While we two lay there, I trying to make out if my comrade was nigh to death, Lieutenant Yarnall came up, looking more ghastly than any man I had seen since the action began. His nose had been cut through by a splinter, and was swollen until it resembled a huge piece of liver rather than anything I can bring to mind. He was bleeding from several wounds, but his courage was in nowise injured. “All the officers in my division have been cut down, sir, and I would like to have others,” he said, saluting gravely as if on parade. “I have no more to give you,” the commodore replied, returning the salute. “You must endeavor to make out alone.” “Very well, sir,” and the first officer of the _Lawrence_ returned through that storm of cannon-balls and musket-bullets to his station as calmly as he might have done had we simply been firing a friendly salute. Now here is a description of the battle from the beginning up to this time, as I have seen it written down by one who was more familiar with the details than I, for enshrouded in smoke, and a novice in such matters, I know no more than what happened immediately around me:-- “Perry[4] soon perceived that he was yet too far distant to damage the enemy materially, so he ordered word to be sent from vessel to vessel by trumpet for all to make sail, bear down upon Barclay, and engage in close combat. “The order was transmitted by Captain Elliott, who was the second in command, but he failed to obey it himself. His vessel was a fast sailer, and his men were the best in the squadron, but he kept at a distance from the enemy, and continued firing his long guns. “Perry, meanwhile, pressed on with the _Lawrence_, accompanied by the _Scorpion_, _Ariel_, and _Caledonia_; and at meridian exactly, when he supposed he was near enough for execution with his carronades, he opened the first division of his battery on the starboard side of the _Detroit_. His balls fell short, while his antagonist and her consorts poured upon the _Lawrence_ a heavy storm of round shot from their long guns, still leaving the _Scorpion_ and _Ariel_ almost unnoticed. “The _Caledonia_, meanwhile, engaged with the _Hunter_, but the _Niagara_ kept at a respectful distance from the _Queen Charlotte_, and gave that vessel an opportunity to go to the assistance of the _Detroit_. She passed the _Hunter_, and, placing herself astern of the _Detroit_, opened heavily upon the _Lawrence_, now, at a quarter past twelve, only musket-shot distance from her chief antagonist.