Oliver Hazard Perry

Source

• Born: 23 August 1785
• Birthplace: South Kingstown, Rhode Island
• Died: 23 August 1819 (Malaria)
• Best Known As: The hero of the Battle of Lake Erie (1813)

Oliver Hazard Perry joined the navy in his early teens, and by his early twenties he had been promoted to lieutenant. After he served in the Tripolitan War in the Mediterranean (1802-03) he returned to the U.S. to build and command gunboats at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson. His great fame came from the Battle at Lake Erie (1813), where U.S. ships under Perry's command defeated British forces, a turning point in the War of 1812. Perry's flagship Lawrence was incapacitated, but he went back and got the smaller Niagara, transferred the flag that read "Don't Give Up The Ship," (honoring the last words of Capt. James Lawrence of the U.S.S. Chesapeake) then went back and beat the British ships under the command of Captain Robert Heriot Barclay. After the battle his message to William Henry Harrison, waiting to advance into Canada, became famous: "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, one sloop." After the war he was promoted to captain and fought again in the Mediterranean (1816-17), then was sent in 1819 on a diplomatic mission to Venezuela, where he contracted a fatal case of malaria.

Oliver Hazard Perry was the older brother of that other famous naval guy, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry.

For more information on Oliver Hazard Perry, visit Britannica.com.

Born of a naval family, Perry served as a midshipman toward the end of undeclared naval war with France (1789–1800) and as a midshipman and acting lieutenant during the Tripolitan War (1801–05). After being promoted to lieutenant, he helped enforce the embargo, which prohibited American ships and goods from leaving port, and protected the American coast from privateering. During the War of 1812, he directed construction of a small fleet on Lake Erie, and on 10 September 1813, used it decisively to defeat a British squadron at Put‐in‐Bay. The Battle of Lake Erie secured for the United States control over the lake and changed the balance of power in the western theater of operations, but now is best remembered as the occasion of Perry's report to Gen. William Henry Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” That same year Perry provided naval support for Winfield Scott's capture of Fort George, and aided Harrison in the reoccupation of Detroit, as well as at the Battle of the Thames. In 1814, he played a minor role in the defense of the Chesapeake Bay area when the British invaded the region. He died of yellow fever in 1819 while on a naval and diplomatic mission in South America. A younger brother, Matthew C. Perry, led the naval expedition that opened Japan in 1853.

[See also Navy, U.S.: 1783–1865.]

Bibliography

• Alexander S. Mackenzie, The Life of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, 2 vols., 1840.
• Charles J. Dutton, Oliver Hazard Perry, 1935.
• David Curtis Skaggs and Gerard T. Altoff, A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813, 1997

Perry, Oliver Hazard (1785-1819) naval officer. Born into a naval family in Rhode Island, Perry first served on his father's frigate. He served ably in the Barbary Wars (1801-05) and in protecting U.S. shipping interests from privateers; in 1813 he assumed command of a naval force on Lake Erie. His defeat of a British squadron under Gen. Robert H. Barclay, despite personal illness, was a major victory, considered by some the most important engagement of the War of 1812; it also helped Gen. William H. Harrison's troops to defeat British troops in the area. For years after, however, controversy raged about the failure of one of Perry's officers to engage the enemy during the battle.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819) was the American naval officer in command during the Sept. 10, 1813, victory on Lake Erie, one of the great American naval triumphs of the War of 1812.

Oliver Hazard Perry was born in South Kingston, R.I., on Aug. 20, 1785. He received his elementary education there. In 1799 he served as midshipman with his father, Capt. Christopher Raymond Perry, in the West Indies during the quasi-war with France. He also served in the Mediterranean during the Tripolitan War, performing creditably.

Perry was in command of a flotilla at Newport, Va., when war broke out in 1812, but he was given command of American naval forces on Lake Erie in March 1813. Perry built a small fleet under conditions of extreme difficulty. By August he had 10 ships, the brigs Lawrence and Niagara being the largest. Perry could not get his largest ships across the Erie bar in the presence of the enemy fleet led by Comm. Robert H. Barclay until the latter relaxed his blockade for unknown reasons.

Barclay finished a large new ship, the Detroit. Desperately short of supplies, he challenged the Americans. The fleets met on Sept. 10, 1813. The Americans had superior firepower, but there was little difference in manpower. At 10 A.M. the Lawrence was cleared for action and hoisted its battleflag, "Don't give up the ship." Action lasted from 11:45 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. After all the Lawrence 's guns were disabled, Perry rowed to the Niagara. Fifteen minutes after the Niagara moved into the heavy action, the British fleet surrendered. American casualties numbered 27 killed and 96 wounded, and British losses were 41 killed, 94 wounded. Perry dashed off his famous dispatch following the victory, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

The victory was of major significance, for America now controlled Lake Erie until the war ended. Also, Gen. William Henry Harrison was enabled to capture much of Upper Canada, and the American peace negotiators were able to assert American claims to the Northwest.

Perry was promoted to captain in September 1813 and shortly thereafter received the thanks of Congress. Following the war he served in the Mediterranean. He died of yellow fever on Aug. 23, 1819, after completing a diplomatic mission to Venezuela and Buenos Aires. His body was interred at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Further Reading

Charles J. Dutton, Oliver Hazard Perry (1935), is an adequate biography, but minor factual errors abound. The best discussions of the Battle of Lake Erie in terms of strategy and significance can be found in Alfred Thayer Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vols., 1905). Also useful is Olin H. Lyman, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and the War on the Lakes (1905), and Harry L. Coles, The War of 1812 (1965).

Additional Sources

Dillon, Richard, We have met the enemy: Oliver Hazard Perry, wilderness commodore, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.

This article is about the naval officer. For the U.S. Navy frigate, see Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Oliver Hazard Perry

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (August 2, 1785 – August 23, 1819) was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the son of Captain Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander. He was an older brother to Matthew Calbraith Perry. As a boy, he lived in South Carolina, sailing ships practicing for his future career as an officer in the US Navy. He served in the War of 1812 against Britain, and earned the title "Hero of Lake Erie" for leading American forces in a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie. The city of Perrysburg, Ohio, Perry County, Kentucky and its county seat Hazard, Kentucky, the borough of Perryopolis, Pennsylvania, Perry County, Pennsylvania, Oliver Township in Perry County, Pennsylvania, as well as the village of Perrysburg, New York and its the surrounding township are all named after him.

Contents 1 Biography 2 References 3 Further reading 4 External links

Biography

Through his mother, Perry is descended from Scotland's national hero, William Wallace.^[1]

Educated in Newport, Rhode Island, Perry was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy on April 7, 1799. During the Quasi-War with France, he was assigned to his father's frigate, the USS General Greene. He first experienced combat on February 9, 1800, off of the French colony of Haiti, which was in a state of rebellion.

During the First Barbary War, he initially served on the USS Adams and later commanded USS Nautilus during the capture of Derna.

At Perry's request during the War of 1812, he was given command of United States naval forces on Lake Erie. He supervised the building of a small fleet at Dobbin's Landing in Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. On September 10, 1813, Perry's fleet defended against an attacking British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie. Perry's flagship, the USS Lawrence, was destroyed in the encounter and Perry was rowed a half-mile through heavy gunfire to transfer command to the USS Niagara, carrying his battle flag (reading "DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP", the final words of Captain James Lawrence). Perry's battle report to General William Henry Harrison was famously brief: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."

Perry's battle flag

The final words of Captain Lawrence painted onto the USS Lake Erie, seen here during a 2008 missile launch

His victory opened Canada up to possible invasion, while simultaneously protecting the entire Ohio Valley. It was one of only two significant fleet victories of the war, along with the Battle of Plattsburgh.

In 1819, during an expedition to Venezuela's Orinoco River Oliver Hazard Perry died of yellow fever contracted from mosquitos while aboard the Nonsuch. He was 34 years old. Perry's remains were buried in Port of Spain, Trinidad, but were later taken back to the United States and interred in Newport, Rhode Island. After resting briefly in the Old Common Burial Ground, his body was moved a final time to Newport's Island Cemetery, where his brother Matthew C. Perry is also interred. Monuments to Perry are located in Front Park at Buffalo, New York and Perry Square in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Perry's Monument at Put-In-Bay, Ohio.

References

1. ^ Skaggs, David Curtis. "Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy". US Naval Institute Press, 2006. P. 4

Further reading

• Langguth, A. J. (2006). Union 1812:The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence. New York: Simon & Shuster. ISBN 0743226189. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oliver Hazard Perry

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Oliver Hazard Perry

• Perry @ the National Park Service
• Perry @ the Naval Historical Center
• Perry's account of the Battle of Lake Erie
• "Log of the Battle of Lake Erie" by Sailing Master William Taylor
• US Brig Niagara
• Commodore Perry IPA by Great Lakes Brewing Co
• Information about the epic battle painting by Julian O. Davidson
• Perry Monument, Buffalo Historical Markers and Monuments website

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