Hero of Lake Erie Assessed

During the War of 1812, members of the armed forces helped transform the ideals of the United States Revolutionary War generation into the vibrant, assertive, individualistic, self-confident, and nationalistic society that exemplified the young republic. Oliver Hazard Perry was one of those of the so-called Generation of 1812 who helped in this transition.

This son of Federalist New England also symbolized a devotion to the Union that went beyond regionalism. His patriotism and valor compelled many in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to overcome their opposition to the war in which he distinguished himself and to raise toasts in his honor and award him commemorative silver and swords.

Like any naval officer, Perry was duty-hound to support the aims of national policy through the application of violence and threats of violence. Nevertheless, he applied that brutality with due regard to the ideals of the service and with compassion toward his defeated foes. His conduct left a favorable opinion of him with both his countrymen and his opponents.

Perry’s youth, his character, and his honorable behavior all contributed to an image of a man of destiny who exemplified the highest ideals of service to one’s country. His career in the early Navy exhibited the characteristics of military professionalism that would distinguish that service throughout its history. The technical skills of seamanship and leadership that naval officers taught to the midshipmen and lieutenants under their command required years of apprenticeship at sea. All naval officers developed a corpus of knowledge necessary for the daily survival of their ship and her crew. Equally important was the gunnery and maneuver proficiency peculiar to the sea service in a combat environment. Additionally, naval officers were expected to serve as national representatives in foreign ports and courts. Men such as Edward Preble, John Rodgers, Isaac Hull, and Stephen Decatur provided Oliver Hazard Perry with examples of professionalism he sought to emulate.

Because of the nautical and warfighting expertise required of naval leaders, lateral entry into the officer corps was not an option after the 1790s. In this the Navy contrasted with the Army, where civilian leaders often achieved high rank during wartime mobilization until after the Civ il War. Therefore, Perry’s career exemplified the movement through the junior officer ranks to a high leadership position that became the norm in an increasingly professional naval service.

The performance of Oliver Hazard Perry and his contemporaries in the War of 1812 exemplified the ideals of the emerging American society. The nation overcame wartime adversity and, following a series of disasters and defeats, eventually achieved sufficient victories and near-victories to claim success at the diplomatic table. Few triumphs did more to encourage the nation to continue the struggle than that on Lake Erie. “It has pleased the Almighty to give the arms of the United States a signal victory,” Perry wrote to his superior. Such an attribution of triumph to Providence coincided with the emerging self-image of the nation as a new Israel, a special place in the eyes of God. Like Andrew Jackson, Perry and naval contemporaries, such as Hull, Decatur, and Thomas Macdonough, personified the image of a self-made man whose “unexpectedly glorious victory . . . became living proof for his countrymen of the possibilities of decisive action and willfulness.”¹

Perry and his naval cohorts laid the foundation for a revision of public opinion regarding military and naval appropriations. In the last months of the war and the first few years afterward, the young republic dramatically expanded the Army and Navy. For the naval service this resulted in completion of the nation’s first 74-gun ships-of-the-line, two new 44-gun frigates, and several sloops-of-war. The postwar naval building program called for the eventual construction of nine ships-of-the-line and 12 frigates, which constituted all such vessels, save one, built prior to the Civil War. There is no doubt that the victory on Lake Erie was one of the contributing factors in changing popular attitudes toward the place of professional armed forces in the new nation.

Those who chose to serve in the armed forces of the young republic had to find a place for military and naval service—with its fundamental principles of hierarchy, obedience, and self-sacrifice—in a nation increasingly devoted to values of democracy, egalitarianism, and individualism. For them, Oliver Hazard Perry provided an example of the professional competence, fortitude in combat, calmness in times of stress, personal morality, asceticism, concern for the welfare of subordinates, and nationalism that they sought to emulate.

Despite a short formal education, he learned to express himself in pithy prose that left this nation with a memorable phrase—we have met the enemy and they are ours. He recognized the inadequacies of his upbringing and sought to expand his understanding of belles lettres, world history, and the contemporary international situation so that he might better present himself and represent his country in a world where gentlemanly decorum was a prized attribute. Perry set a sterling example of those whom Professor Joyce Appleby described as undertaking the “self-conscious task of elaborating the meaning of the American Revolution” during the first years of the young republic.²

But like all human beings, his was a flawed character; Perry certainly had a short fuse, and it created for him several embarrassing situations. As exemplified in the controversy over a slapping incident with Marine Corps Captain John Heath, Perry had a temper that could explode into a rash action that he would later regret. This incident demonstrated his human failings; but even it ended with honor to his reputation.³ Similarly his attempted resignation on the eve of battle displayed both testiness and an unwillingness to comprehend the problems of another commander. At times his magnanimity respecting the inadequate performance of a subordinate turned against him—especially in the case of Jesse Duncan Elliott. There would be those like Elliott and James Fenimore Cooper who attempted to lower his reputation somewhat; they would not succeed.

Because of the lengthy controversy regarding Captain Elliott’s leadership during the Battle of Lake Erie, it became virtually impossible for anyone to criticize Perry’s behavior in the battle without being labeled and vilified as an Elliott partisan. Even today, other than the little-known censures by Commander J. Giles Eaton and Professor Michael Palmer, few critical commentaries regarding Perry’s leadership skills have appeared since Cooper’s The Battle of Lake Erie (1843). But in the final analysis, the test of a commander’s abilities is not that he could have done something better than he did, but how well the outcome of a battle achieves the desired tactical and strategic ends. Perry clearly accomplished his mission despite tactical deficiencies. Professor Craig Symonds aptly summarized the significance of Perry’s contribution when he wrote: “For the United States, the Battle of Lake Erie was a Lilliputian Trafalgar fought on fresh water, with consequences every bit as profound for America’s future as Trafalgar was for Britain’s survival. Perry’s victory secured the northwestern frontier for the United States.”⁴

A leading scholar of the early Navy, Christopher McKee, challenged another aspect of Perry’s performance. Rather than attacking his command and control during the battle itself, he argued that Perry left the lakes frontier for what he perceived were potentials for honor and glory on the high seas. “His sole concerns seemed to be his won convenience and a frantic search for greater opportunities to distinguish himself on the ocean, a search in which success eluded him for the balance of his life.” His petulance at Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s conduct toward him and his squadron and his desire to return to the arms of his beloved Betsey, which McKee does not mention, deprived the lakes of his combat skill and daring. “The loss of Perry’s dynamic and effective leadership,” McKee dramatically and damningly concluded, “led directly to the unraveling in 1814 of the United States gains of 1813.”⁵ 

McKee may be pardoned for hyperbole concerning Perry’s potential and capacities, and for ignoring the degree of animosity between Perry and Chauncey. Counterfactual history is impossible to prove. Nonetheless, neither Chauncey nor Arthur Sinclair, who replaced Perry on Erie in 1814, was the effective combat commander that Perry proved himself to be. And, when one contemplates the possible combination of Perry’s combat skills and Chauncey’s administrative ones on Lake Ontario, the United States might have achieved greater results on the lower lake than were accomplished in 1814- Was Perry at fault in this not occurring? Yes, to some degree, but so were Chauncey and Secretary of the Navy William Jones.

Perry’s diplomatic service to the young republic is generally overlooked in assessing his career. From the day Lieutenant Perry sailed the Nautilus into the harbor at Tunis as part of Commodore John Rodg ers’ intimidation of the bey to the time he rescued the Diana under the guns of British warships near Amelia Island, Perry learned the skills of preparation, coercion, and audacity so necessary for gunboat diplomacy. From Tobias Lear he acquired an understanding of the diplomat’s necessity to concede points to secure a desired objective without warfare. All stood him in good stead when he faced the bey of Algiers and concluded an agreement without bloodshed and when he conducted negotiations with Venezuelan officials on his final cruise. He was a man of many talents.

Over the years the Navy has honored the hero of Lake Erie by naming five ships after him. One of the Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class of guided-missile cruisers, most of Erie (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991), p. 90. which are named for famous battles, is the USS Lake Erie (CG-70). Thus, both Perry and his victory continue to be memorialized in the modern Navy.

Pennsylvania maintains a museum at Erie and a restoration of the brig Niagara that makes annual cruises on the Great Lakes and eastern United States and Canada. The proud banner that floated over both the Lawrence and the Niagara hangs in Memorial Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, displaying its motto that serves to guide midshipmen throughout their naval careers: Don’t Give Up the Ship. The U.S. National Park Service is custodian of a tall Doric column at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, known as the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, from which one can view the peaceful shores of two nations that have never fought since 1814. These are fitting reminders of the honor, courage, and patriotism Oliver Hazard Perry demonstrated during his short life.