“We have met the enemy and they are ours.” – Oliver Hazard
Perry, commander of the American fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie
The young U.S. Navy had defeated the most storied fleet in the world. The victory came at a time of low morale in the country. Washington had been invaded and burned by the British. Battles had been waged and lost. People went about their daily lives, but they had all but given up hope the U.S. could be successful against Britain — an enemy they’d been fighting off and on for decades.
Then, Perry — with a
