ry of the war on the Canadian
frontier. These events showed that far too much had been expected of
General William Hull, who comprehended his difficulties but made no
attempt to batter a way through them, forgetting that to die and win is
always better than to live and fail.

CHAPTER II

LOST GROUND REGAINED

General William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe and the Governor
of Indiana Territory, whose capital was at Vincennes on the Wabash,
possessed the experience and the instincts of a soldier. He had foreseen
that Hull, unless he received support, must either abandon Detroit or be
hopelessly hemmed in. The task of defending the western border was
ardently undertaken by the States of Kentucky and Ohio. They believed in
the war and were ready to aid it with the men and resources of a
vigorous population of almost a million. When the word came that Hull
was in desperate straits, Harrison hastened to organize a relief
expedition. Before he could move, Detroit had fallen. But a high tide of
enthusiasm swept him on toward an attempt to recover the lost empire.
The Federal Government approved his plans and commissioned him as
commander of the Northwestern army of ten thousand men.

In the early autumn of 1812, General Harrison launched his ambitious and
imposing campaign, by which three separate bodies of troops were to
advance and converge within striking distance of Detroit, while a fourth
was to invade and destroy the nests of Indians on the Wabash and
Illinois rivers. An active British force might have attacked and
defeated these isolated columns one by one, for they were beyond
supporting distance of each other; but Brock now needed his regulars for
the defense of the Niagara frontier. The scattered American army,
including brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, was too strong to be
checked by Indian forays, but it had not reckoned with the obstacles of
an unfriendly wilderness and climate. In October, no more than a month
after the bugles had sounded the advance, the campaign was halted,
demoralized and darkly uncertain. A vast swamp stretched as a barrier
across the route and heavy rains made it impassable.

Hull had crossed the same swamp with his small force in the favorable
summer season, but Harrison was unable to transport the food and war
material needed by his ten thousand men. A million rations were
required at the goal of the Maumee Rapids, and yet after two months of
heartbreaking ende