Introduction | Biographical Sketch | Scope and Contents | Series Description | Inventory

Introduction

This collection was donated to the Center for Archival Collections in 1974 by Mrs. Frazier Reams, Sr. The collection is composed of copies of the official communications from the records of Captain Perry in the Department of the Navy from 1799-1819. The collection consists of one bound volume of the correspondence, which also is on microfilm, and miscellaneous memorabilia mostly pertaining to the Battle of Lake Erie (September 1813).

Property and literary rights have been dedicated to the public and duplication is permitted for the purpose of preservation and scholarly research. The register was completed by Kenneth Minkema in October 1981.

Biographical Sketch

Oliver Hazard Perry was born in the town of Rocky Brook, near Newport, Rhode Island, in 1785. He learned navigation at Newport and joined the navy in 1799 at the age of fourteen. He first saw service in the West Indies under his father's command and then was stationed in the Mediterranean during the war with Tripoli (1802-1806). From 1807 to 1809, as a lieutenant, he commanded the building of gunboats at Newport.

When the War of 1812 broke out, Perry immediately requested to be called into active service. Eventually, Commodore Isaac Chauncey charged him with the fitting and running of the Lake Erie squadron, and Perry assumed command of this squadron early in 1813. Perry's famous victory over the British fleet, commanded by Robert Barclay, not only gave the American Navy "a signal victory" and control of the Lake it also made Perry a hero.

In 1816, Perry was given charge of the JAVA and toured the Mediterranean. In 1819, he was given command of a small fleet with which he cruised to Buenos Aires on a diplomatic mission. After concluding negotiations there, Perry contracted yellow fever and died within a few days. His body was later interred at Newport.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of correspondence to Perry from various officers in the U. S. Naval Department (1799-1819) and, more significantly, from Perry to the Naval Department (1806-1819). Of special interest are communications related to the building of the Erie Squadron (1811-1813) and letters from various cruises upon which Perry embarked.

Content of the letters covers a wide range of topics: commissions, recommendations, officers lists, requisition and transfer requests, logistic concerns, strategy, personnel related material (e.g., courts martial), sailing orders, and private letters. One can trace Perry's movements by virtue of the correspondence's origins; tracing his career from Newport, Rhode Island, to being commissioned and given his first command, and on to various ships of war (USS REVENGE, ARIEL, JAVA, etc.) and ports of call (Newport, New York, Washington, etc.)

The miscellaneous material pertains mostly to the Battle of Lake Erie. For the nautical researcher, there is a souvenir program commemorating the raising and refitting of the USS NIAGARA which had lain on the bottom of Lake Erie for some eighty years.

The pamphlets written by Usher Parsons relate his remembrances of the Battle of Lake Erie. Also included is a pamphlet relating the little-known scandal concerning Perry and Captain Jesse Elliot, commander of the USS NIAGARA.

Series Description

CORRESPONDENCE

CORRESPONDENCE
1799-1819
Arranged chronologically, contained within one volume and on one roll of microfilm.
Includes both incoming and outgoing letters of Perry, mostly with the Department of the Navy.

PRINTED MATERIAL

PAMPHLETS
1834, 1852, 1855, 1862, 1913
Includes first-person discourses of the Battle of Lake Erie, a sworn statement of a teamster, and a discussion of the difference between Captain Perry and Captain Jesse Elliot

MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL
No arrangement
Miscellaneous reprinted scenes of the Battle of Lake Erie, book jackets, envelopes.

Inventory

Box 1

Volumes

1. Letter 1-157: commissions and orders from Naval Department to Perry at Newport, Rhode Island, April 1799-June 1819
2. Letter 158-326: letters from Perry to Naval Department from Newport and New York (1806-1808), USS REVENGE (1809-1810), Newport (1811-1813), USS ARIEL (1813), Newport (1813-1814), and USS JAVA (1814), July 1806-November 1814
3. Letter 327-519: letters from Perry to Naval Department from New York, Boston, and Newport (1814-1815), USS JAVA (1815-1817), Newport (1817-1819), and USS JOHN ADAMS (1819), November 1814-June 1819
4. Letter 520-597: letters from Perry to Naval Department from Newport (1811-1813) and USS LAWRENCE (1813), July 1811-September 1813
5. Letter 598-663: commission tests (June 1804), USS JAVA correspondence (1815), private letters (1811-1819), and Naval Department correspondence (1813-1819), 1804-1819

Folders

1. "A Review of a pamphlet purporting to be documents in relation to the differences which subsisted between the late Commodore Oliver H. Perry and Captain Jesse D. Elliot." 1834
2. "Usher Parsons' Discourse delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Battle of Lake Erie." February 16, 1852
3. "Brief sketches of the Officers who were in the Battle of Lake Erie" by Usher Parsons, 1862
4. Sworn statement of a teamster employed in building the Lake Erie fleet in May 1813. 1855
5. Perry's Victory Centennial Souvenir The Niagara Keepsake, 1913
6. Miscellaneous reprinted scenes of the Battle of Lake Erie and Oliver H. Perry, including book jackets and sesquicentennial envelopes

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