The Northern Frontier (Part 7)

During the night the British dragged three 6-pound cannon to a point higher than the fort, and early in the morning these opened fire on the works. This continued many hours with very little effect, the garrison remaining silent. Proctor became impatient and his savage allies were becoming uneasy, for there were rumors of reinforcements on their way for the men in the fort; so he resolved to storm the work. At five o'clock in the afternoon of that hot August day, while the bellowing of distant thunder was heard from an angry tempest-cloud in the western sky, the British marched in two columns to assail the fort. At the same time some British grenadiers made a wide circuit through the woods to make a feigned attack at another point. As the two columns advanced, the artillery played incessantly upon the fort, and under cover of the smoke they had reached a position within fifteen or twenty paces of the strong pickets, before they were discovered. The garrison consisted of Kentucky "sharp-shooters," whose rifles now opened a deadly fire upon the foe. The British columns wavered, but soon rallied; and the first, pushing over the glacis, leaped into the ditch to assail the palisades. "Cut away the pickets, my brave boys, and show the damned Yankees no quarter!" shouted Lieutenant-Colonel Short, their leader. His voice was soon silenced. In a block-house that commanded the ditch in a raking position, the only cannon of the fort was masked. When that ditch was crowded with men, the port flew open and a terrible storm of slugs and grape-shot swept along the living wall with awful effect. The second column, led by Lieutenant Gordon, leaped into the ditch, and met a similar reception, to which was added a volley of rifleballs. Short and Gordon, and many of their followers, were slain in the ditch. A precipitate and confused retreat followed, the British having lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and twenty-men, while only one man of the garrison was killed and several were wounded. The cowardly Indians, always afraid of cannon, had not joined in the fight, but were swift in the flight.

This gallant defence of Fort Stephenson commanded the greatest admiration, and Major Croghan received many honors. Congratulatory letters were sent to him. The ladies of Chillicothe, Ohio, bought and presented to him an elegant sword, and Congress voted him the thanks of the nation. Twenty-two years afterward, that body awarded him a gold medal for his bravery and skill on that occasion. This defence, so unexpected and successful, had a powerful effect upon the Indians. Tecumtha no longer believed in British invincibility, of which Proctor had boasted, and the British abandoned all hope of capturing these westerin American posts until they should become masters of Lake Erie.