The Battle of Lake Erie Further Reading British Background to the Battle of Lake Erie American Background to the Battle of Lake Erie The British at the Battle of Lake Erie The Americans at the Battle of Lake Erie

An Overview of the Battle of Lake Erie By September of 1813, the American fleet under Oliver Hazard Perry had gained the upper hand on Lake Erie. Perry was effectively blockading the British at Amherstburg on the Detroit River. For British Army Commander Henry Procter and his naval counterpart Robert Barclay, the situation was getting desperate. Without control of the lake, food supplies at Amherstburg were running dangerously low. There was no more money to pay the army its wages and the navy’s sailors had been reduced to half-rations. Despite being outnumbered, the British squadron had no choice but to risk everything in all-out battle against the American fleet. On September 9, Barclay sailed out of Amherstburg with the intention of unblocking the Lake Erie supply line. He met Oliver Hazard Perry’s squadron at Put-in-Bay the next day. The ensuing confrontation was a dramatic naval battle which would come to figure prominently in the mythology of the war. After almost four hours of intense cannon fire, individual acts of heroism, and much human suffering, the British surrendered. On Perry’s flagship the Lawrence only 20 out of 103 men escaped the engagement without being killed or wounded. Captain Barclay was wounded badly in his good shoulder and thigh. The battle ended in unequivocal victory for the Americans. It was the first time in history that an entire British fleet was defeated and captured by the enemy. Immediately after the battle Perry sat down to scribble the dispatch that became the most-quoted phrase of the war: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” The American naval victory paved the way for William Henry Harrison’s successful invasion of Upper Canada. Having lost access to Lake Erie, Procter was forced to abandon Amherstburg and withdraw up the Thames Valley. Harrison caught up with the British-First Nations force at Moraviantown, where he destroyed Procter and Tecumseh’s army.