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Oliver Hazard Perry
'Perry's Luck' Brought Victory At Lake Erie, Ensuring America's Control Of Northwest
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
On Aug. 23, 1785, Oliver Hazard Perry was born into a Rhode Island family of "fighting Quakers." As the son of a Navy man, this future commodore knew well the risks of taking on a British fleet. Most of the naval history he began studying at the age of 14 was based on British naval victories, and his first assignment as a midshipman was under his father's command aboard the sloop of war General Greene in British-controlled Caribbean waters.
Yet when war with Britain came, Perry was eager to see action. He had been given command of 12 gunboats at Newport, R.I. and New London, Conn., but grew frustrated by the inactivity of this post and requested transfer to the Great Lakes. He was placed under the command of Commodore Isaac Chauncey, who soon realized the young officer would be better suited to duty at Erie, Pa., where a fleet was under construction in order to win the lake back from the British.
Despite shortages of men and materials, by July 1813, six vessels were ready and joined by others from Buffalo. On Sept. 10, Perry aboard his flagship Lawrence engaged a British squadron commanded by Capt. Robert Barclay. Enemy fire so devastated the Lawrence that Perry had to transfer to the Niagara, which he sailed straight into the British battle line, guns blazing. Within 15 minutes, Perry had become the first American naval commander in history to defeat an entire British squadron and successfully bring every ship back to base. In his report to Gen. William Henry Harrison, he wrote, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."
Perry's feat was both the first significant American victory of the war and the guarantee of American control of the northwest. He was a hero at 28 when his comrades coined the term, "Perry's Luck." Perry, alas, ran out six short years later when, en route home from a diplomatic mission in Venezuela, he contracted yellow fever and died. Perry was buried in Trinidad, but his remains were later brought back to Newport in his home state.
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