Oliver Hazard Perry

“We have met the enemy and they are ours,” twenty-eight-year-old Oliver Hazard Perry wrote triumphantly after achieving the first major naval victory of the War of 1812 (1812–15). The United States Navy, with Perry in command of the flagship USS Lawrence, defeated the British on September 10, 1813. He was the first opponent to capture an entire squadron of the mighty British Royal Navy. This was quite a feat, achieved with few resources and a scant crew.

Perry, known thereafter as the “Hero of Lake Erie,” gained control of the lake for the United States. This led directly to the U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames, during which Tecumseh was killed and his Native American confederation was defeated. Consequently, the United States established sovereignty over the Ohio and Michigan territories. After the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, Perry never saw combat again. He died in 1819 on his thirty-fourth birthday.