e of four
hundred white soldiers and about three hundred Indians. He took
with him also several six-pounders. The troops disembarked on the
right bank not far from the fort. Tecumseh, fertile in strategy,
had devised a plan by which he hoped to lure the garrison from the
fort. His scouts had apprised him that Harrison with a large force
was at Sandusky, about sixty miles distant. The chief proposed that
the Indians should gain the road which led from Sandusky to Fort
Meigs and that a sham battle should be enacted there to deceive
the garrison, who would naturally suppose that some of Harrison's
force, coming to the fort, were being attacked. They would hasten
to the assistance of their comrades, and the British would fall
upon them in the rear, while a strong force assailed the fort. The
plan met with Procter's approval, and the Indians proceeded to
carry it out. Heavy firing was soon heard, and it became so animated
that even some of Procter's men believed that a real engagement
was in progress. But the garrison made no response, and the mock
battle, which lasted about an hour, was finally terminated by a
heavy downpour of rain.

Tecumseh's plan for the capture of Fort Meigs had miscarried, but
he still hoped for victory. He induced Procter to make an attack
upon Fort Stephenson (now Fremont in the state of Ohio), about ten
miles from the mouth of the Sandusky river. On July 28 the British
troops embarked with artillery and stores and entered Sandusky Bay.
Most of the Indians marched through the woods between the Sandusky
and the Maumee. On August 1 Procter, having ascended the river,
demanded the surrender of Fort Stephenson from Major Croghan, the
officer in command. The garrison consisted of only one hundred
and sixty men, and they had but one gun; yet Croghan refused to
surrender. Procter then landed his men and opened fire on the
north-west angle of the fort; but his guns were light, and the
cannonade, which continued for thirty hours, had but little effect.

Fort Stephenson was built on the edge of a deep ravine filled with
brushwood. Before the main building was a ditch, the sides of which
were crowned with palisades. About four o'clock in the afternoon
Procter ordered an assault. He divided his men into two parties,
one to attack the fort from the north-west, the other to assail
the southern side. Armed with axes, which, however, were so blunt
as to be almost useless, the men of the first party broke through