ntier the British commander-in-chief had to defend, rendered it
impossible for him to cope with the American enemy in point of numbers.

The American army, to whom was committed this year _the honour of
conquering Canada_, was divided, as the year before, into three
divisions: first, the Army of the North, consisting of 18,000 men,
commanded by General Hampton, and stationed along the southern shore of
Lake Champlain, on the south precincts of Lower Canada; the second, the
Army of the Centre, consisting of 7,000 effective men, which was again
subdivided into two divisions, commanded by Generals Dearborn and
Wilkinson, and were posted from Buffalo, at the lower extremity of Lake
Erie, to Sackett's Harbour, at the lower end of Lake Ontario; and the
third, the Army of the West, consisting of "8,000 effective men,"
according to the American account, commanded by Generals Harrison and
Wilkinson, whose limits extended from Buffalo westward, as far as the
British frontier extended.

After the capture of Detroit by General Brock and his little army,
Colonel Proctor was appointed to command that fort, with a force of
about 600 regulars and a number of Indians--an entirely insufficient
force, but all that could be spared and provided from the slender forces
of Upper Canada. The American General, Harrison, who succeeded Hull in
the command of the West, organized a large force by the end of 1812, of
over 5,000 men, consisting principally of men from Ohio and Kentucky.
Among the small outposts which Proctor had established in the
neighbourhood of Detroit, was one at _Frenchtown_, on the River Raisin,
twenty-six miles from Detroit, which consisted of thirty of the Essex
Militia, under Major Reynolds, and about 200 Indians. On the 17th of
January, 1813, Brigadier-General Winchester, commanding a division of
the American army, sent Colonel Lewis with a strong force to dislodge
the British--which he succeeded in doing, after a sharp encounter in
which the Americans lost twelve killed and fifty wounded. Reynolds
retreated to Brownstown, sixteen miles in his rear, and gave information
to Colonel Proctor of the advance of Winchester's brigade, which now
occupied _Frenchtown_, and _was over one thousand strong_.

Colonel Proctor knew that his only hope of success was by prompt action
to fight the enemy in detail, before General Harrison could unite his
whole force to bear on Detroit. He therefore forthwith assembled all his
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