Remembering the River Raisin

This British cartoon from circa 1813 depicts the capture of American General Winchester. Image source: The Library of Congress.

Winchester’s Troops

Through the fall and winter of 1812, American General William Henry Harrison prepared his army to recapture Detroit, which had been surrendered to the British on August 16th. Part of Harrison’s army, under the command of General James Winchester, struggled to move supplies north to build a base at the rapids of the Maumee River in Ohio. Winchester’s soldiers marched through two feet of snow and when their horses gave out, the men pulled the cargo themselves.

Answering Calls for Help

The exhausted soldiers arrived at the rapids on January 10th 1813, but soon received disturbing calls for help from Michigan Territory. The inhabitants of Frenchtown on the River Raisin complained of British and Indian harassment and told of British plans to seize their stored food, which included three hundred barrels of flour. On the night of January 16th, Winchester met with his officers in a council of war. Though opposed by Colonel Wells, the senior regular army officer, Winchester decided to follow the resolve of his Kentucky militia officers and advance troops to aid the people of Frenchtown.

The next morning, 550 Kentucky militia troops marched out of camp to take the road north to Frenchtown, followed later that day by 130 more Kentuckians. By 3:00pm the next day, the Americans were near the enemy, about fifty British militia troops and two hundred Indians. The Kentucky militia deployed in three detachments and attacked the British across the frozen River Raisin under heavy musket and cannon fire. When the fighting ended at nightfall, the Americans had succeeded in driving the British away from Frenchtown. A militia officer wrote to General Winchester requesting reinforcements to help hold the town when the expected British counterattack came.

Reinforcements…and a Counterattack

Winchester sent three hundred U.S. regulars under Colonel Wells to Frenchtown, which brought the total American force there to about one thousand men. When Winchester arrived to inspect the troops, he found most of them camped behind a picket fence that surrounded the town. Though his militia were scattered, and the regular soldiers camped in a position that exposed them to enemy attack, Winchester failed to move them. The general then set up his headquarters in a house across the river, keeping the extra ammunition instead of distributing it to the troops. Each man in the regulars had only ten cartridges for his musket.

When the British did return, at dawn on the 22nd, American sentries fired, warning the camp. The Americans woke to face 597 British soldiers, militia and sailors armed with cannon and between six hundred and eight hundred Indians led by Wyandot chief Roundhead. At first, the Americans stood up to the British assault, but soon the Indians outflanked the exposed regular soldiers. Running low on ammunition, facing the British to their front and crossfire from the Indians, the regulars broke formation and ran. Chased by native warriors, many Americans were killed as they fled through the woods. Winchester and several other American officers were captured and taken to the British commander, Colonel Procter. Procter persuaded Winchester to order the remaining American troops holding out in Frenchtown to surrender, assuring him that the British would protect the townspeople and the sick and wounded American soldiers.

The River Raisin

After the remainder of the Americans surrendered, Procter quickly retreated back to the British base at Fort Malden across the Detroit River, taking the American prisoners and those wounded men who could walk. About eighty wounded Americans were left at Frenchtown. When Indian warriors returned to take captives and war trophies, they killed thirty of the wounded and took the remainder to their villages or to ransom to the British. Outraged Americans remembered the incident with the rallying cry, “Remember the Raisin!”

Come to a Michigan Statehood Celebration commemorating the War of 1812. It will be held at the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing, January 26th, 2013 from 11-4pm.

Learn more about the Battle of Frenchtown at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park.

In this photo – taken in Monroe, Michigan in 1871 – George Armstrong Custer (back row, third from left) poses with aged veterans of the 1813 River Raisin battle.