CHAPTER XIV

INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE

TWO OF THE ENEMY’S VESSELS THAT TRIED TO GET AWAY--A YANKEE SAILOR’S REASON FOR WANTING ONE MORE SHOT--WHEN PERRY RETURNED TO THE _LAWRENCE_--THE DEAD AND WOUNDED--EFFECT OF THE VICTORY ON THE PEOPLE--HONORS TO THE VICTORS--THE CASE OF LIEUTENANT ELLIOTT--ULTIMATE FATE OF SOME OF THE SHIPS.

Although victory was declared when, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of September 10, 1813, Captain Barclay of the British squadron ordered a white flag displayed, the contest was not wholly ended, nor is the story of it yet complete. The British schooner _Chippewa_ and the sloop _Little Belt_ had been shunted off to the westward by the exigencies of battle, and their commanders, taking advantage of the veiling cloud of smoke, made sail in the hope of escaping back to the Detroit River. Stephen Champlin, who commanded the _Scorpion_, and Thomas Holdup, in command of the _Trippe_, went in chase and captured them, although it was 10 o’clock at night before Champlin got back with the _Little Belt_ in tow. And thus it happened that Champlin fired the last shot of the battle.

[Illustration: Stephen Champlin.

_From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]

One incident, occurring on the _Somers_, remains to be told. It was on this vessel that Elliott came into the battle the second time, and he says:

“I was directing the forward gun--the schooner having but two--and after the enemy had struck ordered to cease firing, but the man at the after gun having lost his fire by the intervening rigging, was in the act of firing again. I struck him with the flat of my sword, saying:

“‘You scoundrel, do you mean to fire at him after he has struck?’

“‘Just this once more, Captain Elliott,’ said he.

“‘What do you want to fire for?’

“‘I want a little satisfaction just for myself. I was pressed nine times in their service.’”

Meantime Perry prepared to receive the officers who were to come, and in the usual form to offer their swords to him. Standing on the deck of the _Niagara_ as the news of the surrender travelled from one American ship to another, and listening to the cheers with which the words were greeted, Perry heard, last of all, a faint response from the few men still remaining on the battered _Lawrence_, from which the fleet had been slowly drifting. Their cry came to him as an appeal to return to her, and return he did, after informing the defeated officers that they would be received there. Bringing the fleet to anchor, Perry entered a boat and was carried to her side, and those of her crew who were able to do so gathered at the gangway to receive him--gathered with uncovered heads and in silence.

“It was a time of conflicting emotions when he stepped upon deck,” wrote Surgeon Parsons. “The battle was won, and he was safe, but the deck was slippery with blood, and strewn with the bodies of twenty officers and men, seven of whom had sat at a table with us at our last meal, and the ship resounded everywhere with the groans of the wounded. Those of us who were spared and able to walk met him at the gangway to welcome him on board, but the salutation was a silent one on both sides; not a word could find utterance.

“And then came the officers of the British squadron, one from each vessel. They were obliged to walk around dismounted guns and pick their way over the dead to reach the victorious commander. But they had come from scenes no less trying on their own decks, for he who came from the _Detroit_ had seen a pet bear lapping the blood of those who had but a brief time before been fondling it. One after another they presented their swords, while Perry in a low and kindly voice declined to receive them, and asked about the dead and wounded they had left behind. He was particularly solicitous in his questions about Captain Barclay, for Barclay had in Europe suffered the loss of an arm, and had been otherwise mutilated in fighting the French, and now had been badly wounded again--so badly that he lost the other arm.”

Until 9 o’clock at night the Americans were busy securing the prisoners, burying the dead, and making repairs on the rigging of the ships, but at that hour the sails were once more spread to the breeze, and victor and vanquished sailed away to anchor in beautiful Put-in Bay Harbor.

Here on the 12th the officers who had fallen were buried on South Bass Island, three Americans and three Englishmen, side by side and with equal honors, as they had shown equal manly qualities.

The number of dead among the Americans was twenty-seven (of whom twenty-two were killed on the _Lawrence_), the wounded, ninety-six. The British reported a loss of forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded. The _Lawrence_, as told, was wellnigh a wreck above the water-line; the _Detroit_ and the _Queen Charlotte_ were so much cut up in masts and rigging that, in a blow two days later, the masts went over the rails in spite of preventers, although both were at anchor in Put-in Bay.

On boarding the _Detroit_ the Americans found two Indians hiding in the hold. They had been stationed aloft as sharpshooters, but when the American great guns were brought to bear they had slid down the rigging in terror. On being brought to the deck they expressed astonishment because they were not tortured.

The unhurt prisoners were all placed on the _Porcupine_, and there fed and served with an allowance of grog as soon as possible. The wounded were put on the _Lawrence_ and sent to Erie under the care of Yarnall, save that the officers were kept with Perry.

Perry’s despatch to General Harrison, it is worth telling, was written with a pencil on the back of an old letter. Perry used his cap in lieu of a table. When written, the despatch was entrusted to Midshipman Dulany Forest. Forest had been wounded in a curious fashion. A grape-shot struck the side of a port, glanced and struck a mast, and glancing again, struck down Forest as he stood beside Perry. Perry stooped and raised him up. He was unconscious for a moment, but quickly recovered, and getting on his feet, pulled the projectile from the inside of his clothing, through which it had penetrated, and put it in his pocket, saying:

“I guess this is mine.”

Perry’s letter to the Secretary of the Navy is worth quoting, for it was written when “a religious awe seemed to come over him at his wonderful preservation in the midst of great and long-continued danger.”

It read:

“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, a schooner and a sloop, have this moment surrendered to the force under my command, after a sharp conflict.”

It was characteristic of the man to say “surrendered to the force under my command,” rather than to say “surrendered to me.” And it is recorded that when he had given the needed orders for the care of the prisoners and the fleet, the reaction that followed the prolonged excitement was so great that, utterly weary, he stretched himself among his dead comrades on the deck of his ship, and with his sword still in hand, went fast to sleep.

The news of the victory spread over the nation with marvellous rapidity. The roar of the guns, conveyed by the water, was heard even at Erie. People at Cleveland gathered on the water-front, and when the last guns were fired cheered the name of Perry, because those last reports were from the heaviest guns, and they knew that the heaviest guns were on the American ships.

But while these men cheered, there were others who, living in the wild region about the head of the lake, and seeing for themselves where victory lay, instead of cheering, gathered their wives and little ones around them and out of full hearts gave thanks to Almighty God for his goodness. And they had good reason for so doing, for the capture of the enemy’s fleet meant more to them than the taking of ships. It meant that the inhuman Proctor, who, at the head of 5,000 mixed troops and Indians, was awaiting the news at Malden, would be barred from his intended incursion into Ohio--Proctor, who had looked on unmoved while the Indians, under Tecumseh, slaughtered the prisoners after the fall of Fort Miami. All the day of the battle on Lake Erie “women with terrified children, and decrepit old men, sat listening with the deepest anxiety, for they knew not but with the setting sun they would be compelled to flee to the interior to escape the fangs of the red blood-hounds who were ready to be let loose upon helpless innocency by the approved servants of a government that boasted of its civilization and Christianity.”

Perry had saved these from the terrors of the scalping-knife and the stake. His victory “led to the destruction of the Indian Confederacy and wiped out the stigma of the surrender at Detroit, thirteen months before. When Proctor heard the news he fled for his life, and was roundly denounced to his face for his cowardice by the brave and disgusted Tecumseh.”

Little less heartfelt were the rejoicings of the whole nation over this battle. “Illuminations, bonfires, salvos of artillery, public dinners, orations, and songs were the visible indications of the popular satisfaction, and it will not be forgotten that the most conspicuous feature of every illumination was a transparency that read: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”

[Illustration: The Medal Awarded to Oliver H. Perry after his Victory on Lake Erie.]

The Congress thanked Perry, and his men through him; voted gold medals to him and Elliott, silver medals to all other commissioned officers, swords to midshipmen and sailing-masters, and three months’ pay all around. Perry was promoted from the rank of master commandant to that of captain, his new commission bearing the date of the battle. State legislatures and city councils expressed their patriotic rejoicings in the usual fashion, Pennsylvania leading the way. There are portraits and statues a-plenty of the hero, and while the art of printing preserves the story of his deeds, his fame will remain untarnished among his patriotic countrymen.

[Illustration: Medal Awarded to Jesse D. Elliott.]

The reader who understands somewhat of the handling of sailing-ships will observe that the _Niagara_ did not take the prominent part in the battle which her size and power warranted until after she was boarded by Perry. Because of this Elliott has been accused of acting the part of the jealous Frenchman who might have helped instead of hurting John Paul Jones in the _Bonhomme Richard_-_Serapis_ fight. The officers under Perry were furious against him. In the prolonged controversy that followed, Elliott’s friends, to defend him, declared that the order to keep the _Niagara_ half a cable length astern of the _Caledonia_ was imperative and was not rescinded; and that Perry had, in his enthusiastic handling of his own ship, forgotten to handle the whole squadron. Elliott, they said, was anxiously awaiting orders from Perry during all the battle, and meantime worked his long guns until all the projectiles were exhausted.

Elliott himself says in a pamphlet that he issued in 1844:

“Great stress has been laid on my not leaving my station in the line at the battle of Lake Erie at an earlier moment; and in doing so why I did not pass between the _Lawrence_ and the enemy. I’ll tell you. Where two fleets are about to engage in battle, a knowledge of naval tactics and evolutions must be resorted to. The line once formed, no captain has a right to change without authority or a signal from the commanding vessel.”

However, that Elliott erred in not obeying the order that he himself helped to pass, cannot now be questioned by a sailorman, for the rule of the sea is to obey the last order. But it is hard to believe on the face of the facts that Elliott acted the part of a Landais, and when it is recalled that Perry gave him hearty praise even after the other officers began to murmur aloud, it is reasonably certain that he had at the very worst earned a silver medal, and no one should grudge him the gold one he received.

The English comments on this battle declared that it was a Canadian--a local defeat, and not a defeat of the “Royal Navy.” They sneered at the courage, as well as the capacity, of the Colonists. Allen’s history in the latest edition declares that Perry had six hundred picked men. The slur on the Canadians is no affair of ours, of course, but one who knows the manly qualities of our neighbors at the North, cannot let it pass.

It may be of interest to note that the captured ships were valued at $225,000. Of this, Perry and Elliott got $7,140 each, while $5,000 was voted by Congress to Perry in addition. The captains of gun-boats and other officers got $2,295 each; midshipmen, $811 each; petty officers, $447, and the men before the mast, $209 each.

At the end of the open-water season the ships of the squadron rendezvoused at Erie, and eventually, after the war, the _Lawrence_, the _Detroit_, and the _Queen Charlotte_ were sunk in Little Bay in the east end of Presqu’ Isle at Erie, as worthless. The _Niagara_ followed to the same Davy-Jones locker. Then the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Detroit_ were bought and raised, and used for a time as merchantmen. The end of the _Detroit_ came at last when some hotel-keepers at Niagara Falls bought her, put a live bear and some other animals on her, to make a show for gaping fools, and sent her over the falls.

The guns from the fleet when last fired served a historical purpose. When the Erie Canal was opened they were stretched along its route at such intervals that the report of one, if fired, could be heard at the next. And so, when the first boat was ready to make its triumphant passage of the great waterway, these guns were fired one after another to telegraph the news ahead, and so it happened that in just two hours from the time when she left Buffalo it was known in New York that she had started.

Said Washington Irving in writing of Perry’s victory soon after the event:

“In future times, when the shores of Erie shall hum with busy population; when towns and cities shall brighten where now extend the dark and tangled forests; when ports shall spread their arms, and lofty barks shall ride where now the canoe is fastened to the stake; when the present age shall have grown into venerable antiquity, and the mists of fable begin to gather around its history, then will the inhabitants look back to this battle as one of the romantic achievements of the days of yore. It will stand first on the page of their local legends, and in the marvellous tales of the borders.”

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