prisoner and who were subsequently killed by Proctor's Indian allies. The losses were three to one, with the American soldiers bearing the brunt of it. Proctor returned in July with a force of some 5,000 men, including regulars, Canadian militia and Indians. An attack by a detachment of Proctor's force on Fort Stephenson (on the Sandusky River in Ohio) ended in disaster for the English when the Kentucky sharpshooters picked them off as their Indian compatriots vanished into the forest. This would be the final British offensive in the Northwest, as Perry's control of Lake Erie denied them the ability to move troops and supplies by water. Proctor moved his force inland. Harrison meanwhile had augmented his own force with an additional 1,200 well-trained Kentucky militiamen, all sharpshooters, bringing the US troop strength to about 5,500 men. In late September, he occupied Fort Detroit and Fort Malden, which Henry Dearborn had surrendered the previous year and which the British had abandoned in their flight inland. He determined to go after Proctor. While the Pennsylvania militiamen refused to cross into Canada, the Kentucky riflemen had no problem following their commander, and Harrison's pursuit of the British began in earnest. Proctor was moving at a more leisurely pace than might be expected under the circumstances, and Harrison's force caught up quickly, forcing the British to make a stand at Moraviantown, some fifty miles east of Detroit. It was an uneven fight, pitting some 800 regular British Army and abo ut 500 Indians against the American force of 3,000 well-trained soldiers. A classical cavalry charge, led by congressman-turned-general Richard Johnson, crashed through the thin British line, caught the British in a cross fire and forced their surrender. Consumed with fury, the American soldiers attacked, shouting "Remember the Raisin" as they fought, killing the English troops and their Indian allies. The Indians held out longer than their British counterparts, surrendering only after learning that their own leader, Tecumseh, had fallen. Johnson, while suffering several serious wounds during the fight, is credited with killing the Indian leader. His actions subsequently brought him to the Vice Presidency under President Martin Van 12
Buren (1837-1841); the fight became known as the Battle of the Thames. It was a great victory for the Americans; combined with Perry's victory on Lake Erie, it turned the tide in the West, securing a whole new region for the United States. Farther east, an early win by the Americans at Fort George in May 1813, at the confluence of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, encouraged the citizenry that, indeed, the worm had turned and the fortunes of war seemed to be favoring the Americans. It would not last. A retaliatory strike in December at Fort Niagara and settlements on the US side of the Niagara River pulled the American soldiers from their positions at the recently captured Fort George to assist their compatriots across the river. The British capitalized on this and attacked. With no reinforcements, the US Army's General George McClure abandoned the fort some six months after capturing it. As he departed, however, he set fire to the nearby town of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to prevent the British troops from sheltering there, giving the citizens just twelve hours' notice to vacate in sub-zero December weather. As to be expected, the British retaliated with an attack on Fort Niagara. The British overpowered the sentries, gained access, and killed some eighty of the Americans in their sleep and took more than 350 prisoners. December proved a debilitating month for the Americans; the entire frontier from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie was "depopulated and the buildings and improvements, with a few exceptions, destroyed," according to Governor Daniel Tompkins, of New York. One reason that the Niagara and Ontario theater became vulnerable was the lack of American troops; many of them had been transferred to service along the St. Lawrence River, preparing for the longawaited attack on Montreal. The corrupt and incompetent General James Wilkinson was named to command that effort. The British had captured two American ships on Lake Champlain, thus forcing the Americans to relinquish control of the lake and the important supply route down its length. The capture of Montreal would offset this loss, should the American forces succeed in accomplishing their assignment. The plan called for Wilkinson to lead some 7,000 men from Sackets Harbor down
the St. Lawrence and attack Montreal from the west. Simultaneously, General Wade Hampton would lead 4,500 men from the south. Hampton despised Wilkinson and generally refused to take orders from him, and neither general seemed terribly enthusiastic for the fight and hence delayed the start until October. Hampton did attack from the south, but a well-organized FrenchCanadian militia repelled his troops from a strong defensive position. Lt. Col. Charles de Salaberry defeated the Americans with a ruse: his men raised a huge ruckus with bugles and shouting, fooling the attacking troops into thinking they were facing a much larger group of defenders. Discretion being the better part ofvalor (in Hampton's mind), he led his men back to the American side of the border with only light casualties. Wilkinson had an equally poor result. He delayed his departure until 5 November and during the entire trip he was harassed by personal illness, bad weather, and sporadic attacks from British Colonel Joseph Morrison's 800-man army from the rear. When he reached Chrysler's Farm, about midway between Lake Ontario and Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, Wilkinson determined to put an end to Morrison's harassment and turned to face him. By then, however, he was too ill to take the field and he put an underling in charge of some 2,000 soldiers. General John Boyd had been charged with driving Morrison's troops from their positions to enable Wilkinson to continue on to Montreal unimpeded. Instead, he suffered 340 killed and wounded and over 100 captured by the British forces, causing Wilkinson to call off the offensive and retire to his winter quarters near Sackets Harbor. The war at sea in 181 3 proved equally mixed. The year began well enough with David Porter sailing the frigate Essex around Cape Horn and into the Pacific whaling grounds. The British whalers, for the most part, unaware that their country was at war with any beyond their perennial enemy, the French, were taken by surprise by the appearance of an American frigate ready to fight. The whalers, of course, had nothing with which to fight and each ship surrendered in turn, to be burned, taken as a prize, or used as a transport for the British sailors when Essex could no longer accommodate them. Nothing lasts forever, and evenrually
SEA HISTORY 136, AUTUMN 2011