Continuing the narrative of the siege and battle of Fort Stephenson on August 1-2 1813
No
sooner did the young major arrive back at his little command, than word came
back from General Harrison's lookouts that a large flotilla had been spotted
sailing up Sandusky Bay on the evening of July 31. By noon on August 1 they had
made it back as far as Fort Stephenson, where they informed Major Croghan
before hurrying south to tell General Harrison. Only a few hours later, the
first large group of Indians appeared on the river bluff opposite the fort.
Croghan ordered the volunteers manning “old betsy” to open fire, which drove
the Indians away. Only a half hour later, several gunboats flying British
colors appeared in the river. The Indians reappeared in every direction round
the stockade. Retreat was now certainly out of the question.
British regulars from the 41st
Regiment disembarked from their boats about a mile downstream from the fort. A
5 ½ inch howitzer was manhandled up the opposite shore. Soon, a white flag of
truce appeared from the treeline outside the stockade. It was borne by two men
in the uniforms of British officers, who turned out to be Major Robert Dickson
of the Indian Department and Major Peter Chambers of the 41st. Major
Dickson was an imposing presence, a burly Scot named “Red Head” by the western
Indians for his bright red hair and beard. He had orchestrated the successful
attack on Fort Mackinac the previous year, and had gathered thousands of fierce
western tribesmen for the attack at Fort Meigs and now Fort Stephenson. To meet
them, Croghan sent out his youngest officer, Ensign Edmund Shipp.
Major Chambers made the usual demand
in such circumstances for the Americans to surrender “to spare the effusion of
blood.” Shipp replied that Croghan and his garrison were determined to defend
the fort to the last extremity—or to bury themselves in its ruins. Dickson
replied that it was a pity that so fine a young man should fall into the hands
of the “savages”-- “Sir, for God's sake surrender, and prevent the dreadful
massacre that will be caused by your resistance.” Shipp answered, “When the
fort is taken there will be none left to massacre. It will not be given up
while a man is able to resist.”
At that, their conference was
interrupted when an Indian leaped out from the cover of a nearby ravine, ran to
the American and tried to grab his sword. Major Dickson stepped up to defend
Ensign Shipp, and anxiously ushered him back towards the safety of the
stockade. The parley was over.
A close up of the layout of the fort. B blockhouse at top center was where "old Betsy" was hidden. Note the extra curtain wall where the fort was expanded into a rectangle. The plateau where the fort was constructed is now the location of the Fremont Public Library.
Major George Croghan in the uniform of Major, 17th Infantry.
The British opened fire immediately
after their envoys returned to their lines. 6- and 12- pounders from their
gunboats thundered, while the single 5 ½ howitzer occupied the heights which had worried Harrison and
his staff so much. The shelling continued into the evening, but without much
effect. The British simply did not have heavy guns enough to threaten the
stockade. They did cause some damage, particularly to Croghan's warehouse,
which was demolished by the howizter shells. At dawn the following day, the
garrison discovered three 6-pounders in the brink of a ravine only 250 yards
north of their walls. The British began to fire these guns, letting the recoil
roll them back into the ravine where the gunners could load under cover. The
6-pound shot made little impact of the logs of the stockade. Croghan's only
casualty, however, occurred when an over-eager infantryman, perhaps a private
from the 24th Regiment, climbed to the top of a blockhouse for a
potshot at the artillerists. A well-aimed cannonball took his head off.
Croghan had a limited supply of shot
on hand for his only 6-pounder, and ordered the crew to husband it carefully.
By 4pm he realized that most of the British fire was concentrated against the
northwest corner of the fort. Gathering as many hands as he could spare from
the wall, he ordered his men to stack sacks of flour, sand and other debris
against the stockade there to reinforce it. It seemed the British were planning
on throwing an assault against this section of the fort. Croghan's garrison was
well prepared. Most of them were experienced infantrymen, armed with the .69
caliber Springfield pattern muskets ubiquitous among American soldiers. Several
companies of Pennsylvania militia had left their muskets behind at the fort as
they mustered out, and with these Croghan was able to give each man one or two
extra loaded muskets. The extra bayonets had been nailed pointing downwards
from the top of the wall, and traps were set with logs and other deadfalls at
likely points.
The ace up Major Croghan's sleeve
was his cannon. The gun crew was ordered to stop firing when a well-placed shot
passed through its original location in a blockhouse, as if the British had
dismounted and silenced it. Then the volunteers hauled “old betsy” into a
different blockhouse on the northwest corner, behind a hidden gunport, which
covered the ditch on that side of the stockade. They charged it with a double
load of canister, essentially making it into a giant shotgun. Led by Sergeant
Brown of the Volunteers, the crew silently waited their turn to reply to the
British cannonade.
In the heat of the August afternoon
the smoke of the bombardment collected and settled like a fog bank. As they
listened to the bombardment 10 miles away at Fort Seneca, Private Northcutt and
his comrades chafed at being kept out of the fight, thinking it “an extreme
hard case that Croghan should be cooped up with a handful of men to be
massacred by the British while Harrison was lying in hearing of him with
fifteen hundred men, and would not go and help him.”[1]
Instead, the general, whose army had been considerably strengthened with the
arrival of General Duncan McArthur's 28th Infantry and other
elements, set fatigue parties to digging trenches and other fortifications. His
pickets were constantly harassed by Indians, though. “Every time during the day
that I not out on duty the guard would fire and run in. One fellow swore that
he saw two Indians and was so close to them as to see their blankets rolled up
and hopperesed on their backs.”[2]
After the battle, and indeed long
after the war Harrison would be blamed for not marching to the relief of Fort
Stephenson. However, he believed that while the British surrounded Croghan,
Tecumseh and thousands of well-seasoned warriors lurked in the swamps and
forests between them. Marching out with his mostly green regulars would have
been an invitation to a third massive defeat at their hands. Perhaps the
general also realized that the reports from downstream were not from heavy
guns, 18- and 24-pounders that were capable of knocking down the little fort.
With only light guns threatening their walls, Croghan's detachment was just as
snug as it would have been with Harrison's army present.
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