[3] He is remembered for the words on his battle flag, "Don't Give Up the Ship", which was a tribute to the dying command of his colleague Captain James Lawrence of USS Chesapeake.

He is also known for his message to General William Henry Harrison which reads in part, "We have met the enemy and they are ours; ..." Perry became embroiled in a long-standing and bitter controversy with the commander of USS Niagara, Captain Jesse Elliott, over their conduct in the Battle of Lake Erie, and both were the subject of official charges.

As a boy, Perry lived in Tower Hill, Rhode Island,[5] sailing ships in anticipation of his future career as an officer in the United States Navy.

His mother taught Perry and his younger brothers to read and write and had them attend Trinity Episcopal Church regularly, where he was baptized by Reverend William Smith on April 1, 1794, at the age of nine.

His earliest ancestor to the Americas was Edward Perry, who came from Devon, England, and settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, around 1650 with his wife, Mary Freeman.

Perry sailed aboard USS General Greene, of which his father was commanding officer, on her maiden voyage in June 1799.

Beginning in April 1809, he commanded the sloop USS Revenge, engaging in patrol duties to enforce the Embargo Act, as well as a successful raid to regain an American ship held in Spanish territory in Florida.

[18] The American naval forces were very small, allowing the British to make many advances in the Great Lakes and northern New York waterways.

Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had charged prominent merchant seaman Daniel Dobbins with building the American fleet on Presque Isle Bay at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Perry was named chief naval officer.

"[19]: 218  Perry's instructions were: Commanding officers are particularly enjoined to pay attention in preserving their stations in the Line, and in all cases to keep as near the Lawrence as possible.

[B][21] On September 10, 1813, Perry's command fought a successful fleet action against a squadron of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie.

[23][24] Faithful to the words of his battle flag, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP", a paraphrase of the dying words of Captain James Lawrence, the ship's namesake and Perry's friend,[25][23] Perry, with Lawrence's chaplain and purser as the remaining able crew, personally fired the final salvo.

[22] Perry's battle report to General William Henry Harrison was famously brief: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.

The phrase was uttered by Captain James Lawrence as he died after being wounded by enemy fire aboard the Chesapeake on June 1, 1813.

Elliott, while serving with Isaac Chauncey at Lake Ontario, was tasked to augment Perry's squadron with 11 officers and 91 men, "and none were sent but the worst.

Captain Perry led the Lawrence into action & sustained the most destructive fire with the most gallant spirit perhaps that was ever witnessed under similar circumstances.

Attempting to restore his honor, Elliott and his supporters began a 30-year campaign that would outlive both men and ultimately leave his reputation in tatters.

While overseeing the outfitting of Java, Perry participated in the defenses of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., during the British invasion of the Chesapeake Bay.

After the crew returned home, Heath challenged Perry to a pistol duel, which was fought on October 19, 1817, on the same field in Weehawken, New Jersey where Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton.

Perry filed a total of six charges and twenty-one specifications including "conduct unbecoming an officer," and failure to "do his utmost to take or destroy the vessel of the enemy which it was his duty to encounter.

"[citation needed] Wishing to avoid a scandal between two decorated naval heroes, Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson and President James Monroe suppressed the matter by offering Perry a diplomatic mission to South America in exchange for dropping his charges.

[citation needed] In 1819, Perry sailed for the Orinoco River, Venezuela, aboard of the frigate John Adams with the frigate Constellation and the schooner USS Nonsuch, arriving on July 15 to discourage piracy, while still maintaining friendly relations with Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Buenos Aires.

Shifting his flag to USS Nonsuch, due to its shallower draft, Perry sailed upriver to Angostura to negotiate an anti-piracy agreement with President Simón Bolívar.

A favorable treaty was signed on August 11 with Vice-President Francisco Antonio Zea in the absence of Bolivar (who was engaged in the liberation of New Granada), but when the schooner started downriver, many of her crew, including Perry, had been stricken with yellow fever.

[citation needed] Despite the crew's efforts to reach Trinidad for medical assistance, the commodore died on board USS Nonsuch on August 23, 1819, his 34th birthday, as the ship entered the Gulf of Paria and was nearing Port of Spain.

Originally interred in the Old Common Burial Ground, his body was eventually moved to Newport's Island Cemetery.

In May 1849 he was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Rhode Island Militia and given command of the 1st Brigade encompassing Newport and Bristol Counties.

[54] Other monuments include: In 2016, principal photography began on We Have Met the Enemy, a feature-length documentary produced by Lou Reda (Vietnam in HD, The Blue and the Gray), for a planned spring 2017 release.

In 1820, Anthony Philip Heinrich wrote a song, Ode to the Memory of Commodore O. H. Perry with words by Henry C. Lewis.