British Defeated at the Battle of the Thames (5 OCT 1813)

On Oct. 5, 1813, scouts from the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen reported on British positions along the Thames River near Moraviantown, Ontario. Their reconnaissance prompted Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison to approve an unconventional mounted charge that proved effective at overtaking both the British and their indigenous allies.

After the disastrous capitulation of American forces at Fort Detroit in 1812 (https://www.dvidshub.net/news/478238), the Americans were desperate to recapture the stronghold on Lake Erie. On Sept. 10, 1813, the U.S. Navy seized control of the lake during one of the largest naval battles of the war. Faced with dwindling supplies, British forces under Maj. Gen. Henry Proctor abandoned Forts Detroit and Malden and retreated further into Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) along the Thames River.

General Harrison, waning in popularity following his lackluster performance in Ohio during the spring and summer, was determined to follow the retreating Proctor with his Army of the Northwest. He set out from the recaptured Fort Detroit on Oct. 1 with a few hundred Army regulars and Native American allies, 1,200 Kentucky Mounted Riflemen under Col. Richard M. Johnson, and 2,300 Kentucky militiamen commanded by Governor Isaac Shelby.

While Harrison was later criticized for his slow pursuit, Proctor’s pace was worse. In addition to the low river and rough terrain making movement difficult, his demoralized troops made no effort to fell trees or destroy bridges in their wake, and many stragglers fell behind. The relationship between Proctor and Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and his approximately 500 warriors was also in dire condition. Tecumseh thought Proctor was a coward and continuously urged him to stop and fight until Proctor finally relented and organized his troops in the trees along the Thames.

On the morning of Oct. 5, 1813, the Army of the Northwest assembled near the British position. Harrison initially planned to send the Kentucky militia to attack Tecumseh on the left flank while Johnson’s mounted troops and Harrison’s regulars attacked the British along the river. However, Johnson’s scouts discovered the majority of Proctor’s 800 British regulars and a single cannon amassed in two thin lines stretching about 250 yards from the river’s edge to a small swamp. On the other side of the swamp, Tecumseh’s force was assembled in the thick underbrush near a much larger swamp. The distance and terrain between the British and their allies left Proctor’s left flank largely unsupported.

Johnson suggested his mounted infantrymen instead charge directly through British lines. According to historian Walter R. Borneman, this was a “highly unusual frontier tactic—something decidedly more British than American,” but Harrison believed it could work based on the scouts’ intelligence. Harrison later recorded: “The American backwoodsmen ride better in the woods than any other people. I was persuaded too that the enemy would be quite unprepared for the shock and that they could not resist it.”

The two battalions of the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen attacked swiftly. With cries of “Remember the Raisin!”—referring to the killing of prisoners of war, particularly of Kentucky militiamen, by native warriors following the Battle of the River Raisin earlier that year—Colonel Johnson’s brother James led the 1st Battalion against the British regulars along the river, running directly through their lines and opening fire from the rear. Colonel Johnson’s 2d Battalion then crossed the swamp to attack Tecumseh’s men in the undergrowth. The troops were forced to dismount and fight on foot and soon overpowered the warriors with the help of Shelby’s militia. During the fight, Tecumseh was killed, and his forces scattered.

The battle, which lasted about half an hour, claimed a few dozen casualties on both sides, with nearly 600 British regulars captured. Though small in scale, it held large significance for the war. The victories on Lake Erie and the Thames River cemented American sovereignty over the territories of Michigan and Ohio and temporarily pushed the British out of western Ontario. Of even greater consequence, the death of Tecumseh led to a complete collapse of unified indigenous resistance in the Northwest Territory.

Article by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.

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