ERIE, Lake, Battle of, 10 Sept. 1813: a naval battle which annihilated the British fleet on that lake and gave the Americans their northwest at the Treaty of Ghent. In 1813 it had become evident that the reconquest of the northwest from the British, who had captured Detroit and were building a fleet at Malden, nearby, to control the lake, depended on wrest ing the control from them; and Oliver Hazard Perry spent from 27 March till September build ing a rival fleet at Presque Isle, now Erie, Pa. It had nine vessels: the Lawrence, flagship, 20 guns; the Niagara, Capt. J. D. Elliott, 20 guns; the Caledonia, three-gun brig; five two-gun schooners and a one-gun sloop; in all 54 guns with 714 pounds metal at a broadside. The British had six vessels averaging much heavier, with 63 guns averaging much lighter — about 430 pounds to a broadside,- but most of them were far longer range than the American, whose policy therefore was close action. The crews were about equal, some 500 each. The British commandant was Capt. Robert H. Bar clay, a veteran of Nelson's; two of the cap tains were veterans also. The fleets engaged off the islands north of Sandusky Bay, near noon of 10 September. Perry in the Lawrence, with two gunboats, came to close quarters shortly after, and if the whole fleet had followed, the British would soon have been overwhelmed; but for some reason (hotly disputed and a sore point for many years) the other vessels kept off and played away at long range, while for two hours the British vessels concentrated their fire on the Lawrence. Such carnage was scarcely
ever known on the ocean; of 103 officers and men, but 20 were unhurt ; the vessel was literally shot to pieces, and the very wounded were killed on the surgeon's board by the crashing balls. Seeing that no more could be done with it, Perry turned over the command to a lieu tenant, transferred himself in a small boat to the Niagara, now tardily drawn nearer, brought that and the rest into close action, and in 15 minutes (about 3 P.M.) forced the entire British fleet to surrender. The latter was in a dreadful condition, too; the English had fought with heroism and skill, but a third of its force was disabled or dead. The losses were: Americans, 27 killed and 96 wounded; British, 41 killed and 94 wounded. The battle raised Perry to the summit of naval fame, justly, for no victory was ever more due to the genius and energy of one man, and few naval battles have had such momentous results. The remains of the slain officers were buried at Put-in-Bay Island in 1858. Maclay's 'History of the Navy' (Vol. H, 1894) ; Spears' 'History of Our Navy' (1899) ; Roosevelt's 'History of the Naval War of 1812' (1882) ; Adams, Henry, 'History of the United States' (Vol. VII, 1891).