On March 4th, 1809, James Madison was elected president, and George Clinton re-elected vice-president. The embargo, as we have said, was repealed, though commercial intercourse with France and England was still prohibited. It was, however, provided that if either nation revoked her hostile edicts, the prohibition should cease by proclamation from the president to that effect. Soon after the accession of the new president, therefore, Mr. Erskine, the British minister plenipotentiary to the United States, having informed him that the British orders in council should be repealed by the 10th of June, the renewal of commercial intercourse with Britain was proclaimed for the same day. But the British government disavowed the acts of its representative; the orders in council remained unrepealed, and non-intercourse was again proclaimed.

In March, 1810, Napoleon retaliated the act of congress forbidding the vessels of the United States to enter the ports either of France or her allies, by the decree of Berlin, which ordered all American vessels and cargoes arriving in any of the ports of France, or the countries occupied by French troops, to be seized and condemned. In November, however, of the same year, these hostile decrees were revoked by France, and commercial intercourse was renewed with that country.

But England would revoke nothing, and the feeling between the two countries grew daily more and more hostile, although the ultra-Whigs in England, as the federalists in America, used their utmost to bring about amicable relationships between the two countries. In March, 1811, Pinckney, the American minister, was suddenly recalled from London; and British ships being stationed before the principal harbours of the United States for the purpose of enforcing the British authority, open acts of hostility took place in May of the same year. The British frigate Guerrière, exercising the assumed right of search, carried off three or four natives of the States from some American vessels, whereupon orders came down from Washington to Commodore Rodgers to pursue the British ship and demand their own men. Rodgers sailed from the Chesapeake on the 12th of May, in the President frigate, and not meeting with the offending Guerrière, fell in with a smaller vessel, the Little Belt, towards evening of the 16th of May. The President was a large ship, the Little Belt a small one; the President hailed, and in return, the Americans declared, a shot was fired. The British, on the other hand, declared that the President fired first; however that might be, a severe engagement took place, the guns of the little Belt were silenced, and thirty-two of her men killed and wounded. Through the night the two ships lay at a little distance from each other to repair their damages, the British ship being almost disabled.

This was the muttering of the thunder before the storm; an earnest of that which was approaching. But before we proceed to the actual breaking out of the war, we must turn for a moment to the West, where a hostile confederacy and formidable preparations were discovered among the Indians, fomented by the British in Canada. At the head of this alarming confederacy was the great Shawanese chief, Tecumseh, and his twin brother, Laulewasikaw, who, in order to give to their undertaking a solemn and mysterious character, had assumed the name of the Prophet, and who, pretending to direct communication with the Great Spirit, acquired a powerful influence over the awestruck Indians, who implicitly obeyed his commands.

Tecumseh, who had been always hostile to the whites, and active in the later efforts against them, was a man of powerful mind, and possessed of all those stoic qualities which give a grandeur even to the most savage nature. He was in the battles of the confederated tribes in the late war, and one of those who, in opposition to the advice of the Little Turtle, rejected peace; and when finally peace was made at Greenville, he retired with the Prophet to the Pottawattamies, Wyandots, and other tribes, over whom the two, and especially the latter, gained a powerful ascendency, even to the extent of causing to be put to death some of the oldest and most powerful chiefs of various tribes. Tecumseh and his brother, as we have said, were enemies of the white intruders, and the object of all their endeavours was to be rid of these troublesome guests. For several years, therefore, the frontier inhabitants in the vicinity of the sources of the Mississippi had suffered grievously. At length, in the autumn of 1811, Indian hostilities having assumed an alarming and frightful character, Governor Harrison, of the Indiana territory, was directed by congress to march towards the residence of the prophet on the Wabash, and put a stop to their barbarities. On the 7th of November, having reached the vicinity of the prophet’s town, he was met by a deputation of chiefs, who, in the name of the prophet, offered peace and submission, requesting him to encamp for the night. Suspecting treachery, General Harrison ordered his men to sleep on their arms, and long before dawn the faithless Indians made their attack. A bloody battle ensued, but the Indians were routed; and after totally destroying the prophet’s town, and establishing a strong fort, the American general retired to Vincennes. Tecumseh was not in this fight, but at that time engaged in inciting the more distant tribes. This victory produced peace for a season.

Erskine, the British minister, was replaced by Mr. Foster, who was empowered to make restoration for the damage done to the Chesapeake, to restore the men forcibly taken from her, and offer pecuniary compensation to the families of those seamen who had fallen in the action. Admiral Berkeley had been deprived of command in consequence of his majesty’s displeasure; and, in fact, every possible concession was made, excepting that which America required, viz. to give up the impressment, and to revoke the orders in council. America had just reason to complain; for these orders, now that a free commerce was restored with France, were enforced with greater rigour than ever, and a great number of richly-laden American ships destined for the ports of France had fallen into the hands of British cruisers.

In November, the president recommended that the United States should be put in an attitude of defence, and congress agreeing thereto, provision was made for the increase of the regular army to 35,000, and also for the enlargement of the navy. The president was empowered to borrow eleven millions of dollars; the duties on imported goods were doubled, and taxes laid on domestic manufactures and nearly all descriptions of property. Early in April, 1812, congress passed an act laying an embargo of ninety days on all ships and vessels of the United States. This was intended to lessen the number of trading vessels that would otherwise be at the mercy of England when war was declared, and which, in fact, were comparatively useless in any case, for commercial intercourse had now been so long suspended or intercepted that grass grew on the deserted wharfs of New York and Philadelphia. By the end of May, most of the fast-sailing ships, brigs, and schooners of their merchant service, were fitted out as privateers or men of war. On the 4th of June a bill passed the house of representatives declaring war against Great Britain, and on the 17th the senate, and two days afterwards the president, issued a proclamation of war. This decisive act did not, however, meet with universal approbation. The federalist party, occupying generally the northern and eastern states, and strongly attached to Britain, put forth their solemn protest against the war; and when the news reached Boston, many citizens appeared in mourning, and the church bells were tolled.

Exertions were immediately made to enlist 25,000 men; to raise 50,000 volunteers, and to call out 100,000 militia for the defence of the sea-coast and frontiers. Henry Dearborn, one of the few surviving officers of the revolutionary war, was appointed major-general and commander-in-chief, and his head-quarters were at Greenbush, near Albany, on the Hudson.

At the time of the declaration of war, General Hull, governor of Michigan, was at the head of 2,500 men, well supplied with artillery and ready to march, but waiting then at Detroit, the capital of Michigan, for orders; the intention being to invade Canada. The English were, however, on the alert; and Major-General Brocke, knowing of the gathering of Hull’s forces at Detroit, and believing that war was inevitable, sent discretionary orders to the British officer in charge of Fort St. Joseph to act against the enemy as should appear advisable. Hull, also, had received discretionary orders to invade Canada, “if consistent with the Safety of his own posts.” On the 12th of July, therefore, he crossed the river Detroit and encamped at Sandwich, intending to march upon the British post at Maldon, or Amherstburgh, a stronghold of the British and their Indian allies. From Sandwich, Hull issued a bold proclamation inviting the oppressed citizens of Canada to throw off their allegiance to the British and become citizens of the Republic. Brocke also began to move, and on the 27th of July surprised the American post at Mackinaw, which Hull had left singularly unaware of present circumstances, and the commandant of which received the first knowledge of the declaration of war by being summoned to surrender to a combined British and Indian force, and who not being prepared to defend the place, having but fifty-seven men, surrendered, thinking himself fortunate to obtain for his little band the honours of war. Thus was one of the strongest positions in the United States placed at once in the hands of the British. Nor was this all; Major van Horne, who had been sent by Hull to convey a party bringing up provisions to his camp, was attacked by a united force of British and Indians, headed by Tecumseh, and defeated.

Hull lay inactive for a month in Canada, Amherstburgh in the meantime being reinforced, and then suddenly re-crossed the Detroit on the night of the 7th of August, to the bitter vexation and disappointment of his troops, and encamped under the walls of Detroit. Colonel Procter was despatched after him by Major-General Brocke, and advanced to Sandwich, where batteries were raised, and where he was presently joined by Brocke with reinforcements. On the very day after Hull reached Detroit, having sent 600 of his best troops again to convey provisions, they were attacked in the woods by a British and Indian force, again under the terrible Tecumseh, and a severe fight took place upon the very ground where Van Horne had before been defeated.

On the 16th of August, Major-General Brocke crossed the river a few miles above Detroit without interruption, and immediately marched against the American works with about 700 British troops and 600 Indians. The American troops, advantageously posted and outnumbering the enemy, anxiously awaited the order to fire, when, to their unspeakable astonishment and indignation, they were suddenly ordered to retire within the fort, on the walls of which they beheld a white flag in token of submission. The indignation of the army was so great, that, crowding into the fort without any orders, many it is said wept; others, in stacking their arms, dashed them violently on the ground.

Not only the army at Detroit, but the whole territory, with all its forts and garrisons, were surrendered to the British. The British were as much astonished at this surrender as the Americans themselves. General Hull, being exchanged for thirty British prisoners, was arraigned before a court-martial. He was acquitted of treason, but convicted of cowardice and unsoldierlike conduct, and sentenced to death, but was afterwards pardoned by the president in consideration of his revolutionary services. His name, however, was struck from the rolls of the army.

Leaving Colonel Proctor to hold possession of the Detroit frontier, Brocke moved off rapidly along the Niagara frontier, from which quarter, also, arrangements had been made, during the summer, for the invasion of Canada, and where a body of troops was collected, under command of Stephen van Rensselaer. Early in the morning of Oct. 13th, a detachment, under Colonel Solomon van Rensselaer, crossed the river and gained possession of the heights of Queenstown, on which was a small battery. At the moment of success the enemy received a reinforcement, under General Brocke, and a long and obstinate engagement ensued, in which the gallant Brocke was killed; and spite of all the exertions General van Rensselaer could make the republicans retired with great loss. A singular circumstance occurred on this disastrous day. General van Rensselaer commanded the militia of New York, in the ranks of which federalist principles were very prevalent; when, therefore, they were needed to support their failing brethren on the other side of the river, they refused to embark, on the plea that they had scruples of conscience against carrying offensive war into the British territories.

Soon after the battle of Queenstown, General van Rensselaer retired from the service, and General Alexander Smyth, of Virginia, assumed the command; and issuing an address, announcing that he would retrieve the honour of his country by another attack on Canada, he invited the young men of the country to share in the glory of the enterprise. Between 4,000 and 5,000 responded to his call; but after storming a battery on Black Rock and thus opening a way for the much-vaunted undertaking, it was suddenly abandoned; the troops, to their great astonishment, were recalled, and sent into winter-quarters.

In the meantime, Ohio and Kentucky had collected forces for the support of Hull, which were on their march to Detroit when the news of the surrender of that post met them. Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, who possessed the entire confidence of the West, and brigadier-general in the army, was appointed by congress to the command of these forces, amounting to nearly 10,000. With these he marched to the north-western parts of Ohio, to protect the country against the incursions of the Indians, which were becoming more and more terrible every day.

On the 2nd October, 2,000 mounted volunteers from the territories of Indiana and Illinois assembled at Vincennes, under the command of General Hopkins, and on the 10th, set out on an expedition against the Kickapoo and Peoria towns. On the fourth day, alarming masses of smoke and flame, advancing with the wind, were seen in the distance, by which they perceived that the Indians had set fire to the long thick grass of the prairie over which they had to pass. The troops became mutinous, and demanded to return. Hopkins called a council of his officers, and agreed to take the sense of the army. The majority were for returning. The general, mortified at this result, commanded the army to follow him onward; but they turned their horses’ heads and rode off almost to a man. Hopkins could do no less than follow. With better success, the same officer, in the month of November, marched from Fort Harrison against the Prophet’s town and a Kickapoo village, which were both destroyed.

Nor were the achievements of the republican forces under Dearborn calculated to retrieve the honour of the American arms. A detachment marched from Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain, a short distance into Canada, where they surprised a small body of combined British and Indians, and destroyed a considerable quantity of stores. That was the extent of their operations. After the misfortunes of Detroit and Niagara, the army in all its branches seemed paralysed.

While defeat and disgrace, however, attended the arms of the republic by land, the most brilliant success crowned their efforts on sea.

On August 19th, Captain Isaac Hull, commanding the Constitution of forty-four guns, engaged the British frigate Guerrière of thirty-eight guns, that very frigate which had been the great cause of quarrel about the English deserters, and after an action of half an hour, nearly every mast and spar being shot away, Captain Dacres, who commanded the Guerrière, struck his flag. One-third of the crew were either killed or wounded, while the American vessel lost only seven, and eight men wounded. The Guerrière was so shattered that it was impossible to get her into port, and she was burned. Again, on the 18th of October, the American sloop Wasp, of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain Jacob Jones, had an encounter with the British frigate Frolic, of twenty-two guns, which after a bloody fight of three-quarters of an hour, was boarded by the Americans, when only three officers and one seaman were found on the forecastle, while the decks, slippery with blood, were covered with the dead and dying. The Frolic lost eighty men, the Wasp only ten. The Wasp, with her prize, was captured the same day by a British seventy-four. A few days after, the frigate United States, commanded by Captain Decatur, engaged the British frigate Macedonian. The action lasted nearly two hours, when the Macedonian struck her colours, being nearly disabled, and her loss amounting to upwards of 100 men, while the Americans lost but five, and eight wounded. This engagement took place near the Canary Islands, and the prize was brought safely into New York harbour. Finally, in December, the Constitution, now commanded by Commodore Bainbridge, achieved a second victory, after a most desperate encounter with the Java, of forty-nine guns and four hundred men. The combat took place off the coast of Brazil; nor did the Java strike her flag until she was a mere wreck, with 161 killed and wounded. Like the Guerrière, she was burned. These naval victories were peculiarly gratifying to the Americans, especially as being gained on an element where the American citizens had suffered so much. Many British merchantmen were also captured by American privateers, which now issued from every port. Above 300 prizes was taken in the first seven months of the war.

As regards this extraordinary series of naval successes, the English naval historian records, that “the Java, for instance, was perhaps the worst-manned ship that we ever had afloat. Our Admiralty, obliged to keep at sea in all parts of the world such an immense number of men of war, straitened in their finances, and finding it difficult to obtain at short notice crews for all their ships, had certainly sent to sea a great many vessels exceedingly ill-manned. The Java had been patched up and commissioned only on the 17th of August of the present year. The greatest difficulty was to provide her with any crew; sixty-nine Irishmen were on board who had never been to sea before. She appears to have had but eight tried and excellent seamen; and including officers, not fifty on board had ever been in action before. The Constitution, on the other hand, had a crew consisting entirely of able-bodied and practised sailors, there being the usual proportion of deserters from English ships, and of other subjects of Great Britain, whose treason and dread of the gallows disposed them to fight desperately.” Such was the consolation which England took to herself in this hour of mortification.

Very soon after declaration of war, the United States communicated to Great Britain her willingness to pacificate on condition that the orders in council should be repealed, the impressment of American seamen discontinued, and those already impressed restored. These conditions, however, were rejected by Lord Castlereagh, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, although negotiation was entered upon and an armistice proposed. The arbitrary conduct of the British government towards America met with strong opposition even in England. On June 16th, Mr. (now Lord) Brougham, who had always strenuously advocated the revocation of these orders in council, moved an address to the Prince Regent, beseeching him to recall or suspend the orders, and to adopt such other measures as might tend to conciliate neutral powers. Lord Castlereagh opposed the motion, but stated that government intended to make a conciliatory proposition to the United States; and accordingly on the 23rd of June the orders in council were revoked as far as regarded America. Great Britain still, however, reserved to herself the right of impressment, and the United States, rejecting negotiation on these terms, prepared to prosecute the war.

As regarded pacification with Great Britain, the Emperor Alexander of Russia offered himself as mediator between the two countries; and the United States sent over three commissioners, one of whom was John Quincy Adams, empowered to negotiate with deputies clothed with similar authority on the part of Great Britain; they were also authorised to conclude a treaty of commerce with Russia, and to strengthen the amicable relationships between the two countries.

On the 4th of March, 1813, James Madison was re-elected president, and Elbridge Gerry was elected vice-president.

In June, bills passed congress authorising the construction of four ships, carrying each seventy-four guns, and six frigates each of forty-four guns. The military service was also to be increased; a loan of 16,000,000 of dollars for the present was also authorised, with the issue of treasury notes to the amount of 5,000,000 more.

The scene of military operations in 1813 comprehended the extensive northern frontier. At the opening of the campaign, the army of the west, under General Harrison, lay near the head of Lake Erie; the army of the centre, under General Dearborn, between lakes Erie and Ontario; and that of the north, under General Hampton, occupied the shores of Lake Champlain. The invasion of Canada was still the object of the American armies.

Sir George Prevost, governor of Canada, and commander-in-chief, could not bring any great force into the field, but his numbers were formidably increased by a vast number of Indian auxiliaries. The defence of Upper Canada was committed to Colonels Proctor and Vincent, and that of Lower Canada to General Sheafe.

The head-quarters of Harrison were Franklinton, in Ohio, and thence Brigadier-General Winchester, an old revolutionary officer, marched in advance to attack a party of the British stationed at Frenchtown, twenty-six miles from Detroit. The British were routed, and Winchester encamped in the open field outside the town; and here on the morning of the 22nd of January, they were suddenly attacked by Colonel Proctor, who, with about 500 British and an equal number of Indians, had marched from Amherstburgh. The surprise was complete; and though the Americans rallied and made a desperate defence, their generals, Lewis and old Winchester, were taken prisoners; the latter by Round-head, a famous Indian chief, who, before surrendering his prisoner to the British colonel, stripped him of his hat and uniform, which he himself assumed. A more disastrous fight, or one characterised by more horrible detail, never occurred. It is said that Proctor assured his prisoner Winchester that if his men would surrender they should be preserved from the savage barbarities of the Indians, on which he ordered his men to give up their arms. Proctor, however, did not keep faith, and the promised protection was not afforded. The town was burned, and the savages held a carnival of blood and horror. Five hundred were killed, and the same number made prisoners. The victory and the account of spoils obtained at Frenchtown brought down the warlike tribes from the Wabash, and even the Mississippi, to join the British arms, whose honour was tarnished by suffering these savage barbarities to be enacted under their banner. In July the Six Nations declared war against the Canadas, and the United States, following the example of the British, accepted the services of the Indians. General Harrison was so dismayed at the fate of Winchester, that leaving Franklinton he erected Fort Meigs, near the rapids of the Miama River, which falls into Lake Erie; and here, on the 1st of May, he was besieged by Colonel Proctor, with a force of 1,000 British and 1,200 Indians. On the 5th of May, General Clay advanced with 1,200 Kentuckians to his relief, and although with considerable loss, attacked and dispersed the besiegers, on which a great number of the British Indian allies, notwithstanding the entreaties of Tecumseh, who was faithful to the cause he espoused, deserted; and the Canadian militia-men, greatly to the disgust of Colonel Proctor, retired to their farms, after which he returned with but few followers to Amherstburgh.

Pursuant to the law passed by congress, efforts were made to build and equip fleets upon the lakes. The preceding year the Americans possessed but one brig of sixteen guns on Lake Ontario; but by April of the present year, Commodore Channing, the naval commander on that station, had built and equipped a squadron sufficiently powerful to contend with that of the British. On the 25th of April, 17,000 troops were conveyed in the new flotilla across the lake, from Sackett’s Harbour, for the attack on York, the capital of Upper Canada, the depository of British military stores. On the 27th the troops landed, headed by General Pike, and, though opposed by a strong force of British and Indians, who were soon driven back to the garrison, a mile and a half, carried one battery by assault, and were still advancing, when the powder-magazine blew up, hurling immense quantities of stone and timber upon the advancing troops, and killed many. Pike received a mortal wound; but his troops, after a moment’s halt, pressed forward, and soon gained possession of the town. Sir George Prevost, who seems to have been a man of great indecision, if not of cowardice, is blamed severely by the British historians for having ordered a retreat before their own case was hopeless. York being gained, the squadron and troops returned to Sackett’s Harbour, after which they attacked Fort George, situated at the head of the lake, which, after a warm engagement, was abandoned by the British, who, headed by General Vincent, retreated to a good position on Burlington Bay.

While the American army was thus employed, Sir George Prevost having learned that General Dearborn had left Sackett’s Harbour with but a small garrison, despatched Commodore Yeo, commander of the British fleet on Lake Ontario, to gain possession. On the morning of the 29th, about 1000 British troops landed, but were repulsed by General Brown, and re-embarked so hastily, as to leave their wounded behind.

In the latter part of July, about 4,000 British and Indians, the former under General Proctor, the latter under Tecumseh, again appeared before Fort Meigs, now commanded by General Clay. After waiting a few days, and not succeeding in drawing out the garrison as he hoped, Proctor withdrew his forces and proceeded to Fort Stephenson, at Sandusky, which was garrison by 120 men, under Major Coghan, a young man of one-and-twenty. The defence of this place was one of the bravest on record. The British were repulsed with great loss, and fled so precipitately that they left behind them a quantity of clothes and military stores.

While all this was going forward on land and on the inland seas, the coast was harassed by predatory warfare carried on by large detachments from the British navy. One squadron stationed in Delaware Bay captured and burned every merchant ship they could seize, while another burned the farms and houses along the Chesapeake Bay; several towns also were burned. Various naval actions took place. On the 23rd of February, Captain Lawrence, in the Hornet sloop-of-war, encountered the Peacock sloop-of-war, which was, after an engagement of fifteen minutes, so much damaged that she sank, and spite of every effort of the captors to save the lives of those whom they had just attacked, she went down with thirteen men on board. On his return to shore, Captain Lawrence was appointed to the command of the Chesapeake frigate, then in harbour at Boston. For several weeks the British frigate Shannon, of equal force, commanded by Captain Broke, had been cruising before the port, challenging to combat any American frigate. It had already been triumphantly sung in England,

This challenge was accepted by Captain Lawrence, and on the 1st of June, the Chesapeake sailed to meet her rival. Towards evening of the same day they met, and instantly engaged with unexampled fury. In a very few minutes the challenge was decided against the Chesapeake; every officer capable of taking command was killed or wounded; Captain Lawrence received a mortal wound, and the rigging was so cut to pieces, that she fell on board the Shannon. Lawrence received a second wound and was carried below. At the moment when Broke boarded her, Lawrence was asked if her colours should be struck. “No,” replied he, “they shall wave while I live!” But her colours were struck already, and the gallant and brave young man, delirious with suffering, cried continually for four days while life lasted, “Don’t give up the ship!” an expression which became consecrated to his countrymen. The Shannon carried her prize into Halifax, and there poor Lawrence died, and was buried, his pall being borne by the oldest captains in the British navy, who mourned for him with generous sympathy. War makes such men enemies, and their duty it is to kill each other!

The next encounter at sea was disastrous likewise to the Americans, the sloop Argus being taken in St. George’s Channel by the British sloop Pelican. The commander of the Argus was mortally wounded, and was buried with honour in England; and soon after the brig Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Burrows, captured the British brig Boxer, commanded by Captain Blyth. Both commanders were killed in the action, which took place off the coast of Maine, and were interred side by side with military honours at Portland, their bodies being rowed to land by masters of vessels, with the funeral stroke of the oar, while minute-guns were fired by the vessels in harbour.

From sea-fights we now pass on to an encounter between the British and American squadrons on Lake Erie. The American squadron was commanded by Commodore Perry, a young inexperienced man, that of the British by Captain Barclay, a veteran who had lost, like Nelson, one arm while serving under that commander. On the 10th of September, the British commander not having a single barrel of flour left, and no alternative but attempting to clear the lake or starvation, accepted the offer of battle. The wind changed immediately after he had sailed, giving the Americans the advantage. Perry, forming his line of battle, hoisted his flag, and the words of the dying Lawrence, “Don’t give up the ship,” met the eyes of all and were hailed with universal acclamations. Since that day they have become the motto of the American navy. The firing commenced about noon, and being directed principally against the Lawrence, the flag-ship, she soon became unmanageable, having all her crew, with the exception of four or five, killed or wounded. Commodore Perry then left her in an open boat, and transferred his flag to the Niagara, which, passing through the British, poured broadsides into five of the vessels at half pistol-shot. Towards four o’clock every vessel had surrendered. The day, however, was not lost to the British until the first or second in every vessel had been killed or dangerously wounded. Poor Barclay’s one arm was shattered before he left the deck. Commodore Perry gave intelligence of the victory to General Harrison thus laconically: “We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.”

This defeat rendered the rapid retreat of General Proctor and the Indian chiefs who were with him inevitable. They therefore began to dismantle the forts, and to abandon all the positions on the Detroit, thus leaving the Michigan territory again in the possession of the Americans. But they could no longer retreat without fighting. General Harrison passed over between 5,000 and 6,000 men, and interposed between Proctor and the country to which he was directing his steps. On the 5th of October, a severe battle was fought at the river Thames, when the British army was taken by the Americans. On this day the famous Tecumseh was slain, bravely fighting in the thick of the battle. Six hundred of the British were made prisoners. Proctor escaped with 200 cavalry. Among the trophies of the victory were six brass field-pieces, which had been given up by Hull, on two of which were inscribed the words, “Surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga.”

By this victory was broken up the great Indian confederacy, in which, though 3,000 warriors still remained, the bond of union was gone with Tecumseh. The Ottawas, Chippewas, Miamis, and Pottawattamies, now sent deputies to General Harrison and made treaties of alliance with the Americans.

But before this confederacy was broken, in the month of August, the Creeks and Seminoles, who had been visited by Tecumseh, and into whom he had breathed his hatred of the whites, had commenced a cruel war against the frontier inhabitants of Georgia, in which nearly 300 white inhabitants had been fearfully massacred. On this, General Jackson, at the head of 2,500 volunteers of Tennessee, marched into the Creek country, while Georgia and Mississippi sent upwards of 1,000 more. Battles were fought at divers places with their wild sonorous Indian names—Tallushatchea, Talladega, Autosse, Emuefau, and others—in all of which the Indians were defeated. The last stand of the Creeks was at the great bend of the Tallapoosa, called by the Indians Tohopeka, and by the whites Horse-shoe-bend. Here about 1,000 of their warriors had assembled in a strong fort, which was soon compassed by a detachment under General Coffee to prevent escape. The main body advanced under General Jackson; the outworks were carried, and the Indians seeing no chance of escape, and scorning to surrender, fought till nearly all were slain. Only two or three Indian warriors were taken. This was the last effort of the Creeks; their power was broken, and the few remaining chiefs gave in their submission.^[75]