Siege of Fort Wayne The Siege of Fort Wayne took place during the War of 1812 , between United States and American Indian forces in the wake of the successful British campaigns of 1812 . Background . Since 1811 , after the severe defeat at the Battle of Tippecanoe , Native American tribes on the Northwest frontier had been growing bitter at the U . S . presence there . Encouraged by other British / Native American victories at places such as Fort Dearborn and Detroit , native tribes began to undertake campaigns against other smaller American outposts . Fort Wayne , in northeast Indiana Territory , had fallen into disrepair in the years leading up to 1812 . As a frontier outpost stationed in a busy Native American town , the garrison was often insubordinate , and Captain James Rhea had allowed many of the buildings to deteriorate . The walls , once strong enough to withstand cannon balls , had not been maintained . Although there was a good well inside the fort , the food stores had gotten low by September . The garrison first learned of the fall of Fort Dearborn on 26 August , when Corporal Jordan returned after escaping the massacre . On 28 August , Stephen Johnston , the assistant trade factor at Fort Wayne , was killed a mile away from Fort Wayne . The news was met with alarm , and John Johnston of Piqua , Ohio sent Shawnee Captain Logan to help evacuate women and children to the relative safety of Ohio . In September 1812 , Indians from the Potawatomi and Miami tribe s , led by Chief Winamac , gathered around Fort Wayne . Captain James Rhea sent letters to John Johnston and Ohio Governor Return Meigs to ask for assistance . The growing Indian threat outside the fort led Rhea to begin drinking heavily . On several occasions Rhea invited Indian delegates into the fort to discuss terms of peace with the Indians ( mostly to ensure his own personal safety ) . On 4 September , Potawatomi chiefs Winamac and Five Medals approached the fort under a flag of truce and asked to speak to Captain Rhea . Rhea , who had been drinking , met them at the gate and asked if they were meeting for peace or war . Winamac replied " I don ' t know what to tell you , but you know that Fort Mackinac is taken , Detroit is in the hands of the British , Fort Dearborn has been taken , and you must expect to fall next , probably in a few days . " Rhea invited Winamac to his quarters , where they shared wine . Rhea declared Winamac to be his friend , and invited him back for breakfast the next day . Winamac interpreted feigned friendship as cowardliness , however , and prepared for battle . Siege . Morning 5 September , the siege began when Chief Winamac ' s forces attacked two soldiers returning from an outhouse . The Native Americans assaulted the fort from the east side and burned the homes of the surrounding village . The Indians constructed two wooden cannons and were able to trick the garrison into thinking they had artillery besieging the fort as well . Captain Rhea was again drunk , and " took to his quarters , sick . " The Indian Agent at Fort Wayne , Benjamin Stickney , was recovering from an illness , but took command of the fort with Lieutenants Daniel Curtis and Phillip Ostrander organizing the defense . Chief Winamac came to the gate again , that evening , and was admitted - unarmed - with thirteen of his men . As they talked , Winamac revealed a knife that he had hidden , and a fur trader , Antoine Bondie , jumped forward to save the life of Stickney . Winamac left the fort , and the Native American forces opened fire at about eight o ' clock PM . Winamac ' s forces tried to set the fort on fire , and while the garrison - about 70 soldiers and some civilians - tried to keep the walls wet , they returned fire with muskets and howitzer s . The battle lasted until three o ' clock in the afternoon on 6 September , when the American Indian forces retired to a safe distance from the fort . The fighting resumed at nine o ' clock that night . Relief . Efforts were already underway to reinforce Fort Wayne after the news of Fort Detroit reached Newport Barracks . General James Winchester was commander of the Northwestern Army , but Kentucky Governor Charles Scott had just appointed Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison as Major General of the Kentucky Militia and authorized him to relieve Fort Wayne , and Harrison was at Newport Barracks to assume command of the militia . Harrison wrote a letter to Secretary of War William Eustis explaining the situation and apologizing for taking unauthorized action , then quickly organized a militia force of 2 , 200 men and marched North to the fort . A small scouting party led by Fort Wayne sutler William Oliver and Ohio Shawnee Captain Logan arrived at Fort Wayne during a lull in the fighting , and raced through Winamac ' s army into the fort . They delivered the news that a relief effort was underway , and again rode through Winamac ' s siege to report to Harrison that the Fort was still under U . S . control . Although the scouting party came with welcome news , Harrison also received a report that a force of 400 Native Americans and 140 British regulars under Tecumseh was marching towards Fort Wayne . Harrison now raced North in an attempt to beat Tecumseh to Fort Wayne . By 8 September , Harrison had reached the village of Simon Girty on the St . Marys River , and was joined by 800 men of the Ohio militia under Colonel Adams and Colonel Hawkins at Shane ' s Crossing . Harrison ' s army was harassed along the way , and although no hostile Native Americans actually engaged in combat , they had an effect . The army rarely camped at night without the alarm being sounded and men roused to battle positions . Sergeant Thomas Polly was accidentally shot and killed when troops thought they detected Indians in the woods . While the army marched through the Great Black Swamp , Colonel Hawkins , of the Ohio Militia , became stuck and was shot through the chest when one of his men thought he was struggling with a hostile Indian . Another soldier , Miller , was granted leave to return home , but not before his compatriots dunked him in the river and baptized him " in the name of King George , Aaron Burr , and the Devil ! " On 11 September , Winamac attempted one last attack on Fort Wayne , and suffered several casualties . Suddenly , on 12 September , the attack was broken off , and Winamac ' s forces crossed the Maumee River and disappeared into the woods . Harrison ' s relief army marched towards the fort , uncontested by Winamac . The Potawatami / Miami force retreated into Ohio and Michigan Territory . Harrison took Rhea ' s sword and had him arrested . A Board of Inquiry was convened , but allowed Rhea to resign out of respect for his years of service . Harrison then placed Lieutenant Philip Ostander ( one of the two lieutenants who had relieved Rhea ) in command of the fort . Punitive Expeditions . On 14 September , Harrison sent out two divisions from Fort Wayne with orders to destroy any Native American village they found as punishment for the siege on Fort Wayne . The first division was composed of two infantry regiments under Colonel Allen and Colonel Lewis , as well as a cavalry regiment under Captain Garrard . General Harrison and General Payne led this division to The Forks Of The Wabash , which had become an important Miami town since the establishment of Fort Wayne in 1794 . The division marched uncontested to the Forks , which was evacuated when they arrived . The village surprised many in the Kentucky militia , whose houses and towns were not as well built as this Miami town . The town was completely destroyed , as well as any crops that they Miami had not had time to remove . Other villages nearby were also destroyed , and some men in the division robbed the wooden tomb of a recently deceased chief before burning it . No American Indians were encountered , and the division had no casualties during their expedition . The second division was composed of two infantry regiments under Colonel Samuel Wells ( the eldest brother of recently killed William Wells ) and Colonel Scott , as well as a cavalry regiment under Colonel Johnson and mounted militia from Ohio under Colonel Adams . They marched to the Elkhart River , where they destroyed the village of Chief Five Medals , as well as all unharvested crops . The second division also found a recently built tomb with a white flag flying near it . It contained a female corpse sitting upright , and was filled with artifacts . There was some disagreement about how to treat the tomb , but some men finally raided and destroyed the tomb . The division did not search for more villages , but returned to Fort Wayne . On the return march , however , several men suddenly became very ill , and one man fell over dead without explanation . The division arrive at Fort Wayne on 18 September , telling stories of the " Curse of Five Medals Village " . The day before , 17 September , Colonel Simrall arrived at Fort Wayne with 320 Dragoons and a company of mounted riflemen under Colonel Farrow . After they had rested , General Harrison sent them to the Eel River to destroy yet more Miami villages . Simrall ' s expedition destroyed everything they found on the river , except property that had belonged to the recently deceased Chief Little Turtle . General James Winchester arrived next at Fort Wayne , and relieved Harrison of command . Harrison took his militia force to Piqua , Ohio , where he joined with 1 , 000 additional men of the Kentucky militia . Harrison received news that he , now , was in command of the Northwestern Army , and he then set out on yet another expedition to destroy villages , this time on the St . Joseph River . General Winchester , meanwhile , departed Fort Wayne on 22 September to recapture Fort Detroit when he received news that a hostile force was marching towards Fort Wayne . This force , under Major Adam Muir , consisted of British Regulars , Canadian militia , and thousands of Native Americans . Near Defiance , Ohio , two scouting parties met each other , and the U . S . scouting party was captured . The five men under Ensign Liggett were marched partway back to the British camp , then killed . Their bodies were later discovered , but two separate parties of men who had been sent to retrieve the bodies suspected traps and returned to the American camp . Winchester finally sent a large contingent of militia under Captain Garrard , which engaged hostile Native Americans , but finally retrieved the bodies of the dead scouts . When General Harrison learned of the British Army marching towards Fort Wayne , he rushed to join General Winchester . The two armies combined forces on 2 October , and Muir withdrew to Canada . Fort Wayne , meanwhile , became endangered when both General Harrison and General Winchester left . Harrison ordered Colonel Allen Trimble to Fort Wayne with 500 mounted militia and a company of dragoons . A band of American Indians threatened the fort , but they fled at the approach of Trimble ' s dragoons . Trimble , following orders , then continued on towards the Eel River to seek and destroy Indian villages , but he could only convince 250 of his men to go on this mission . Two villages were destroyed before fear of Native American reprisals forced Trimble to return to Fort Wayne . Aftermath . The siege of Fort Wayne prompted Harrison to order punitive expeditions against the Miami which culminated in the Battle of the Mississinewa in December , 1812 . Influential Miami Chief Pacanne had remained neutral in this latest war , but after the destruction of so many Miami villages ( many were also neutral ) , he openly declared for the British . The defeats at the Battle of Fort Harrison and at Fort Wayne caused many Native Americans to lose confidence in their chiefs . Many of them turned instead to the influential leadership of Tecumseh and joined his confederacy . No major Indian attacks occurred in the Indiana Territory for the rest of the war , but it was not until Tecumseh ' s defeat at the Battle of the Thames that the Indian threat was really eliminated . On 7 July 1813 , Colonel Richard Mentor Johnson arrived at Fort Wayne with 700 dragoons and a flotilla of flatboats with supplies . As the last boat came into view of the fort , however , it was suddenly attacked , and the three men manning the boat were killed . Johnson ' s dragoons chased the attackers for over ten miles , but were never able to catch them . Johnson then led raids on several Native American villages - including Five Medals ' village , as retribution for the attacks , but all of the villages were evacuated as the army approached , and a heavy summer rain kept the dragoons from burning any villages . Frustrated with his failure to encounter any Native Americans , Johnson escorted the empty flatboats back to Ohio . Unknown to him , a force of over a thousand Native Americans under Robert Dickson passed through White Pigeon ' s Town on their way to join Tecumseh at Detroit - just days after Johnson had tried to destroy the village . Three active battalions of the current 3rd Infantry ( 1 - 3 Inf , 2 - 3 Inf and 4 - 3 Inf ) perpetuate the lineage of the old 1st Infantry Regiment , which had a detachment at Fort Wayne .