The Battle of Monguagon or Maguaga Part Two

This is the second part of my article describing the Battle of Maguaga, which took place on August 9 1812 during General William Hull's campaign on the Detroit River.

Major Adam Muir and Tecumseh had crossed over from Fort Malden on August 7 on the orders of Colonel Henry Procter, commander of the British forces, in the hopes of intercepting another mail pouch bound for Detroit (Procter knew that the usual mail arrived on the 8^th of the month). They had several days to select and prepare an ambush. Tecumseh, the veteran guerilla leader, probably selected the position they took, about five miles further north than the Brownstown ambush site. Here they built a breastwork just behind the crest of a wooded ridge that intersected the Detroit road. Muir had 150 men with him, a company of the 41^st and several companies of Canadian militia. Some of the militia seem to have been affliated with the British Indian Department, and were dressed and equipped as Indians. There were also several hundred Indians—exactly how many is unknown—from Tecumseh’s followers, the local Wyandot tribesmen led by Walk in the Water, and some Pottawatomi led by Marpot (also known as Main Poc).

            Muir and his regulars took up a position behind the breastworks in the center, barring the road. His left flank was held by Tecumseh and his followers; chief Walk in the Water and Marpot, together with some of the Indian Department militia, held the right wing closer to the river. They built breastworks, along the flanks as well, at a slight angle to the road. Procter’s report suggests that in fact the ambush was set up to catch the mail rider heading to Detroit in the opposite direction—in any case as the Americans approached, no doubt noisily tramping through the woods, with canteens and tin cups jangling and the drummers tapping—the British soldiers and their Indian allies crouched behind the breastworks made of brush and fallen logs and awaited the word to open fire.

            At 3:30 in the afternoon, most of the American column was marching in open order through the dense woods with no idea what lay ahead of them. Suddenly, several gunshots echoed out through the thickets. Captain Josiah Snelling’s advance guard was heard to fire a volley, before the forest exploded with an answering volley “instantly returned from a greater number of pieces.” The two columns halted, as Lieutenant Colonel James Miller galloped up to the center of the action, reigned in his horse, and ordered his men to form the line of battle. At the double the American infantry deployed from their Indian files into company lines, the regulars of the 4^th Infantry in front, the militia in reserve behind. Snelling’s handful of skirmishers stood firm and covered the movement. Captain Snelling himself stood within a pistol shot of Muir’s breastworks under a shower of musket balls, but avoided being hit.

            The British regulars started an Indian yell, which the warriors on the flanks repeated. Colonel Miller’s front line companies began to take fire not only from the breastworks to their front, but from the forests to either flank as well. Seeing the danger, Miller ordered his second line troops to form on either flank and extend his line to engage the Indians. The musketry on either side became a continuous roar. Soon Lieutenant Jonathan Eastman’s six pounder gun was brought up and started firing grapeshot into the British breastworks. The sound of the cannon was so abrupt that it startled the colonel’s horse, throwing him to the ground. Both sides thought Colonel Miller had been shot down; a group of nearby Indians leapt over their breastwork to capture his body and take his scalp, only to be forced back by his own men. Miller hadn’t been hurt though, and with some help was soon remounted.

            Riding along his line, the colonel realized that the Indian marksmen were taking a heavy toll of the Americans. Some of his men were getting out of line to take cover behind trees. Desperate to keep the initiative, Miller ordered a general charge. The men “brought down their pieces and struck up a huzzah!, and changed it to a yell more savage, if possible, than that of the enemy and march directly into the breastworks.” This was not a melee or a sprint but a measured, walking advance in line, the Americans keeping shoulder to shoulder, bayonets levelled in front of them—an irresistible force, provided they kept their nerve.

            The British, outnumbered, ducking from the thunder and whizz of grapeshot skipping and ricocheting through their ranks, saw the bayonets and broke for the rear. On their right flank, the Indians and militiamen fled as Captain De Cant’s horsemen and Ohio riflemen got around the end of their line. Only Tecumseh, on the left of the line, stood firm. On his section of the battlefield, Tecumseh led his warriors over the breastworks to meet the American charge head-on. When they were driven back by the massed bayonets, he tried to outflank the militiamen. Their commander, Major Van Horne, was eager to prove his mettle, and the flank was supported by Captain Daniel Baker’s 1^st Infantry regulars and the American left wing held fast. Baker was shot in the thigh but continued to lead his men. Tecumseh retreated, only to set up a series of small ambushes and counterattacks as Van Horne’s men pursued.

            Major Muir tried to rally his men after they had retreated about a mile from the point of contact, but the outnumbered redcoats were forced to flee and the major was wounded. They had hidden their boats near the Detroit River shoreline nearby, and retreated towards these. The main American force, Miller’s center and left wings would have probably trapped the British, but as the colonel received word that Major Van Horne was being drawn further and further in the opposite direction as he drove Tecumseh, he realized that he might soon have a disaster on his hands. If Miller did not support Van Horne’s Ohioans soon, the tables would be turned on the isolated troops. Reluctantly, Colonel Miller ordered his force to return to the battlefield and form line. Meantime, the British and Canadian militiamen reached their boats and pulled to safety on the opposite shore. Two and a half hours had passed since the first shots were fired.

            The British had lost 3 dead, 13 wounded, and 2 missing from the 41^st Regiment, with Major Muir slightly and Lieutenant Sutherland seriously wounded. Colonel Procter later reported that only 1 militiaman was killed and 2 wounded, while the Indians lost 2 killed and 6 wounded. However, he admitted not being able to know how many Indians had joined his forces during the battle. The Americans claimed to have found 40 dead Indians on the battlefield and signs that more killed and wounded had been dragged from the field. However, the American forces suffered more casualties: 10 enlisted men killed and 45 wounded from the 4^th Infantry, and 6 officers were wounded, while the Ohio and Michigan volunteers lost 8 killed and 13 wounded.

            The way to Frenchtown was now open for Miller—Captain Thomas Maxwell and his mounted scouts rode ahead the next day to Frenchtown and returned without opposition. They had found fresh scalps drying in a village along the way, though—the Indians were not far off and the colonel had to see to his wounded. His men were out of food, having only drawn two days’ worth of rations at Detroit. Miller set his men to burying the dead and securing the battlefield while he sent Captain Snelling to Detroit to request reinforcements and supplies—the men of the 4^th Infantry were not even able to go back to the point where they had dropped their knapsacks to collect them. So ended the first American victory of the War of 1812.

The Corps of Artillery and the Fight for New Orleans, 1815

By a long shot, I think, the most famous battle of the forgotten War of 1812-15 is the Battle of New Orleans, which took place after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve 1814, but indeed not before the war officially ended with the ratification of the treaty. It birthed a lot of legends, particularly that of the local pirate band led by Jean Laffite offering their services as cannoneers to General Andrew Jackson, and thus playing a vital role in the victory. Likewise, the Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen have edged out their less glamorous counterparts in the Regular Infantry to the point where, in the popular imagination, the Battle of New Orleans pitted lockstepping British redcoats against keen-eyed American sharpshooters, who downed them like fish in a barrel.

The reality, as always, is different but far more interesting. For this article, though, I will confine myself mostly to the subject of the American artillery at the battle. The big guns, indeed, played the decisive role by decimating the dense British columns before they could get within small-arms range of the entrenched American line. Today there is a monument on the battlefield to Lieutenant Samuel Spotts, whose gun on Battery No. 6 was the first to open fire on the British columns.



Here is a breakdown of the American batteries and their armament and men:

Battery No. (From the River)	Officer (s) in charge	Regiment/ Detachment	Armament/ Description
1	Captain Enoch Humphrey	Corps of Artillery St. Geme's Co. Dragoons (manned howitzer)*	2 bronze 12-pounders, 1 6-inch howitzer on field carriages
Redoubt (In front of no. 1)	Lt. Ross, 7th Inf. and Lt. Marant, 44th Inf.**	7th Infantry (picket), 44th Infantry (gunners)	2 six-pounders
Mortar Battery (behind no. 1)	Captain Lefebvre		13-inch mortar
2	Lt. Norris	Navy (USS Carolina)	24-pounder naval gun.
3	Dominique You and Renato Beluche	Volunteers (Baratarians)	2 24-pounder naval guns
4	Lt. Crawley	Navy	1 32-pounder naval gun
5	Lt. Perry and Lt. William Kerr, Corps of Artillery	Corps of Artillery	2 6-pounders on field carriages.
6	Lt. Samuel Spotts, Corps of Artillery	Corps of Artillery	12-pounder (fired the first shot of the battle).
7	General Flaujac		1 18-pounder and one 4-pounder
8	Anon. Corps of Artillery corporal	Caroll's militia	small brass carronade

**The redoubt in front of Battery No. 1 was overrun by a column of British troops, who bayoneted most of the small detachment of 7th and 44th Infantry who were posted there. Captain Thomas Beale's Company of Riflemen was posted immediately behind the redoubt, behind the main line. Within a few minutes they had cut down the exposed British soldiers with accurate and point blank fire.

Of the redoubt's commanders, 1st Lt. Andrew Ross survived the battle and the war, only to die of wounds suffered at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp in 1836 during one of the Indian wars in Florida:

1st Lt. Louis de Marans of the 44th Infantry, whose men were serving the guns on the redoubt, also seems to have survived but without getting credit for having served at the hottest point on the American line...


*Major St. Geme's Company of Dragons a Pied (Foot Dragoons, in other words, who were probably armed and trained as light infantrymen) was part of Major Jean Plauche's Battalion of Volunteers from New Orleans.

The Battle of Fort Stephenson-Part Three

[The third part of my series on the Battle of Fort Stephenson, which was fought at modern-day Fremont Ohio on August 3rd, 1813.]

The famous cannon today.

The old dent on the breech which allowed Thomas L. Hawkins to identify the French and Indian War-era gun after the war.

...At about 5pm the time of decision arrived. Croghans men on the walls glimpsed scarlet coats through the gunsmoke, but not until they were only 20 paces from the stockade did the Americans spot a massive, close-packed column of 350 Englishmen. The column was headed by light infantry company of the regiment. Croghan's men were ready for them. Their loopholes erupted with musketry and the sudden rain of small arms fire staggered the column for a moment. Lt. Colonel William Short, who was heading up the column, quickly rallied his men and urged them to follow him forward into the ditch. Lacking scaling ladders and faced with the bayonets on the intact wooden stockade, Short and his men tried to hack the timber down with axes, even as the defenders continued to shoot down into their crowded ditch at point-blank range.

            At this moment, the port-hole that no one had been able to see from the British lines creaked open, and a black muzzle rolled out. There must have been a flash of light and flame, and the searing streaks of hundreds of iron slugs, but most of the Englishmen in the ditch had no time to see or hear it. A six-pounder cannon could be reloaded just as fast as a musket, and within tens of seconds a second blast swept the ditch. Within minutes, every man who had entered the ravine was either wounded or dead. The survivors of the column fled to safety.         Colonel Short was dead, as was Lieutenant J. G. Gordon who was badly wounded by a large caliber ball from a wall piece, and was hacking at the pickets with his sword when the same gun blew his brains out.[1] Major Adam Muir, who had led many of the British operations over the past year, was badly wounded but dragged from the scene by Indians. On the opposite side of the fort, another infantry column led by Lt. Colonel Wharburton advanced, but raked with rapid musket fire and realizing the main attack had failed, these men too retreated back towards safety. Within 30 minutes, the battle for Fort Stephenson was over. The Americans had lost a total of seven men slightly wounded, in addition to their earlier fatality.

A Missed Opportunity?

            The remaining British forces embarked and sailed from Lower Sandusky after dusk. A couple of British deserters made it into the stockade at 3am to inform Major Croghan of their retreat. General Procter's small western forces lost, according to his account, a total of 26 dead, 41 wounded, and 29 captured soldiers in the attack.[2] He blamed the Indians and the officers of the Indian Department for forcing him to attack. “Impossibilities being attempted, failed,” he later reported, and added that Croghans men had put up “the severest fire I ever saw” on the attacking columns. The Indians, who had been expected to support the assault, faded away as they saw it fail.[3]

            Many of the attackers were trapped in the ditch, either too wounded to escape or pinned down by the American fire. While the battle was still ongoing, the garrison cut gaps in the picketing to aid the mass of wounded men lying only a few feet from the walls. As August 3 dawned, the Americans collected 70 muskets and several sets of pistols from around the fort, as well as a boat laden with clothing and military stores, left behind by the British in their hasty retreat. Croghan set his surgeon to assisting the wounded as best he could.

            General Procter had left the neighborhood of Fort Stephenson so fast that some of his men, who had lost their way after the failed assault were picked up later near Lake Erie by General Harrison’s Indian scouts.[4] Procter had good reason to move quickly. Many Americans in Harrison's army saw an opportunity to counterattack and trap the British force even as they were attacking Fort Stephenson. The phlegmatic Virginian ordered his men to stand fast, to their chagrin. He awaited the arrival of 250 mounted volunteers from the Ohio settlements. Moreover, there was every evidence that his nemesis Tecumseh remained perched in the Black Swamp, waiting for Harrison and his untrained recruits to bungle through.

            As soon as he had word on August 3 that the British were gone, Harrison now changed his mind and rode out at the head of Colonel Ball's dragoons, anxious to catch them before they escaped to the lake. Generals McArthur and Cass followed with their infantry regiments. It soon became apparent that the main force had already returned to Malden, and ever fearful of an Indian ambush, the general ordered most of his forces back into camp at Fort Seneca.

            There remained for the Americans the problem of the wounded. On visiting Fort Stephenson the day after the attack, General Harrison set his hospital surgeon to treating them, including many British soldiers whose condition was quite serious. General Procter sent Lt. John Le Breton of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment with a surgeon to the fort under a flag of truce.[5] When they arrived on August 10, Major Croghan forwarded Procter's letter appealing to General Harrison to allow his men medical attention to Fort Seneca. Procter also asked that his non-wounded prisoners be released on parole.

            Harrison, who may have been piqued that Procter was implying the Americans would not treat wounded British prisoners with humanity, replied curtly that the British soldiers were being treated by his own surgeon “according to those principles which are held sacred in the American army.”[6] The Americans had seen their wounded abandoned and massacred by their opponents. One of Harrison's own surgeons had been imprisoned by Procter himself in a similar situation, after his guide had been murdered by one of Procter's allies. The unwritten rebuke in Harrison's cordial note, sent back with Lt. Le Breton and the surgeon, must have been unmistakable.

            As the drama on the Sandusky concluded, word arrived for the Americans in camp at “Sink-a-Town” (Seneca Town) that Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry's squadron had  sortied from its shipyards and refuge behind Presque Isle at Erie, Pennsylvania. Perry's two 18-gun brigs had tipped the balance of power on Lake Erie solidly towards the Americans, and the British fleet had fled for safety in its own refuge on the Detroit River. The stage was set for the battle that would decide the campaign. It would be fought not in swamp or forest, but on the inland seas.

---

[1]Letter of W. B. T Webb, reprinted in Sandusky County Historical Society, History Leaflet No. 4 (September 1963) (http://www.sandusky-county-scrapbook.net/FtSteph/SoldLtr.htm accessed 6/2/14.)

[2]Alec R. Gilpin, The War of 1812 in the Old Northwest (East Lansing, Michigan: The Michigan State University Press, 1958), 207.

[3]MPHC 15, 347-48.

[4]Esarey, 523.

[5]Ibid., 518.

[6]Esarey, 521.

The Battle of Fort Stephenson-Part Two

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 41^st 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 41^st. 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 24^th 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 28^th 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.

---

[1]Northcutt, 334.

[2]Ibid.

The Battle of Fort Stephenson-Part One

Here's an excerpt from my book project, a narrative of the Batle of Fort Stephenson which took place at modern-day Fremont 201 years ago this August:

Throughout the siege of Fort Meigs General Harrison had waited, impatiently, with the balance of his army at Lower Sandusky: he had no more than 300 regulars with him, of whom more than 150 were posted forward at the lower ford of the Sandusky River in a stockade called Fort Stephenson. He made a new headquarters at a friendly Indian village called Seneca Town, a few miles to the south along the river. He was waiting for Governor Meigs' Ohio volunteers to arrive, as well as the two Ohio 12-months regular regiments under Generals Duncan McArthur and Lewis Cass.

            Fort Stephenson was a square timber stockade with two blockhouses and a gatehouse that stood on a low bluff overlooking the lowest ford of the Sandusky River, about 20 miles upriver from Sandusky Bay. A government post before the war, it had been fortified by the Ohio brigade of General Simon Perkins late in 1812. Sometime later it had been expanded with the simple expedient of adding a second square enclosure to the first, making the fort into a rectangle with room for a small warehouse and some huts for soldiers and teamsters. It stood as a waypoint along Harrison's military road, a crossroads with trails leading west to Fort Meigs, north to Lake Erie, and east to Cleveland and Erie. A rotating series of militia and regular soldiers formed the garrison.

            General Harrison thought that Fort Meigs being too strong to fall to such forces as General Procter could bring against it, the British commander might try his luck against the Lower Sandusky. With his staff, including Captain Eleazar D Wood of the engineers and Major George Croghan of the 17^th Infantry, the general inspected Fort Stephenson. It became apparent that the opposite bank of the river was actually higher ground than that occupied by the stockade. The fort would have to be razed and rebuilt on the opposite bluff if it was to be expected to survive a siege or bombardment.

            When word arrived that Procter and Tecumseh were out in force, Harrison decided there was no time to make Fort Stephenson defensible. He took a handful of infantry, about 140 infantrymen and retreated upriver to the fortified Camp Seneca. Major Croghan was left to hold Fort Stephenson with Captain James Hunter's Company of the 17^th Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Benjamin Johnson commanding Captain Duncan's Company of the 17^th, and scraps and volunteers from other units including the 7^th and 24^th Infantry Regiments and a half dozen men from the Petersburgh Volunteers and Pittsburgh Blues. These men totaled about 160 muskets. There was also an old iron six-pounder which the men believed to date back to the French and Indian Wars, with a prominent dent in the breech made, perhaps, by an enemy shot. The garrison affectionately nicknamed the piece “old bess” and Croghan placed it in the charge of a sergeant and men from the Volunteers, who had some experience with artillery.

            Harrison's orders to Croghan were to defend the stockade if a force made up solely of Indians approached, since with small arms alone they would have no way of reducing the fort. However, if British forces accompanied by artillery arrived up the Sandusky, the general instructions were to burn the post and its contents and retreat south to Fort Seneca. Fort Stephenson, after all, only held 200 barrels of flour and perhaps a hundred stacks of arms-nothing worth sacrificing two companies of infantry for. These orders were to lead to a misunderstanding between Harrison and his young protege, and would eventually become a source of controversy for decades after the war.

            Shortly after posting Croghan at Lower Sandusky, and sending scouts to watch the Lake Erie shoreline for signs of the British squadron, General Harrison received large reinforcements in the form of Colonel James V Ball's squadron of Light Dragoons, nearly 200 strong, as well as Colonel George Paull's newly-recruited 27^th Infantry Regiment to make about 600 effectives at Fort Seneca.

            On July 29, Harrison's scouts reported sightings of Indians in the vicinity of Fort Stephenson and Fort Seneca. When word arrived that the siege of Fort Meigs had been lifted, Harrison believed that General Procter would probably try to attack a weaker post such as Fort Stephenson at Lower Sandusky or Fort Huntington at Cleveland. The general called upon William Conner, a volunteer Indian scout who in civilian life was a trader in the Indiana Territory. Conner had grown up with his Moravian parents among the Delaware tribe of Ohio, and had known the Lower Sandusky area as a youth. He was given a written message to give to Major Croghan which read:

Sir. Immediately on receiving this letter, you will abandon Fort Stephenson, set fire to it, and repair with your command this night to headquarters. Cross the river and come up on the opposite side. If you should deem and find it impractical to make good your march to this place, take the road to Huron and pursue it with the utmost circumspection and dispatch.[1]

            However, William Conner did not remember the wilderness trails along the Sandusky River as well as he had thought, or perhaps in the darkness and with hostile Indians to evade the going was much slower than he had anticipated. Either way, he did not reach Fort Stephenson with the orders until noon the following day. By then, Major Croghan had observed significant numbers of Indians in the brush surrounding the stockade and its outbuildings. Retreat would invite a massacre, and besides, hadn't Harrison ordered him to stay put in case of an investment by Indians alone? He scribbled a short note for Conner to take back in reply to Harrison:

Sir, I have just received yours of yesterday, 10 o'clock PM ordering me to destroy this place and make good my retreat, which was received too late to be carried into execution. We have determined to defend this place, and by heavens we can.[2]

            When Harrison read this he was outraged. The young Croghan had apparently defied a direct order and thus placed his detachment in peril—and Harrison himself in danger of having his own name attached to a third military disaster not wholly of his own making. He lost no time in dispatching Colonel Ball with his entire squadron to relieve Croghan of his command, and to leave Colonel Samuel Wells of the 17^th Infantry in command of the fort. Croghan would be placed under arrest and court-martialled. There was a card left in George Croghan's hand yet: long a friend of the general's, he had served as aide-de-camp to Harrison during the Tippecanoe campaign. When Colonel John Boyd of the 4^th Infantry Regiment charged Harrison with neglecting to fortify the American camp, Croghan defended his commander. Once face to face with the general, he might be able to make an explanation for his insubordination.

            Meantime, Colonel Ball did not reach Lower Sandusky unmolested. As his dragoons trotted along the river road, handsomely attired in blue coats with silver buttons and leather helmets with long white plumes, the outriders of the advance guard were fired upon by Indians lurking in sparse woodlands on the west side of the road. One of the scouts was wounded, but Ball ordered the main body of his squadron to charge. Mounted on a better horse than his enlisted troopers,  Ball soon outpaced them. Overtaking two Indians, he rode between them and hacked down the one on the right with his saber. The other one swung at him with a tomahawk which narrowly missed his back, and buried itself in his saddle. A corporal following on the colonel's heels shot the other Indian down.

            Lieutenant James Hedges was riding down another warrior when his stirrup broke, spilling him on top of the Indian. Both men tumbled to the ground, and then sprang to their feet. Dodging a tomahawk blow, “Hedges struck the Indian across the head, and as he was falling buried his sword up to its hilt in his body.[3]” Captain Samuel Hopkins of the 2^nd US Light Dragoons had a similar close call when an Indian he was pursuing swiped at him with a tomahawk, making his horse swerve and nearly dismounting him. The warrior fought off another trooper who came up to Hopkin's assistance, but was finally killed by a third trooper.    There turned out to be only twenty warriors in this party watching the road, and all or nearly all of them were cut down in this unequal contest. As Private William B. Northcutt of Gerrard's Company of Volunteer Light Dragoons (the Bourbon Blues) recalled:

The first thing the Indians knew of the squadron they were right under our broadswords and we made their heads rattle like old gourds. They caught their guns in both hands and gabbered something I suppose about quarters, but we were Kentuckians and did not understand one word about the Indian language, and we gobbled them up right on the spot.[4]

            Here there was a reversal of roles as the troopers, most of whom came from Kentucky as volunteers or regulars, looted the bodies and took trophies. One of Private Northcutt's messmates asked if he should cut the scalp from an Indian he had killed, but Northcutt talked him out of it. Later, on the return trip to Fort Seneca Northcutt picked up a blanket bundle and medicine bag belonging to one of the dead Indians. He later gave the medicine bag to one of Harrison's Indian allies, whom the Kentuckians referred to as “Harrison's pets.” These allied scouts later went back and buried their enemies, and reported that one of them had limped away, wounded, according to the signs they had read on the battleground.

            The squadron arrived at Lower Sandusky without further incident, and Croghan was replaced with Colonel Wells and escorted back to headquarters. When he arrived, Croghan explained that he felt the Indians had surrounded him in force, making it dangerous to retreat from the post. Colonel Ball's brief skirmish could attest to that much. The blustering and confidednt tone of the note had been meant to deceive any British officer who might intercept it—as had occurred in three separate incidents already in the war.[5] Harrison accepted this explanation at face value, and sent Croghan back to Fort Stephenson with another heavy escort.

---

[1]McAffee, 322.

[2]McAfee, 323.

[3]“The Croghan Celebration,” in Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly 16, no. 1 (January 1907), 47.

[4]William B. Northcutt, “War of 1812 Diary of William B. Northcutt,” ed. G. Glenn Clift, in Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society 56 no. 3 (July 1958), 332-333.

[5]Most famously, General Isaac Brock intercepted and read General William Hull's papers when the schooner Cayuga was captured on June 30, 1812. Then, another mail pouch fell into Brock's hands after the skirmish at Brownstown on August 4. Finally, the mail pouch to Fort Meigs was captured during the siege in May 1813. Each of these incidents provided valuable intelligence for British commanders.

The Battle of Chippewa, 200 Years Ago Today

July 5th is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Chippewa, in which a force of United States regulars, militia and Mohawk Indians routed a force of British regulars. The principal part of the battle came as the British commander, seeing a mass of American infantry wearing drab jackets, assumed they were militia and sent forward two battalions of regulars, with a third in reserve, to deal with them. The "militia" turned out to be the well-drilled brigade of General Winfield Scott. Just as importantly, the company of artillery under Captain Nathan Towson had advanced further than the infantry, and was able to enfilade the British line with canister. Scott was also able to throw forward his two flank regiments to double-enfilade the two leading British battalions. The result was a humiliating defeat for British regulars in the field, although the 8th Regiment of Foot was able to form line and put up a respectable rear guard action.

The British army fell back to Fort George to await reinforcements, while the Americans advanced to Queenston Heights... and waited for reinforcements and siege artillery, which never arrived.

Here's a run down of the forces involved, based on a wargame scenario I researched about a year ago:

United States Army: Left Division
Major General Jacob Brown

1st (Regular Infantry) Brigade
Brigadier General Winfield Scott
9th United States Regiment of Infantry--348 men
11th US Infantry--433 men
22nd US Infantry--229 men
25th US Infantry--370 men
Detachment of Pioneers--20 men

2nd (Regular Infantry) Brigade
Brigadier General Eleazar W. Ripley
21st US Infantry--676 men
(Treat's Company, 21st Infantry detached picket--30 men)
23rd US Infantry--349 men

3rd (Militia and Volunteers) Brigade
Brigadier General Peter B. Porter
Battalion, Pennsylvania Volunteers--753 men
Mohawk Indians--600 men

Battalion, Corps of Artillery
Major Jacob Hindman
Captain Nathan Towson's Company, 3 (twelve-pounder) guns
Captain Thomas Biddle's Co., 3 guns
Captain John Ritchie's Co., 2 guns
Captain Alexander Williams' Co., 5 guns

Company, 2nd US Light Dragoons, 68 men.

British Army: Right Division
Major General Phineas Riall

1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot, 40o men.
1st/100th Regiment, 350 men.
1st/ 8th Regiment, 380 men.

Light Companies (detached), 300 men.
Battalion, Lincoln Militia, 300 men.
Mohawk Indians, 400 men.

Artillery, 2 light twenty-four pounder guns, 1 5.5 inch howitzer.

The Battle of Lake Erie Primer

One of the most talked about events this year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 is coming to the Lake Erie islands for the next two weekends. This of course is the Battle of Lake Erie, which was fought 200 years ago near West Sister Island on September 10, 1813. You can see other posts I've made on this battle here.

Battle of Chippawa Wargame

This Friday is the 199th anniversary of the Battle of Chippewa. Family responsibilities allowing, I'm hoping to get out to the Niagara area to reenact the battle next year. Brigadier General Winfield Scott led his famous brigade into the battle, reminding them that the day before they had celebrated the Fourth of July in camp, and that this day they would make a new anniversary to remember. Unfortunately, the stunning victory his men (and the militia and Iroquois warriors under General Peter Porter) won over hardened British regulars has not become immortalized the same way that the "dawn's early light" over Baltimore that same summer has. Nevertheless, the battle put the British on notice that the American Army was now a tough, professional force. 

I've been working on a battalion-level rules system for tabletop gaming. It's less dependent on the Battlecry! set: as long as you have six-sided dice, some sort of hex or squared board, and figures to represent the different armies you're good to go. Below is the list of units involved in the battle. To my knowledge, there isn't a good order of battle available online for Chippawa (apparently not spelled "Chippewa"), so I've compiled mine from various sources, including Joseph Whitehorne's While Washington Burned: The Battle for Fort Erie, 1814, and Richard C. Barbuto's Niagara 1814: America Invades Canada. Both books are excellent resources for the history buff, living historian, or wargamer.

American Forces, 5 July 1814

Unit Level (NATO)	Unit Name (Commanders)	Strength (Figures)	Morale/Ability	Weapon (Infantry)
XX	Left Division
	MG Brown		5
X	1st Brigade
	BG Scott		5
III	9th Inf.	348 (4)	5	Musket (I)
III	11th Inf.	433 (4)	5	Musket (I)
III	22nd Inf.	229 (2)	5	Musket (I)
III	25th Inf.	370 (4)	5	Musket (LI)
I	Pioneers	20 (1)	6	Musket (LI)
X	2nd Brigade
	BG Ripley		4
III	21st Inf.	676 (7)	4	Musket (I)
I	--Treat's Co.	30 (1)	4	Musket (LI)
III	23rd Inf.	349 (4)	4	Musket (I)
X	Porter's Brigade
	MG Porter		4
III	PA Volunteers	753 (8)	4	Musket (LI)
III	Indians	600 (6)	5	Musket (N)
II	Hindman's Battalion
	Maj. Hindman		4
I	Towson's	5 guns (3)	3	Med. Guns
I	Biddle's	3 guns (2)	4	Heavy Guns
I	Ritchie's	2 guns (2	3	Med. Guns
I	Williams'	5 guns (3)	4	Siege Guns
I	2nd Light Dragoons	68 (1)	5	Sabres

British, Canadian, and Native Forces, 5 July 1814

Unit Level (NATO)	Unit Name	Strength	Morale/Ability	Weapon
XX	Right Division
	MG Drummond		3
X	Riall's Brigade
	BG Riall		4
II	1/1st Regt	400 (4)	5	Musket (I)
II	1/100th Regt	350 (4)	4	Musket (I)
II	1/8th Regt	380 (4)	4	Musket (I)
II	Light Cos.	300 (3)	5	Musket (LI)
X	Pearson's Brigade
	Lt Col. Pearson		4
III	Lincoln Militia	300 (3)	3	Musket (I)
III	Mohawks	400 (4)	5	Musket (N)

Battle of Fort Stephenson

I've been really busy lately, moving into a new apartment, but I wanted to post something about the battles that occurred during the late summer of 1813 in northern Ohio, and which marked the last British incursions into the state.

The Battle or Siege of Fort Stephenson (also known as Fort Sandusky, one of several forts in the area to bear that name since Pontiac's Rebellion) took place on August 2nd, 1813. A large force of British and Canadian soldiers and Indian warriors surrounded a small detachment of American regular troops at a stockade in the middle of what is now Fremont, Ohio. You can still sort of see where the fort once stood-- it's now the public library. In front of the library there sits an old iron 6-pounder named "Old Betsy". Its the weapon that nearly single-handedly won the struggle for the fort, double-charged with canister. The story of the battle is perhaps best told by these passages from 19th century historical sources. (From Keeler, Lucy Elliot. 93d Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stephenson; Reinterment of Remains of Major Geo. Croghan, Beneath the Monument Erected in His Honor on Fort Stephenson, Fremont, Ohio. Thursday, August 2, 1906. Proceedings Reprinted from the Publications of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. 1907.) :