commander of the frigate Java and was sent to northern
Africa to the area known as the Barbary Coast, where pi-
rates of the Barbary states had been capturing, harassing,
and attacking ships. Perry’s ship patrolled for two years
before he returned home in 1817.
In 1819, Perry was sent by President James Monroe
to serve on a diplomatic mission to Venezuela. However,
while on the voyage, he contracted yellow fever or ma-
laria (historians differ as to which), and he succumbed
to the disease off the coast of Trinidad on his 34th birth-
day, 23 August 1819. He was buried at Port of Spain,
Trinidad, with full military honors. Seven years later, in
1826, his remains were exhumed and returned to New-
port, where he was laid to rest.
Oliver Perry’s reputation rests on his single victory
on Lake Erie. Historian Richard Dillon writes: “He abso-
lutely refused to admit, much less accept, defeat when he
was literally beaten on Lake Erie. He was that rara avis in
our history, the true hero-patriot.” In his honor, the class
of American frigates known as the Oliver Hazard Perry
class, as well as the lead ship of the class, the USS Oliver
Hazard Perry (FFG-7), were named for him.
References: Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, The Life of
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 2 vols. (New York: A.
L. Fowle, 1900); Dutton, Charles J., Oliver Hazard Perry
(New York: Longmans, Green & Company, 1935);
Bruce, George, “Lake Erie,” in Collins Dictionary of Wars
(Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995),
135; Bruce, Anthony, and William Cogar. “Perry, Oli-
ver Hazard,” in An Encyclopedia of Naval History (New
York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 284; Dillon, Richard,
We Have Met the Enemy: Oliver Hazard Perry, Wilderness
Commander (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).
Pershing, John Joseph (“Black Jack” Pershing)
(1860–1948) American general
John Pershing was born on 13 September 1860 in the
town of Laclede, in Linn County, Missouri, the son
of John Frederick Pershing, a storekeeper, and Anne
Elizabeth Thompson Pershing. He attended the state
normal school in Kirksville, Missouri, receiving a de-
gree in teaching, before he received an appointment
to the United States Military Academy at West Point,
New York, in 1882. He graduated four years later the
30th out of 77 graduates. Assigned to the 6th Cavalry,
he saw action against American Indian tribes, including
the Sioux (Lakota, Nakota, Dakota) and Apache, in the
American West. One source notes that Pershing was at
Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890 when a number
of Indians were killed by American troops there, though
other historians dispute this claim. In 1891, he received
an appointment at the University of Nebraska to teach
military science, and he later taught the same course at
West Point. In 1893, he earned a law degree from the
University of Nebraska law school. Two years later, he
was assigned to the 10th Cavalry in Montana, an Afri-
can-American regiment to which he became so devoted
that he was dubbed “Black Jack,” a nickname he held for
the rest of his life.
Pershing was teaching at West Point in 1898 when
the Spanish-American War began. Named as quarter-
master of the 10th Cavalry division, he was sent to Cuba
and saw action in several battles, including at San Juan
Hill, made famous by Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Rid-
ers, and at El Carney. However, he contracted malaria
and was shipped home to the United States to recuper-General of the Armies John J. PershingpeRShing, John JoSeph