of Lake Erie, were concentrated upon Lakes Ontario and Champlain.

Chauncey further provided for the defence of Black Rock by its own
resources against sudden attack; the army, except a local force of
three hundred men, having gone into winter quarters ten miles back
from the Niagara. He then returned to Sackett's Harbor January 19,
where he found preparations for protection even less satisfactory than
upon Lake Erie,[478] although the stake was far greater; for it may
safely be said that the fall of either Kingston or Sackett's would
have decided the fate of Lake Ontario and of Upper Canada, at once and
definitively. It had now become evident that, in order to decide
superiority on the water, there was to be between these neighboring
and hostile stations the race of ship-building, which became and
continued the most marked feature of the war on this lake. Chauncey
felt the increasing necessity thus entailed for his presence on the
scene. He was proportionately relieved by receiving at this time an
application from Commander Oliver H. Perry to serve under him on the
lakes, and immediately, on January 21, applied for his orders, stating
that he could "be employed to great advantage, particularly on Lake
Erie, where I shall not be able to go so early as I expected, owing to
the increasing force of the enemy on this lake." This marks the
official beginning of Perry's entrance upon the duty in which he won a
distinction that his less fortunate superior failed to achieve. At
this time, however, Chauncey hoped to attain such superiority by the
opening of spring, and to receive such support from the army, as to
capture Kingston by a joint operation, the plan for which he submitted
to the Department. That accomplished, he would be able to transfer to
Lake Erie the force of men needed to destroy the enemy's fleet
there.[479] This expectation was not fulfilled, and Perry remained in
practically independent command upon the upper lakes.

The season of 1812 may be said, therefore, to have closed with the
American squadron upon Lake Ontario concentrated in Sackett's Harbor,
where also two new and relatively powerful ships were building. Upon
Lake Erie the force was divided between Black Rock, where Elliott's
flotilla lay, and Erie, where the two brigs were laid down, and four
other gunboats building. The concentration of these two bodies could be
effected only by first taking possession of the British side of the
Niagara River. Th