USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 34
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Mr. Mayor, I thank you for your personal com- pliments. I have been with you in showers and sun- shine, and I hope to be with you again, for the people of Cleveland always receive me kindly. It is fitting that Cleveland should celebrate this victory, so great in after effects to all the people who live on the lakes. History tells us that the battle was fought on a clear September day like this. The casualties in that battle were not as great as in battles of that kind in later years, but who can circumseribe the effects of the victory! What must have been the anxiety of the people of this then village of Cleveland as they listened to the firing of cannon sixty miles away ! OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. And what must have been the effect when they heard Perry's famous dispatch, " We have met the enemy and they are ours!" [Ap- plause. ]
Who can measure the rejoicing it caused in Washington, when it was received there! Perhaps there were men in Cleveland who, as one old citizen used to say, " knew Perry had won, because the last gun fired was a big one, and he knew Perry had the biggest guns." But I apprehend there was much anxiety until they received the dispatch.
Last summer I visited the graves of those killed in the battle, which are on an island near Put-in-Bay. These graves are marked with a few wooden posts, from which an iron chain is suspended to form an inclosure. I hope that the congressmen from the two Cleveland districts particularly, and all the congressmen from Ohio, for that matter, will see to it that the National Government provides a suitable monu- ment for these dead, and if the National Government will not do, I will recommend that the State of Ohio do so. | Applause. ]
In conclusion, fellow citizens, let me suggest a motto for us, as a city, as a State, and as a nation. Let it be Perry's motto, Lawrence's command, "Don't give up the ship." [ Applause. |
The address of the governor and that of the mayor were well re- ceived. After another selection by the band, Governor Bushnell pre- sented the orator of the day, Governor Charles Warren Lippitt, with the following introduction :
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We are greatly honored by having with us to-day the chief executive of Rhode Island, the State that gave birth to Commodore Perry. He has traveled nearly half way across the country to be present with us on this occasion. He comes from a State little in area, but big in distinguished men and patriotism. The State of Rhode Island gave birth to some of the greatest men of the Revolution, and has given birth to many great and patriotic statesmen and soldiers since. I know that you join with me in extending a most cordial welcome to his excellency, Governor Lippitt [applause],, his good wite, and the members of his military household. I now have pleasure in introducing to you Governor Lippitt, who will speak to you.
Governor Lippitt was accorded an ovation. He read his address in an impressive manner, as follows, being frequently applauded :
Interest in one's birthplace is natural to the human race. Surroundings that be- come familiar to us in childhood maintain their hold upon our affections in later lite. Love of home constitutes one of the strongest motives for human action. If its en- vironments constitute in themselves a name, a body corporate, of which the home forms a constituent part, the affection for the latter extends itself to its surroundings. For the State or the nation of which we form a part, similar sentiments are enter- tained.
The anniversaries now occurring in many parts of the country furnish admirable opportunities for the examination of the results of generations of effort. To recall the services of patriots in behalf of the community, in peace and in war, educates the present generation for similar emergencies. Attention is drawn to what has already been accomplished. Comparison is made with the results secured by neighboring communities. What has been gained inspires the desire for greater advantages. A community extending its influence to distant parts of the earth awakens a natural pride on the part of its units. The power of the Eternal City caused the announce- ment Crois Romanus sum to stand for ages as a guaranty of consideration and protec -. tion throughout the civilized, world.
It was a happy circumstance that caused the settlement of the Western Reserve upon the nation's birthday. With true American spirit the little band of pioneers, under the leadership of Moses Cleaveland, celebrated that to them important Fourth of July. Toasts indicating thankfulness for the past and hope for the future were an- nounced in the customary manner. Good punch was provided. The President of the United States was remembered, in accordance with time-honored custom. Port of Independence they named Conneaut, the place where the celebration was held. " May the Port of Independence and the fifty sons and daughters who have entered it this day be successful and prosperous." they hopefully offered. Again they ex- pressed their anticipation with the sentiment, "May these sons and daughters multi- ply in sixteen years sixteen times fifty." It is recorded that after the celebration, notwithstanding the effect of the punch, they retired in good order.
Ohio in 1810 had a population of 230,000. Its people were subject to all the hard- ships of a frontier life, bordering upon a territory held by a savage race. Unable to accommodate themselves to the system of the white men, brave and determined as they had often proved themselves, the Indians had no alternative but to fight for an inferior civilization. There could be but one end to such a conflict. Bravely as it was maintained by the savage, it was inevitable that he should perish with his insti- tutions. While the conflict continued, however, it subjected the frontier to deeds of horror that rendered far more terrible the struggle that the early settlers were forced to maintain against nature.
At the opening of the war of 1812, the efforts of the country were at once directed toward an invasion of Canada. The necessity of controlling the water communica- tions furnished by the lakes was not perhaps fully appreciated by the Government at Washington. Hull was placed in command in Michigan and attacked the Canadian frontier. His defeat, and the surrender of Detroit and the Territory of Michigan as- tounded and inflamed the country. It permitted the savage allies of the English to attack the settlers of Michigan, and exposed the entire frontier to their mhuman war- fare. The invasion of our own country by the English and the Indians overcame in many cases such resistance as could be offered, and carried death and desolation to many homes. Tecumseh had brought to the conflict all the resources of his savage and commanding mind. The defeat at the River Raisin had been turned into a massacre. Colonel Proctor, violating the terms of the capitulation, abandoned the wounded Americans to his Indian allies. The savages tomahawked some of the wounded and set fire to the buildings where others had been placed. Their yells and laughter were
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the only replies to the shrieks of their burning victims. The best blood of Kentucky was sacrificed to the fury of the Indians. A relative of Henry Clay was among the victims. One officer was scalped in the presence of his friends. Raising upon his knees, with blood streaming from his wound, he helplessly gazed upon their faces. An Indian boy was directed by his father to tomahawk him. Not strong enough to accomplish the deed, his repeated blows only drew faint moans from the wounded man. A blow from the savage father, to exhibit how it should be delivered, ended the tragedy. The cry for vengeance that arose from Kentucky and the neighboring frontier found its satisfaction on another occasion.
The savage hate entertained by Tecumseh for the Americans inspired him to unite the Indians of the entire frontier in an organized effort to turn back the tide of immigration that was rapidly taking possession of their lands. With the intelligence and energy of a more civilized man, he traveled nearly a thousand miles through the wilderness to bring the Creeks and the other tribes about the southern frontier into the alliance. The scenes enacted on the northern frontier were duplicated, with per- haps increased horror, in the South. The influence of England made itself felt in the Spanish possessions of Louisiana. England's assistance in freeing Spain from the French invasion justified Spanish aid to England in America. The capture of Mobile by Wilkinson furnished evidence of the efforts of the Spanish and English to inflame the savages of the southern frontier. Aided by these efforts, Tecumseh succeeded in drawing the Creeks into his combination. At the capture of Fort Mimms on the Ala- bama, which had become the refuge of many frontier families, the horrors perpe- trated by the savage foe can never be adequately conveyed in language. The mutila- tion of bodies and the violation of women marked the scene. The frontier from north to south was open to the incursions of a savage and relentless foe. The successful defence of Fort Meigs by Harrison, and of Fort Stephenson by Croghan, const tuted some offset to these disasters. This war was not between a savage and a civilized nation. The parties to it were primarily two peoples speaking the same language, of the same general characteristics, and within a comparatively few years united under one government. That England should have called to her aid in such a conflict her ferocious allies cannot be contemplated save with exasperation and horror. It marks a page in her history to be remembered only with shame and regret.
In such circumstances, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry was ordered to this region to create a suitable fleet, and with it obtain the command of Lake Erie. He brought with him from Rhode Island about 150 men. They had been trained under his direc- tion on the waters in and about Narragansett Bay, and had volunteered to accompany him to Lake Erie. The different detachments left Newport in February, 1813, and in March reached Erie.
The advantage of the control of the lake was largely a matter of transportation. Previous to 1818 no regular communication existed with this portion of Ohio and with Detroit. Stage routes were first established in these sections in that year. Without good roadways the cost of transportation is tremendously increased. James, in his " Naval History of Great Britain, " states that " every round shot cost one shilling a pound for the carriage from Quebec to Lake Erie, that powder was ten times as dear as at home, and that, for anchors, their weight in silver would be scarcely an overestimate." To transport, therefore, a 24-pound shot from Quebec to Lake Erie, at the time men- tioned, would cost six dollars. Similar difficulties existed on the American side of the lake. It was claimed that to transport a cannon to Sackett's Harbor at this period cost a thousand dollars. The cost of transporting provisions to a small detachment of Harrison's army in the Northwest would in present circumstances supply a consider- able army. Transportation by water was greatly less in cost and much quicker in time. Facilities of transportation, therefore, in the warlike operations around Lake Erie in 1813, were sufficiently important to determine the question of success or failure. English control of the lake in 1812, and the principal part of 1813, enabled them to at- tack such points of the American shore as they might select. Their approach could not be foreseen. The uncertainty of their appearance necessarily alarmed the entire American shore. The English, knowing the point of attack, could concentrate their forces. Want of this information obliged the Americans to divide their armies. The English shore was practically free from American attack, as the lake intervened. The shortest line of transportation also secured the quickest and most certain means of infor- mation. English control of the lake during the first part of the war handicapped the offensive and defensive operations of the Americans. It is difficult, therefore, to over- estimate in sach circumstances the importance of the command of the lake.
The many difficult and annoying circumstances attending the construction of a fleet in the wilderness furnished an opportunity for the energy, perseverance and deter-
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mination of young Perry. Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and other points were called upon for supplies. Carpenters, blacksmiths, guns, sails; rigging and iron were urgently needed. To hurry forward mechanics and supplies, Perry journeyed to Pittsburg. The resources of the immediate neighborhood were taxed to the utmost to supply many unaccustomed articles necessary to the construction of vessels of war. The work was pushed with the utmost speed.
On the 23d of May, Perry learned that Commodore Chauncey, on Lake Ontario, was to attack Fort George. The commodore had promised him the command of the sailors and marines on this occasion. He at once started in an open boat for Buffalo. After a journey of great inconvenience, he succeeded in reaching Commodore Chaun- cey and in taking part in the expedition. Chauncey was particularly pleased with Perry's arrival, and observed, "No person on earth at that particular time could be more welcome." His professional knowledge was of great assistance in the landing of the troops, and his example inspired the men with confidence. In his official re- port Commodore Chauncey said of Perry's services: "He was present at every point where he could be useful, under showers of musketry, but fortunately escaped unhurt."
The capture of Fort George enabled Perry to move into Lake Erie five small ves- sels which had been blockaded at Black Rock by the enemy. They had to be dragged against the current of the Niagara River by oxen, seamen, and a detail of two hun- dred soldiers. After a fortnight of difficulty and fatigue he succeeded in getting the little squadron into Lake Erie. These vessels were much too small to contend with the enemy's forces then upon the lake. By good fortune, however, he eluded the English and reached Erie on the evening of the 18th of June, shortly before they appeared.
Finally the two brigs, which had been named the Lawrence and the Niagara, were completed, and everything was in readiness to cross the bar at the mouth of the harbor. The English had watched the'construction of the American vessels and made various efforts to accomplish their destruction. To attempt the passage of the bar in the face of the enemy's fleet would have been extremely hazardous. Unexpectedly, about the first of August, the English fleet disappeared from the neighborhood of Erie. It is claimed that the absence of the English was to enable Commodore Bar- clay and his officers to attend a public dinner in Canada. The commodore is said to have remarked, in reply to a complimentary toast: " I expect to find the Yankee brigs hard and fast on the bar at Erie when I return, in which predicament it will be but a small job to destroy them.". This circumstance furnished Perry his opportunity. He hastened by every means in his power the lifting of his heavy vessels over the bar. Camels, large wooden scows, had been provided to assist in this purpose. The guns of the Lawrence were hoisted out and placed in boats astern. With much difficulty the vessel was lifted into deep water on the lake side of the bar. The Niagara was still on the bar when the enemy's fleet appeared in the offing. Extra exertions suc- ceeded shortly after in getting her into the deep water of the lake. Perry's fleet as then constituted was more powerful than that under Barclay's command.
Commodore Barclay viewed with astonishment the American fleet safely floating upon the waters of the lake, and realizing that his supremacy for the time being was gone, sailed away to await the completion of the Detroit, then under construction at Malden. The command of the lake had passed from England to America.
In response to Perry's urgent appeals to the authorities, he received on the 9th of August about one hundred officers and men under the command of Captain Jesse D. Elliott. This addition to his force enabled him to man the Niagara, which was placed under Captain Elliott. At once taking the initiative, Perry sailed up the lake to co-operate with General Harrison.
It is interesting to note how quickly the control of the lake gave the Americans the advantage. Perry's mere presence upon Lake Erie with his then superior squadron forced the English fleet into port, enabled him to join the American land forces and to assume the offensive with safety. The American rendezvous at the head of the lake was at Put-in-Bay. On the roth of August, Harrison visited Perry on his flagship. The subsequent time was occupied in training his men, and in short cruises in the effort to bring the enemy to battle. Many of his men were sick. Perry himself had been stricken with lake fever, and for a time was confined to. his cabin. Under the care of Dr. Usher Parsons, the surgeon of the Lawrence, after a week's illness he par- tially recovered. Ilis indisposition retarded somewhat the operations of the fleet.
The control of the lake again asserts itself with remarkable force at this time. Barclay was not ready to fight. General Proctor's army, however, then at Malden, was in urgent need of provisions and supplies. Land transportation between Long Point, the English supply station, and Malden, was such that Proctor's army could not
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be provided by that line. It became necessary, therefore, to open communication be- tween Malden and Long Point by the lake, even at the risk of an engagement. Infor- mation of the condition of the English commissary department had reached Perry at Put-in Bay about September 5th, and he expected the arrival of the English fleet.
His captains were carefully instructed in his order of battle. On the evening of the 9th of September the commanders of the American fleet were summoned aboard the flagship, and written instructions given to each for his conduct during the expected engagement. As the conference broke up, the commodore, to impress the intent of his orders upon them and to cover the uncertainties of naval actions, referred to the words of Nelson upon a similar occasion, and gave as his final directions: " If you lay your enemy close alongside, you cannot be out of your place."
Early in the morning of September 10, 1813, the cry of " Sail ho!" from the mast- head of the Lawrence indicated the approach of the English fleet. The day was warm and pleasant. The wind was light from the southwest. Promptly the Ameri- can fleet was got under way and moved out from the islands. The position of the two fleets gave to the English the advantage of the weather-gage. Perry's anxiety to force an action, however, induced him to waive the advantage of position and to take the shortest course to the opposing fleet, even at the risk of losing his tactical advan- tage. During the morning an eagle hovered in slow, majestic flight over the Ameri- can squadron, gazing down at the unusual scene below. The presence of the chosen emblem of America could not fail to inspire the men about to battle for their country. A little after ten o'clock the American fleet was formed in line, the Viagara in the van. Calling his crew about him, Perry in a few sentences referred to the last words of Captain Lawrence, and displayed a blue flag upon which had been formed in white letters, "Don't give up the ship." Upon being hoisted as the signal for battle, it was received with cheers by the crews of the different vessels. The cheering brought on deck several of the sick. One of them, Wilson Mays, of Newport, Rhode Island, was ordered below by one of the officers, with the remark, "You are too weak to be here." "I can do something, sir." "What can you do?" "I can sound the pump, sir, and let a strong man go to the guns." Mays took his position by the pump, and at the end of the fight was found at his station with a ball through his heart.
As the American squadron slowly approached the English fleet, a sudden change in the wind gave them the advantage of the weather-gage. The breeze was light, and the squadron made hardly more than three knots an hour. A change in the dis- position of the English vessels, that was noticed as the fleets approached each other, caused Perry to change his own order of sailing and to place the Lawrence in posi- tion to bring her opposite the Detroit. In the English fleet were six vessels in the American nine. The tonnage of the American fleet was 1,671 tons, of the English 1,460. The English had 63 guns, the Americans 54. In long guns the English had 33, the Americans 15, while in carronades the Americans had 39, the English 30. In weight of metal to a broadside the American squadron is claimed by some authorities to have been considerably heavier than the English. In number of men the two squadrons were not materially different.
A large proportion of the Rhode Islanders who had followed Perry to the lakes were present upon the different vessels of the squadrons. He had also received a number of volunteers from the inhabitants of the lake shore, and a contingent from Harrison's army consisting largely of Kentuckians. Although many of these men had never seen a man-of-war before, and fought upon an unusual element, they ren- dered most excellent service. The crews of Barclay's squadron were made up in largely the same way, -- a number from the inhabitants of the Canadian shore of the lake, another contingent from the regular English regiments in the neighborhood, and the balance regular seamen.
Perry's line of approach to the English squadron brought the Scorpion, the Triel and the Lawrence first into action. . It began about noon by a gun from the Detroit. Eager to bring his enemy to close quarters, Perry forced the Lawrence ahead as . rapidly as the wind would permit. The English concentrated their efforts on the flag- ship, and as she approached their line the Lawrence suffered severely. The Niagara did not bear down upon the Queen Charlotte, in accordance with the directions of the commodore, but was maintained at such distance from the English vessel as to enable the Queen Charlotte to turn her battery upon the Lawrence. In consequence, the heavy vessels of the English squadron gave undivided attention to the American flag- ship. Gun after gun was dismounted. Man after man fell dead to the deck or was carried wounded below. Lieutenant Brooks, son of a late governor of Massachusetts, a man of remarkable physique and great manly beauty, was struck in the hip by a cannon ball and suffered such agony as he lay on the deck that he called upon the
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commodore to kill him. Upon being taken to the cockpit and learning the impossibil- ity of his recovery, he repeatedly inquired how the battle was going, and hoped that the commodore would escape uninjured. He died before the end of the action. The Lawrence was so shallow that it had been impossible to place the cockpit below the water line, and the wounded were only a trifle less subjected to danger than when in their stations on deck. Midshipman Lamb went below with his arm shattered. His wound having been dressed by Surgeon Parsons, he was directed to go forward and lie down. While the surgeon's hand was upon him, a cannon ball dashed him across the cockpit and killed him instantly. Lieutenant Forest was struck by a spent ball and fell stunned at Perry's feet. Lieutenant Yarnall was badly wounded in the scalp; and with blood flowing over his face went below for treatment. The enemy's shot had torn the hammocks that had been filled with reed or flag tops, and the cotton-like sub- stance from these "cat-tails" floated through the air like feathers. It caught upon Yar- nall's blood-stained head and gave him much the appearance of an owl. Upon shortly going below to have another wound treated, his appearance caused some of the wounded to shout with laughter that the devil had come among them. This gallant officer later in the action, his face horribly disfigured by a splinter that had been driven through his nose, in addition to his other injuries, notified the commodore that every officer in his division had been disabled, and asked for assistance. The com- modore had no other officers to detail, and Yarnall was obliged to fight his battery as best he could. One of the guns was somewhat out of order, and Perry approached to aid in correcting the difficulty. The captain of the gun chanced to be one of the Constitution's old men, and had drawn himself up with a manly air in the act of fir- ing, when a heavy cannon shot passed through his body, and he dropped dead at Per- ry's feet. Young Alexander Perry, only twelve years of age, had two musket balls pass through his hat, and was laid senseless on the deck by a splinter.
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