Video
Guns Across the Lakes: Fort Meigs- Second Siege & Fort Stephenson
Transcript
Welcome back to Fort Meig's Historic Site in Northwest Ohio. If you viewed last week's installment of Guns Across the Lakes you learn from our friends at the Erie Maritime Museum that it was shaping up to be a busy summer In the upper lakes theater of the War of 1812. And indeed Fort Meigs would be subjected to further attacks and a second great siege.
In June of 1813 came one of the most grand and awesome spectacles of the entire war the arrival of the far northwestern First Nations people into the Detroit River. Governor General of British Canada George Prevost had hatched a plan of reinforcing Henry Proctor at Fort Malden entirely with an American Indian army. Instead of his demanded redcoats from further down the lakes. Provost had appointed Robert Dixon a Scottish born fur trader to the British Indian Department in early 1813 for the purpose of securing this untapped resource of fighting prowess and under Dixon's leadership as a highly influential member of these communities the far northwestern tribes of Lakes Michigan and Superior came down to link with the British war effort. American Indian numbers would reach their zenith with an armed force of nearly 4000 that high summer. Outnumbering the British regulars of the right division nearly six to one and what a mind-blowing sight it must have been for these Europeans. For these new tribes included members of the Sioux, the Fox, the Sauk, the Minominee, and Winnebago. All joining with the Ottawa, Ojibwa, Pottawatomie, Kickapoo, Wyandot, and a few Shawnee already fighting in Michigan Territory and beyond. Well these new warriors had yet to feel the encroachment of the Americans. Indeed they had scarcely ever seen a white person, but their fighting prowess and their commitment to securing their homeland would be tested in July at Fort Meigs.
Proctor couldn't let this huge force including women and children lay idle as his rations dwindled. But Fort Meigs was not his ideal target the Royal Navy was occupied blockading and harassing the American shipyard at Erie. Therefore there would be no way to move the heavy siege guns that would be required. But with his redcoats so outnumbered by the natives. Why it would be Tecumseh who decided the next move. And Fort Meigs it would be.
The Americans first sighted the British on July 20th entering the mouth of the Maumee River but they didn't know the battle was on. Until the following morning when the main guard from Fort Meigs was captured in the forest immediately upon exiting the fort's gates and these would be the first casualties of the second siege. Small arms fire and sleepless nights would come to dominate the second siege until July 26th when Tecumseh played his hand. A rouse-de-guerre or sham battle would be staged here just south of the fort. The idea being that British light infantry and native warriors would stage a mock battle with intense firing and war chants just out of sight of the fort. Making it seem that an American relief column were being annihilated out here. It was then hoped that a sortie would venture forth from the fort to provide aid to these troops and a huge body of american indian shock troops would be waiting just to the west of this position. Not only to capture this sortie but then storm through the south gates and take the camp from within. But just then a violent thunderstorm would come roaring through here with a deluge of rain the lightning and thunder so close the sham battle is silenced and so ends the second siege.
General Proctor had to keep going his new first nations army had traveled so far he had to find them victory in order to keep this very delicate alliance upheld. A second smaller target was selected, Fort Stephenson 30 miles to the southeast. The British moved deeper into Ohio with Americans on their line of retreat. Major George Croghan, a veteran of the first siege of Fort Meigs but now in command at Fort Stephenson, had missed the dispatch from William Henry Harrison ordering him to abandon this position. He was determined to hold this outpost with 150 or so Americans inside and a single piece of ordinance. The British would surround Fort Stephenson late in the afternoon of August 1st and demand its surrender. The Americans truculently refused. But with only a few small field pieces and shots from the gunboats on the river the next day Proctor reluctantly settled on taking the fort by storm and a direly direct infantry assault. The fort was to be taken by attacking both the north and the south side simultaneously. The warriors to the south only half-heartedly started across the battlefield before retiring to the woods. Direct infantry assaults are not in the warrior playbook for war. The accompanying grenadiers on the south side were late getting into position and pinned down 20 yards from the walls. On the north side the British officers had underestimated the depth of the ditch surrounding Fort Stephenson no scaling ladders had been brought forward and no breaches in the stockade were found. Helplessly trapped in the ditch the lone American cannon opened fire at point-blank range accompanied by a massive volley of musketry from the fort's walls.
The Battle of Fort Stephenson was over. Nearly trapped deep in Ohio Proctor barely makes his escape by cover of darkness aided by the British shipping. An encircling General Harrison is camped only a few miles away but the two armies pass like ships in the night. And the now near desperate situation the British right division is in will force their hand in an all out do or die naval battle we'll fight next week.
Huzzah!
Description
This week we move back to Northwest Ohio to hear about the British and their allies attempt on Fort Meigs and then Fort Stephenson.
Duration
7 minutes, 26 seconds
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