The South and West
supported Madison; but without the vote of Pennsylvania Madison would
have been defeated.

To retrieve Hull's disaster, General William Henry Harrison, the hero of
Tippecanoe, was placed in command of the Western army in the fall of
1812; but a succession of mishaps overtook his expedition into the
Northwest. He not only failed to reach Detroit, but lost most of his
available troops by disease, desertion, and the onset of British
detachments from Fort Malden.

It was now clear that the control of the Lakes was indispensable for a
successful invasion of Canada. At the close of the year 1812, there was
not a war-vessel flying the American flag on Lake Erie. To create a
fleet was the task set for Oliver Hazard Perry, a young naval officer,
who was sent from Newport to Presqu' Isle. Of the needful supplies only
timber was abundant; the rest had to be brought overland from
Philadelphia by way of Pittsburg. Surmounting all obstacles,
nevertheless, the energetic Perry finally got together a flotilla of
vessels which was quite equal to the British squadron. The two fleets
met in battle off Sandusky on September 10, 1813. The American boat
Lawrence, Perry's flagship, was obliged to strike her colors, but Perry
boarded another vessel of his fleet and succeeded in turning defeat into
a brilliant victory. "We have met the enemy and they are ours," was his
triumphant dispatch to General Harrison.

The way was now open to the invasion of Canada. Under the protection of
Perry's fleet, Harrison was able to transport his army to the Canadian
shore below Fort Malden. The British troops were already in full
retreat. On October 5, 1813, the American army overtook them and in a
short but decisive battle on the river Thames revenged the loss of
Detroit. Among the dead on the British side was found the body of
Tecumseh. In point of numbers, the battle of the Thames is
insignificant; but it has an important place in the annals of the war
because it destroyed the British military power in the Northwest and
recovered control of the Michigan Territory.

No such success attended the movement of American troops on the Niagara
and St. Lawrence frontier. The control of Lake Ontario was in doubt
throughout the year 1813. The military operations, first under Dearborn,
and then under Wilkinson and Hampton, were indecisive. Indeed, the
events of the year served only one good purpose: they revealed the
incompetence of the older ge