During the retreat from Amherstburg to Moraviantown Procter loses faith in his senior officers. He deliberately keeps Augustus Warburton, his second-in-command, in the dark about his plans. No one on the British side knows what is happening. There are reports that some officers are pressuring Warburton to relieve Procter of his command.
On October 4, 1813, Lieutenant Colonel Warburton learns that Tecumseh will withdrawing to Moraviantown. He also learns that Procter is headed in the opposite direction; the British commander is leaving the village to come downriver and join his army. Warburton can hear the Indians skirmishing with the enemy across the river. He decides he can no longer wait for Procter and orders his troops to march towards Moraviantown. In the ensuing confusion, almost all the British supplies are overrun and captured by the Americans. The troops will be limited to the ammunition they have been carrying with them.
On the night before the battle, Procter makes another inexcusable mistake. When he should have been making badly-needed plans for the imminent confrontation, he once again leaves his army and goes to spend the night with his wife. When he reappears on October 5th, his troops haven't eaten in more than a day. Tired, hungry and ill-equipped, the British turn to fight in a light hardwood forest about two miles downstream from Moraviantown.
Procter's position is not a bad one. His left flank is protected by the Thames. To the right is a dense swamp. Procter positions a field gun on the main road which runs parallel to the riverbank. He deploys his men across the opening of the wedge-shaped area between the Thames and the swamp. Tecumseh and his warriors will fight from the swamp and attempt to squeeze the Americans towards the river like a door swinging shut on its hinges. The British and Indians are outnumbered three-to-one by the Americans. Procter has about 450 regulars while Tecumseh is down to 500 warriors.
For the British soldiers, the battle ends quickly. American buglers signal the start of the conflict. Within five minutes, the British start to retreat. The main American attack on the British positions is made with cavalry at full gallop. The U.S. horsemen immediately break through the British front line. The six-pound gun Procter has placed on the main road fails to get off a single shot. The gun's horses spook at the first sound of gunfire and get tangled in the underbrush. The entire battle lasts fifty-five minutes but most of that period is taken up as the Kentuckians battle the Indians along the swamp. The Natives put up a fierce fight and only withdraw when they hear of the death of Tecumseh.
Procter flees down the main road as soon as he realizes his line has been broken. He briefly considers trying to reach the Indians but American horsemen have penetrated the area between the road and the swamp. There is nothing he can do to stop the rout. He gallops to safety, leaving his carriage and papers behind to be captured by the Americans. The British have suffered about a dozen casualties, but some sources will later say not a single American was killed in the attack on the British line.
Procter and the remnants of his army eventually regroup with the Centre Division at Burlington on Lake Ontario. Six hundred British soldiers have been taken prisoner since leaving Sandwich. Procter is eventually called before a court martial where he is publicly reprimanded. He is suspended from his post and abandons the army in disgrace.
The U.S. Army under William Henry Harrison moves quickly once it crosses the Detroit River. The US troops manage to cover the distance to Moraviantown in less than half the time it takes the British. In one day, the three thousand Americans gain 25 miles. The foot soldiers have to almost run in order to keep up with the cavalry.
The rapid US advance has been prepared by Oliver Hazard Perry’s defeat of the British squadron at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. The Americans have cut off Procter’s main supply line and have complete mobility on the water. The US troops outnumber their enemy three-to-one and sense Procter’s vulnerability.
The Kentucky volunteers are so eager to fight the British, that Harrison has trouble convincing some of them to stay behind to garrison Fort Detroit. The rugged frontiersmen can’t wait for an opportunity to avenge the previous winter’s massacre at the River Raisin. Many of Richard and James Johnson’s volunteers are from the same counties as those killed at the Raisin. “Remember the Raisin” is the recruiting slogan, which inspired them to join the army. It will soon become their battle cry as they charge the British lines.
Tecumseh and some of his warriors try to slow down the US advance near Chatham. The Indians stand little chance against the bulk of Harrison’s army and are quickly overwhelmed. The Americans capture all the British reserve ammunition as well as an important arms store.
On October 5, Procter turns to make his stand. After surveying the ground Procter has chosen to defend, Harrison makes an unconventional decision; James Johnson’s mounted troops will charge the British line in a frontal attack.
Before the battle gets underway Colonel John Calloway addresses his men. “Boys, we must either whip these British and Indians or they will kill and scalp every one of us,” he says. “We cannot escape if we lose.” The British threat that they cannot control the Indians backfires; the American troops feel they have no choice but to win, if they surrender they can expect no quarter from the enemy.
Within a matter of minutes, James Johnson’s horsemen succeed in charging clear through the British line. They quickly turn to their left and fall upon the redcoats who are still in position. The British soldiers break formation almost immediately and run for their lives.
Meanwhile, Tecumseh and his warriors are putting up a fierce resistance in the swamp to the left of the British. James Johnson’s brother, Colonel Richard Johnson has ridden ahead of the main body of his force with 20 other men. They are a “Forlorn Hope” squad attempting to empty the Indians’ guns and give the rest of the American attackers a better chance. Johnson’s squad rides straight into a wall of bullets. The Colonel is wounded five times and all but five of his comrades are killed.
The main body of the Kentuckians follow but are unable to cross the mud and undergrowth of the swamp with their horses. They dismount and fight the Natives on the ground. Tecumseh is killed and extra American troops freed by the collapse of the British line pour into action. As word spreads of Tecumseh’s death and British Retreat, the Indians withdraw into the forest.
Mounted U.S. troops scour the surrounding trails and forests for the remnants of the British army. By nightfall US soldiers are burning and looting the village of Moraviantown. Harrison has scored a decisive victory and there appears to be little stopping him from continuing his lightning advance right to the head of Lake Ontario. British officials are afraid that the Americans are poised to conquer all of Upper Canada west of Kingston.
Harrison is facing his own set of problems, however. The Thames Valley is now a wasteland of burned-out farms and ransacked settlements. The American supply lines are over-extended and the region’s provisions have already been exhausted by two desperate armies. To make matters worse, most of Harrison’s troops are volunteers who have signed up for short-term duty. It would be almost impossible to turn these militiamen into an army of occupation. Facing the onset of the bitter Canadian winter, Harrison decides to retreat to Sandwich on October 7, 1813.
Additional Sources:
www.history1700s.com
www.jmu.edu
www.ngb.army.mil
www.ohiokids.org
www.windsorpubliclibrary.com
www.ohiohistorycentral.org
ohiobio.org