Oliver Hazard Perry – 1785-1819

During a critical phase of the War of 1812, Perry quickly constructed an inland U.S. naval fleet and on September 10, 1813, used it to defeat the Royal Navy flotilla in the Battle of Lake Erie. The victory cut off the British army’s waterborne supply route and enabled General William Henry Harrison to win on land, the crucial Battle of the Thames (in Ontario, Canada). Having triumphed on Lake Erie, Perry sent a famous dispatch to Harrison: “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”