FURTHER READING

The US Navy commemorated the Battle of Lake Erie by naming a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser for it. USS Lake Erie is a test ship for the US Theater-Wide Ballistic Missile Defense Program. Its accomplishments include shooting down the malfunctioning United States reconnaissance satellite USA-193 from orbit on February 21, 2008. (USNHHC)

There are a remarkable number of books about the war on the Lakes in the War of 1812, especially the Battle of Lake Erie. There was a flurry of works which came out for the centennial and bicentennial of the war, some of which were excellent. Others were patriotic tub-thumpers, fun to read but not necessarily reliable. Peeling away mythology to expose the underlying facts is an author’s challenge.

Two recent works I would recommend wholeheartedly are Warships of the Great Lakes 1754–1834 by Robert Malcomson (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), and Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812, edited by Kevin Crisman (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2014). While the Battle of Lake Erie is not the focus of either book, both offer superior insights on the construction and operation of the ships used in the battle.

If you are seeking another perspective on the battle, read The Lake Erie Campaign of 1813: I Shall Fight Them This Day, by Walter Rybka (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012). Rybka is Program Director for the Erie Maritime Museum and captain of the US Brig Niagara which sails out of the museum. He knows his stuff.

I tended to use original sources to the extent I could. There is a wealth of information in books printed in the 19th and early 20th centuries which include memoirs by or papers of participants, court-martial records, and other official documentation. Many are now available online via archive.org (these are marked with an asterisk in the bibliography). These also include later sources such as the US Navy’s various documentary histories which include the three-volume The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, edited by William S. Dudley (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 1965). Other sources include:

Caney, Donald L., Sailing Warships of the US Navy (Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2001).

Chapelle, Howard I., The History of the American Sailing Navy (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1949).

Dobbins, Daniel & William W. Dobbins, “The Dobbins Papers,” Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol. VIII (Buffalo, NY: Buffalo Historical Society, 1905).*

Douglas, Howard, A Tretise on Naval Gunnery, 2nd Ed. (London: John Murray, 1829).*

Harland, John, Seamanship in the Age of Sail (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990).

Mahan, Alfred T., Sea Power In Its Relations To The War Of 1812, two vols (London: S. Low, Marston & Co., 1905).*

Paullin, Charles Oscar, The Battle of Lake Erie: A Collection of Documents, chiefly by Commodore Perry: including the Court-martial of Commander Barclay and the Court of Enquiry on Captain Elliott (Cleveland, OH: The Rowfant Club, 1918).*

“Perry’s Victory Centennial Number,” The Journal of American History, First Quarter 1914, Vol. VIII (January–February–March), No. 1.*

Roosevelt, Theodore, The Naval War of 1812 (New York, NY & London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900).*

Tucker, Spencer, Arming the Fleet: U.S. Navy Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989).