Siege of Fort Harrison

From the October 29, 2022, Tribune-Star "Historical treasure:  Historic model reveals history of Fort Harrison" by Matthew Higgins.

Tecumseh, the leader of the Shawnee Confederacy, allied his nation with neighboring Indian nations  to resist white settlement as he watched his people's ancestral lands being stripped from their hands one treaty at a time.  William Henry Harrison,  Indiana's first territorial governor, was tasked with making the area safe for white settlement as thousands of settlers moved in sought a new life for the territory.

Tragically, these two opposing aspirations could not exist in harmony and thus, conflict was born.

In order to protect white settlements and facilitate trade along the Wabash River, Fort Harrison was constructed.  The primary conflict that took place there was the Siege of Fort Harrison in September 1812.  Warriors of Tecumseh's Confederacy attacked the fort on the night of September 4.

Harrison was not present at the attack and the fort was commanded by another future U.S. president, Zachary Taylor.  His soldiers fought well and were able to fend off the Indians who surrounded the fort and slaughtered livestock in an attempt to starve the fort's defenders into surrender.

--Brock-Perry