Any study of this sort involves a variety of sources. All are identified in the textual notes. Only the major primary and secondary ones are mentioned below.
Undoubtedly the major manuscript source is the Oliver Hazard Perry Papers at the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Chauncey Papers in the same library have limited utility. The National Archives in Washington, D.C., contains the principal official records of the Department of the Navy and the Department of War. Of particular importance to us were the microfilm copies from Record Group (RG) 45, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, M 124, M 125, M 147, M 148, and M 149; and RG 24, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Photocopies of Navy Department records pertaining to O. H. Perry are located in Bowling Green State University’s Institute for Great Lakes Research. Other National Archives records utilized include the War of 1812 Pension Applications Files in RG 15. At the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore are the Hambleton Family Papers containing the diary and letters of Samuel Hambleton. The Newport Historical Society, Newport, Rhode Island, contains the log of the Lawrence and miscellaneous letters of William V. Taylor, while the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence holds the papers of Usher Parsons. British personnel lists were assembled from the Public Record Office in Kew, Surrey, from the following records: 41st Foot, WO 12/5416, WO 25/1768, WO 25/976, WO 97, C 912 ff 99; Royal Newfoundland Fencibles, WO 12/11018, WO 12/11027, WO 12/10690, WO 25/2206, WO 25/1130, WO 97; Seamen, ADM 1/5000, RG 9 1B4/27–8, RG 8; plus ADM 103/466, List of returned British prisoners of war. Also of importance in assembling this data was RG 1, L3–L4, Upper Canada Petitions for land grants and leases, Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa.
The War of 1812 received major publication of documentation in a variety of sources. Three collections are of particular importance to anyone desiring to research this topic: William Wood, ed., Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, Publications of the Champlain Society, vols. 13–16, 4 vols. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1920–28); Richard C. Knopf, ed., Document Transcriptions of the War of 1812 in the Northwest, 10 vols. (Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1961–62); and William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History 2 vols. to date (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1985–92). There are numerous other printed primary sources cited in the notes. Two merit particular attention: David C. Bunnell, The Travels and Adventures of David C. Bunnell (Palmyra, N.Y.: J. H. Bartles, 1831), and W. W. Dobbins’s edition of his father’s reminiscences in History of the Battle of Lake Erie (Erie, Pa.: Ashby Printing Co, 1913).
The Perry-Elliott controversy provoked a variety of polemics, including [Jesse Duncan Elliott], A Review of a Pamphlet Purporting to be Documents in Relation to the Differences Which Subsisted between the Late Commodore Oliver H. Perry, and Captain Jesse D. Elliott (Boston: H. B. and J. Brewster, 1834); [Russell Jarvis], A Biographical Notice of Com. Jesse D. Elliott (Philadelphia, 1835); Tristram Burges, Battle of Lake Erie (Providence, R.I.: Brown and Cady, 1839); Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The Life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 2 vols. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1843); James Fenimore Cooper, The Battle of Lake Erie: Or Answers to Messrs. Burges, Duer, and Mackenzie (Cooperstown, N.Y.: H. and E. Phinney, 1843); Jesse Duncan Elliott, Speech of Com. Jesse Duncan Elliott, U.S.N., Delivered in Hagerstown, Md. (Philadelphia: G. B. Zieber, 1844); and Usher Parsons, Battle of Lake Erie ([Providence:] Rhode Island Historical Society, 1852).
Any study of this battle must begin with Theodore Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987; originally published 1882), and A. T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1905). Three recent studies of the broader aspects of early-nineteenth-century military affairs merit special mention: George F. G. Stanley, The War of 1812: Land Operations, Canadian War Museum Historical Publication No. 18 (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1983); J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983); Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1974–1815 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1991).
The Perry-Elliott controversy receives extended discussion in several articles, including Allan Westcott, “Commodore Jesse D. Elliott: A Stormy Petrel of the Navy,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 54 (September 1928): 773–81; Lawrence J. Friedman and David Curtis Skaggs, “Jesse Duncan Elliott and the Battle of Lake Erie: The Issue of Mental Stability,” Journal of the Early Republic 10 (Winter 1990): 493–516; and David Curtis Skaggs, “Aiming at the Truth: James Fenimore Cooper and the Battle of Lake Erie,” Journal of Military History 59 (April 1995): 237–56.