He was mortally wounded and lost six hundred
and fifty men.
Mr. Madison, who had been re-elected president of the United States,
showed a disposition to prosecute the war with great vigor. While the
success of the Americans on land was not very encouraging, to the
surprise of everybody, their greatest achievements were on water.
England's boasted navies seemed to have become second to the American
war-vessels. On Lake Erie, Commodore Oliver Perry, in command of an
inferior fleet, had won a signal victory over Commodore Barclay after a
long and hotly contested battle. There has never been such a remarkable
naval victory on fresh water. Perry's famous dispatch to General
Harrison, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," has become
a proverb.
Shortly after the repulse of Proctor, Fernando, who had taken a place in
another company, was sent to Fort Stephenson, then commanded by Major
George Croghan, a regular army officer only twenty-one years of age.
Proctor's dusky allies marched across the country to assist the British
in the siege of the fort; and when, on the afternoon of the 31st, the
British transports and gunboats appeared at a turn in the river a mile
from the fort, the woods were swarming with Indians.
[Illustration: JAMES MADISON.]
Within the fort, all were calm, pale, yet determined. Only one hundred
and sixty men were there to oppose the hosts of Proctor and Tecumseh.
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