“WE HAVE

MET

THE ENEMY

AND THEY

ARE OURS”—

This statue of Commander Oliver Hazard Perry dominates the new US Park Service Visitor’s Center on South Bass Island. The familiar 352 foot tall Perry’s Monument is visible in the background.

Wednesday, July 18^th, camped at East Harbor State Park: In 1813 the then fledgling United States defeated the British fleet in a fierce naval battle just off the shores of Put-in-Bay, Ohio.

That decisive battle led by a 27 year old naval officer named Oliver Hazard Perry only accomplished the following:

--It effectively ended the War of 1812 and the practice of the British of disrupting US commerce at sea in their then ongoing battle with Napoleon in Europe.

--It allowed the US to effectively lay claim to the land bought by president Thomas Jefferson in what was known as the Louisiana Purchase; land at that point which had only been partially explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

--In a mop-up battle following the naval engagement the great Indian leader Tecumseh was killed, and with him died the last Indian and British hopes for domination of the old Northwest.

--In winning the battle (the only time in history an entire British fleet had been captured) it allowed US negotiators to prevail with the Treaty of Ghent, thus establishing the US as a world power and leading to the disarmament of the 4,000 mile US/Canada border; as yet, the longest undefended border in the world

Stated in more simple terms, had this battle gone otherwise, today we likely would be conducting our commerce with some division of the British Pound Sterling.