1812.

HARRISON MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

877

added to the horrors of the night, altogether produced a terrific scene. Two soldiers, giving themselves up for lost, leaped over the pickets, and one of them was instantly cut to pieces.

"The commander, with great presence of mind, ordered the roofs to he taken off the adjoining harracks; this attempt, with the assistance of Dr. Clarke, fortunately proved successful, although made under a shower of bullets. A breastwork was then formed before morning, six or eight feet high, so as to cover the space which would be left by the burnt block house.

" The firing continued until daylight, when the Indians retired, after suffering a severe loss ; that of the fort was only three killed and a few wounded. The Indians, discouraged by the failure of this attack, thought proper to retire, and made no further attempts, until the place was happily relieved by the arrival of General Hopkins. In consequence of his conduct, Captain Taylor was afterward promoted to a majority." *

Before the surrender of Hull took place, extensive preparations had been made in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to bring into service a large and efficient army. Three points needed defense, Fort Wayne and the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois river; the troops destined for the first point were to be under the command of General Winchester, a Revolutionary officer resident in Tennessee, and but little known to the frontier men ; those for the Wabash were to he under Harrison, whose name, since the battle of Tippecanoe, was familiar everywhere; while Governor Edwards, of the Elinois territory, was to command the expedition upon the river of the same name.

Such were the intentions of the government; hut the wishes of the people frustrated them, and led, first, to the appointment of Harrison to the command of the Kentucky volunteers, destined to assist Hull's army, and next to his elevation to the post of commander-in-chief over all the forces of the West and North-West; this last appointment was made September 17th, and was notified to the general on the 24th of that month.

Meantime, Fort Wayne had been relieved, and the line of the Maumee secured, so that when Harrison found himself placed at the head of military affairs in the West, his main objects were, first, to drive the Indians from the western side of the Detroit river; second, to take Maiden; and third, having thus secured his communications, to re-capture the Michigan territory and its dependencies.

* Brackcnridge's History of the Late War.