Perry, Oliver Hazard (1785–1819), U.S. naval officer.Born of a naval family, Perry served as a midshipman toward the end of undeclared naval war with France (1789–1800) and as a midshipman and acting lieutenant during the Tripolitan War (1801–05). After being promoted to lieutenant, he helped enforce the embargo, which prohibited American ships and goods from leaving port, and protected the American coast from privateering. During the War of 1812, he directed construction of a small fleet on Lake Erie, and on 10 September 1813, used it decisively to defeat a British squadron at Put‐in‐Bay. The Battle of Lake Erie secured for the United States control over the lake and changed the balance of power in the western theater of operations, but now is best remembered as the occasion of Perry's report to Gen. William Henry Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” That same year Perry provided naval support for Winfield Scott's capture of Fort George, and aided Harrison in the reoccupation of Detroit, as well as at the Battle of the Thames. In 1814, he played a minor role in the defense of the Chesapeake Bay area when the British invaded the region. He died of yellow fever in 1819 while on a naval and diplomatic mission in South America. A younger brother, Matthew C. Perry, led the naval expedition that opened Japan in 1853.
[See also Navy, U.S.: 1783–1865.]

Bibliography

Alexander S. Mackenzie , The Life of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, 2 vols., 1840.
Charles J. Dutton , Oliver Hazard Perry, 1935.
David Curtis Skaggs and and Gerard T. Altoff , A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813, 1997.

Donald R. Hickey