The Medal Awarded to Oliver H. Perry after his Victory on Lake Erie.
The Congress thanked Perry, and his men through him; voted gold medals to him and Elliott, silver medals to all other commissioned officers, swords to midshipmen and sailing-masters, and three months’ pay all around. Perry was promoted from the rank of master commandant to that of captain, his new commission bearing the date of the battle. State legislatures and city councils expressed their patriotic rejoicings in the usual fashion, Pennsylvania leading the way. There are portraits and statues a-plenty of the hero, and while the art of printing preserves the story of his deeds, his fame will remain untarnished among his patriotic countrymen.
Medal Awarded to Jesse D. Elliott.
The reader who understands somewhat of the handling of sailing-ships will observe that the Niagara did not take the prominent part in the battle which her size and power warranted until after she was boarded by Perry. Because of this Elliott has been accused of acting the part of the jealous Frenchman who might have helped instead of hurting John Paul Jones in the Bonhomme Richard-Serapis fight. The officers under Perry were furious against him. In the prolonged controversy that followed, Elliott’s friends, to defend him, declared that the order to keep the Niagara half a cable length astern of the Caledonia was imperative and was not rescinded; and that Perry had, in his enthusiastic handling of his own ship, forgotten to handle the whole squadron. Elliott, they said, was anxiously awaiting orders from Perry during all the battle, and meantime worked his long guns until all the projectiles were exhausted.
Elliott himself says in a pamphlet that he issued in 1844:
“Great stress has been laid on my not leaving my station in the line at the battle of Lake Erie at an earlier moment; and in doing so why I did not pass between the Lawrence and the enemy. I’ll tell you. Where two fleets are about to engage in battle, a knowledge of naval tactics and evolutions must be resorted to. The line once formed, no captain has a right to change without authority or a signal from the commanding vessel.”
However, that Elliott erred in not obeying the order that he himself helped to pass, cannot now be questioned by a sailorman, for the rule of the sea is to obey the last order. But it is hard to believe on the face of the facts that Elliott acted the part of a Landais, and when it is recalled that Perry gave him hearty praise even after the other officers began to murmur aloud, it is reasonably certain that he had at the very worst earned a silver medal, and no one should grudge him the gold one he received.
The English comments on this battle declared that it was a Canadian—a local defeat, and not a defeat of the “Royal Navy.” They sneered at the courage, as well as the capacity, of the Colonists. Allen’s history in the latest edition declares that Perry had six hundred picked men. The slur on the Canadians is no affair of ours, of course, but one who knows the manly qualities of our neighbors at the North, cannot let it pass.