wo,1813 regulars maintained a fire sufficient to bear back the British. Both sides then returned to building ships and licking their wounds, leaving calm waters on Lake Ontario, which remained essentially unruffied for the remainder of the war. The scene now shifts to Lake Erie, where Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, Chauncey's appointed deputy, was scurrying about buying and building ships, much as Chauncey was doing on Ontario. During this time, he led a night raid against two British schooners fitting out near Buffalo, New York. One he burned, HMS Detroit, and one he captured, Caledonia, a private armed vessel, which, while only mounting two guns, was still a blow to the British effort. Even greater was the loss of Detroit, which had been loaded with supplies and, more importantly, much of the ordnance previously captured at Fort Detroit. Around the same time, but too late to join the raid, Oliver Hazard Perry arrived to take command on Lake Erie at Chauncey's order. Perry, a twenty-seven-year old master commandant, was fresh from the saltwater fleet and was transferred to the lakes at his own request (he suffered acutely from seasickness). The young officer worked frantically to finish the four ships under construction at Presque Isle. He bolstered his fleet with the recently captured Caledonia and four purchased merchantmen. By summer, the ships were completed and manned, albeit with inexperienced crews made up of landsmen and soldiers. Perry sailed his little fleet to the western end of the lake and maneuvered off and on outside the English base at Arnherstburg. Inside the harbor, the British were commanded by the one-armed but well-seasoned Royal Navy captain, Robert Barclay. He had served at Trafalgar with Lord Nelson and subsequently lost his arm in combat against the French, giving rise to his Indian name "o ur father with one arm." The injury did not deter him. Since the American fleet on the lake had effectively cut off the supply route between Pore Dover and Fore Malden, Barclay had little choice but to go on the offensive. While his fleet consisted of just six ships, all short-handed (like Perry's) and low on provisions, on the morning of 10 September 181 3, he sailed out to meet Perry's fleet off Put-in-Bay.
SEA HISTORY 136, AUTUMN 2011
Oliver Hazard Perry (below) commanded the brig Niagara to victory in the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813. A replica of the ship, seen here, based out of Erie, PA, sails the Great Lakes interpreting the ship's history while conducting educational and sail training programs. (www.jlagshipniagara.org) The battle was pitched, each commander using his best strategy to cripple the opposing fleet. The British ships were armed with long guns, which had a greater range than Perry's, but the American ships had a heavier weight of metal. Perry's flagship, USS Lawrence (named for Lieutenant James Lawrence-more on him shortly), was one of two significant American ships; the other was the brig Niagara, commanded by Jesse Elliott. Lawrence, of twenty guns, traded broadsides with Barclay's flagship, HMS Detroit, and HMS Queen Charlotte; Perry was fighting against a combined 39 guns and fighting both sides of his ship simultaneously. In two hours, Lawrence was reduced to a floating hulk with over 80% of the crew killed or wounded. With nothing left of the Lawrence to fight with, Perry had himself rowed to Niagara, which for some reason had held back from the fighting. He clambered aboard, took command from Elliott, and bore in to resume the fight with the two British ships. During this time, the headrigs of the two large Royal Navy ships, Detroit and Queen Charlotte, became fouled with one another and Perry seized the opportunity to shoor them to pieces with a raking broadside as he maneuvered Niagara across their bows. With the assistance of two American schooners, it was all over an hour later; four of the British ships surrendered while two others attempted an escape but were quickly run down and captured by the
other American vessels in the squadron. Perry dispatched word to Harrison: "We have met the enemy and they are ours: two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Ashore on the Northwestern frontier, things were also going well for the Americans. The British had launched a spring offensive under General Henry Proctor, who included in his troops some 1,200 Indians led by Tecumseh. Proctor attacked the American-held Fort Meigs in Ohio but was driven away by General William Henry Harrison and his 550 men. As he withdrew, Proctor met an unsuspecting 1,200-man relief column en route from Kentucky and badly mauled them. Casualties included American soldiers who h ad been taken
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