Battle of Frenchtown

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Battle of Frenchtown
The Battle of Frenchtown was the most horrifying and bloodiest conflict in Michigan’s history that occurred from 18th to 23rd of January 1813. The battle was fought between the British-Native American coalition and the United States. The British had captured Detroit in August 1812, and the northwestern American army had an intention to recover it. If Americans captured Fort Detroit, Upper Canada would be accessible to them, and this is where the British soldiers were storing their resources. As per the Northwest Territory army commander, General William Henry Harrison, American would be able to stop the war if they held a winder campaign as they would force out the British. After assembling some citizens from adjacent towns, General Winchester, against the commands from the General decided to drive his soldiers to the north with the intention of eliminating the Indians and the British in the towns. They fight erupted on 18th January but there was little resistance, and they won (Gilpin 259). This success gave Winchester too much confidence which made him settle down in Frenchtown with inadequate security.
On 22nd of January, 1813, the British confronted them in the early morning, and since they didn’t expect and they were not prepared, the American forces were greatly outnumbered. The number of British troops neared 600 while that of Indians was about 800 (Vetter 3). Similarly, their poor deployment of guards made them be found off-guard.

A mile away, General Winchester was woken up by clash reverberations and arrived merely in time to witness his right side disintegrating. In an endeavor to maintain his ground, he attempted to reorganize his troops on the flank of River Raisin, but then again their efforts were snuffed by the British forces. The American troops ran short of ammunition, and over 300 of them were killed on this fateful day, in addition to around who got wounded. More than 500 were captured including Winchester, while only 33 fled with their lives. The US later liberated Detroit on 5th October 1813 with a massive victory (Vetter 5). The battle led to the removal of Indians from the Northwest Territory, the consequences that remain to influence the US until today.

Work cited
Gilpin, Alec. “The War of 1812 in the Old Northwest on JSTOR.” Jstor.Org, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt7zt9zf.
Vetter, Susan. “War of 1812.” Saylor.Org, 2011, https://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HIST001-3.6.2-War-of-1812.pdf.