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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Oliver Perry Biography PERRY, Oliver Hazard (1785–1819). A distinguished American naval officer. He was born at South Kingston, R. I., Aug. 23, 1785, and received his education partly from his mother and partly in private schools in Newport and elsewhere. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1799, served in the war against Tripoli, and in 1807 was commissioned lieutenant. In 1811, as commander of the schooner Revenge, he had the misfortune to lose his vessel off Watch Hill, R. I., but a court of inquiry, which at his request investigated the circumstances connected with the wreck, reported him guiltless of any neglect of duty. During the first few months of the War of 1812 Perry commanded a flotilla of gunboats in Newport harbor, but was later transferred to Sacketts Harbor, N. Y., and thence was soon ordered to Presque Isle (now Erie) to take charge of the construction of a fleet, with which the Americans hoped to wrest from the British the control of Lake Erie. By great exertions he succeeded by the end of the summer of 1813 in building and manning a squadron of nine vessels, with which, on the 10th of September, he won the celebrated battle of Lake Erie. His dispatch announcing the victory ran: "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." (See Erie, Battle of Lake.) He was then able very materially to assist General Harrison in the operations culminating in the battle of the Thames. As a reward for his brilliant victory Perry received from Congress a vote of thanks, a gold medal, and the rank of captain. By the people he was regarded as one of the chief heroes of the war, and his achievement has remained one of the favorite episodes in American history. Later a bitter controversy arose between Perry and Elliott, the commander of the Niagara, one of Perry's vessels, over the question whether Elliott did his duty in supporting the flagship. A court of inquiry, called at Elliott's request, made a somewhat ambiguous report. Subsequently Perry preferred charges, but no action was ever taken by the Navy Department. After the close of the war Perry was placed in command of the frigate Java and cruised with Decatur's squadron in the Mediterranean. In 1819 he was sent with a small squadron to the West Indies to protect American commerce against pirates. While performing this duty he was seized with yellow fever and died the same year on his birthday. He was buried with military honors at Port of Spain, Trinidad, but in 1826, by order of Congress, his body was removed in the sloop of war Lexington to Newport, where it was reinterred with great honors. The State of Rhode Island later erected a granite monument to his memory, and there are also statues of him at Newport and at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1913 the centennial of the battle of Lake Erie was celebrated in notable style. An elaborate memorial structure was unveiled at Put-in-Bay. In this were reinterred the bones of American and British officers who fell in the fight. Cleveland and Newport had their own celebrations. Books descriptive of these occasions were published. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 367. |