Siege of Fort Meigs
The Siege of Fort Meigs (28 April to 9 May 1813) was a major engagement on the northwestern frontier of the War of 1812. It saw a US army under Major General William Henry Harrison, holed up in the hastily built Fort Meigs, withstand a siege by British and Native American forces despite heavy casualties.
Siege of Fort Meigs
D.W. Kellogg & Co. (Public Domain)
Background
On 16 August 1812, the US outpost of Fort Detroit surrendered to a British and Native American force after a brief and nearly bloodless siege. At a stroke, the British had seized control of the entire Michigan Territory, which they could now use as a staging ground for an invasion of western US states like Ohio or Kentucky. Even worse from a US perspective, the Siege of Detroit had emboldened several previously neutral Native American nations to side with the British and begin to attack US outposts and settlements. Many of these northwestern Native Americans had been driven from their lands by the US after the Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) and were eager to reclaim what they had lost; indeed, the British promised to help the Native Americans set up their own, independent confederacy on lands west of the Ohio River. Such a confederacy would serve British interests by acting as a buffer state between Canada and the US.
The US was anxious to prevent a hostile, British-backed Native American confederacy from arising on its western frontier and knew that it had to balance the scales by retaking Detroit. Such an important task was entrusted to William Henry Harrison, the popular former governor of the Indiana Territory and the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe (7 November 1811). Harrison was given the rank of major general and placed in command of the newly formed Army of the Northwest, comprised mainly of raw volunteers from Kentucky and Ohio serving six-month enlistments. In early October, this army set out from Fort Defiance in Ohio, but bad weather and poor logistics slowed its advance to a crawl. Before long, winter was setting in, and Harrison begrudgingly concluded that he would be unable to assault Detroit before spring. He ordered the advance column of his army, under Brigadier General James Winchester, to continue marching to the Maumee Rapids (near present-day Toledo, Ohio) where they would begin setting up camp for the winter.
Winchester's men arrived at the Maumee Rapids in mid-January 1813. Having been on the march for weeks by this point, most of these men were cold, wet, and hungry; many of their enlistments were about to expire, and they longed to fight a battle before being sent home if only to make their long miles of miserable marching worth it. They would soon get an opportunity, as word reached their camp that a detachment of Canadian militia had occupied Frenchtown, a small community on the River Raisin in Michigan, and was harassing its inhabitants. The Americans begged Winchester to let them march to Frenchtown's rescue. Winchester, enticed by the prospect of an easy victory, relented and sent several companies of Kentuckians into Michigan.
The British-American War of 1812
Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)
On 18 January, the Kentuckians easily routed the Canadians, causing an elated Winchester to move the rest of his column to Frenchtown as well. Once there, the inexperienced Americans grew complacent, neglecting to post adequate pickets or fortify their position. Therefore, the Americans were caught by surprise when a British and Native American force, under Sir Henry Procter, counterattacked just before dawn on 22 January. The Americans were defeated, and many were killed in the fighting. Of the survivors, those who could walk were taken across the Detroit River to Amherstburg as prisoners, while those too wounded to move were left behind in Frenchtown. That night, many of these wounded would be massacred by Potawatomi warriors allied with the British.
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