Naval battles of the world

by Edward Shippen

The other British vessels suffered in like proportion. The Lady Prevost had both her Commander and her First Lieutenant wounded; and, beside other injury, had become unmanageable, from the loss of her rudder. The Commanders of the Hunter and the Chippewa were both wounded; and this left only the Commander of the Little Belt fit for duty at the close of the action.

In his official report, Commodore Barclay states that every Commander and every officer second in command was disabled. He reports his total of killed and wounded as, for the first, forty-one, including three officers, and ninety-four wounded, nine of whom were officers. These returns were probably not very complete, from the inability of the reporting officer to obtain information; and the British loss was supposed to be much greater; especially as the bodies of the British killed (with the exception of those of the officers) were thrown overboard as they fell.

The shattered condition of the English squadron, which three hours before had presented a proud and warlike array, and had begun the battle with cheers, as if certain of victory—hurling death and defiance at those who had dared to brave the flag of England—was a most impressive contrast. When the Americans stood as victors on those blood-stained decks, human feelings at once took the place of the angry passions raised by the war, and by the immediate conflict. The prisoners were promptly and humanely cared for.

Our own vessels had suffered severely, as well as those of the enemy. The Lawrence’s loss has been already given, and it showed an aggregate much higher than any previously known in modern naval combat, unless in cases where the conquered vessel has sunk, with her whole crew. The Niagara lost two killed and twenty-three wounded; all but two of the latter having been wounded after Perry took command. This is stated by the Surgeon who received them. The Caledonia had three wounded; and the Somers two wounded. On board the Ariel one was killed, and three wounded; while two were killed on board the Scorpion, and two wounded on board the Trippe. Aggregate, twenty-seven killed, and ninety-six wounded; being more than one in every four.

Two of the schooners, the Tigress and Porcupine, had no casualties whatever; and this, taken with the small loss of the Trippe and Somers, shows that, notwithstanding their efforts to close, they were unable to take any important part in the action until just before the enemy struck. The Trippe, although originally the last in the line, from her superior sailing, and the great exertions of her Commander, Lieutenant Holdup Stevens, was the first of the four sternmost small vessels to get into close action.

From the fact that the enemy awaited the attack in close line of battle, his vessels were all equally available from the first, and only a part of our squadron fought the concentrated British fire.

The victory was a splendid one, and was pre-eminently due to the exertions of one person—a young man of twenty-seven, who had never before borne a part in a naval engagement.

He dashed into action in the Lawrence, with youthful ardor, trusting that his rear would get up in time. The want of support of the Niagara caused the fearful loss sustained by the Lawrence, more than the tardiness of the smaller vessels. We have seen that there was no thought of submission, even at the darkest moment, and Perry’s act in passing, at great risk, to the Niagara, cannot be sufficiently extolled. It was a combination of genius and hardihood, which snatched victory from the grasp of an enemy whose exultant cheers had already claimed it.

Labor does not end with victory. After the enemy’s colors had been hauled down, and the prizes officered and manned, the prisoners were confined, wounded masts secured, and shot-holes stopped, when all the vessels were hauled by the wind, on the starboard tack.

Perry then retired to his cabin, to communicate to General Harrison the intelligence of the event which was to admit of the immediate advance of his army, and the rescue of our territory from the savage warfare which the surrender of Hull’s army and subsequent disasters had entailed upon it.