A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812-1813 - Hardcover

Skaggs, David Curtis; Altoff, Gerard T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557500304 ISBN 13: 9781557500304

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 1997

Synopsis

The Battle of Lake Erie on 10 September 1813 is considered by many to be the most important naval confrontation of the War of 1812. Made famous by the American fleet commander Oliver Hazard Perry's comment, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," the battle marked the U.S. Navy's first successful fleet action and was one of the rare occasions when the Royal Navy surrendered an entire squadron. This book draws on British, Canadian, and American documents to offer a totally impartial analysis of all sides of the struggle to control the lake. New diagrams of the battle are included that reflect the authors' modification of traditional positions of various vessels. The book also evaluates the strategic background and tactical conduct of the British and the Americans and the command leadership exercised by Perry and his British opponent, Commander Robert H. Barclay. Not since James Fenimore Cooper's 1843 book on the subject has the battle been examined in such detail, and not since Alfred Thayer Mahan's 1905 study of the war has there been such a significant reinterpretation of the engagement. First published in hardcover in 1997, the book is the winner of the North American Society for Oceanic History's John Lyman Book Award.

About this title

Review:

"We have met the enemy and they are ours," declared Oliver Hazard Perry after his decisive victory over the British navy on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Authors Gerard Altoff (chief park ranger and historian for the National Park Service at Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial in Ohio) and David Skaggs (a professor at Bowling Green University) provide a detailed account of this great sea battle, which was one of the few events during the War of 1812 that Americans of the time could celebrate. A series of helpful maps shows how ship positions changed on an hour-by-hour basis, and the text provides strategic context and a blow-by-blow description of the encounter. A Signal Victory is a skillful piece of American naval history.

From the Publisher:

Winner of the 1997 John Lyman Book Award for U.S. Naval History, sponsored by the North American Society for Oceanic History.

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1557500304
• ISBN 13: 9781557500304
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244