Preface



   Hull's order to Captain Heald to evacuate Fort Dear-
born after distributing the stores to the Indians led to a
fearful massacre of the occupants of the fort on the 15th
of August, 1812. The Indians, who had promised to
conduct the garrison safely to Detroit, proved to be
treacherous, and either slaughtered or permitted others
to slaughter those they had promised and been paid to
protect. The massacre had all the horrors of Indian
barbarity in tomahawking and scalping not only soldiers
but women and children.
   Things had thus gone fearfully wrong in the year 1812,
the first year of the war. On the 8th of September,
however, a small bright spot appeared in the dark sky of
that period. The Indians attacked Fort Harrison, on the
Wabash, and set it on fire and seemed to be in the act of
taking it. But it was heroically defended by Captain
Taylor and saved. As the year 1812 ended so the year
1813 began with a show of favor to the Americans by the
God of War. The soldiers sent by General Winchester
to Frenchtown met the British there and defeated them
January i8, 1813. The defeat, however, was of short dura-
tion. On the twenty-second the British were reinforced
from Malden and the Americans from Fort Meigs. A
second battle ensued, in which the Americans were defeated
with great loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners. On the



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