Oliver H. Perry was the oldest of five boys born to Christopher and Sarah Wallace Perry (Alexander) in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, on August 23, 1785. As a boy, Perry lived in Tower Hill, Rhode Island, sailing ships in anticipation of his future career as an officer in the United States Navy. Perry came from a long line of naval men from both sides of his family. His mother taught Perry and his younger brothers to read and write and had them attend Trinity Episcopal Church regularly, where he was baptized by Reverend William Smith on April 1, 1794, at the age of nine. Reverend Theodore Dehon, rector of the church from 1797 to 1810, significantly influenced the young Perry. He was educated in Newport, Rhode Island. Edward Perry was his earliest ancestor in the Americas. He came from Devon, England, and settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, around 1650 with his wife, Mary Freeman.
Perry was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy through his father’s influence at the age of thirteen on April 7, 1799. Perry sailed aboard USS General Greene, of which his father was commanding officer, on her maiden voyage in June 1799. The ship made its first stop in Cuba, where it was charged with receiving American merchant ships and providing escorts from Havana to the United States. Perry’s service aboard General Greene continued during the Quasi-War with France. He first experienced combat on February 9, 1800, off the coast of the French colony of Haiti, which was in a state of rebellion.
During the First Barbary War, he served aboard the USS Adams and later was the USS Nautilus’s first lieutenant (second in command). He served under Captain John Rodgers on the USS Constitution and USS Essex. He was placed in charge of the construction of gunboats in Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island. Beginning in April 1809, he commanded the sloop USS Revenge, engaging in patrol duties to enforce the Embargo Act and a successful raid to regain an American ship held in Spanish territory in Florida. On January 9, 1811, Revenge ran aground off Rhode Island and was lost. “Seeing fairly quickly that he could not save the vessel, Perry turned his attention to saving the crew, and after helping them down the ropes over the vessel’s stern, he was the last to leave the vessel.” The subsequent court-martial exonerated Perry, blaming the ship’s pilot. In January 2011, a team of divers claimed to have discovered the remains of Revenge, nearly 200 years to the day after it sank. Cannons from Revenge were salvaged by the U.S. Navy in 2017.
Following the court-martial, Perry was given a leave of absence from the Navy. On May 5, 1811, he married Elizabeth Champlin Mason of Newport, Rhode Island, whom he had met at a dance in 1807. They enjoyed an extended honeymoon touring New England. The couple would eventually have five children, with one dying in infancy.
At the beginning of the War of 1812, the British Royal Navy controlled the Great Lakes, except for Lake Huron. The United States Navy controlled Lake Champlain. The American naval forces were very small, allowing the British to advance in the Great Lakes and northern New York waterways. The roles played by commanders like Perry at Lake Erie, Isaac Chauncey at Lake Ontario, and Thomas Macdonough at Lake Champlain all proved vital to the naval effort.
Naval historian E. B. Potter noted that “all naval officers of the day made a special study of Nelson’s battles.” Oliver Perry was no exception. He was given command of the American naval forces on Lake Erie during the war at his request. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had charged prominent merchant seaman Daniel Dobbins with building the American fleet on Presque Isle Bay at Erie, Pennsylvania. Perry was named chief naval officer. He knew a battle was coming and “consciously followed Nelson’s example in describing his battle plans to his captains.” Perry’s instructions were:
“Commanding officers are particularly enjoined to pay attention in preserving their stations in the Line, and in all cases to keep as near the Lawrence as possible. Engage your designated adversary in close action at half the cable’s length”.
— Oliver H. Perry, General Order, USS Lawrence
On September 10, 1813, Perry’s command fought a successful fleet action against a squadron of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie. At the outset of this battle, Perry famously said, “If a victory is to be gained, I will gain it.” Initially, the exchange of gunfire favored the British. Perry’s flagship, USS Lawrence, was so severely disabled in the encounter that the British commander, Robert Heriot Barclay, thought that Perry would surrender it and sent a small boat to request that the American vessel pull down its flag.
Faithful to the words of his battle flag, “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP,” a paraphrase of the dying words of Captain James Lawrence, the ship’s namesake and Perry’s friend, Perry personally fired the final salvo. He then had his men row him a half-mile (0.8 km) through heavy gunfire to transfer his command to USS Niagara. Once aboard, Perry dispatched Niagara’s commander, Captain Jesse Elliott, to bring the other schooners into closer action while he steered Niagara toward the damaged British ships. Like Nelson’s Victory at Trafalgar, Niagara broke the opposing line.
Perry’s force pounded Barclay’s ships until they could offer no effective resistance and surrendered. Although he had won the battle aboard Niagara, he received the British surrender on the deck of the recaptured Lawrence to allow the British to see the terrible price his men had paid. Perry’s battle report to General William Henry Harrison was brief: “We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.” This was the first time in history that an entire British naval squadron had surrendered. Every captured ship was successfully returned to Presque Isle.
Although the engagement was small compared to Napoleonic naval battles such as the Battle of Trafalgar, the victory had disproportionate strategic importance, opening Canada up to possible invasion while simultaneously protecting the entire Ohio Valley. The loss of the British squadron directly led to the critical Battle of the Thames, Harrison’s army’s rout of British forces, the deaths of Tecumseh and Roundhead, and the breakup of his Indian alliance. Along with the Battle of Plattsburgh, it was one of only two significant fleet victories of the war.
Perry was involved in nine battles that led to and followed the Battle of Lake Erie, and they all had a seminal impact. “What is often overlooked when studying Perry is how his physical participation and brilliant strategic leadership influenced the outcomes of all nine Lake Erie military campaign victories: Capturing Fort George, Ontario in the Battle of Fort George; Destroying the British munitions at Olde Fort Erie (see Capture of Fort Erie); Rescuing five vessels from Black Rock; Building the Erie fleet; Getting the ships over the sandbar; Blocking British supplies for a month prior to battle; Planning the Thames invasion with General Harrison; Winning the Battle of Lake Erie; and Winning the Battle of Thames.
“Don’t give up the ship!” became Oliver Hazard Perry’s battle cry. The phrase was uttered by Captain James Lawrence as he died after being wounded by enemy fire aboard the Chesapeake on June 1, 1813. Perry learned of Lawrence’s demise at Presque Isle. He honored Lawrence with the name of a brig called Lawrence. A battle flag was needed, and the words of Perry’s good friend were suited for the coming days.
A woman named Margaret Forster Steuart was enlisted to make the battle flag. She was a resident of Erie, Pennsylvania, wife of Army Captain Thomas Steuart, and sister to Thomas Forster, both friends of Perry’s. Forster was the commander of the Erie Light Infantry, which guarded the fleet. With the help of her two daughters, three nieces, and a cousin, she had the flag ready for Perry within just a few days. As of July 2009, Perry’s flag, Steuart’s work, and Lawrence’s dying words can be seen today, with the flag on display in Bancroft Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
On January 6, 1814, Perry was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal, the Thanks of Congress, and a promotion to the rank of Captain. This was one of 27 Gold Medals authorized by Congress arising from the War of 1812. In May 1814, Perry took command of a squadron of seven gunboats based in Newport. He held this command for only two months as in July, he was placed in command of USS Java, a 44-gun frigate that was under construction in Baltimore. While overseeing the outfitting of Java, Perry participated in the defenses of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., during the British invasion of the Chesapeake Bay. In a twist of irony, these land battles would be the last time the career naval officer saw combat. The Treaty of Ghent was signed before Java could be put to sea.
For Perry, the post-war years were marred by controversies. In 1815, he commanded Java in the Mediterranean during the Second Barbary War. While moored in Naples, Perry slapped the commander of the ship’s Marines, Captain John Heath, whom Perry charged with “disrespectful, insolent, and contemptuous conduct to me, his superior officer.” The ensuing court-martial found both men guilty but levied only mild reprimands. After the crew returned home, Heath challenged Perry to a pistol duel, which was fought on October 19, 1817, on the same field in Weehawken, New Jersey, where Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton. Heath fired first and missed. Perry declined to return fire, satisfying the Marine’s honor.
1818 Perry purchased a large house on Washington Square in Newport, built in 1750 for merchant Peter Buloid. The house remained in the Perry family until 1865 and now serves as an antique bookstore. In 1819, Perry sailed for the Orinoco River, Venezuela, aboard frigate John Adams with the frigate Constellation and the schooner USS Nonsuch, arriving on July 15 to discourage piracy while maintaining friendly relations with the Republic of Buenos Aires. Shifting his flag to USS Nonsuch, due to its shallower draft, Perry sailed upriver to Angostura to negotiate an anti-piracy agreement with President Simón Bolívar. A favorable treaty was signed on August 11 with Vice-President Francisco Antonio Zea in the absence of Bolivar (who was engaged in the liberation of New Granada). Still, when the schooner started downriver, many of her crew, including Perry, had been stricken with yellow fever. Despite the crew’s efforts to reach Trinidad for medical assistance, the commodore died on board USS Nonsuch on August 23, 1819, his 34th birthday, as the ship entered the Gulf of Paria and was nearing Port of Spain. He was buried in Port of Spain with great honors while the Nonsuch’s crew acted as honor guard. His remains were later taken back to the United States in 1826 and interred in Newport, Rhode Island. Initially interred in the Old Common Burial Ground, his body was eventually moved to Newport’s Island Cemetery.
Oliver Hazard Perry was inducted into The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1965.
The national monument commemorating Perry is the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial at Put-In-Bay, Ohio. A multi-state commission constructed its 352 ft (107 m) tower, the world’s most massive Doric column, between 1912 and 1915.
Other monuments include:
• Memorial plaque, Trinity Episcopal Church, Newport, Rhode Island, dedicated by Perry’s widow on August 23, 1855, the 36th anniversary of his death.
• Perry Monument, Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio, monument and statue by William Walcutt, dedicated on September 10, 1860, the 47th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie. Walcutt’s marble statue was replaced with a bronze copy in 1929. The monument was relocated to Fort Huntington Park in 1991.
• Oliver Hazard Perry by William Greene Turner, Eisenhower Park, Newport, Rhode Island, dedicated September 10, 1885, the 72nd anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie.
• Oliver Hazard Perry by Charles Henry Niehaus, Front Park, Buffalo, New York, dedicated on September 25, 1916.
• Perry Monument, Perry Square, Erie, Pennsylvania, designed by Paul Philippe Cret in 1925, features a bronze copy after William Greene Turner’s 1885 statue.
• Oliver Hazard Perry Memorial Gateway, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, dedicated April 1925
• Perry Monument at Misery Bay, Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pennsylvania, dedicated in 1926.
• Oliver Hazard Perry (bronze copy after William Walcutt), on the south front of the Rhode Island State House, Providence, Rhode Island, dedicated in 1928.
• Perry Monument, Perrysburg, Ohio, dedicated in 1997, features a bronze copy after William Walcutt’s 1860 statue.
• The reverse of the 2013 “Perry’s Victory” quarter shows William Walcutt’s statue of Perry (1860) with the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial in the distance.
• The family farm in South Kingstown, where Perry was probably born and later built a house, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Commodore Perry has been repeatedly honored with ships bearing his name.
• USS Perry (1843), a sailing brig 1843–1865
• USS Commodore Perry (1859), an armed side-wheel ferry built in 1859 by Stack and Joyce, Williamsburg, New York and purchased by the Navy on October 2, 1861
• USS Perry (DD-11), a Bainbridge-class destroyer (1900–1919)
• USS Perry (DD-340), a Clemson-class destroyer converted into a high-speed minesweeper. Served 1921–1944; sunk in Battle of Peleliu.
• SS Oliver Hazard Perry, a Liberty ship.
• USS Perry (DD-844), a Gearing-class destroyer (1945–1970)
For additional reading:
• Barnes, James (1912). The hero of Erie: (Oliver Hazard Perry). New York, London: D. Appleton & Company.
• Brown, John Howard (2006). The Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Comprising the Men and Women of the United States, V6. Kessinger Publishing.
• Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell (1910). Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. New York, NY/Akron, OH: D.M. MacLellan Book Company.
• Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell (1840). The life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers
• Paullin, Charles Edward (1918). The Battle of Lake Erie (a collection of documents, mainly by Oliver Hazard Perry). Cleveland, Ohio: The Raufin Club, August 18, 2011.
• Potter, Elmer Belmont (1981). Sea Power: A Naval History. Naval Institute Press.
• Skaggs, David Curtis (2006). Oliver Hazard Perry: honor, courage, and patriotism in the early U.S. Navy. Naval Institute Press.
• Skaggs, David Curtis; Altoff, Gerard T. (2000). A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813. Naval Institute Press
• White, James T. (1895). Oliver Hazard Perry. National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
• Axelrod, Alen; Phillips, Charles. The Macmillan Dictionary of Military Biography (New York: Macmillan, 1998.)
• Conners, William James, 1857–; Emerson, George Douglas. (1916) The Perrys victory centenary. Report of the Perry’s victory centennial commission, state of New York (Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, Printers).
• Coles, Harry L; Borstin, Daniel J., eds. (1966). The War of 1812 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
• Cooper, James Fenimore (1846) Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers Kingman Press and here Lives of distinguished American naval officers for American Library Association.
• Cooper, James Fenimore, History of the Navy (1839).
• Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell 1803–1848. (1915) Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry: famous American naval hero, victor of the battle of Lake Erie, his life and achievements (Akron, Ohio: Superior Printing Co.) at Internet Archive.
• Mills, James Cooke (1913). Oliver Hazard Perry and the battle of Lake Erie. Detroit, Michigan: J. Phelps.
• Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, 1803–1848 (1840) The life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. (New York, Harper) Volume 1, Volume 2.
• Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1840–1914) (1905) Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vols.) (Boston: Little Brown) American Library Association.
• Niles, John Milton (1820). The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry. William S. Marsh, Hartford. p. 376.
• Paullin, Charles Edward (October 1918). The Battle of Lake Erie (a collection of documents, mainly those by Oliver Hazard Perry). Cleveland, Ohio: The Raufin Club. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
• Morton, Edward Payson (1869–1914) Lake Erie and the story of Commodore Perry Chicago: Ainsworth & Company Internet Archive digitized by Google.
• Niles, John Milton (Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1830) The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry.
• Reid, George. (1913) Perry at Erie: how Captain Dobbins, Benjamin Fleming and others assisted him. (Erie, Pennsylvania: Journal publishing company).
• Skaggs, David Curtis; Altoff, Gerard T. Altoff A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813 (Naval Institute Press), winner John Lyman Book Awards 1997. ISBN 978-1-55750-892-8.
• Skaggs, David Curtis (1991). Welsh, William Jeffrey (ed.). War on the Great Lakes: Essays Commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie. Kent State University Press.
• Skaggs, David Curtis. Perry Triumphant (April 2009 Volume 23, Number 2) Naval History Magazine United States Naval Institute.