suffered official disgrace at the hands of his own Government
and William Henry Harrison became a President of the United States.

[Illustration: _OLIVER HAZARD PERRY AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE_

Painting by J.W. Jarvis. In the City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation.]

[Illustration: _ISAAC CHAUNCEY_

Painting in the Comptroller's Office, City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation.]

CHAPTER III

PERRY AND LAKE ERIE

Amid the prolonged vicissitudes of these western campaigns, two
subordinate officers, the boyish Major Croghan at Fort Stephenson and
the dashing Colonel Johnson with his Kentucky mounted infantry,
displayed qualities which accord with the best traditions of American
arms. Of kindred spirit and far more illustrious was Captain Oliver
Hazard Perry of the United States Navy. Perry dealt with and overcame,
on a much larger scale, similar obstacles and discouragements--untrained
men, lack of material, faulty support--but was ready and eager to meet
the enemy in the hour of need. If it is a sound axiom never to despise
the enemy, it is nevertheless true that excessive prudence has lost many
an action. Farragut's motto has been the keynote of the success of all
the great sea-captains, "_L'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours
de l'audace._"

It was not until the lesson of Hull's surrender had aroused the civil
authorities that Captain Chauncey of the navy yard at New York received
orders in September, 1812, "to assume command of the naval force on
Lakes Erie and Ontario and to use every exertion to obtain control of
them this fall." Chauncey was an experienced officer, forty years old,
who had not rusted from inactivity like the elderly generals who had
been given command of armies. He knew what he needed and how to get it.
Having to begin with almost nothing, he busied himself to such excellent
purpose that he was able to report within three weeks that he had
forwarded to Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario, "one hundred and forty
ship carpenters, seven hundred seamen and marines, more than one hundred
pieces of cannon, the greater part of large caliber, with musket, shot,
carriages, etc. The carriages have nearly all been made and the shot
cast in that time. Nay, I may say that nearly every article that has
been forwarded has been made."

It was found impossible to divert part of this ordnance to Buffalo
because of the excessively bad roads, which were passable for heavy
traffic