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Street west and Park Boulevard. There they marked out a circle 40 feet in diameter and threw up an embankment to a height of 10 feet which was 2 feet wide at the top and surrounded by a ditch from which the earth for the embankment was excavated. On the inner side of the parapet they made a terrace about 3 feet wide so that when a man stood upon it only his head would be visible from the outside. Four small swivel guns were mounted on this parapet.

To this defense men who went from the town in search of cattle, or a little group of hunters, could resort for refuge in case of an attack by hostile Indians and hold their own until relief could be sent from Fort Lernoult. The swivel guns were soon returned to the fort because there was no provision for safe storage of ammunition. The ground about the fort was marshy and there was always several feet of water in the ditch. There is no record of any practical use being made of this fortification which was at first termed Fort Croghan, in honor of Col. Croghan. Very soon the outpost came to be regarded as a joke and a useless expenditure of labor, so the soldiers who built it substituted the name "Fort Nonsense."

For a time a small guard of soldiers was detailed each day to make use of this fort as a lookout station and to intimidate the Indians, but the practice was soon abandoned. The trees between Fort Lernoult and Fort Nonsense were cut down so as to permit a clear view between them and occasionally the soldiers of Fort Lernoult would engage in target practice by firing a few rounds from the guns on the north side of the fort into Fort Nonsense. After the War of 1812 this fort became a popular playground with the boys of the town. In the winter they used to man the parapet with a few defenders provided with a plentiful supply of snowballs, while the larger number of boys would storm the fort from the outside.

In later years as the town grew northward and citizens pushed their residences farther and farther up Woodward Avenue, Rev. George Duffield, D.D., built his residence on the west side of Woodward Avenue. When streets were laid out running east and west each side of his property the street on the south

side was named George Street and that on the north side was called Duffield Street. In every American city the city fathers seem to have a contempt for all historical and significant street names. Detroit is a notorious offender in the substitution of purely fanciful or descriptive names for the historical. In 1852 George Street was renamed High Street because at that time there was a rather sharp rise on the ground between Montcalm and George streets. These streets were laid out in 1835, but for many years they were regarded as "away out in the country.". The location of Fort Nonsense was in the rear of Dr. Duffield's garden, in which he took great pride.

During the winter of 1812 Col. Lewis Cass went to Washington to lay before the War Department charges against Gen. Hull, accusing him of cowardice, incompetence and treason. Hull, after his return east, was summoned to appear for trial by court martial in answer to these charges but President Madison dismissed the court. Another trial was held in 1814 and Hull was found guilty of cowardice and incompetence and sentenced to be shot. But President Madison pardoned him on account of his former good record. Hull's name was stricken from the roll of the Army. He always protested that his course in Detroit was all that saved the entire white population from massacre at the hands of the Indians. He died at Newton, Mass., in 1825.

Not only the American residents at Detroit but those of the country at large felt that the nation was disgraced by the surrender of Detroit and plans were immediately set on foot for a recovery of the lost territory. Gen. William Henry Harrison, who had put down the Indian uprising of 1811 by winning the Battle of Tippecanoe, was put in command in the West with authority to raise an army. He was assisted by Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, John Logan and William S. Hunter, whom he appointed as aides. These men set out to recruit 500 fighting men from Kentucky while Gen. Robert Crooks and Gen. Joel Leftwich sought 3,500 recruits in Pennsylvania.

A large force of men was gathered at Dayton, O. Then, through some blunder, an order came appointing Gen. James

Winchester commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. Gen. Winchester's appointment was as bad a blunder as were the former appointments of Harmar, St. Clair and Hull. He had served in the Revolution but had been living on his estate in Tennessee for 30 years, completely divorced from military affairs and wholly absorbed in the business of accumulating wealth. He was 61 years old, very fat and flabby, pompous and overbearing toward his subordinates and holding in contempt all opinions save his own.

Here was another manifestly incompetent and unfit man picked by Congress, for no reason at all, to take charge of an army of "first-class fighting men" and lead them to their. destruction. As Talleyrand once remarked: "It was worse than a crime-it was a blunder." Winchester went to Fort Defiance, Ohio, to take charge of the campaign for the recovery of Detroit. The soldiers hated him for his pompous, overbearing ways. They distrusted him because he was evidently a backnumber as a military leader, and they wanted "Ol' Tippecanoe' (Gen. Harrison) to lead them because he was thoroughly acquainted with Indian methods of warfare and right in training for the coming events.

Gen. Harrison and the other subordinates of Winchester were out gathering troops while Winchester waited, strutting about in uniform. By fall an army of 3,000 men had been recruited but they were undrilled and lacking in supplies. They employed the early part of the winter in destroying Indian towns and forcing their inhabitants to resort to Malden to subsist themselves off the British supplies. The Indians about Detroit took full advantage of their British protection and popularity by preying upon the settlers up and down the river. A number of families left the country, stripped of their property, and sought safety in Ohio.

Col. Elliott had taken command of a force of 400 Indians under Chiefs Walk-in-the-Water and Roundhead and 200 Canadian militia under Maj. Reynolds. They built a stockade at Frenchtown, now Monroe, and set up a howitzer to defend it. The settlers there were pretty thoroughly stripped of their

belongings and when they had nothing more to be plundered the Indians began threatening their lives. Indians who had been driven out of northern Indiana were inclined to take revenge upon American settlers wherever they were found.

Messengers were sent to Gen. Winchester at Defiance to tell him that unless he would come to the rescue the settlers at Frenchtown might all be murdered as their white commander Elliott seemed to give the Indians a free hand. That winter of 1812 was intensely cold. In January Winchester sent 550 men under Col. Lewis and 110 under Col. Allen to offer protection to the settlers at Frenchtown. They crossed the Maumee and the great swamps on the ice and presently stood before the stockade at Frenchtown. This they carried by assault, driving the defenders into the woods. In the fight the Americans lost 12 killed and 55 wounded.

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CHAPTER XXXI

MASSACRE AT RIVER RAISIN

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OLONELS LEWIS AND ALLEN were men of action. When they arrived at Frenchtown and saw Elliott's forces protected by a stockade, they realized that they must attack at once, for if they waited messengers would bring reinforcements from the garrison at Fort Malden and they would be outnumbered. They immediately deployed their men and charged the stockade at a run. The British and Indians fired on them, but before they could reload, the Americans were in close contact, and the Indians broke from the rear of the stockade and fled to the woods toward the lake. The militia followed them in a rout.

Soon after the stockade had been occupied Gen. Winchester arrived at Frenchtown, escorted by 300 men under Col. Samuel Wells. The general looked well to his dignity and ease, and established his headquarters at the best house in the neighborhood, that of Col. François Navarre, which was more than a mile from the town, and on the other side of the River Raisin from the stockade. Peter Navarre and his four brothers warned Winchester that they might be attacked by a force sent from Fort Malden, but the old general scoffed at the idea.

The Navarres, however, went scouting toward Detroit River and discovered far away a line of British troops and Indians crossing the ice just below Grosse Ile and hauling cannon on sleds. They hurried back and reported to Gen. Winchester. Jacques LaSalle, a French resident whose daughter was married to an English officer named Colwell, assured Winchester that the report could not be true, and the old general believed LaSalle in preference to the Navarres.

Next day Col. Lewis learned that a large force had crossed Detroit River and were at Stony Creek, with several pieces of

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