Col. William Dudley-- Part 2: Initial Success

General William Henry Harrison, at Fort Meigs, sent a courier to Gen. Green Clay ordering him to take the offensive against the British battery on the other side of the of the Maumee River to drive them away and spike their cannons.  General Clay ordered Col. Dudley to take 800 men and accomplish this task.

On the morning of May 5, Dudley made his assault on the battery and succeeded in capturing it.  After this initial success, things quickly fell apart.  The soldiers with the tools to spike the guns accidentally landed on the other side of the river..  Dudley's men, however, did have some success spiking them with bayonets and ramrods.

Then, the Kentuckians came under fire by Indians in the woods.  Determined to avenge their fellow soldiers who had been slaughtered at the River Raisin Massacre the previous year, they charged into the woods against their officers' orders.

--Brick-Perry