The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5

The enemy's surrender was gracefully received. Perry soon visited the wounded Barclay, and tendered him every service that it was in his power to render, and every possible attention was given to the wounded of both fleets. Then came the roll-call to see who had answered the final summons to duty on the field of honor, who had received marks of courage in the fight, and who had gone through the dreadful ordeal of battle unscathed. It was then that the tears of sorrow mingled with the exultations of victory which soon were to be shouted along the line of every highway and by-way, from hamlet to village, from village to town, and from town to city, throughout the land.

Perry wrote to Governor Brooks of Massachusetts a letter condoling with him on the fall of his gallant son in action; for while Perry's brow was laurelled with the wreath of victory, he did not forget that there were mourners weeping for brave hearts which in the fight had been forever put to rest.

The name of Perry was now made a household word from the great Northern Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Coast to the impenetrated wilderness of the West, often repeated at the baptismal font; and a nation's gratitude was soon laid at his feet. As humane in victory as he had been brave in action, his generous kindness won the admiration of Barclay, and his dying comrades showered upon him their blessings and remembered him in their final prayers.

Prayers of gratitude to that Almighty Power which had given victory to the American arms went up from every fireside throughout the Northwest; and mothers pressed their children more closely to their breasts as they thought themselves to be henceforth secure from the scalping-knife of Indian barbarity, and that the savage war-whoop would no more break the sleep of the cradle.

At night-fall many of the dead with all due solemnity were tenderly committed to the deep. The wounded had all been visited and their wants attended to; the worn and weary now sought repose, and a solemn oppressive silence soon pervaded the fleet, save here and there a sound of distress from the wounded. The Captain now retired for reflection, for his mind and heart were too full for rest. He then thought of his young devoted wife whose prayers he believed had been his shield in battle; that his work was yet incomplete while the British had an army on the borders of the Lake, or in Upper Canada,—how he could best aid General Harrison's army; and then resolved on the work of the morrow; when, soothed by reflection, his tired nature gave out, and he, too, sank into a fitful slumber.

The mind of Barclay, relieved of present responsibility, evolved other less pressing but more pensive thoughts. He thought not of himself or his bleeding wound, for he had bled before for his country, when he earned his stars and made his fame secure at Trafalgar; but as the sun went down that night he thought that no more in the evening twilight would the mariners of England standing under the cross of St. George, on that great inland water, sing their national song, "Brittania rules the waves;" no more the echoes of that stirring air rolling over the silver surface of the Lake to its islands and shores would arouse the sturdy dwellers there to join in glad unison in those lofty strains which everywhere, the world over, melt into one every true and loyal British heart. He then was moved by the sadder thought, that on that night the sun of British power which had hitherto dominated the great Northern Lakes of America had gone down forever.

Perry's available vessels were now taken to transport General Harrison's army across the Lake, and up the Detroit river. The Lawrence, as soon as she was put into condition took on board the wounded of both fleets, and under the command of the gallant but wounded Yarnell carried them to Erie. The other vessels were repaired and fitted for other duties, or were to return to Erie.

Perry accompanied General Harrison as a volunteer aid, and participated and bore an honorable part in the battle of the Thames, as he had done in the battle of Fort George, under Chauncey, before the engagement on the Lake.

Upon his return to Detroit, he found a letter from the Secretary of Navy thanking and congratulating him for the eminent services he had rendered his country; and, as he had performed the duty committed to him, granting him leave to visit his family at Newport.

But Perry was first to return to Erie, which he had left the 12th of August. The news of the result of the battle had long preceded his arrival and the people had there been watching and waiting his coming. On the 23d of October, the Aerial, the last vessel of the fleet to leave the head of the lake, came within sight of Erie. She had on board General Harrison, who had then lately defeated General Procter at the Thames, the wounded Barclay, and Commodore Perry. The people from the surrounding country crowded into Erie to welcome the arrival of the victors. Barclay was taken to Perry's quarters and there properly cared for by Harrison and Perry.

The Lawrence was anchored in Misery Bay, in the harbor of Erie, maimed and battered and scarcely able to float, yet having on board her precious freight brought across the lake; Perry now visited this ship, and as he reached her blood-stained deck and beheld his surviving comrades and thought of those who had been in the fight, that were not then on board, he reverently raised his hands in fervent supplication to Him who giveth the victory not always to the strong, to heal the wounds, and bless, and raise up, the sufferers around him; and to sustain and help the widows and orphans the battle had made; and in thanksgiving for the preservation of those who had survived the conflict unhurt. He then returned to the shore to meet the vast concourse of people awaiting his arrival. The dead and the disabled men, the dismounted guns and the broken and tattered ships, told the story of the battle and the price of the victory with more eloquence than the most brilliant imagination could compass. These visible evidences of the strife for the mastery indicated the valor and the woe, incident to the ordeal which had been passed, with an energy and pathos which overpowered the most obdurate will; and the multitude greeted Harrison and Perry with tears and smiles,—rain in sunshine with a heartiness that language is too poor and barren to describe. The living had earned their title to everlasting gratitude, and the dead had fallen as the brave desire to fall, at the post of duty and on the field of victory.

Perry now procured the parole and release of Barclay, and after arranging for his absence started eastward on his journey home; but his progress was everywhere obstructed by evidences of the gratitude of his countymen for his great action. On Monday, the 15th of November, attended by the faithful crew that rowed him to the Niagara, he arrived in Newport, by way of the south-ferry. Here, he was received upon his arrival in a manner alike worthy of his neighbors and friends and of himself.

August 23d, 1819, at the age of thirty-four, he died of yellow fever, at Port Spain in the Island of Trinidad. His remains were brought to Newport in a government ship, and were interred December 4th. 1826. They were conducted to their final resting place by a funeral cortege such as up to that time had never been equalled and since that time has here never been surpassed.

This is but a glance at the man, and the event to which we are here to-day to rear this tribute of our gratitude. There are other names and other figures that come up to view in the memory and gather around the name of Perry, of men who were efficient auxiliaries in the conflict, shared the dangers, and participated in the glory of the battle of Lake Erie, and who are inseparably connected with that event.

Turner, Taylor, Champlin, Almy, Breese, Brownell, and the acting fleet surgeon Parsons were from Rhode Island; Forest, Brook, Stevens, Hambleton, Yarnell and others not less distinguished, were from other states; and the gallant commander of the northwest-army, and his comrades in arms, whom Perry accompanied to the field on the 5th of October, in the battle of the Thames, where Perry's victory was made complete by driving the organized forces of the enemy from upper Canada, are deserving of our remembrance to-day.

To your Excellency the Governor, representing the people of Rhode Island; To your Honor, the Mayor, representing the people of Newport:—

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