The weekly Butte record., 1861-12-21
Commodore Perry after the Battle of
Lake Erie.

Lake Erie.
As the cannon ceased, an awful stiffness set
in; nothing was heard but the feeble groans OF
the wounded, or the dash Of oars as boats
glided from one vessel to another.
Possession having been taken of the con-
qaered feet, at four o'clock Perry sent an
express to Harrison with these words:
"DEAR GENERAL: We have met the enemy,
and they are ours two ships, two brigs, one
schooner, and one sloop."
As he wrote to the secretary OF the navy,
religious awe seemed to come over him, at his
wonderful preservation in the midst OF great
and long continued danger; and he attributed
his signal victory to the pleasure of the Al
mighty.
1t was on board the Lawrence that Perry
then received the submission of the captives.
This was due to the suferings of her crew, to
the selfsacri6cing courage of the unnamed
martyrs who still lay unbured on her deck, to
the croud of wounded who thought their trials
well rewarded by the issue. The witnesses to
the act of the British officers in rendering their
swords were chiefly the dead and the wounded,
and the scene Of sorrow tempered and subdued
the exultation of triumph.
The conqueror bade his captives retain their
side arms and added every just and unaffected
expression Of courtesy, mercy, and solcitude
for their wounded.
When twilight fell, the mariners who had
fallen on board the Lawrence and had lain IN
heaps on the side Of the ship opposite to the
British, were sewn up in their hammocks, and
with cannon ball at their feet, were dropped
one by one into the lake.
At last, but not till his days work was done,
exhausted nature claimed rest, and Perry, turn
ing into his cot, slept as sweetly and quietly as
a child
The dawn of morning revealed the deadly
ferceness of the combat. Spectators from the
island found the sides of the Lawrence com
pletely ridded by shot from the long guns of
the British her deck was thickly covered
with clots of blood fragments of those who
had been struck-hair, brains, broken pieces
of bones-were still sticking to the rigging
and sides. The sides of the Detroit and Queen
Charlotte were shattered from bow to stern :;
on their larboard side there was hardly hands
breadth free from the dent of a shot. Balls,
canister, and grape were found lodged in her
bu!warks their masts were SO much injured
that they rolled out in the first high wind.
The loss of the British, as reported by Bar
clay, amounted to forty-one killed, of whom
three were officers and ninety-four wounded,
of whom nine were officers. OF the Americans,
twenty-seven were killed and sixty-one wounded
in the Lawrence, and about twenty more were
wounded in the Niagara after she received
Perry on board.
An opening on the margin of Put n-Bay
was selected for the burial place Of the officers
who had fallen. The day was serene, the
breezes hushed, the waters unrulfied by a
wavelet The men of both fleets mourDed to-
gether; as the boats moved slowly in procession,
the music played dirges to which the oars kept
time; the flags showed the sign Of sorrow !;
solemn minute guns were heard from the ships
The spot where the funeral train went on shore
was wild solitude the Americans and Brit
sh walked in alternate couples to the graves,
like men who, in the presence of eternity, re-
newed the relation of brothers and members of
one human family, and the bodies Of the dead
were likewise borne along and buried alter
natey English and American side by side, and
undstnguished.
equal assiduous care, were sent to Erie, where
Barclay was seen, with totteriDg steps, sup
ported between Harrison and Perry, as be
walked from the landing place to bis quarters.
Perry crowned his victory by his modesty,
forbearing to place his own services in their
full light, and more than just to others
When, in tie following year, he was rewarded
by promotion to the rank of captain, be who
had never murmured at promotion made over
MS own nedu, DeSltdttu dDOut aCCcptiuS d pre-
ferment which might wound his seniors.
The personal conduct of Perry throughout
the tenth of September was perfect. His
keenly sensitive nature never interfered with
his sweetness of manner, bis fortitude, the
soundness Of his judgment, the promptitude of
his decision. In state Of impassioned actv-
ity, his plans were wisely framed, were instant
" modified as circumstances changed, and
were executed with entire GOODNESS and self
possession The mastery of the lakes, the re-
covery of Detroit and the far west, the capture
of the British army in the peninsula OF upper
Canada, were the immediate fruits of bis sue
cess. The imagination of the American peoble
was taken captive by the singular incidents of
a battle in which every thing seemed to have
flowed from the personal proves of one man
and wherever he came the multitude went out
to bid him welcome. Washington Irving, the
chosen organ as it were, of his country, pre-
dicted his ever-increasiDg fame. Rhode Island
cherishes his glory as her own; Erie keeps the
tradition that its harbor was his ship-yard, IFS
forests the storehouse for the frames of his
chief vessels, its houses the hospitable shelter
of the wounded among his crew; Cleveland