The U.S. won the Battle of Lake Erie

On September 10, 1813, during the War of 1812, American naval forces under Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British squadron on Lake Erie. Perry’s nine vessels, carrying 54 guns, met six British ships mounting 63 guns off Put-in-Bay, Ohio.

The fight was brutal. Perry’s flagship, the Lawrence, was shot to pieces—by mid-afternoon roughly four of every five men aboard had been killed or wounded. Undaunted, Perry rowed through gunfire to the Niagara and drove it straight through the enemy line, forcing the entire British squadron to surrender.

“We have met the enemy and they are ours,” Perry reported afterward.

It was the first time a British naval squadron had ever surrendered en masse. The victory gave the United States command of the lake, forced the British to abandon Detroit, and helped secure the Northwest frontier for the rest of the war.