a"
to--what was really her place--her commodore's aid; for in those days
the distance between under fire and out of fire for efficient action
was a matter of half a mile.[92] Perry's formulated charge, addressed
to the Navy Department, and notified to Elliott, but never brought to
trial, was that when coming into action an order was passed by trumpet
for the vessels astern to close up in the line; that a few moments
previously to the enemy's opening fire the "Niagara" had been within
hail of the "Lawrence," and nevertheless she was allowed to drop
astern, and for two hours to remain at such distance from the enemy as
to render useless all her battery except the two long guns. Perry
himself made sail at the time the hail by trumpet was passed. The
"Niagara" did not.

There is little reason for doubt that the tenor of Perry's
instructions required Elliott to follow the "Queen Charlotte," and no
doubt whatever that military propriety imperiously demanded it of him.
The question of wind must be matter of inference from the incidents
above stated: the movement of the "Lawrence" and "Queen Charlotte,"
and the bracing aback of the "Niagara's" topsail. A sentence in
Perry's report apparently, but only apparently, attenuates the force
of these. He said, "At half-past two, the wind springing up, Captain
Elliott was enabled to bring his vessel, the 'Niagara,' gallantly into
close action." Alluding to, without insisting on, Perry's subsequent
statement that he endeavored to give as favorable a color as possible
to Elliott's course, it is clear enough that these words simply state
that Captain Elliott at 2.30 reached the range at which the "Lawrence"
had fought since a little after noon.

Quitting now the discussion of proprieties, the order of events seems
to have been as follows: Perry having taken the initiative of bearing
down, under increased sail, Elliott remained behind, governed by, or
availing himself of--two very different motives, not lightly to be
determined, or assumed, by the historian--the technical point, long
before abandoned in practice, that he could not leave his place in the
line without a signal. Thus his action was controlled by the position
of his next ahead in the line, the dull-sailing "Caledonia," a vessel
differing radically from his own in armament, having two long and for
that day heavy guns, quite equal in range and efficiency to the best
of the "Detroit's,"[93] and therefore capable of good service,