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Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.s. Navy (Library of Naval Biography)

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The first modern biography of the "Hero of Lake Erie" is ably written by Great Lakes historian Skaggs. It is a deeply researched and balanced story of leadership in battle, heroism and contentious egos during our Early National Period.
Perry, a Scotsman descended from Scotland's national hero, William Wallace, was born in Rhode Island in 1785 to naval Captain Christopher and his wife Sarah Wallace Alexander. Oliver was the older brother to Matthew Calbraith Perry, another career naval officer destined to open Japan to Western trade. So a naval career was pretty much a foregone conclusion and the older sibling was appointed a midshipman in April, 1799. assigned to his father's frigate, he saw his first action off the coast of Haiti, which was in a state of rebellion. The first Barbary War found him serving on the USS Adams and later, in command of the USS Nautilus, he was present at the capture of Derna.
At thew start of the War of 1812, Perry requested and was given command of the United States naval forces on Lake Erie. He supervised the construction of a small fleet at Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania, and on September 10, 1813, defeated the attacking British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, gaining everlasting fame in naval history. His battle report to General William Henry Harrison was brief and to the point: "We have met the enemy and they are ours..." The victory opened up Canada to invasion, while at the same time protected the entire Ohio Valley from British occupation.
The controversy began before the smoke had cleared Detroit. Perry's second in command, Jesse Duncan Elliott, was a conniving, self-serving manipulator who immediately claimed more of the victorious action than he deserved. The feud continued well into the next decade and didn't cease with Perry's premature death in 1819 from yellow fever while on station in Venezuela.
Filled with antagonism, courage and controversy, this book is the standard to be consulted by scholar and general reader alike.