The Young Commander Who Refused to Give Up the Ship

On this episode of Our American Stories, in September 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry sailed into the Battle of Lake Erie carrying a flag stitched with a promise not to give up the ship. He was young, outmatched on paper, and facing a British fleet that had dominated the early naval battles of the War of 1812. What followed was a decisive victory that reshaped the conflict and secured Perry’s place as one of its defining figures.

Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project returns to this moment to explain how Perry’s resolve, his crew, and a shifting wind altered the course of the war.

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