they turned their attention to Fort Sandusky, where
the town of Fremont now stands. General Harrison held a council of war,
and it was decided that Fort Sandusky could not resist an attack and
must be abandoned. But when the order to retire reached the gallant
young officer in command it was too late, for the Indians were already
in force around the post. Major Croghan therefore wrote a reply which he
thought might fall into the enemy's hands, and which he worded for their
eyes rather than his general's. "Sir, I have just received yours of
yesterday, 10 o'clock p.m., ordering me to destroy this place and
make good my retreat, which was received too late to be carried into
execution. _We have determined to maintain this place, and by heavens we
can!_"

This answer got safely through to General Harrison, who promptly
resented what he thought its presumption and sent to remove Major
Croghan from his command. Croghan went to explain in person and was
allowed to return to his post. The British and Indians appeared in force
the next day, July 31st, and on the 2d of August made their first and
last assault. Colonel Short of the British regulars led a force of 350
men against the fort, and set them the example of leaping into the ditch
before it. When the ditch was full, Croghan opened upon them from a
masked porthole with a six pounder, and raked them from the distance
of thirty-feet. Colonel Short, who had ordered his men to give the
Americans no quarter, fell mortally wounded; he tied his handkerchief to
his sword and waved it in prayer for mercy, and not in vain. Croghan
did all in his power to relieve his disabled foes; he passed buckets of
water to them over the pickets, he opened a space under the pickets that
those who could might creep through into the fort out of their comrades'
fire.

That night the whole force of the enemy retreated in such haste that
they left many stores and munitions behind them. They were commanded by
General Proctor, who had already failed at Fort Meigs against Harrison,
and who now dreaded an attack from him. None was made, but Harrison
had the pleasure of writing in his report of the victory won by Major
Croghan at Fort Stephenson: "It will not be among the least of General
Proctor's mortifications that he has been baffled by a youth who had
just passed his twenty-first year."

A little more than a month after this repulse the British were defeated
in the battle of Lake Erie by Commodore