Lake
Erie, fully ten percent of the American crews were blacks. Perry spoke
highly of their bravery and good conduct. He said they seemed to be
absolutely insensible to danger. His fighters were a motley collection
of blacks, soldiers and boys. Nearly all had been afflicted with
sickness. Mackenzie says that when the defeated British commander was
brought aboard the "Niagara" and beheld the sickly and parti-colored
beings around him, an expression of chagrin escaped him at having been
conquered by such men.

The following extract is from a letter written by Commodore Nathaniel
Shaler of the armed schooner "Governor Tompkins", dated January 1, 1813.
Speaking of a fight with a British frigate, he said:

"The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be
registered in the book of fame and remembered with reverence as
long as bravery is considered a virtue. He was a black man by the
name of John Johnson. A twenty-four-pound shot struck him in the
hip and tore away all the lower part of his body. In this state the
poor brave fellow lay on the deck and several times exclaimed to
his shipmates: 'Fire away, boys; don't haul the colors down.'
Another black man by the name of John Davis was struck in much the
same way. He fell near me and several times requested to be thrown
overboard, saying he was only in the way of the others. When
America has such tars, she has little to fear from the tyrants of
the ocean."

With the history fresh in mind of the successful Negro insurrection in
St. Domingo, bringing out so conspicuous a military and administrative
genius as Toussaint L'Ouverture, it is not surprising that the services
of Negroes as soldiers were not only welcomed, but solicited by various
states during the War of 1812. Excepting the battle of New Orleans,
almost all the martial glory of the struggle was on the water. New York,
however, passed a special act of the legislature and organized two
regiments of Negro troops, while there was heavy recruiting in other
states.

When in 1814 New Orleans was in danger, the free colored people of
Louisiana were called into the field with the whites. General Andrew
Jackson's commendatory address read to his colored troops December 18,
1814, is one of the highest compliments ever paid by a commander to his
troops. He said:

"Soldiers!--when, on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take
up arms, in