Excerpt
We have met the enemy and they are ours: two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.Historical wording and forms retained where stated.
The War for the Interior
Documentary edition · packet 06
Dispatch from Lake Erie
Nine words turned a fleet action into national shorthand. The full operational story includes shipyard labor, the ruined Lawrence, Perry's transfer to Niagara, Black sailors, and the land campaign the victory enabled.
10 September 1813Naval victory dispatchRead the chapter →
Modernized reading
We engaged the British squadron and captured it.Plain-language reading; not a substitute for quotation.
Editorial method: Wording follows Perry's famous pencil dispatch to William Henry Harrison.
Annotations
- oursPerry followed the sentence with a list of captured British vessels.
- dispatchA brief official report sent from a commander to a superior.
Witness and provenance
- Creator
- Oliver Hazard Perry
- Witness used
- Perry's pencil dispatch to William Henry Harrison, as transcribed by the National Park Service.
- Repository or edition
- National Park Service
- Collection
- Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
- Identifier
- Perry to Harrison, 10 September 1813
- Transmission
- Written aboard USS Lawrence after the battle and delivered to Harrison.
- Rights
- Public-domain military correspondence.