By MIRIAM GREENBLATT

A few months later, the United States suffered yet another defeat. After the surrender of Fort Detroit, Madison replaced Hull with Tippecanoe hero William Henry Harrison. By September 1812, Harrison had assembled an army of some 10,000 men, many of them new recruits from Kentucky and Tennessee. He then set out to retake Fort Detroit. But autumn rains turned the wilderness to mud. So Harrison decided to wait until winter, when the Detroit River would freeze over and he would be able to attack across the ice.

On December 20,Harrison ordered Gen. James Winchester to set up a post at the Maumee Rapids opposite Fort Malden. When Winchester arrived at the rapids, he found two messengers from the village of Frenchtown (near present-day Monroe, Michigan) begging for help. The village lay 40 miles ahead on the Raisin River, and the 33 families living there were under the control of 250 British and Indian troops. After consulting with his officers, Winchester sent an advance party to Frenchtown under the command of two popular officers from Kentucky, Colonels William Lewis and John Allen.

Indian security measures tended to be careless during the frigid winter months, and Lewis and Allen were able to surprise the enemy. The Kentuckians swarmed into Frenchtown and by dusk had driven the British and Indians away. The Kentuckians were ecstatic. After months of cold and hunger, there was cider, whiskey, butter, fresh apples, and the warmth of a house and a fireplace.

When Winchester learned that Frenchtown had been secured, he moved up the rest of his 1,000 men. On the opposite shore, Col. Henry Proctor, the British commander at Fort Malden, was also on the move with 1,200 to 1,400 men, half of them Indians.

At dawn on January 22, 1813, Proctor’s forces closed in on Frenchtown. By the end of the day, the Battle of Raisin River was over—and the Americans had lost. Winchester agreed to surrender provided Proctor would protect American prisoners from the Indians. But Proctor was in a hurry to return to Fort Malden before any reinforcements arrived from Harrison. So he left only a small British guard on duty. The Indians fell on the American prisoners with tomahawk and scalping knife.

Between the battle and the massacre, more than 400 Americans died at Frenchtown. Hundreds more, those still able to walk, were marched north by the Indians, never to be heard of again. Harrison learned of the defeat when 30 survivors of Frenchtown limped into his camp. He promptly retreated to the Portage River. When news of the event reached the newspapers, the United States had a new battle cry: “Remember the Raisin!”

The western thrusts into Canada had failed to produce any success. Actions along the central part of the border proved equally dismal. For his first operation in that sector, General “Granny” Dearborn had chosen Stephen Van Rensselaer, a military amateur, to lead an army of 6,000 Americans across the Niagara River with the goal of cutting the portage road between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Unfortunately, most of these Americans were militiamen, lacking in both experience and leadership; they also lacked proper food and supplies and were plagued by illness. Opposing the Americans were 1,600 British regulars and 300 Indians under the command of the experienced General Brock.

The Americans’ initial target was the high ground overlooking the village of Queenstown. Their first attempt to cross the Niagara River met with failure. On the night of October 10–11, 1812, in a driving downpour, Van Rensselaer’s troops slogged their way to a crossing site, only to find that someone—either accidentally or deliberately—had taken the boat that was laden with the oars for all the other boats. Two nights later, on October 12, a second attempt was made. This time, there were not enough boats to transport all the troops, so only 800 men crossed over, while tools and extra ammunition had to be left behind. Commanding these men was 26-year-old Lt. Col.Winfield Scott, who had joined the U.S. Army only four years before.

The Americans had no sooner landed when a British sentry sounded an alarm. Spread out along the riverbank, with the British on Queenstown Heights, the Americans were sitting ducks, and nine officers and 45 enlisted men were soon dead. However, the Americans managed to struggle to the high ground and began shooting effectively. One bullet struck and killed General Brock. As British troops rushed to avenge his death, Van Rensselaer realized that a possible victory was slipping away. On the opposite side of the river, he tried to get fresh troops to cross, but no matter how hard he pleaded, the inexperienced militiamen refused to go: “I found that at the very moment when complete victory was in our hands, the Ardor of the unengaged Troops had entirely subsided. . . . I rode in all directions—urged men by every consideration to pass over, but in vain.”

A short time later, the Americans on the other side of the river— exhausted and with their cartridge boxes empty—raised the white flag. Some had tried to swim back but drowned in the swift Niagara River. Those who surrendered would later be exchanged for prisoners, and some—such as Colonel Scott—would go on to distinguish themselves in other battles.

Meanwhile, as part of General Dearborn’s four-prong plan to take Canada, an attack was launched across Lake Ontario. On April 25, 1813, a flotilla of ships left Sackett’s Harbor in New York. Two days later, some 1,600 men, commanded by Gen. Zebulon Pike (a noted explorer after whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named), landed at York (present-day Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. Under cover of naval bombardment, the American troops attacked the 800 British and Indian soldiers defending York. With superior forces and naval support, it did not take long for Pike’s army to overwhelm the enemy, killing 60, wounding 89, and capturing 290.

Unfortunately, American casualties were even higher, due to a terrifying explosion in the garrison’s ammunition storeroom. The blast from hundreds of barrels of gunpowder and a huge amount of ammunition caused more than 300 deaths, including that of Pike himself, who was killed by a large falling stone that crushed his chest. American army surgeons worked round the clock, wading in blood and “cutting off arms, legs and trepanning [boring holes] in heads.”

Historians disagree as to the cause of the explosion and who was responsible. American soldiers and sailors, however, were furious at the loss of life and determined on revenge. Over the next four days they not only destroyed two unfinished British frigates and all the military and naval supplies in York. They also torched the city’s parliamentary and other public buildings, demolished a printing press, and sacked “every house they found deserted.” The British would later use this episode as a reason for burning Washington, D.C.

In the months after the attack on York, there were other battles in the northwestern sector. Gen. William Henry Harrison had been gathering his forces at Fort Meigs, on the Maumee River in Ohio. In May 1813, British forces led by General Proctor, supported by Tecumseh and some of his warriors, attacked the fort, but they were held off for eight days before they abandoned the attempt. However, the British and Indians did surprise a unit of Kentuckians who were making their way to reinforce Harrison’s forces at Fort Meigs.

Hundreds of Americans were killed or captured, and some of the Indians began to massacre even the prisoners. Tecumseh came riding up on horseback and intervened to stop the slaughter, actually striking his own warriors with the flat side of his tomahawk. Then, it is said, Tecumseh rode up to Proctor and scolded him severely, saying: “Begone! You are unfit to command. I conquer to save, and you to murder.”

In late July Proctor returned to lay siege to Fort Meigs, but again Harrison’s men repulsed the British and Indians. Proctor then moved on to attack Fort Stephenson, also in Ohio some 25 miles east of Fort Meigs. Since Maj. George Croghan had only 160 men in the fort and Proctor had some 1,400, Harrison ordered Croghan to abandon the fort. Croghan, only 23 years old, sent back the reply: “We have determined to maintain this place, and by heaven, we will.” The Kentucky riflemen in the fort were sharpshooters and held off repeated charges by the British troops. After a while Proctor called off the attack and went back to Fort Malden.

By September 1813, there was a turnaround in the situation along the U.S.-Canadian border, although it had little to do with Dearborn’s four-pronged strategy and more to do with the victory of Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie. With Lake Erie now controlled by the Americans, the British were no longer able to move supplies so easily from the east to the west. Accordingly, Proctor decided to abandon Fort Malden and retreat northeastward up the Thames River, a move that would stretch the Americans’ own supply lines.

Tecumseh bitterly opposed Proctor’s decision. Why were the British leaving after only one defeat? If they left, it would mean the end of the Indians’ struggle to keep their ancestral hunting grounds. Tecumseh’s words, recorded by the British, turned out to be prophetic:

You always told us to remain here and take care of our land. . . . You always told us you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see that you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father’s conduct to a fat dog, that carries his tail on his back, but when frightened, drops it between his legs and runs off. . . . Father, you have got the arms and ammunition which our great father [the British king] sent for his children. If you have any idea of going away, give them to us, and you may go and welcome. Our lives are in the hands of the great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be His will, we wish to leave our bones upon it.

But Proctor felt he had no choice, and Tecumseh reluctantly agreed to accompany the British. Abandoning Fort Malden on September 24, 1813, Proctor proceeded along the north bank of the Thames River, with Harrison and an American army of 9,500 men in hot pursuit. On October 5, the ragged, dispirited enemy—numbering about 600–800 British regulars and 500–1,000 Indians—made a stand about one and one-half miles from Moraviantown.

The battle lasted about one hour. The British line collapsed in less than five minutes. The Indians were harder to defeat. Fighting from the underbrush, they tried to repulse Harrison’s troops, pressing them back towards the road. It was reported by Americans that they could hear Tecumseh’s cry above the din of battle, “Be brave, be brave!” And then he was heard no more.

There have been many questions concerning the circumstances surrounding Tecumseh’s death. Some claimed they saw the Indian chief fall with a gunshot wound in his chest. Others claimed to have seen his body after some Kentuckians—in revenge for the Raisin River massacre—cut strips of skin from its thighs and other areas to make into souvenir pouches. What seems much more likely is that Tecumseh’s body was taken away by his warriors under cover of darkness and secretly buried. In any event, what mattered most was that his death marked the end of the dream of confederation among the northern tribes.

Casualties in the Battle of the Thames were surprisingly light. Seven Americans were killed and 22 wounded, compared to 18 British soldiers killed and 25 wounded. More than 600 British soldiers were taken prisoner, and about $1 million worth of weapons was captured. Only 33 bodies of Indians were found, and historians believe that most of the dead Indians—like Tecumseh—were carried away from the battlefield at night.

The outcome of the battle affected the two commanding generals in different ways. Proctor reached safety but was court-martialed and “suspended from rank and pay” for six months. Harrison did not pursue the enemy further but returned to Washington a conquering hero. The Northwest Territory was once more in American hands.

There would be several more battles along the Canadian frontier in the central and eastern sectors, with each side winning its share and nothing truly decisive resulting. As part of the grand strategy that called for taking Montreal, the American generals Wade Hampton and James Wilkinson led their forces toward that city in the fall of 1813, but each turned back after minor engagements near the St. Lawrence River— at Châteaugay on October 25 for Hampton, at Chrysler’s Farm on November 11 for Wilkinson. In December 1813, the British conquered Fort George and Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario. On July 3, 1814, Gen. Jacob Brown took 5,000 American troops across the Niagara River and captured Fort Erie opposite Buffalo, New York. Two days later, one of General Brown’s subordinates, Gen. Winfield Scott, led American troops in a victory over the British in a field at Chippewa, just north of Fort Erie. And on July 25, troops under General Brown and General Scott engaged the British at Lundy’s Lane, just north of Chippewa, in one of the most fiercely contested battles of the war. Both generals were wounded and both sides suffered extremely heavy casualties. Although the battle ended in a standoff, it diminished the British threat in this central sector of the Canadian front.

But the British in Canada now held the advantage in terms of experienced troops. To the east, Prevost had 10,000 British regulars gathered outside Montreal. In September 1814, he set off to invade the United States, and by September 6 he reached Plattsburg, New York, at the western tip of Lake Champlain. The Americans could count on only some 1,500 regulars and a few thousand militia. In the end, though, the Battle of Plattsburg was to be fought on the water. And although that particular battle was a clear American victory, it meant only that the British were turned back from their own invasion plan. It did not enable the Americans to take any part of Canada. All the many battles fought from the Michigan peninsula to Montreal, from the Raisin River to Lake Champlain, all the thousands of casualties on both sides, all had resulted in a stalemate. The grand goal of capturing Canada would come to nothing.