en so totally regardless of my feelings.... The
critical state of General Harrison was such that I took upon myself the
responsibility of going out with the few young officers you had been
pleased to send me, with the few seamen I had, and as many volunteers as
I could muster from the militia. I did not shrink from this
responsibility but, Sir, at that very moment I surely did not anticipate
the receipt of a letter in every line of which is an insult." Most
fortunately Perry's request for transfer could not be granted until
after the battle of Lake Erie had been fought and won. The Secretary
answered in tones of mild rebuke: "A change of commander under existing
circumstances, is equally inadmissible as it respects the interest of
the service and your own reputation. It is right that you should reap
the harvest which you have sown."

Perry's indignation seems excusable. He had shown a cheerful willingness
to shoulder the whole load and his anxieties had been greater than his
superiors appeared to realize. Captain Barclay, who commanded the
British naval force on Lake Erie and who had been hovering off Erie
while the American ships were waiting for men, might readily have sent
his boats in at night and destroyed the entire squadron. Perry had not
enough sailors to defend his ships, and the regiment of Pennsylvania
militia stationed at Erie to guard the naval base refused to do duty on
shipboard after dark. "I told the boys to go, Captain Perry," explained
their worthless colonel, "but the boys won't go."

Perry's lucky star saved him from disaster, however, and on the 2d of
August he undertook the perilous and awkward labor of floating his
larger vessels over the shallow bar of the harbor at Erie. Barclay's
blockading force had vanished. For Perry it was then or never. At any
moment the enemy's topsails might reappear, and the American ships would
be caught in a situation wholly defenseless. Perry first disposed his
light-draft schooners to cover his channel, and then hoisted out the
guns of the _Lawrence_ brig and lowered them into boats. Scows, or
"camels," as they were called, were lashed alongside the vessel to lift
her when the water was pumped out of them. There was no more than four
feet of water on the bar, and the brig-of-war bumped and stranded
repeatedly even when lightened and assisted in every possible manner.
After a night and a day of unflagging exertion she was hauled across
into deep water and the guns