William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison 	William Henry Harrison
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/William_Henry_Harrison_by_James_Reid_Lambdin%2C_1835_crop_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-William_Henry_Harrison_by_James_Reid_Lambdin%2C_1835_crop_%28cropped%29.jpg
Harrison by James Lambdin c. 1841	https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/William_Henry_Harrison_by_James_Reid_Lambdin%2C_1835_crop_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-William_Henry_Harrison_by_James_Reid_Lambdin%2C_1835_crop_%28cropped%29.jpg
Harrison by James Lambdin c. 1841
 	
9th President of the United States 	9th President of the United States
In officeMarch 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841 	In officeMarch 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
Vice President 	John Tyler
Preceded by 	Martin Van Buren
Succeeded by 	John Tyler
United States Minister to Gran Colombia 	United States Minister to Gran Colombia
In officeFebruary 5, 1829 – September 26, 1829	In officeFebruary 5, 1829 – September 26, 1829
President 	
* John Quincy Adams
* Andrew Jackson
Preceded by 	Beaufort Taylor Watts
Succeeded by 	Thomas Patrick Moore
United States Senatorfrom Ohio 	United States Senatorfrom Ohio
In officeMarch 4, 1825 – May 20, 1828 	In officeMarch 4, 1825 – May 20, 1828
Preceded by 	Ethan Allen Brown
Succeeded by 	Jacob Burnet
Member of the Ohio Senate
from the Hamilton County district	Member of the Ohio Senate
from the Hamilton County district
In officeDecember 5, 1819 – December 2, 1821 	In officeDecember 5, 1819 – December 2, 1821
Preceded by 	Ephraim Brown
Succeeded by 	Ephraim Brown
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Ohio's 1st district	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Ohio's 1st district
In officeOctober 8, 1816 – March 3, 1819 	In officeOctober 8, 1816 – March 3, 1819
Preceded by 	John McLean
Succeeded by 	Thomas R. Ross
1st Governor of the Indiana Territory 	1st Governor of the Indiana Territory
In officeJanuary 10, 1801 – December 28, 1812 	In officeJanuary 10, 1801 – December 28, 1812
Appointed by 	John Adams
Preceded by 	Office established
Succeeded by 	Thomas Posey
Delegate to the
U.S. House of Representatives
from the Northwest Territory's
at-large district	Delegate to the
U.S. House of Representatives
from the Northwest Territory's
at-large district
In officeMarch 4, 1799 – May 14, 1800 	In officeMarch 4, 1799 – May 14, 1800
Preceded by 	Constituency established
Succeeded by 	William McMillan
2nd Secretary of the Northwest Territory 	2nd Secretary of the Northwest Territory
In officeJune 28, 1798 – October 1, 1799 	In officeJune 28, 1798 – October 1, 1799
Governor 	Arthur St. Clair
Preceded by 	Winthrop Sargent
Succeeded by 	Charles Willing Byrd
Personal details 	Personal details
Born 	February 9, 1773
Charles City County, Virginia, British America
Died 	April 4, 1841 (aged 68)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Cause of death 	Enteric fever
Resting place 	Harrison Tomb State Memorial
Political party 	
* Democratic-Republican(before 1828)
* Whig (from 1836)
Spouse 	Anna Symmes
(m. 1795)
Children 	10, including John, 2 with Dilsia, including Marie Harrison
Parent 	
* Benjamin Harrison V (father)
Relatives 	Harrison family of Virginia
Education 	
* Hampden–Sydney College
* University of Pennsylvania
Occupation 	
* Soldier
* politician
Awards 	
* Congressional Gold Medal
* Thanks of Congress
Signature 	https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/William_Henry_Harrison_Signature-full.svg/128px-William_Henry_Harrison_Signature-full.svg.png
Military service 	Military service
Branch/service 	
* United States Army 
** Indiana Territory militia
Years of service 	
* 1791–1798
* 1811
* 1812–1814
Rank 	Major general
Unit 	Legion of the United States
Commands 	Army of the Northwest
Battles/wars 	
* Northwest Indian War
** Siege of Fort Recovery
** Battle of Fallen Timbers
* Tecumseh's War
** Battle of Tippecanoe
* War of 1812
** Siege of Fort Wayne
** Battle of the Thames
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causing a brief constitutional crisis since presidential successionwas not then fully defined in the U.S. Constitution. Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. president.
Harrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia in 1773 as a son of Benjamin Harrison V, a U.S. Founding Father. In 1794, Harrison participated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. In 1811, he led a military force against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812, and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada.
Harrison's political career began in 1798, with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828.
Harrison returned to private life in Ohio until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees in the 1836 U.S. presidential election, in which he lost to Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. In the 1840 presidential election, the party nominated him again, with John Tyleras his running mate, under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", and Harrison defeated Van Buren. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office, Tyler became president. Harrison is remembered for his Indian treaties, and also his inventive election campaign tactics. He is often omitted in historical presidential rankings due to his brief tenure.
== Early life and education ==
William Henry Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. Born on February 9, 1773, at Berkeley Plantation, the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County, he became the last United States president not born as an American citizen. The Harrisons were a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s. His father was a Virginia planter, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–1784) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–1799). William Henry often referred to himself as a "child of the revolution", as indeed he was, having grown up in a home just 30 mi (48 km) from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown.
Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended Hampden–Sydney College, a Presbyterian college in Hampden Sydney, Virginia. He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate. His Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly for religious reasons, and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County, Virginia, and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond, he went to Philadelphia in 1790.
His father died in the spring of 1791, and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris, a close family friend in Philadelphia. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During his time at Penn, he studied with Doctor Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States and a Penn professor of chemistry and medicine and William Shippen Sr. His older brother inherited their father's money, so he lacked the funds for his further medical schooling, which he had also discovered he didn't prefer. He therefore withdrew from Penn, though school archives record him as a "non-graduate alumnus of Penn's medical school class of 1793". With the influence of his father's friend, Governor Henry Lee III, he embarked upon a military career.
=== Early military career ===
On August 16, 1791, within 24 hours of meeting Lee, Harrison, age 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment. He was initially assigned to Fort Washington, Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War. Biographer William W. Freehling says that young Harrison, in his first military act, rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to Fort Washington.
Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General "Mad Anthony" Waynetook command of the western army in 1792, following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St. Clair. In 1793, he became Wayne's aide-de-camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier; he participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which ended the Northwest Indian War. He received the following commendation from Wayne for his role in the battle: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp ... Lieutenant Harrison, who ... rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction ... conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory." Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville(1795), as witness to Wayne, the principal negotiator for the U.S. Under the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government, opening two-thirds of Ohio to settlement.
At his mother's death in 1793, Harrison inherited a portion of his family's Virginia estate, including approximately 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land and several slaves. He was serving in the Army at the time and sold the land to his brother. Harrison was promoted to captain in May 1797 and resigned from the Army on June 1, 1798.
=== Marriage and family ===
Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes, who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation. Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused, so the couple waited until Symmes left on business. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory. They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty. Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir". The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army. Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied." Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres (65 ha) of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm.
Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88.
The Harrisons had ten children:
* Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846)
* John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of Zebulon Pike
* Lucy Singleton (1800–1826)
* William Henry Jr. (1802–1838)
* John Scott (1804–1878), father of future U.S. president Benjamin Harrison
* Benjamin (1806–1840)
* Mary Symmes (1809–1842)
* Carter Bassett (1811–1839)
* Anna Tuthill (1813–1865)
* James Findlay (1814–1817)
Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of Walter Francis White, claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named Dilsiaand gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based on the White family's oral history. In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true.
== Political career ==
Harrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1, 1798, and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government. His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent, the outgoing territorial secretary.President John Adams appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798. The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious, and he soon became bored, and sought a position in the U. S. Congress.
=== U.S. Congress ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:W.H._Harrison_ca._1800.jpg|left|thumb|An engraved portrait print of Harrison at age 27, as a delegate member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Northwest Territory by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, c. 1800
Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory. Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs, a primary concern for settlers in the Territory; Harrison became their champion to lower those prices. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election. He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory, which eventually led to statehood.
Harrison defeated Arthur St. Clair Jr. by one vote to become the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26, and served in the Sixth United States Congress from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800. He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate. He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800, which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost. Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth.
Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections. The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present-day Ohio and eastern Michigan; the western section was named the Indiana Territory and included present-day Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, a portion of western Michigan, and an eastern portion of Minnesota. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800.
On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances. He served in this capacity for twelve years. His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801.
=== Indiana territorial governor ===
See also: History of slavery in Indiana and Indiana Territory
Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809. In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana. He conducted the district's affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4, 1805, and Brigadier General James Wilkinson assumed the duties of governor.
In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property. The 26-room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory; and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor. Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801, which was incorporated as Vincennes Universityon November 29, 1806. The territorial capital was eventually moved to Corydonin 1813, and Harrison built a second home at nearby Harrison Valley.
Harrison's primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory's population, a requirement for statehood. He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana's eventual statehood. While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure.
When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8, 1803, he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader Black Hawk. Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland (1805) appeased some of the Indians, but tensions remained high along the frontier. The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) from the Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River tribes. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty. Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison.
He pursued the treaty process aggressively, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders, so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure. Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all, just as the air that is breathed. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a dollar per 20,000 acres ($20.35 in 2023), and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri.
In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians, Harrison's pro-slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory's abolitionists, as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory. Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed. Lacking the suspension of Article VI, in 1807 the territorial legislature, with Harrison's support, enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service.
President Jefferson, primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement supported by Harrison. He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later (in 1808) another $20 ($382.00 in 2023) to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church. In Indiana, the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory.
The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature's upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population. The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted. After 1809, the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood.
== Army general ==
=== Tecumseh and Tippecanoe ===
Main articles: Tecumseh's War and Battle of Tippecanoe
Indian resistance to American expansion came to a head, with the leadership of Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet"), in a conflict that became known as Tecumseh's War. Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and that no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers. He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man's ways, including their clothing, muskets, and especially whiskey. Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. Madison dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate, sending a letter to Tecumseh saying, "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tecumseh02.jpg|thumb|1915 depiction of Tecumseh, believed to be copying an 1808 sketch
In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes. The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty. Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly. Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished. He rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation.
Tecumseh launched an "impassioned rebuttal", in the words of one historian, but Harrison was unable to understand his language. Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar. A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh's speech was leading to trouble, and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense. Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified. After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States.
Harrison was concerned that Tecumseh's actions would endanger the statehood of Indiana, as well as his political future, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages". Tecumseh was traveling in 1811, leaving Tenskwatawa in charge of Indian forces. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation. Despite being 13 years removed from military action, Harrison convinced Madison and Eustis to allow him to assume command. He led an army north with 950 men to intimidate the Shawnee into making peace, but the tribes launched a surprise attack early on November 7 in the Battle of Tippecanoe.Harrison countered and defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers; the battle became famous and he was hailed as a national hero. Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties, the Shawnee prophet's vision of spiritual protection had been shattered. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed.
When reporting to Secretary Eustis, Harrison had informed him of the battle near the Tippecanoe River and that he had anticipated an attack. A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict, and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow-up dispatch clarified the situation. When no second attack came, the Shawnee defeat had become more certain. Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack, and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute was the catalyst of a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War, which continued into the War of 1812. Freehling says that Harrison's rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle, exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties.
The press did not cover the battle at first, until one Ohio paper misinterpreted Harrison's first dispatch to mean that he was defeated. By December, however, most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory, and public outrage grew over the Shawnee. Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms, and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. Congress declared war on June 18, 1812, and Harrison left Vincennes to seek a military appointment.
=== War of 1812 ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Peale_-_William_Henry_Harrison_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumb|329x329px|This portrait of Harrison originally showed him in civilian clothes as a congressional delegate in 1800; the uniform was added after service in the War of 1812.
The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians in the Northwest. Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest.He received federal military pay for his service, and he also collected a territorial governor's salary from September until December 28, when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service. Authors Gugin and St. Clair claim the resignation was forced upon him. Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory.
The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit. General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madisonremoved Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits. He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale, but he initially held back, unwilling to press the war northward. The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison's troops, so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He named it Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio governor Return J. Meigs Jr. He then received reinforcements in 1813, took the offensive, and led the army north to battle. He won victories in the Indiana Territory as well as Ohio and recaptured Detroit before invading Upper Canada (Ontario). His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. It was considered to be one of the great American victories in the war, second only to the Battle of New Orleans, and secured a national reputation for Harrison.
In 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates. Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the lack of coordination and effectiveness in the invasion of Canada, and Harrison resigned from the army in May. After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified. Congress awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the war.
Harrison and Michigan Territory's Governor Lewis Cass were responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with the Indians. President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells, in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west, providing additional land for American purchase and settlement.
== Postwar life ==
=== Ohio politician and diplomat ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WmHHarrison-poster.jpg|right|thumb|Poster lauding Harrison's accomplishments
Harrison resigned from the army in 1814, shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812, and returned to his family and farm in North Bend, Ohio. Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt, that Harrison chose "celebrity over duty", as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, and that he became an office seeker. He was elected in 1816 to complete John McLean's term in the House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 1st congressional district until 1819. He attempted to secure the post as Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to John C. Calhoun. He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia. He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820. He ran in the 1822 election for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to James W. Gazlay. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824, and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for James Monroe and for Henry Clay in 1824.
Harrison was appointed in 1828 as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia, so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8, 1829. He arrived in Bogotá on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy, and that Simón Bolívar was about to become a military dictator. He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolívar, stating that "the strongest of all governments is that which is most free" and calling on Bolívar to encourage the development of democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America.
Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Colombia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Colombia sought his removal. Andrew Jacksontook office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position. Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome." A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr.
Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Burr describes the letter as "replete with wisdom, goodness, and patriotism…and the purest of principles".
=== Private citizen ===
Harrison returned to the United States and his North Bend farm, living in relative privacy after nearly four decades of government service. He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, and he lived on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. Burr references M. Chavalier, who encountered Harrison in Cincinnati at this time, and described Harrison as "poor, with a numerous family, abandoned by the Federal government, yet vigorous with independent thinking".
In May 1817, Harrison served as one of the founding vestry members of the Episcopal congregation, Christ Church in downtown Cincinnati (now Christ Church Cathedral). Harrison went on to serve as a vestry member through 1819, and then again in 1824.
Local supporters had come to Harrison's relief, by appointing him Clerk of Courtsfor Hamilton County, where he worked from 1836 until 1840. Chevalier remarked, "His friends back east talk of making him President, while here we make him clerk of an inferior court." He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey, but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers. In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors.
About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. Harrison wrote at the time, "we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave." DeBaptiste became his valet, and later White House steward.
Burr closes his account of Harrison by describing an event, denied by some of his friends—a reception given the general at Philadelphia, in 1836. According to Burr, "Thousands and tens of thousands crowded Chesnut street wharf upon his arrival, and greeted him with continual cheering as he landed. He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously, that the horses became frightened and reared frequently. A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it; but the team was soon unmanageable, and it became necessary to take them off. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. Pennsylvanians fought under the hero, and they loved him. We speak particularly on this point, because we were eyewitnesses of all that passed."
=== 1836 presidential campaign ===
Main article: 1836 United States presidential election
Harrison was the western Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of four regional Whig party candidates. The others were Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White, and Willie P. Mangum. More than one Whig candidate emerged in an effort to defeat the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren, who was the popular Jackson-chosen Democrat. The Democrats charged that, by running several candidates, the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college, and force the election into the House. In any case the plan, if there was one, failed. In the end, Harrison came in second, and carried nine of the twenty-six states in the Union.
Harrison ran in all the non-slave states except Massachusetts, and in the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Mangum in South Carolina. Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives.
=== 1840 presidential campaign ===
Main article: William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ElectoralCollege1840.svg|right|thumb|1840 Electoral Vote Map
Harrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election. The Whigs saw in Harrison a born southerner and war hero, who would contrast well with the aloof, uncaring, and aristocratic Van Buren. He was chosen over more controversial members of the party, such as Clay and Webster; his campaign highlighted his military record and focused on the weak U.S. economy caused by the Panic of 1837.
The Whigs blamed Van Buren for the economic problems and nicknamed him "Van Ruin". The Democrats, in turn, ridiculed the elder Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They noted for the voters what Harrison's name would be when spelled backwards: "No Sirrah". They cast him as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than attend to the administration of the country. This strategy backfired when Harrison and running mate John Tyler adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. Their campaign used the symbols on banners and posters and created bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins, all to connect the candidates to the "common man". Freehling relates that, "One bitter pro-Van Buren paper lamented after his defeat, 'We have been sung down, lied down and drunk down.' In one sentence, this described the new American political process."
Harrison came from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson, while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist. A memorable example was the Gold Spoon Oration that Pennsylvania's Whig representative Charles Ogledelivered in the House, ridiculing Van Buren's elegant White House lifestyle and lavish spending. The Whigs invented a chant in which people would spit tobacco juice as they chanted "wirt-wirt", and this also exhibited the difference between candidates from the time of the election:Old Tip he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt,
But Matt he has the golden plate, and he's a little squirt: wirt-wirt!The Whigs boasted of Harrison's military record and his reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. The campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" became one of the most famous in American politics. While Van Buren campaigned from the White House, Harrison was on the campaign trail, entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops, and took people's minds off the nation's economic troubles. In June 1840, a Harrison rally at the site of the Tippecanoe battle drew 60,000 people. The Village of North Bend, Ohio, as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state's use of the nickname "Buckeyes" began with Harrison's campaign message. Voter turnout shot to a spectacular 80%, 20 points higher than the previous election. Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College, 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. The popular vote margin was much closer, at fewer than 150,000 votes, though he carried nineteen of the twenty-six states.
== Personality ==
The Reverend Timothy Flint, a frequent visitor to his home at North Bend, Ohio, described him as urbane, hospitable, kind, and utterly unpretentious. Harrison overall was a smart and confident man and even respectful native Americans after the battle of Tippecanoe Harrison wrote the battle was a glorious battle implying that has some arrogance similar to other presidents.
kind and good humored, at odds with his somewhat stern appearance. He was frank, direct and humble, without airs and graces. He was also a cautious man whose nickname "General Mum" reflected his caution and his avoidance of speaking out on controversial issues.
Although interested in politics, it was not Harrison’s first occupation. He had established a very successful horse breeding enterprise by the end of the eighteenth century. 
William Henry Harrison slavery
As a slave owner, he opposed the idea of Congress restricting slavery in new territories. As his political career took off, he carefully avoided condemning slavery and instead professed the belief that the states themselves should decide its fate. Also, although he owned slaves and criticized anti-slavery, he thought slaves should make their own decisions about their freedom.
I have come to the determination from necessity to decline giving my opinion too indiscreetly upon political subjects for publication. Had I not adopted this rule I would have to sacrifice my business (necessary to the support of my very large family) & devote myself entirely to political writing. But as you tell me that you are about publishing a pamphlet on the subject of slavery I will as a friend give you my opinion upon one constitutional principle in relation to which either you or I may greatly err. No one I think can understand the character of our particular Government without having it impressed upon his mind that our Union is a Union of Sovereign Independent States & that in every particular where power is not expressly surrendered by that instrument to the General Government it is retained by the states and that in the relations to matters so retained they are as completely Sovereign & independent of the Genl. Government and of each other as are France and Great Britain. You seem to suppose that an Article in the Constitution not having been inserted in it, the General Govt would have the complete power over the slavery question in the states. The slave holding states (of which there were at that time 9 out of 13) did not wish to have such an article inserted. They retained the complete control over the subject of slavery within their own boundaries by not surrendering it. All that they wished to have inserted in the Constitution related to the subject was that where their slaves fled from them & sought refuge in other states that they should be delivered upon their application. When ...you say that "an early and amicable acquaintance of the question is desirable," it cannot refer to slavery in other states but may with propriety refer to the District of Columbia, within which the power of Legislation is expressively given to Congress. But no law which that body can pass may in any way effect the right which the slave holding states claim over their slaves any more than Congress can pass a law to change the general rules of elections in the states or define the period when minors are to be freed from the control of their parents. To do either would change the whole character of the Government and realise the dread of large portions of the ablest statesmen in our country at the period of the adoption of the Constitution that it would end first in a consolidation & then in a despotism which latter could only be averted by preserving the independence of the states.... The citizens of the free States have the right as individuals to give their opinion to their brethren in Slave States upon the subject of Slavery....[B]ut they have no power whatever to control them upon any of these subjects.... 
Give them your opinions then upon the former subjects but I can tell you that however able your appeal to them [the slaveholding states] may be on the abstract question if you assume the right of control over the subject either for the US (except as to the District of Columbia) the free states authorities or yourself individually it may do no harm but will certainly do no good. 
I repeat that I wrote to you mainly as a friend & not by any means for publication. William Henry Harrison to John B. Dillon
== Abilities and attributes ==
Military skills=William Henry Harrison became famous in America for his victories, although he had more men and firearms compared to his enemies.
Battle of Tippecanoe 
Harrison's forces approached Prophetstown on November 6. He was to meet the next day with Tenskwatawa but believed negotiation futile. They made camp on Burnett's Creek, (Battleground, Indiana); the troops bedded down fully dressed and armed, based on Harrison's Aide-de-camp Bartholomew's advice.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Bartholomew-122.jpg|left|thumb|Joseph Bartholomew
Positioned in pickets according to battle lines, they kept blazing fires alight in the rain, which illuminated the camp. Harrison did not command fortifications erected. The perimeter was guarded by two companies of sentries. Captain Spier Spencer's Indiana Yellow Jacket riflemen, (known for their light-colored buckskins), was posted on the southern end of the camp perimeter. The rest of the militia established an irregular rectangular formation along the edges of the bluff surrounding the camp.Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bartholomew commanded all infantry units guarding the front line. The regulars and dragoons were kept in reserve behind the main line, commanded by Major Floyd, Major Daveiss, and former congressman Captain Benjamin Parke.
Tenskwatawa told Michigan Governor Lewis Cass in 1816 that he did not order his warriors to attack Harrison, and he blamed the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) warriors in his camp for launching the attack. Not long after the battle a Kickapoo chief told British Indian agent Matthew Elliot, that the shooting of two Winnebago warriors by the sentries "aroused the indignation of the Indians and they determined to be revenged and accordingly commenced the attack." Tenskwatawa's followers were worried by the nearby army and feared an imminent attack. They had begun to fortify the town but had not completed their defenses. In council the night of November 6, Tenskwatawa seems to have agreed to a preemptive strike against the Americans, and to sending in a party under the cover of dark to murder Harrison in his tent. He assured the warriors that he would cast spells to prevent them from being harmed and to cause confusion among Harrison's army so that they would not resist. The warriors began to surround Harrison's army, looking for a way to enter the camp undetected. A man named Ben was a wagon driver traveling with Harrison's army, and he had deserted to the Shawnees during the expedition. He agreed to lead a group of warriors through the line to Harrison's tent during the late night hours, but he was captured by the camp sentries, taken back to camp, and bound. He was later convicted of treason, but Harrison pardoned him.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prophet%27s_Rock_Ridge_near_Tippecanoe_battleground,_Ind.,_1902.jpg|right|thumb|Prophet's Rock near the Tippecanoe battleground about 1902. Tenskwatawa is thought to have sung or chanted from this rock to exhort his warriors against Harrison's forces.
Accounts are unclear about how the battle began, but Harrison's sentinels encountered advancing warriors in the pre-dawn hours of November 7. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bartholomew was officer of the day, and he had ordered the troops to sleep with their weapons loaded. Around 4:30 a.m., the soldiers awoke to scattered gunshots, and found that they were nearly encircled by Tenskwatawa's forces. Contact was first made on the left flank of the perimeter, then to the front of the camp, the right flank and the rear. Captain Robert Barton's regulars and Captain Frederick Geiger's Kentucky militia faced immediate fierce attacks and were unable to hold their line. Harrison replaced them with the Indiana militia, commanded by Lieutenant Peters – their commander Wentworth died in the first attack. Harrison found the front line under fire (facing Prophetstown), pressed by warriors with rifles situated in a grove of trees. The Americans held their position as the attacks continued, the regulars reinforcing that critical section of the line. The militia's small-caliber rifles had little effect on the warriors as they rushed the defenders.
White Loon and Stone Eater were Tenskwatawa's war chiefs. The Prophet situated himself on a small hill overlooking the battle. The element of surprise was lost at the start of the battle, forcing the warriors to attack in a disorganized and uncoordinated fashion, with numerous small assaults. They reorganized and rushed the Americans whenever Harrison's troops drove them off. Meanwhile, warriors with rifles crawled on their stomachs from the woods towards the line.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Treaty_Map_of_Prophetstown_and_Site_of_Battle_of_Tippecanoe,_1819.jpg|alt=A simple line drawing map|left|thumb|A map included in the Treaty of Prophetstown and Site of Battle of Tippecanoe, 1819
On the northern end of the camp, Major Daveiss led the dragoons on a counter-charge. Most of Daveiss' company subsequently retreated to Harrison's main line following the charge, but Daveiss was killed. The grove was cleared by the 4th regiment regulars. To the rear, the attack was the strongest. The Indiana Yellow Jackets were under heavy fire, unable to hold their line, their commander, Captain Spencer, dead. His death is documented in Harrison's November 18, 1811 dispatch to Eustis: "Spencer was wounded in the head. He exhorted his men to fight valiantly. He was shot through both thighs and fell; still continuing to encourage them, he was raised up, and received a ball through his body, which put an immediate end to his existence." Harrison moved two reserve companies under the command of Captain Robb to join Spencer's only living officer, ensign John Tipton, and they sealed the breach in the line.Throughout the next hour, Harrison's troops fought off several more charges. The warriors began to run low on ammunition; the rising sun revealed the dwindling size of Tenskwatawa's forces who quickly dispersed into the woods. Harrison's troops pursued. They discovered the bodies of 36 warriors in the woods, scalping them.
The battle lasted about two hours and Harrison sustained 188 casualties: 37 died in action, 25 were mortally wounded. Another 126 sustained less serious wounds.The Yellow Jackets suffered the highest casualties of the battle, with all but one officer killed. The number of Native American casualties is still the subject of debate, but it was certainly lower than that of the American forces. Historians estimate that as many as 50 were killed and about 70 to 80 were wounded.The warriors retreated to Prophetstown where, according to one chief's account, they confronted Tenskwatawa, accusing him of deceit because of the many deaths, which his spells were supposed to have prevented. He blamed his wife for desecrating his magic medicine and offered to cast a new spell; he insisted that the warriors launch a second attack, but they refused.
The following day, November 8, Harrison sent a small group of men to inspect the Shawnee town and found it was deserted except for one elderly woman too sick to flee. The remainder of the defeated villagers had evacuated during the night. Harrison ordered the village burned, including 5,000 bushels of corn and beans in the storehouse. Furthermore, he had the village cemetery dug up, with corpses left strewn about. After Harrison's troops departed the area, the villagers returned, digging up many of the American corpses and scattering the bodies in retaliation.
Siege of Fort Wayne
On 3 September, with an attack on the fort imminent, Potawatomi and Miami Chiefs including Winamac approached the fort holding a flag of truce. Explaining the fate for this fort made clear by the downfall of nearby forts Mackinaw, Detroit, and Chicago, Lieutenant Daniel Curtis replied to Winamac by inviting him into the fort, and the two drank three glasses of wine together. Lt. Curtis then rose from his seat and in a plea to Winamac stated: My good friend, I love you; I will fight for you; I will die by your side. You must save me!Lt. Curtis then gave Winamac a half-dollar as a sign of friendship and invited him for breakfast. Winamac did not attend the breakfast, but instead sent a band of five warriors who initiated the siege on the morning of 5 September 1812, after attacking two soldiers returning from an outhouse who died of their wounds by the afternoon. The Native Americans assaulted the fort from the east side and burned the homes of the surrounding village. The natives constructed two wooden cannons with the intention of convincing the US garrison that the British had arrived with artillery. Captain Rhea, who was known to be a heavy drinker, was described as taking to drink at the moment of the siege impending, and was said to be:Drunk as a fool, and perfectly incapable of exercising rationality on any subject whatsoever, but was constantly abusing and ill treating everyone that came in his presence.The incompetence displayed by Rhea at this critical time, and the resulting disorder he created within the fort, was described by some of his colleagues as being the "greatest danger" of the siege and his officers considered placing him under arrest as a result. Rhea, drunken, and occasionally asserting the idea of surrender, would ultimately retreat to his quarters on the grounds that he was ill and be relieved. The fort's Indian Agent, Benjamin Stickney, took command of the fort with Lieutenants Daniel Curtis and Phillip Ostrander. Two assaults were made on the fort before the Native American force withdrew, awaiting a British force on the Maumee River that was bringing light artillery.
That evening, Chief Winamac approached the fort with thirteen of his men to parleyand was admitted. As the leaders talked, Winamac revealed a knife that he had hidden, and after a failed attempt on Stickney's life, Winamac was removed from the fort.[clarification needed] Soon after, at approximately 20:00, the Native American forces resumed their assaults on the exterior of the fort. Winamac's forces tried to set the fort on fire, and while the garrison attempted to keep the walls wet, they returned fire with muskets and howitzers. The battle lasted until around 15:00 on 6 September, when the Native American forces retreated to a safe distance from the fort. The fighting resumed at 21:00 that night.
=== Relief ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Henry_Harrison_by_Rembrandt_Peale.jpg|right|thumb|Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison led the relief effort to Fort Wayne.
Efforts were underway to reinforce Fort Wayne after news of the loss of Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Dearborn, and Fort Detroit reached Newport Barracks. General James Winchesterwas commander of the Northwestern Army, but Kentucky Governor Charles Scott had recently appointed Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison as Major General of the Kentucky Militia and authorised him to relieve Fort Wayne, Harrison was at Newport Barracks to assume command of the militia. Harrison wrote a letter to Secretary of War William Eustisexplaining the situation and apologising for taking unauthorised action, then quickly organised a militia force of 2,200 men and marched north to the fort. A small scouting party led by Fort Wayne settler William Oliver and Ohio Shawnee Captain Logan arrived at Fort Wayne during a lull in the fighting, eluding Winamac's army and entering the fort. They delivered the news that a relief effort was approaching, and again rode through Winamac's siege to report to Harrison that the fort remained under U.S. control.
Harrison also received a report that a force of 400 Native Americans and 140 British regulars under Tecumseh were marching towards Fort Wayne. Harrison raced to arrive at Fort Wayne before Tecumseh and the British. By 8 September, Harrison and his backup of 2,200 troops had reached the village of Simon Girty on the St. Marys River, and were joined by 800 men of the Ohio militia under Colonel Adams and Colonel Hawkins at Shane's Crossing.
On 11 September, Winamac attempted a final attack on Fort Wayne, proving unsuccessful. 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 arrived later that day, uncontested by Winamac's warriors. The Native American and British force retreated into Ohio and Michigan Territory.
After the British had successfully captured the city of Detroit, they had received the news that American Indians had surrounded an American Fort. General Isaac Brock learned that a temporary armistice had been made in the east, and ordered Colonel Henry Procter to cease support for the attack on Fort Wayne.
Battle of the Thames
Procter ordered his troops to abandon their half-cooked breakfast and retreat a further two miles shortly after daybreak on October 5, then formed them into line of battle with a single 6-pounder cannon. He planned to trap Harrison on the banks of the Thames, driving the Americans off the road with cannon fire, but he had made no attempt to fortify the position by creating abatis or throwing up earthworks, and the ground presented no obstacle to the American horsemen, while scattered trees masked the British fire. Tecumseh's men formed a line in a black ash swamp on the British right to flank the Americans. Tecumseh rode along the British line, shaking hands with each officer before rejoining his warriors.
General Harrison surveyed the battlefield and ordered James Johnson (brother of Col. Johnson) to make a frontal attack on the British regulars with his mounted riflemen. Despite the Indians' flanking fire, Johnson's Kentuckians broke through, the British cannon not having fired. The exhausted, dispirited, and half-starved British regulars fired a single ragged fusillade before retreating in disorder. 
Procter and about 250 of his men fled from the battlefield, while the rest of his soldiers threw down their weapons and surrendered. Most of the British soldiers, including Lieutenant Richard Bullock's grenadier company, who escaped the battlefield were on the right of the British line, where the ground was marshy and more thickly wooded.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Outdoor_life_and_Indian_stories_-_making_open_air_life_attractive_to_young_Americans_by_telling_them_all_about_woodcraft,_signs_and_signaling,_the_stars,_fishing,_camping_-_also_stories_of_noted_(14566564408).jpg|thumb|A depiction of Col Richard Mentor Johnson shooting Tecumseh during the battle
Tecumseh and his followers remained and carried on fighting. Col. Johnson charged into the Indian position at the head of about 20 horsemen to draw attention away from the main American force, but Tecumseh and his men answered with a volley of musket fire that stopped the cavalry charge. Fifteen of Johnson's men were killed or wounded, Johnson himself was hit five times, and his main force became bogged down in the swamp mud. Tecumseh is believed to have been killed during this fighting.
The main force made its way through the swamp, and James Johnson's troops were freed from their attack on the British. The American reinforcements were converging as news spread of the death of Tecumseh, and Indian resistance dissolved. Richard Mentor Johnson was credited with shooting Tecumseh,though the evidence is unclear. William Whitley, a Revolutionary War veteran, is also credited with killing him. Lawyer and one-armed marksman James A Drain Sr., in his autobiography Single Handed (1927), wrote of hearing from Whitley's granddaughter the family tradition that Whitley and Tecumseh killed each other simultaneously.
== Presidency (1841) ==
=== Inauguration ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Henry_Harrison.jpg|right|thumb|Painting by Albert Gallatin Hoit, 1840
When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe and that he was a better educated and more thoughtful man than the backwoods caricature portrayed in the campaign. He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,445 words. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Websterhad edited it for length. Freehling opines that speeches like this were actually common at the time, and that its irony was rich, as Harrison, "a lifelong office seeker, elected by deeply partisan politics, criticized both".
The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, a repudiation of Jackson's and Van Buren's policies, and the first and only formal articulation by Harrison of his approach to the presidency. The address began with Harrison's sincere regard for the trust being placed in him:However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country.Harrison promised to re-establish the Bank of the United States and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency in Henry Clay's American system.He intended to rely on the judgment of Congress in legislative matters, using his veto power only if an act were unconstitutional, and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage. He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government, and under no circumstance would he run for a second term. He condemned the financial excesses of the prior administration and pledged not to interfere with congressional financial policy. All in all, Harrison committed to a weak presidency, deferring to "the First Branch", the Congress, in keeping with Whig principles.
He addressed the nation's already hotly debated issue of slavery. As a slaveholder himself, he agreed with the right of states to control the matter:The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one state from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding…The attempt of those of one state to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions.As he was about to conclude his remarks, Harrison incorporated his reliance upon the country's freedom of religion while taking pains to present himself as part of the religious mainstream rather than a dissenter or member of a minority faith:I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time.Harrison's lengthy speech offered vague clues about what his presidency would offer to the people of the United States. He declared he would only serve for one term in office and not abuse his veto power. Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation, rather he left that wholly to Congress. He was against agitating the Southern United States on the slavery question. He did not discuss the tariff and distribution. He said little of the national bank, except he mentioned he was open to paper money, rather than metallic currency. Harrison's concept of the presidency was very limited. This followed closely with Harrison's Whig political ideology.
Following the speech, he rode through the streets in the inaugural parade,stood in a three-hour receiving line at the White House, and attended three inaugural balls that evening, including one at Carusi's Saloon entitled the "Tippecanoe" ball with 1,000 guests who had paid $10 per person (equal to $312 in 2021).
=== The press of patronage ===
Clay was a leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator, as well as a frustrated presidential candidate in his own right, and he expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration. He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the "spoils" system and attempted to influence Harrison's actions before and during his brief presidency, especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments. Harrison rebuffed his aggression, saying, "Mr. Clay, you forget that I am the President."The dispute escalated when Harrison named as Secretary of State Daniel Webster, Clay's arch-rival for control of the Whig Party. Harrison also appeared to give Webster's supporters some highly coveted patronage positions. His sole concession to Clay was to name his protégé John J. Crittenden to the post of Attorney General. Despite this, the contretemps continued until the president's death.
The Harrison cabinet 	The Harrison cabinet 	The Harrison cabinet
Office 	Name 	Term
 	 	
President 	William Henry Harrison	1841
 	 	
Vice President 	John Tyler 	1841
 	 	
Secretary of State 	Daniel Webster 	1841
 	 	
Secretary of the Treasury	Thomas Ewing 	1841
 	 	
Secretary of War 	John Bell 	1841
 	 	
Attorney General 	John J. Crittenden 	1841
 	 	
Postmaster General 	Francis Granger 	1841
 	 	
Secretary of the Navy 	George Edmund Badger 	1841
Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison's election. Hordes of office applicants came to the White House, which was then open to any who wanted a meeting with the president. Most of Harrison's business during his month-long presidency involved extensive social obligations and receiving visitors at the White House. He was advised to have an administration in place before the inauguration but declined, wanting to focus on the festivities. As such, job seekers awaited him at all hours and filled the Executive Mansion, with no process for organizing and vetting them.
Harrison wrote in a letter dated March 10, "I am so much harassed by the multitude that calls upon me that I can give no proper attention to any business of my own." U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia Alexander Hunter recalled an incident in which Harrison was besieged by office seekers who were preventing him from getting to a cabinet meeting; when his pleas for their consideration were ignored, Harrison finally "accepted their petitions, which filled his arms and pockets".Another anecdote of the time recounted that the halls were so full one afternoon that in order to get from one room to the next, Harrison had to be helped out a window, walked the length of the White House exterior, and then helped in through another window.
Harrison took seriously his pledge to reform executive appointments, visiting each of the six cabinet departments to observe its operations and issuing through Webster an order that electioneering by employees would be considered grounds for dismissal. He resisted pressure from other Whigs over partisan patronage. A group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office, and Harrison proclaimed, "So help me God, I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity!" His own cabinet attempted to countermand his appointment of John Chambers as Governor of the Iowa Territory in favor of Webster's friend James Wilson. Webster attempted to press this decision at a March 25 cabinet meeting, and Harrison asked him to read aloud a handwritten note, which said simply "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States". Harrison then stood and declared: "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States, tells you, gentlemen, that, by God, John Chambers shall be governor of Iowa!"
Harrison's only other official decision of consequence was whether to call Congress into a special session. He and Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session, and Harrison's cabinet proved evenly divided, so the president initially vetoed the idea. Clay pressed him on the special session on March 13, but Harrison rebuffed him and told him not to visit the White House again, to address him only in writing. A few days later, however, Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress' regularly scheduled session in December; Harrison thus relented, and proclaimed the special session on March 17, in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country". The session would have begun on May 31 as scheduled if Harrison had lived.
== WILLIAM HARRISON: DOMESTIC AFFAIRS ==
William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in history, and it was, in retrospect, a good thing, because it is virtually the only record of his presidential intentions. He had deliberately avoided hard stands on issues during the campaign, earning the nickname "General Mum" from the opposition. But on a freezing, snowing March day in 1841, he outlined his vision for leadership at last.
Harrison presented a painstakingly detailed critique of the Constitution, and how his presidency would tread lightly on what he saw as its flaws. He criticized what he perceived to be a trend towards an excess of power seized by the executive branch and pledged, "Under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term." Past presidential excesses in fiscal management were roundly condemned, a clear swipe at the still-looming shadow of Andrew Jackson. Harrison pledged no presidential interference in the development of financial policy by Congress. The veto power should only be exercised if a president believed a law passed by Congress was unconstitutional, another swipe at the Jacksonians. All in all, Harrison pledged himself to a weak presidency operating under the direction of "The First Branch," the Congress, which followed the Whig Party principles.
Slavery had already become his nation's most hotly debated issue. A slaveowner himself, Harrison supported the right of states to make their own decisions in the matter. With regard to slavery, the President said, "The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one state from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding . . . The attempt of those of one state to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions." He criticized antislavery elements as endangering states' rights.
The address lasted nearly two hours, but in the days before electronic media, oratory of such duration was common. It had a curious irony: a lifelong office seeker, elected by deeply partisan politics, harshly criticized both practices.
During the address, the new President wore no coat or hat. When he followed the address with a round of receptions in his wet clothing, it resulted in pneumonia. Doctors were called in, but their medical practices were crude and only weakened Harrison. Three weeks after taking office he was clearly dying. Exactly one month after taking the oath of office, Harrison was dead. It was the most fleeting presidency ever, lasting one scant month.
== WILLIAM HARRISON: FOREIGN AFFAIRS ==
Because his term in office lasted only thirty-two days, it is likely that William Harrison had next to no foreign policy. The United States had seen no international wars for a quarter century, and the depression at home was absorbing the vast majority of the new President's attention. His inaugural address yields few clues, only vagaries about a firm defense, minimal presidential interference in military affairs, and the right of Americans to make their own way in the world. "It is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has entrusted the management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not the master . . . Long the defender of my country's rights in the field, I trust that my fellow-citizens will not see in my earnest desire to preserve peace with foreign powers any indication that their rights will ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation tarnished by any admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate unworthy of their former glory."
== Legacy ==
=== Historical reputation ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tecumseh_in_Lafayette_IN.jpg|right|thumb|Harrison (on left) at Tippecanoe County Courthouse, Lafayette, Indiana
Among Harrison's most enduring legacies is the series of treaties that he negotiated and signed with Indian leaders during his tenure as the Indiana territorial governor. As part of the treaty negotiations, the tribes ceded large tracts of land in the west which provided additional acreage for purchase and settlement by the nation.
Harrison's long-term impact on American politics includes his campaigning methods, which laid the foundation for modern presidential campaign tactics. Harrison died nearly penniless, and Congress voted his wife Anna a presidential widow's pension of $25,000, one year of Harrison's salary (equivalent to about $738,000 in 2023). She also received the right to mail letters free of charge.
Freehling refers to Harrison as "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today". Harrison, age 68 at the time of his inauguration, was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69.
Harrison's son John Scott Harrison represented Ohio in the House of Representatives between 1853 and 1857. Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893, making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents.