82 



CHAMPLIN, STEPHEN. 



CHASE, CAELTON. 



the battle of Lake Erie, being at that time un- 

 der twenty-four years of age. Next to the 

 name of Perry, that of Champlin is most close- 

 ly associated with the glory of our greatest 

 naval triumph, the gallant young commander 

 having the honor to fire the first shot and tho 

 last shot of the battle on the American side. 

 "When the British and American fleets came 

 together, the Scorpion flanked the flagship 

 Lawrence upon the left. She bore two long 

 guns, carrying respectively a 32-pound and a 

 12-pound shot. The British commander, Bar- 

 clay, opened by a shot which fell short on ac- 

 count of distance. Champlin answered by a 

 shot from the Scorpion, and the fight soon after 

 became general. ' The Scorpion was fought 

 with great bravery, and kept its place near the 

 Lawrence, which was riddled with shot and 

 finally disabled, throughout the entire engage- 

 ment. When all the other vessels of the Brit- 

 ish fleet had struck their colors, the Little 

 Belt and the Chippewa, which were to the ex- 

 treme leeward of the two fleets, attempted to 

 escape. Champlin and the commander of the 

 Trippe gave chase. Both the vessels were 

 overtaken, and in capturing the Little Belt, at 

 ten o'clock at night, the final shot was fired 

 from the Scorpion. Champlin was afterward 

 placed in command of two of the captured 

 prize-ships, the Queen Charlotte and the De- 

 troit. In the spring of 1814, he commanded 

 the Tigress, and blockaded, with Captain Tur- 

 ner in the Scorpion, the port of Mackinac. 

 They cruised for some months in the service, 

 cutting off the supplies of the British garrison, 

 but both vessels were surprised and captured 

 early in September, by a party of Indians and 

 British, sent from Mackinac in five boats to 

 raise the blockade. The party fell upon the 

 Tigress first, while at anchor near shore, at 

 nine o'clock in the evening of September 3d. 

 It was intensely dark, and the enemy were 

 within fifty yards before discovered. They 

 were received with a heavy fire, but the ves- 

 sel was quickly boarded by overwhelming 

 numbers and captured, her force being only 

 about thirty men, while the attacking party 

 numbered one hundred. Every American 

 officer was severely wounded, and Captain 

 Champlin was so painfully injured by a canis- 

 ter-shot, which passed through the fleshy part 

 of the right thigh and embedded itself in the left 

 thigh, shattering the bone fearfully, and re- 

 maining embedded in the limb for eighteen 

 .days, that he was partially crippled for life. 

 He was obliged to submit to repeated severe 

 operations for the removal of portions of the 

 bone, and it continued to exfoliate at intervals 

 \ip to the time of his death. He was taken 

 prisoner at the time of receiving this wound, 

 and carried to Mackinac, where he lay for 

 thirty-eight days suffering from his wound, and 

 was then paroled and sent down the lake to 

 Erie, where he arrived in November. He re- 

 mained there until January, when he was re- 

 moved by easy stages, his condition being very 



critical, to Connecticut, arriving there in 

 March, 1815. Soon after his arrival he was 

 ordered to join the squadron of Commodore 

 Perry at Bristol, E. I., destined for the Medi- 

 terranean. He proceeded there, and was at- 

 tached to the flagship, the Java ; but his 

 wound continued so annoying that, by advice 

 of surgeons, he applied for orders to return to 

 Erie on lighter service. These orders he 

 received in the fall from the Navy Depart- 

 ment, and in the spring of 1816 was ordered 

 to the command of the United States schooner 

 Porcupine, which vessel he commanded during 

 the season, being employed with the commis- 

 sioners in surveying the boundary-line between 

 this country and Canada on the chain of Lakes 

 Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and Superior, as well 

 as through 1817 and 1818, being employed in 

 various duties, among them that of taking 

 President Monroe and suite to Detroit and 

 back again to Sandusky. In the winter he was 

 detached from this station and ordered to re- 

 port to Commodore Perry at Newport, E. I., 

 but in consequence of his wound was allowed 

 to locate in Connecticut. From that time till 

 1828 he continued to suffer from his wound, 

 and underwent several operations without ma- 

 terial relief. In 1828 he was ordered to the 

 United States receiving-ship Fulton, stationed 

 at New York, but was detached from her a few 

 days before she blew up, and returned to Con- 

 necticut, where he resided until the year 1834. 

 In that year he removed to Buffalo, where he 

 continuously resided up to the day of his 

 death. In 1842 a naval rendezvous was opened 

 in Buffalo and placed under his command, which 

 was very successful, over four hundred men 

 being shipped in about four months. In the 

 fall of 1845 he was ordered to the command 

 of the United States steamer Michigan, which 

 position he retained until the close of his term 

 of service in 1848. In 1855, under the act of 

 February of that year, he was placed by the 

 board of naval officers on the reserve list with 

 leave-of-absence pay, which is equivalent to 

 being on the retired list of the army. He had 

 passed through the various grades of promo- 

 tion to captain previously, and was promoted 

 to be commodore in 1862. The naval triumph 

 of which Commodore Champlin was the last 

 prominent survivor was, in some respects, the 

 most remarkable in the history either of this 

 country or Great Britain. It was the first 

 encounter between an American and an English 

 fleet in regular battle, and the British Navy had 

 never before known the humiliation of losing 

 an entire squadron. The importance of the 

 engagement, also, in saving the Northwest 

 Territory to the United States, and perhaps in 

 deciding the result of the war, can hardly be 

 overestimated. 



CHASE, Eight Eev. CARLTON, D. D., Bishop 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the 

 Diocese of New Hampshire, born in Hopkin- 

 ton, N. H., February 20, 1794; died in Clare- 

 mont, N. H., January 18, 1870. He was grad- 



