The Fight for a Free Sea | Page 9

and at the end of this dismal winter, after six
months of disappointments in which ten thousand men had
accomplished nothing, he was compelled to report to the Secretary of
War:
Amongst the reasons which make it necessary to employ a large force, I
am sorry to mention the dismay and disinclination to the service which
appears to prevail in the western country; numbers must give that
confidence which ought to be produced by conscious valor and
intrepidity, which never existed in any army in a superior degree than
amongst the greater part of the militia which were with me through the
winter. The new drafts from this State [Ohio] are entirely of another
character and are not to be depended upon. I have no doubt, however,
that a sufficient number of good men can be procured, and should they
be allowed to serve on horseback, Kentucky would furnish some
regiments that would not be inferior to those that fought at the river
Raisin; and these were, in my opinion, superior to any militia that ever
took the field in modern times.
There was to be no immediate renewal of action between Procter and
Harrison. Each seemed to have conceived so much respect for the
forces of the other that they proceeded to increase the distance between
them as rapidly as possible. Fearing to be overtaken and greatly
outnumbered, the British leader retreated to Canada while the
American leader was in a state of mind no less uneasy. Harrison
promptly set fire to his storehouses and supplies at the Maumee Rapids,
his advanced base near Lake Erie. Thus all this labor and exertion and
expense vanished in smoke while, in the set diction of war, he retired
some fifteen miles. In such a vast hurry were the adversaries to be quit
of each other that a day and a half after the fight at Frenchtown they
were sixty miles apart. Harrison remained a fortnight on this back trail
and collected two thousand of his troops, with whom he returned to the

ruins of his foremost post and undertook the task all over again.
The defensive works which he now built were called Fort Meigs. For
the time there was no more talk of invading Canada. The service of the
Kentucky and Ohio militia was expiring, and these seasoned regiments
were melting away like snow. Presently Fort Meigs was left with no
more than five hundred war-worn men to hold out against British
operations afloat and ashore. Luckily Procter had expended his energies
at Frenchtown and seemed inclined to repose, for he made no effort to
attack the few weak garrisons which guarded the American territory
near at hand. From January until April he neglected his opportunities
while more American militia marched homeward, while Harrison was
absent, while Fort Meigs was unfinished.
At length the British offensive was organized, and a thousand white
soldiers and as many Indians, led by Tecumseh, sallied out of
Amherstburg with a naval force of two gunboats. Heavy guns were
dragged from Detroit to batter down the log walls, for it was the
intention to surround and besiege Fort Meigs in the manner taught by
the military science of Europe. Meanwhile Harrison had come back
from a recruiting mission; and a new brigade of Kentucky militia,
twelve hundred strong, under Brigadier General Green Clay, was to
follow in boats down the Auglaize and Maumee rivers. Procter's guns
were already pounding the walls of Fort Meigs on the 5th of May when
eight hundred troops of this fresh American force arrived within
striking distance. They dashed upon the British batteries and took them
with the bayonet in a wild, impetuous charge. It was then their business
promptly to reform and protect themselves, but through lack of training
they failed to obey orders and were off hunting the enemy, every man
for himself. In the meantime three companies of British regulars and
some volunteers took advantage of the confusion, summoned the
Indians, and let loose a vicious counter-attack.
Within sight of General Harrison and the garrison of Fort Meigs, these
bold Kentuckians were presently driven from the captured guns,
scattered, and shot down or taken prisoner. Only a hundred and seventy
of them got away, and they lost even their boats and supplies. The

British loss was no more than fifty in killed and wounded. Again
Procter inflamed the hatred and contempt of his American foes because
forty of his prisoners were tomahawked while guarded by British
soldiers. He made no effort to save them and it was the intervention of
Tecumseh, the Indian leader, which averted the massacre of the whole
body of five hundred prisoners.
Across the river, Colonel John Miller, of the American regular infantry,
had attempted a gallant sortie from the fort and had taken a