PERRY 



4590 



PERRYVILLE 



PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD (1785-1819), an 

 American naval officer, who by his courage and 

 intrepid leadership in the War of 1812 forced 

 an entire British squadron to surrender, was 

 born in Kingston, R. I. His father, Christopher 

 Perry, had won 

 distinction in na- 

 val service, and 

 his mother, Sarah 

 Alexander, was a 

 woman of high 

 ideals. He was 

 an elder brother 

 of Matthew C. 

 Perry (see above). 



Oliver attended 

 private schools, 

 and was a pupil of 

 Count Rocham- 

 beau, one of the 

 notable ' French- 

 who served 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 



men 



in the American 

 army during the Revolutionary War. In 1799 

 he went as midshipman to the West Indies. He 

 also took part in the Tripolitan War (see BAR- 

 BARY STATES). In 1807 the rank of lieutenant 

 was given him. Like his father, he was inter- 

 ested in the building of war vessels, and was a 

 fine tactician and disciplinarian. 



Perry applied many times for a sea com- 

 mand, but being unable to secure one offered 

 his services on the Great Lakes in the second 

 war for American independence (see WAR OF 

 1812). Commander Chauncey sent him to Lake 

 Erie, where by strenuous endeavor he collected 

 a force of vessels among them the Lawrence 

 and Niagara and left Put-in-Bay September 

 10, 1813, to meet the British. At eleven o'clock 

 that day. the battle began, with Perry on the 

 Lawrence. The British guns had the advan- 

 tage, and soon reduced that vessel to wreckage. 

 Perry, with quick decision and dauntless cour- 

 age, ordered four seamen to man a rowboat, 

 and taking his brother, hurried for the Niagara, 

 which had fallen behind. Two British vessels 

 became entangled, and taking advantage of this 

 the Niagara raked them with broadsides. By 

 three o'clock the British fleet of sixteen vessels 

 had surrendered to a young man twenty-seven 

 years of age. For the first time in history Eng- 

 land lost an entire squadron, and the victor was 

 advanced to the rank of captain. Perry sent to 

 General William Henry Harrison, military com- 

 mander in the West, the famous message, "We 

 have met the enemy, and they are ours." The 



victory was not won, however, without heavy 

 'loss of life. 



He took part also in the battles around De- 

 troit and on the Thames in Canada (1813), and 

 later commanded the frigate Java in the Medi- 

 terranean. While on this trip he was stricken 

 with yellow fever and died at Port of Spain, 

 Trinidad, in 1819. In the rotunda of the Capi- 

 tol at Washington is a painting showing Perry 

 leaving the Lawrence for the Niagara. 



An Illustration drawn from the painting re- 

 ferred to above appears on page 2070, in article 

 ERIE, subhead Battle of Lake Erie. 



Perry Centennial, an impressive celebration, 

 in 1913, of the hundredth anniversary of the 

 victory of Oliver H. Perry, in the famous Bat- 

 tle of Lake Erie. This victory, with the laconic 

 dispatch announcing it, had endeared Perry to 

 every American heart, and the celebration 

 aroused wide enthusiasm. The idea of the cen- 

 tennial originated in Ohio, but nine other states 

 sent commissioners to join in the plans which, 

 when completed, centered about the Perry 

 Memorial designed for erection on Put-in-Bay 

 Island. This memorial is an ambitious structure 

 which includes a plaza twelve feet in height, 

 sloping from the water's edge and crowned with 

 a Doric column 335 feet in height. The col- 

 umn, of massive granite, has a diameter of 

 forty-five feet at its base and thirty-five at the 

 top. 



To assist in the celebration, Perry's flagship, 

 the Niagara, which had been aground at Erie, 

 was raised and restored as nearly as possible 

 to its condition at the time of the battle. 

 It made a triumphal progress about the lake, 

 reaching Put-in-Bay on September 10, the an- 

 niversary of the great battle. The Memorial 

 was dedicated with fitting services, the impres- 

 sive culmination of which was the disinterring 

 from the shores of Put-in-Bay of the English 

 and American officers killed in the battle, and 

 their reburial in the crypt of the Memorial. 



Consult Mackenzie's Commodore Oliver Hazard 

 Perry; Barnes's The Hero of Erie. 



PERRYVILLE, BATTLE OF, a battle of the 

 War of Secession, fought October 8, 1862, be- 

 tween a Federal force of 22,000 under General 

 Buell and about 17,000 Confederates com- 

 manded by General Bragg. After the evacua- 

 tion of Corinth, Bragg decided to advance into 

 Kentucky and Tennessee, but was overtaken 

 at Perryville, Ky., where Polk of the Confeder- 

 ates opened the battle by an attack on the left 

 wing of the Federal army under General Mc- 

 Cook. At first the Confederates were success- 



