CHAPTER XIII THE BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE BUILDING WAR-SHIPS AND GUN-BOATS IN THE WILDERNESS--LIFTING THE VESSELS OVER A SAND-BAR--FORTUNATELY THE BRITISH COMMANDER WAS FOND OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENTS--THE TWO SQUADRONS AND THEIR CREWS COMPARED--THE ADVANTAGE OF A CONCENTRATED FORCE WAS WITH THE BRITISH--ON THE WAY TO MEET THE ENEMY--“TO WINDWARD OR TO LEEWARD THEY SHALL FIGHT TO-DAY”--THE ANGLO-SAXON CHEER--THE BRUNT OF THE FIGHT BORNE BY THE FLAG-SHIP--A FRIGHTFUL SLAUGHTER THERE IN CONSEQUENCE--WHEN PERRY WORKED THE GUNS WITH HIS OWN HANDS, AND EVEN THE WOUNDED CRAWLED UP THE HATCH TO LEND A HAND AT THE SIDE-TACKLES--AN ABLE FIRST LIEUTENANT--WOUNDED EXPOSED TO THE FIRE WHEN UNDER THE SURGEON’S CARE--THE LAST GUN DISABLED--SHIFTING THE FLAG TO THE _NIAGARA_--CHEERS THAT WERE HEARD ABOVE THE ROAR OF CANNON--WHEN THE WOUNDED OF THE _LAWRENCE_ CRIED “SINK THE SHIP!”--DRIVING THE _NIAGARA_ THROUGH THE BRITISH SQUADRON--THE WHITE HANDKERCHIEF FLUTTERING FROM A BOARDING-PIKE--“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, AND THEY ARE OURS.” This is the story of Perry’s victory. Oliver Hazard Perry, “a zealous naval officer, twenty-seven years of age,” of the rank of master commandant, was in command of a fleet of gun-boats at Newport, Rhode Island, during all the glorious days when Hull, Decatur, and Bainbridge were winning laurels on the high seas. It was a most irksome service, at best, for the sole purpose of the gun-boats was that of the quills of a porcupine, but when other men of the navy were abroad showing teeth, the task assigned to Perry was beyond endurance. For a time his appeals for a change were unheeded, but at last, when the operations on Lake Ontario under Commodore Chauncey, and at the foot of Lake Erie, under Lieutenant Elliott, had made an impression on the Navy Department, Perry was ordered to go with “all of the best men of his flotilla” to join Chauncey. It was on February 17, 1813, that his orders reached him, and before night fifty of his men were on their way to the west in sleds. Others followed, and on the 22d Perry himself, with a brother of thirteen, who was eager for adventures, started over the long road--a road so long that, though the sleighing was good, they did not reach Sackett’s Harbor until March 3d. For two weeks Perry remained there, awaiting an expected attack from the British that did not come, and then he started on for what was then called Presqu’ Isle, but is now the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. [Illustration: _O. H. Perry_ _From an engraving by Forrest of the portrait by Jarvis._]