinement. In 1809, Perry got to sea in command of an armed schooner, the Revenge, which was employed on the Coast Service. While on the southern coast, he had an opportunity to gain distinction, which he did not fail to avail
himself of, in cutting out a stolen American vessel from under the guns of a British ship in the Spanish waters off Florida. Conveying his prize off the coast, he was threatened by His Majesty's Ship Gore of double his force, when having, as McKenzie says, no idea of being leopardized, he put his little schooner in readiness for boarding at a moment's notice, a spirited resolution of great bravery, which he would no doubt have carried out had the British
vessel insisted upon overhauling the revenge. While engaged in cruising off Connecticut and Rhode Island in the beginning of 1811, he unfortunately lost his vessel through the error of the pilot on the Watch Hill Reef opposite Fisher's Island as he was sailing from Newport to New London. Every seaman-like effort was made to save the vessel, and when all was unavailing, Perry showed equal skill and resolution in landing the crew in a heavy January swell
with a violent wind. He was himself the last to leave the vessel. He was not merely acquitted of neglect, but his conduct was extolled by a court of inquiry. He was, of course, thrown temporarily out of command by the loss of his vessel. An interval of repose which he hastened to turn to account by forming a matrimonial alliance with Miss Elizabeth Champlin Mason of an influential family at Newport, to whom he had become engaged several years before,
on his arrival from the Mediterranean. The wedding took place in May 1811, affording him ample opportunity for the honeymoon, previous to the actual outbreak of the war impending with England. This event found him at Newport with the rank of Master Commandant in charge of the flotilla of gunboats keeping watch in the harbor. It was a service not altogether adapted to satisfy the ambitious spirit of a young officer, but it was important in itself and became, in Perry's hands,
a step to further eminence. His course at this time illustrates a valuable truth, that no honorable employment is profitless to a man of genius. He will in some way turn it to account. Constructing gunboats and recruiting men in port were services not calculated to make any great blaze in a dispatch, but they conducted Perry to his glorious bulletins of victory and the resounding praises of the nation. He saw a new field of military operations opening on the lakes, and his experienced
eye must have seen as well the certain difficulties as the possible honors of the situation. It was not the post which an officer with the claims of Perry would have sought. While brilliant victories were being won in the eye of the world on the vast theater of the ocean, others, however, were before him on that element. Despairing of a command at sea, he offered himself to Commodore Chauncey, who had recently been placed at the head of the lake service. His character was understood by this
officer and the proffer accepted. The necessary communications were made to the government and, in the middle of February in 1813, he was ordered to join Chauncey at Sackett's Harbor with the picked men of his Newport flotilla. He lost no time in reporting himself at the appointed spot. His destination was Lake Erie, where he was to supervise the construction of two vessels to be employed in the next campaign, and he was anxious to get to work. But Chauncey, who felt the need of
his aide detained him for a while on Lake Ontario. He, however, toward the end of March, reached Erie, where the vessels were building. His experience in constructing gunboats at Newport was now of avail to him. He put the defense of the works, which had been greatly neglected, in a state of efficiency, and set himself to the collection of supplies, workmen, and an armament. No easy order in that day and in that place in the wilderness. For such, as compared with our own time, it
then was. The labors of Perry in this work of preparation were, in fact, of the most arduous character. They should not be forgotten as a heavy item to his credit in the sum total of his victory. Three gunboats and two brigs were launched and equipped in May. It was at this time that he received advices that Chauncey was about to make an attack on the British post of Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara River. He had been promised to share in this adventure and hasten
to the scene. The incidents of this journey show the spirit of the man. In his own words, in a letter describing this passage of his life, on the evening of May 23rd, I received information about sunset that Commodore Chauncey would, in a day or two, arrive at Niagara when an attack would be made on Fort George. He had previously promised me the command of the seamen and marines that might land from the fleet. Without hesitation, I determined to join him. I left Erie about dark in
a small four-oared open boat. The night was squally and very dark. After encountering headwinds and many difficulties, I arrived at Buffalo on the evening of the 24th, refreshed and remained there until daylight. I then passed the whole of the British lines in my boat within musket shot. Passing Strawberry Island, several people on our side of the river hailed and beckoned me on shore. On landing, they pointed out about forty men on the end of Grand Island,
who doubtless were placed there to intercept boats. In a few moments, I should have been in their hands. I then proceeded with more caution. As we arrived at Schlosser, it rained violently. No horse could be procured.
I determined to push forward on foot, walked about two miles and a half, when the rain fell in such torrents I was obliged to take shelter in a house at hand. The sailors, whom I had left with the boat, hearing of public horses on the commons, determined to catch one for me. They found an old passing one, which could not run away, and brought him in,
rigged a rope from the boat into a bridle, and borrowed a saddle without either stirrup, girth, or crupper. Thus accoutred, they pursued me and found me at the house where I had stopped. The rain ceasing, I mounted, my legs hung down the sides of the horse, and I was obliged to steady the saddle by holding by the main. In this style, I entered the camp. It was raining again most violently. Colonel Porter, being the first to discover me, insisted upon taking my horse as I had some
distance to ride to the other end of the camp, off which the Madison lay. Having thus reached headquarters, arrangements were rapidly made, and the landing of the troops assigned to Perry. In the ignorance or inexperience of some of the officers, there was considerable confusion in directing the boats in the river, which was remedied by Perry's vigilance and decision. He was everywhere in the midst of danger, guiding and directing. The unexpected attack of the
British was met by his energy, the landing affected, and the object of the expedition accomplished. This victory opened the port of Black Rock, where several American vessels were collected, which Perry undertook to get into Lake Erie against the strong current of the river, a feat which was accomplished with extraordinary fatigue, so that he returned to his station at Erie with a respectable addition of five vessels to his own newly launched little fleet in that
harbor. The American force was composed of the Briggs Lawrence and Niagara, of 20 guns each, and seven smaller vessels, numbering in all 54 guns. Captain Barclay, commander of the British forces on the lake, had the Detroit, of 19 guns, the Queen Charlotte, Lady Provost, and three other vessels, numbering altogether 63 guns. The range of the enemy's guns gave them advantage at a distance when the corresponding American fire was ineffectual. The Americans, too, were under a
disadvantage in the enfeebled state of the crews by the general illness which prevailed among them. The British force had undoubtedly the superiority in trained men as compared with Perry's extemporized miscellaneous command and untried junior officers. The latter proved, however, to be of the right material. On the morning of the engagement, the American fleet was among the islands off Malden at Putten Bay, when the British force bore up. There was some difficulty
at first in clearing the islands, and the nature of the wind seemed likely to throw Perry upon the defensive, when a southeast breeze springing up enabled him to bear down upon the enemy. This was at 10 o'clock on a fine autumnal morning. Perry arranged his vessels in line, taking the lead in his flagship, the Lawrence, on which he now raised the signal for action, a blue flag inscribed in large white letters with the words of the dying Lawrence,
Don't give up the ship. He accompanied this movement with an appeal to his men. My brave lads, this flag contains the last words of Captain Lawrence. Shall I hoist it? Aye, aye, sir, was the willing response. In this way, he cheered the men in the awful pause. A dead silence of an hour and a half preceded the action, for in the light breeze the vessels were long and overcoming the intermediate distance of several miles.
Perry, who knew the perils of the day, prepared his papers as if for death. He letted the public documents in readiness to be cast overboard, and, a touching trait of these moments, gave a hurried perusal to his wife's letters and tore them to pieces lest they should be read by the enemy. The awful silence is suddenly broken by a bugle sounding on board the Detroit
and the cheers of the British seamen. A shot from that vessel fell short of its mark. The Lawrence bears on to meet the fire, accompanied by the other vessels of the command in appointed order, each destined for its appropriate antagonist.
At noon, the British fire from the superior long guns was telling fearfully on the American force when Perry made all sail for close quarters, bringing the Lawrence within reach of the Detroit. He maintained a steady, well-directed fire from his carronades, assisted by the Scorpion and Ariel.
The destruction on the deck of the Lawrence was fearful. Out of 100 well-men, says McKenzie, who had gone into action, 22 were killed and 61 wounded. We shall not insult the humanity of the reader by the details of this fearful carnage. It has probably never been exceeded in the terrors of the dying deck.
in naval warfare. In the midst of this storm of conflict, Perry, finding his ship getting disabled and seeing the Niagara uninjured at a safe distance, resolved to change his flag to that vessel. He had half a mile to traverse, exposed to the fire of the enemy in an open boat. Nothing deterred with the exclamation, if a victory is to be gained, I'll gain it. He made the passage, part of the time standing as a target for the hostile guns. Fifteen minutes were passed exposed
to this plunging fire, which splintered the oars and covered the boat with spray. The Lawrence, stripped of her officers and men, was compelled to surrender. Perry instantly bore up to the Detroit, the guns of which were plied resolutely when she became entangled with her consort, the Queen Charlotte, and the Niagara poured a deadly fire into both vessels. This cannonade decided the battle in seven minutes when the enemy surrendered. The American loss in this
engagement was 27 killed and 96 wounded. That of the British, 41 killed and 94 wounded. Gallant actions were performed and noblemen fell on both sides. It was every way a splendid victor, placing the genius of Perry and his magnanimous, spirited conduct throughout in the highest rank of naval exertion. The memorable letters, brief, at once eloquent and modest, which he wrote that afternoon announcing his victory, are too characteristic to be admitted in any personal
account of the man. Addressing General Harrison, he writes, Dear General, we have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. Yours, with very great respect and esteem, O. H. Perry. The other was to the Secretary of the Navy. Sir, it has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal victory over their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, consisting of two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop,
have this moment surrendered to the force under my command, after a sharp conflict. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, O. H. Perry. In consonance with this simple eloquence, the mark of a mastermind was his chivalrous care of his wounded and conduct towards his prisoners. The victory having been gained and the lake thus cleared of the foe, Perry was enabled to act in concert with General Harrison in driving the British from Michigan. And when his fleet was of no avail to follow them in their rapid flight, he joined that officer's land expedition and was present acting as his aide at the Battle of the Thames.
The appearance of the brave Commodore, writes Harrison in his official report, cheered and animated every heart. Perry also gained the gratitude of the Moravians, in whose district the contest took place, by his care in relieving the inevitable evils of war. He met everywhere on his homeward route with complimentary toasts and resolutions, gathering volume as he reached his native state, where he was received at Newport with military and civic honors.
The city of New York paid him a grateful attention in a request communicated by DeWitt Clinton, then mayor, to sit for his portrait for the Civic Gallery. The portrait was painted by Jarvis, representing him in the act of boarding the Niagara, and is preserved in the City Hall. He was created an honorary member of the Cincinnati. Congress voted him a medal and money. He was dined and feasted, and blazed the comet of the season. Perry's next service was in August
1814 in command of the Java 44, a frigate recently built at Baltimore. He was, however, not able to get to sea in consequence of the blockade by the enemy. On the conclusion of peace, he sailed in this vessel to join Commodore Shaw's squadron in the Mediterranean. In 1819, he sailed as Commodore in command of the John Adams for the West Indies, bound for the state of Venezuela to carry on an armed negotiation for the protection of American commerce from
aggressions in that quarter. Arriving at the mouth of the Orinoco, he shifted his flag to the Nonesuch and ascended the river to the capital, Angostura, where he remained 20 days transacting his business in the height of the yellow fever season. His vessel had hardly left the river on her way to Trinidad when he was attacked. For nearly a week he suffered the progress of the terrible disease on board the small schooner under a tropical sun when he reached the station whither he had sent
his flagship the Adams. But he reached port only to die at sea within a mile of the anchorage on August 23, 1819, when he had just completed his 34th year. Such and so early was the fate of the gallant Perry. His remains were interred from the John Adams at Port Spain with every attention by the English governor. Subsequently, they were brought home in a national vessel by the order of Congress and reinterred at the public expense in the cemetery at Newport. The country also
provided for the support of his family. If ever America produced a man whom the nation delighted to honor, it was Perry. End of Section 20.
