Fort Meigs Built and Besieged

Harrison had advanced to the Maumee Rapids when he heard of the disaster at Frenchtown, and hearing that Proctor was marching toward Malden, he established a fortified camp there at the beginning of February, and named it Fort Meigs. It was near the site of the present village of Perrysburg, and opposite Maumee City. There Harrison was besieged many weeks afterward by Proctor and Tecumtha, with full two thousand of their allied followers. They came down from Malden and appeared at the British Fort Miami, near Fort Meigs, at the close of April. Although the latter fort was strong, having bastions and many cannon planted, Harrison felt that its garrison was in peril, and he sent a courier to General Greene Clay, who was on his march northward with Kentuckians, urging him to press forward.

Clay was near the Maumee Valley when the courier reached him. He resolved to send Harrison word of the near approach of succor, for Clay was at the head of twelve hundred men. Captain Leslie Combs, a young man then nineteen years of age (yet living), volunteered to be the messenger. With four men of his company and a young Indian, he went down the Maumee in a canoe, and as they approached the Rapids, they heard the roar of artillery at Fort Meigs. It was the first of May, and Proctor had begun the siege. How shall I enter an invested fort? was a question that perplexed the gallant captain. But he pushed on, and having passed the Rapids in safety, he rounded a point in full view of the fort, over which waved the Stars and Stripes. Suddenly some Indians appeared in the woods on shore. Combs attempted to shoot by them in the canoe on the swift current, but a volley from their guns killed one of his men and badly wounded another. They turned the prow of the canoe toward the opposite shore and escaped.

Clay pressed forward, and on the morning of the 5th of May, was near the fort. A large part of his troops, under Colonel Dudley, were landed near the site of Maumee City, and pressed forward to attack the British battery there. Captain Combs and his riflemen were in the advance. The battery was taken, most of its great guns were spiked, and the British flag was hauled down and trailed on the earth, while huzzas rang out from the ramparts of Fort Meigs. The troops were signaled to fall back and cross the river; but at that moment some ambushed Indians fell upon Combs and his men and made them prisoners. These savages were attacked by Dudley's troops. The Indians were reinforced, and Dudley was defeated and slain. Of the eight hundred men who followed him from the boats, only one hundred and seventy escaped to Fort Meigs.

Meanwhile Colonel Boswell, with the remainder of Clay's army, had fought his way toward the fort. Meeting a sallying party sent out by Harrison, they all turned upon their assailants and drove them into the woods. Another sortie was made against the besiegers at another point, and more than eight hundred of the motley foe were driven from their batteries and dispersed. The siege of Fort Meigs was then abandoned, and the assailants went back to Malden. Combs and his companions were stripped and taken to old Fort Miami, where, almost naked, they were compelled to run the gauntlet between two rows of savages, armed with war-clubs, tomahawks, scalping-knives, and pistols. Many of the victims were killed or badly maimed by blows from the Indians. When the survivors were all inside the fort, they would have been massacred but for the humanity of Tecumtha, which was greater than that of Proctor, who did not attempt to stay the fury of the Indians. Active military operations in the West were suspended for several weeks after the siege of Fort Meigs was raised.