In this conflict off Put-in-Bay, the American loss was twenty-seven killed and ninety-six wounded. Of these, twenty-two were killed and sixty-one wounded aboard the Lawrence. The British loss was forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded, the loss falling most heavily on the Detroit and Queen Charlotte.
Immediately after the battle, Perry wrote his famous dispatch to General Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop”; and in a postscript he added, “Send us some soldiers to help take care of the prisoners, who are more numerous than ourselves.”
It is interesting to note what became of the vessels which played such an important part in this tragic drama of Lake Erie. The Lawrence, afterward repaired, was sunk in Misery Bay for preservation. Long afterward a part of her stem was raised and kept as a memorial. For years the Niagara was a training ship on Lake Erie, and was then sunk near the Lawrence. The Ariel, Little Belt, Chippeway, and Trippe were destroyed by the British at Buffalo. The Detroit was also sunk near the Lawrence, but in 1835, she was raised and rigged by a Captain Miles. She was afterwards purchased by a Niagara man, and as a spectacle for a crowd of curious people was allowed to break herself to pieces on the rocks above the Falls. The Queen Charlotte, Lady Prevost, and the Hunter were used in the Lake trade, and the Caledonia became the General Wayne. Both the Scorpion and the Tigress were recaptured by the British on Lake Huron.
The effects of Perry’s victory over Barclay’s squadron were immediate. The British at once gave up all hope of retaining their possessions on the Upper Lakes, and General Proctor began the evacuation of Forts Detroit and Malden. With all the boats that he could get into his possession he began a precipitate flight up the river Thames, where he was joined by the Indian chief Tecumseh and his warriors. Encouraged by this reinforcement he determined to select his own position for giving battle to the Americans, who were hurrying across country from Amherstburg under the command of General Harrison. Meanwhile, a number of the smaller American war vessels made their way up the Thames and Proctor prepared to meet them with his own armed boats. Harrison’s force, which outnumbered Proctor two to one, came up to the enemy close to the river, and the fierce charge of Colonel Johnson and his Kentucky horsemen almost immediately broke the enemy’s line. After a desperate struggle the regulars surrendered, but Tecumseh, who had from one thousand to two thousand warriors, continued to fight until he fell mortally wounded, when his braves broke and fled. The armed boats in the river were destroyed to keep them from falling into the hands of the Americans. Only a few years ago, two of these were discovered and raised. An accompanying illustration shows one of these vessels just after it was brought above the water, with a heap of old cannon balls amidships.
An Old British Gunboat Discovered in the River Thames.
Perry’s victory and Harrison’s defeat of the British virtually decided the war along the Lakes, although, during the following winter, the British prepared to make one more tremendous effort to regain a part of the supremacy they had lost. This effort was to be made on Lake Ontario. During the whole of the winter of 1813–14, both Yeo and Chauncey strained every resource to prepare themselves for this final conflict, and it was during this time that the largest ships of war that ever floated on the Lakes were built, among them being the American ship Superior, to carry sixty-two guns, and the British ships Prince Regent, fifty-eight, and the Princess Charlotte, forty-two. The two fleets were pretty evenly matched, each squadron having eight ships, but with the Americans leading in tonnage, number of men, and guns. Yeo, however, was prepared for battle earlier than Chauncey, and taking advantage of this he prepared to attack Oswego, which was garrisoned by less than three hundred men and was in a wretched state of defence. On the 3d of May he set sail, having on board his squadron a detachment of over a thousand troops. The fire of the fort was drawn on the fifth, but it was not until the following day that the battle began in earnest, when five of the British warships began a terrific bombardment under cover of which eight hundred troops and two hundred seamen were landed. The little garrison fought with desperate valour and when they were finally driven from their position the British had lost ninety-five men, a number a third as great as the American force opposed to them. The Americans lost six men killed and thirty-eight wounded, the remainder escaping to the Falls.
On May 19th, Yeo transferred his operations to Sacketts Harbour, where he began a strict blockade, much to the discomfiture of Chauncey, who still lacked important material for the completion of the Superior. It was while attempting to capture several small boats with a part of this material that two British gunboats, three cutters, and a gig, carrying several heavy guns and one hundred and eighty men, started up Sandy Creek on the thirtieth, and ran into an ambush laid by Major Appling and one hundred and twenty American riflemen. In the terrific volleys that followed, the British suffered heavily, eighteen of their number being almost immediately killed and fifty wounded. The entire force was captured with a loss on the American side of but one wounded. On June 6th, Commodore Yeo raised his blockade and from then until July 31st, when Chauncey brought out his squadron, nothing of importance was accomplished with the exception of two or three successful cutting-out expeditions on the part of the Americans. Even after this date, until the close of navigation, the two fleets acted merely in the capacity of watch-dogs, neither daring to attack the other. During the greater part of this period, Yeo was penned up in Kingston, while Chauncey, whose superior force would have made his co-operation of tremendous value to the land forces under General Brown, peremptorily refused this assistance, saying that his object was the destruction of the enemy’s fleet and not to “become a subordinate or appendage of the army.” On the other hand, he could not get Yeo to fight, so that his powerful force remained practically useless.
Meanwhile General Brown undertook his contemplated invasion of Canada, sending Generals Scott and Ripley to the attack of Fort Erie, which soon surrendered. A few days later, on July 5th, General Riall with a force of nearly 2000 British met the Americans near Chippewa, and one of the fiercest and most important battles of the war was the result. Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the enemy, the victory fell to the Americans, whose loss was 61 killed and 255 wounded as against 236 killed and 322 wounded on the British side. It was at this critical moment, when a successful and complete invasion of Canada might have been made, that General Brown wrote to Chauncey asking for his co-operation. Soon after this, General Riall was reinforced by 800 men under Sir George Gordon Drummond, and on the 25th of July, General Scott was sent against them with a force of 1200 men.
Scott was unaware of the full strength of the enemy until he found Riall and Drummond drawn up to meet him at Lundy’s Lane. This was at five o’clock in the afternoon, and with the idea of impressing upon the British that the entire American army was at his back, General Scott at once began the attack. The struggle was one of intense courage on both sides and continued until 10.30 at night, when the British were driven from the field, leaving General Riall a prisoner. The American loss had also been so severe that they retired from the field, abandoning a captured battery. During the night, this battery was again manned by the British and a bloody fight ensued the following morning before it was recaptured. At Lundy’s Lane, the Americans lost 171 killed and 571 wounded; the British 84 killed and 559 wounded. General Scott had been severely wounded in the struggle, and General Brown was laid up with injuries at Back Rock, so that the command fell upon General Ripley who at once made preparations to recross into the American frontier. Brown sent positive orders that this move should not be made and that General Ripley should hold Fort Erie. On August 2d, General Drummond, who had been reinforced by over 1000 men, laid siege to this stronghold, and for two weeks desultory fighting occurred around it. On the night of the 14th, at twelve o’clock, a terrific assault was begun upon the works and continued until daylight. The British had captured one of the bastions and it was while holding this position that a fearful explosion occurred directly under their feet, killing and wounding the greater portion of them and striking the decisive blow of the siege. The American loss was 17 killed and 56 wounded, while the British lost 221 killed and 174 wounded.