Perhaps the story surrounding the two Callison brothers who were listed as
killed in the Battle of the Maumee in the Bible in 1813 has to do with the War
of 1812 after all, instead of the Revolution.
Major-General William Henry Harrison was placed in command of the Army of the
Northwest, He gave orders for the construction
of a series of forts —in particular, Fort Meigs along the Maumee or Miami
du Lac River and Fort Stephenson along the Sandusky River, both in Ohio. In
the spring of 1813, Harrison left in search of reinforcements. When he returned
to his headquarters along the Maumee, he was surprised to find that none of
the work he ordered on Fort Meigs was completed. The term of the militia
units assigned to the task had expired, and they went home before work had begun.
Harrison hurried to begin building what would become the largest wooden
fortress in North America up to that point. The fort was located across the river
from the ruins of the old British Fort Miami and the site of the Battle of
Fallen Timbers, where Harrison and Tecumseh had both fought in 1794.
A few days after the siege began, Harrison sent out a messenger to General
Green Clay who commanded about 1,600 militia. Clay's militia had been given
orders from Harrison to row down the Maumee River and split into two columns.
One column was to fight their way through the Indian warriors and the other was
to attack and spike a British battery. However, the column assigned to
attack the battery did not receive complete instructions from Clay. On May 5, a
detachment of 866 officers and men from Clay's command under Colonel William
Dudley attacked and routed the British gunners; without waiting for tools to
spike the cannon (which were on their way from inside the fort) they began
using their muskets to damage the cannon and successfully destroyed the British
battery. Harrison attempted to wave the militia on into the fort, but they
thought he was cheering them for capturing the battery. While they were
standing around either celebrating over their victory or trying to figure out what
to do next, a British counter-attack led by Major Adam Muir came steaming
into them. Some were killed and wounded, others surrendered, while still others
fled into the woods. But they soon found that the woods were full of
Tecumseh's warriors. The Kentuckians fought valiantly, but they were no match for the
Indians at forest-fighting. The warriors kept falling back when the
Americans charged, then firing at them when they re-grouped. Some of the Americans
escaped from the woods to surrender to the British. Finally, all those left in
the woods were killed or captured by Tecumseh's men. Of Dudley's force, only
169 men left to guard the boats escaped. Some 150 of Dudley's command were
killed and 547 were taken prisoner. Of the prisoners, an estimated 150 were
wounded. Many of the captives were taken to the abandoned Fort Miami nearby. At
this place, a group of warriors who were frustrated at having arrived too
late for the Battle massacred 38 of the severely wounded prisoners.
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