The Battle of Lake Erie Journal Summary After war was declared between the United States and Great Britain, over two-thousand soldiers invaded Canada under General William Hull. Less than a month later, Hull cowardly surrendered his troops to a much weaker army, leaving the British in control. Due to Hull’s surrender, Great Lake’s captain, Daniel Dobbins, was left imprisoned. When Dobbins finally escaped the British camp, he made a long trip to Presque Isle, later known as Erie. Here, Dobbins was guided to the President, James Madison, in order to relay the horrific news in front of the cabinet of the defeat. Dobbins, Madison, and the cabinet concluded that Presque Isle, or Erie, was the most suitable area for building a fleet, instead of attempting to invade Canada. Since there was not a navy base on Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario had more supply routes, Isaac Chauncey, naval forces commander, took control of the invasion. The well-respected veteran sent sailors and soldiers to the north, or Albany, by September, less than a month later. During this, Dobbins sailed to Presque Isle, a six mile land strip on Lake Erie. Unfortunately, the harbor lacked resources; therefore, Dobbins spent a small amount of two thousand dollars on supplies to build a fleet. Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, whose ideas clashed with those of Daniel Dobbins, commanded a small fleet at Black Rock that was within shooting distance of the British. Here, Elliott and Army Captain Nathan Towson, captured $150,000 worth of cargo from two British brigs, Caledonia and Detroit; this made Elliott a recognized hero. While Elliott was distracted with night raids, though, Dobbins was gathering supplies and shipbuilder, Noah Brown, to construct a couple more larger brigs, known as Lawrence and Niagara. When the ships were in the midst of construction, Oliver Perry, a commander chosen by Chauncey, came to Presque Isle on March 27 to pressure the carpenters to speed up their progress and locate iron for the guns. By April, three ships had set out up Lake Ontario. Before the ships made their way back to Presque Isle, most of the men, including Perry, were very sick; there were not any able men to sail the ships and Perry was desperate to fight. Both in northern Ohio, neither Perry nor General William Harrison could move their ships without assuring the American’s security on Lake Erie. The men were supposed to provide service at Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, but Perry had no men. He began to panic, was willing to pay men to fight, and wrote to Chauncey: “For God’s sake and yours, and mine, send me men and officers.” Finally, Perry was sent a few African Americans, which he did not care for. Now that he had men, whom were more than determined to fight hard, Perry focused on securing the harbor. Since the British captain was called away to a banquet and the sandbar, Perry decided to take care of a problem with the sandbar, the ship’s protectorate. Things began to look positive for Perry as he was eventually sent more soldiers and weapons. Nearby, Britain’s commander, Barclay, was undermanned on his new ship, the Detroit, so he stocked up on cannons. He was also short on food, which left him with the decision to either abandon the mission or ration the supplies and proceed; he chose to stay. The next day, Britain’s ships met in open water with Perry’s ships. A blue flag was raised and the first shots hit the Lawrence. Perry’s only chance to do any damage meant that he must sail within 250 yards of Barclay, who was loaded with long guns. Men were becoming wounded faster than the doctor could treat them and blood poured before there was enough time to put sand over it. Over eighty percent of the Lawrence’s men were wounded and every gun was damaged. Elliott, running the Niagara, thought Perry was dead until Perry stumbled onto the ship without a scratch. He pointed the Niagara towards the Detroit, which was tangled up with the Queen Charlotte; this allowed the Niagara an open shot. The British soon surrendered, with forty-one casualties, while America only had twenty-seven. America’s two captains received a prize money after capturing their opponent’s fleet. Later on, Elliott and Perry began to have a lot of disagreements, causing Perry to issue Elliott to the court-marshal. A year later, Perry suffered from a harsh fever and died. Elliott died while commanding the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and Dobbins was never awarded because he was not actually in the battle.
The author of The Battle of Lake Erie, Richard F. Snow, in my opinion, wrote a very detailed, distinct article that allowed me to visualize the setting of the battle. I felt that this was one of the most descriptive articles I have ever read, and it was more of a story than an article. For instance, he used phrases such as, "Blood spilled on the deck faster than men could throw sand on it (page 7)" to allow the reader to imagine the heavy amounts of blood on the deck. I also love the way the article is easy to interpret. While Snow wrote in detail, he used simpler words, which are easier for the reader to understand.
From my point of view, I felt that this article was extremely interesting by the fact that the author did use such great detail, but it was boring at times when he rambled. Overall, though, the article had my attention and it was a great read. As it was very descriptive, the article seemed to be very well researched. Before I had read this specific article, I had known about the general idea of the Battle of Lake Erie, but after reading it, I informed of much more information. He included facts about each of the commanders, ships, and land, which I had never known anything about before. He did a great job with researching this topic.