The number of dead among the Americans was twenty-seven (of whom twenty-two were killed on the _Lawrence_), the wounded, ninety-six. The British reported a loss of forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded. The _Lawrence_, as told, was wellnigh a wreck above the water-line; the _Detroit_ and the _Queen Charlotte_ were so much cut up in masts and rigging that, in a blow two days later, the masts went over the rails in spite of preventers, although both were at anchor in Put-in Bay. On boarding the _Detroit_ the Americans found two Indians hiding in the hold. They had been stationed aloft as sharpshooters, but when the American great guns were brought to bear they had slid down the rigging in terror. On being brought to the deck they expressed astonishment because they were not tortured. The unhurt prisoners were all placed on the _Porcupine_, and there fed and served with an allowance of grog as soon as possible. The wounded were put on the _Lawrence_ and sent to Erie under the care of Yarnall, save that the officers were kept with Perry. Perry’s despatch to General Harrison, it is worth telling, was written with a pencil on the back of an old letter. Perry used his cap in lieu of a table. When written, the despatch was entrusted to Midshipman Dulany Forest. Forest had been wounded in a curious fashion. A grape-shot struck the side of a port, glanced and struck a mast, and glancing again, struck down Forest as he stood beside Perry. Perry stooped and raised him up. He was unconscious for a moment, but quickly recovered, and getting on his feet, pulled the projectile from the inside of his clothing, through which it had penetrated, and put it in his pocket, saying: “I guess this is mine.” Perry’s letter to the Secretary of the Navy is worth quoting, for it was written when “a religious awe seemed to come over him at his wonderful preservation in the midst of great and long-continued danger.” It read: “It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal victory over their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, consisting of two ships, two brigs, a schooner and a sloop, have this moment surrendered to the force under my command, after a sharp conflict.” It was characteristic of the man to say “surrendered to the force under my command,” rather than to say “surrendered to me.” And it is recorded that when he had given the needed orders for the care of the prisoners and the fleet, the reaction that followed the prolonged excitement was so great that, utterly weary, he stretched himself among his dead comrades on the deck of his ship, and with his sword still in hand, went fast to sleep.