The name of Perry was now made a household word from the great Northern
Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Coast to the impenetrated
wilderness of the West, often repeated at the baptismal font; and a
nation's gratitude was soon laid at his feet. As humane in victory as he
had been brave in action, his generous kindness won the admiration of
Barclay, and his dying comrades showered upon him their blessings and
remembered him in their final prayers.
Prayers of gratitude to that Almighty Power which had given victory to
the American arms went up from every fireside throughout the Northwest;
and mothers pressed their children more closely to their breasts as they
thought themselves to be henceforth secure from the scalping-knife of
Indian barbarity, and that the savage war-whoop would no more break the
sleep of the cradle.
At night-fall many of the dead with all due solemnity were tenderly
committed to the deep. The wounded had all been visited and their wants
attended to; the worn and weary now sought repose, and a solemn
oppressive silence soon pervaded the fleet, save here and there a sound
of distress from the wounded.
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