As he approached the enemy. Perry displayed a blue flag bearing the words, "Don't give up the ship." * A few minutes before twelve o'clock, a bugle was sounded on the British flagship, which was answered by cheers from all the other vessels in the line, and followed by the discharge of one of her long guns, pointed at the Lawrence. As the American was still a mile and a half distant, the shot fell short; but this space was being gradually lessened, and the battle was soon fairly opened. One of the two schooners in the van replied with a
* For the origin of this motto, see page 199.
long gun, while the Lawrence, being armed with carronades, bore down upon the British flagship, to engage her at short range. This she succeeded in doing, but not without suffering considerably, and the three largest of the British vessels concentrated their fire on her. The two foremost schooners fought their long guns well; but as they had been ordered to keep to windward of the flagship (that is, a little farther from the enemy) they did not draw off any of the fire from her. But, after two hours of this, the Niagara drew ahead of the Caledonia, thus assuming the place in the line next to the Lawrence, and fought most gallantly; still, this hardly lessened the fire that was poured into the flagship, which the enemy seemed determined to sink. Many of her spars were shot away, all of her guns on the starboard side, but one, were rendered useless, and of a hundred men on board, twenty-two were killed and sixty-one wounded—a proportion of casualties that had never been equalled in any similar battle.
The Lawrence dropped out of the fight, and Perry transferred his flag to the Niagara, which pulled ahead to a position for engaging the Detroit. When the enemy saw the flag come down, they supposed they had gained a victory, stopped firing, and cheered. But the decisive struggle was yet to come. Captain Elliott, of the Niagara, passed down the line in a small boat, delivering to the commander of each vessel Perry's order to close up and attack the enemy at half pistol-shot with grape and canister. He then remained with and commanded one of the last vessels in the line, leaving the Niagara to Perry.
At this time the wind freshened, Perry showed the signal for close action, an answering cheer passed along his line, and once more the whole squadron bore down upon the enemy. Barclay attempted to manoeuvre his vessels so as to bring his uninjured broadsides to bear; but his line got into confusion, and two of the vessels fouled.
Perry took prompt advantage of this. The Niagara sailed right through the confused British line, having two of their vessels on one side, and three on the other—all within short range—and delivered her deadly broadsides in both directions as she passed. Then she luffed across their bows, and raked them, and the cries that came from the Detroit told that this merciless operation had had its usual deadly effect. At the same time, the other American vessels came into close action, and their guns were served with great rapidity. This destructive work had lasted about twenty minutes when an officer of the Queen Charlotte displayed a white handkerchief on the point of a pike, and four of the British vessels struck their colors. The other two attempted to escape, but were overtaken in about an hour and compelled to surrender.
In this battle, the entire loss of the Americans was twenty-seven killed and ninety-six wounded. Twelve of these were quarterdeck officers. As more than a hundred out of four hundred on board had previously been rendered unfit for duty by dysentery and cholera, the proportion of casualties to effective men was more than one in three. The British lost forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded, including twelve officers. Captain Barclay, who had lost his left arm in a previous engagement, in this one lost the use of his right.
The masts of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte were so injured that they snapped off two days later, from the rolling of the vessels in the bay, while riding at anchor during a gale.
In a despatch to General Harrison, Perry announced his victory in words that have become famous: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours: two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Congress voted him a gold medal for his achievement. As the question of the fighting qualities of the black man has since been considerably discussed, it is worth noting that in this bloody and brilliant battle a large number of Perry's men were Negroes. Much of the credit of the victory has been claimed for Captain Jesse D. Elliott, who undoubtedly deserved it, and his services were generously acknowledged in Perry's official report.
Many interesting incidents of this famous action have been related by different participants. At the opening of the battle, the English musicians played the well-known air of "Rule, Britannia!—Britannia, rule the waves!"—on which the result of the fight was a ludicrous comment, proving that an exception must be made in favor of the waves of Lake Erie.