oncluded to mark time while Perry's fleet was building. The outlook was
somber, however, for his thin line of garrisons and his supply bases.
They were threatened in all directions, but he was most concerned for
the important depot which he had established at Upper Sandusky, no more
than thirty miles from any British landing force which should decide to
cross Lake Erie. The place had no fortifications; it was held by a few
hundred green recruits; and the only obstacle to a hostile ascent of the
Sandusky River was a little stockade near its mouth, called Fort
Stephenson.

For the Americans to lose the accumulation of stores and munitions which
was almost the only result of a year's campaign would have been a fatal
blow. Harrison was greatly disturbed to hear that Tecumseh had gathered
his warriors and was following the trail that led to Upper Sandusky and
that Procter was moving coastwise with his troops in a flotilla under
oars and sail. Harrison was, or believed himself to be, in grave danger
of confronting a plight similar to that of William Hull, beset in front,
in flank, in rear. His first thought was to evacuate the stockade of
Fort Stephenson and to concentrate his force, although this would leave
the Sandusky River open for a British advance from the shore of Lake
Erie.

An order was sent to young Major Croghan, who held Fort Stephenson with
one hundred and sixty men, to burn the buildings and retreat as fast as
possible up the river or along the shore of Lake Erie. This officer, a
Kentuckian not yet twenty-one years old, who honored the regiment to
which he belonged, deliberately disobeyed his commander. By so doing he
sounded a ringing note which was like the call of trumpets amidst the
failures, the cloudy uncertainties, the lack of virile leadership, that
had strewn the path of the war. In writing he sent this reply back to
General William Henry Harrison: "We have determined to maintain this
place, and by Heaven, we will."

It was a turning point, in a way, presaging more hopeful events, a
warning that youth must be served and that the doddering oldsters were
to give place to those who could stand up under the stern and exacting
tests of warfare. Such rash ardor was not according to precedent.
Harrison promptly relieved the impetuous Croghan of his command and sent
a colonel to replace him. But Croghan argued the point so eloquently
that the stockade was restored to him next day and he won his chance to
do