The Battle of Frenchtown, also known as the Battle of the River Raisin and the River Raisin Massacre, refers to two consecutive engagements during the War of 1812. Fighting between American forces commanded by Brigadier General James Winchester and British and allied forces under Colonel Henry Procter took place on January 18 and 22, 1813, at Frenchtown, Michigan Territory (present-day Monroe, Michigan) on the River Raisin roughly southwest of Detroit.

On January 18, American militia forced the retreat of a British and Indigenous detachment occupying Frenchtown. The attack was part of a larger plan to retake Detroit following its loss after the siege of Detroit the previous summer. Four days later on January 22, the British and their Indigenous allies launched a surprise counterattack. Ill-prepared, the Americans lost 397 soldiers in this second battle, while 547 were taken prisoner. A number of wounded prisoners were murdered the following morning by a group of Indigenous warriors, while a few other prisoners were killed as they were brought to Fort Amherstburg. The Battle of Frenchtown was the deadliest conflict recorded on Michigan soil, and represents the highest number of Americans killed in a single battle during the War of 1812.

Parts of the original battlefield were designated as a state historic park and added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2009, the United States Congress authorized the creation of the River Raisin National Battlefield Park, one of four such parks in the nation and the only one commemorating the War of 1812.

Naming

The Battle of Frenchtown took place in and around the Frenchtown Settlement, founded in 1784 on the River Raisin in the Michigan Territory. The land it was fought on is now incorporated into the city of Monroe. Some sources apply the name only to the encounter on January 22, 1813, and refer to the engagement on January 18 as the First Battle of the River Raisin, or simply as a prelude to the larger encounter on January 22. The plural Battles of Frenchtown is also used for the overall conflict from January 18 through 22. While fighting occurred on January 18, the heaviest fighting took place on January 22. The two battles are also known as the Battle of the River Raisin, because of their proximity to that river.

The engagement may be divided into the First Battle of the River Raisin (January 18) and the Second Battle of the River Raisin (January 22). The term "River Raisin Massacre" is used to describe the events of January 23, the day after the second battle, when Indigenous warriors killed a number of wounded American prisoners who the British had left behind when they withdrew from Frenchtown.

Background

thumb|left|Battles and locations in the Detroit region during the War of 1812

On August 17, 1812, Brigadier General William Hull, commanding the American Army of the Northwest, surrendered his army, Detroit and the Michigan Territory to the British following the siege of Detroit. This early success encouraged many Indigenous leaders in the Indiana and Illinois territories to side with the British during the war.

Following Hull's defeat, Brigadier General James Winchester assumed command of the Army of the Northwest. He was soon replaced by Major General William Henry Harrison with Winchester as his second-in-command. Winchester was asked to lead 1,200 regulars and militia from Fort Wayne to the Maumee Rapids (present-day Perrysburg, Ohio). Meanwhile, Harrison would assemble additional men and supplies at Upper Sandusky, before joining Winchester at the rapids and advancing on Detroit.

British forces in the Detroit area were commanded by Colonel Henry Procter. In December 1813, Procter's division consisted of 270 men from the 41st Regiment of Foot, 70 men from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, 25 artillerymen, and a small support staff. Most were based at Amherstburg, however, 114 men under Captain Adam Muir garrisoned Detroit. Procter could also draw upon men from the Essex militia and the Provincial Marine.

Supporting the British were the Wyandot, Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe who lived in the area. Amherstburg was also home to about 800 Indigenous refugees whose villages had been destroyed by Harrison's forces in September 1812.

First Battle of the River Raisin

On January 10, 1813, Winchester arrived at the Maumee Rapids with roughly 1,300 regulars and Kentucky militia. His orders were to wait at the rapids for Harrison to arrive with reinforcements from Upper Sandusky before advancing on Detroit. On January 13, two residents of Frenchtown, roughly north of the rapids, arrived with a letter from a local merchant informing Winchester that the British had learned that the Americans were at the rapids. The letter further stated that 3000 barrels of wheat and flour were in storage at Frenchtown. Over the next three days, other habitants from the River Raisin settlement arrived who told Winchester that Frenchtown was occupied by two companies of militia and about 200 Indigenous warriors, but wrongly claimed that the British were preparing to burn down the village.

After meeting with his officers, Winchester decided to send Lieutenant Colonel William Lewis with 570 Kentucky militiamen to Frenchtown. Lewis was later joined by Lieutenant Colonel John Allen with an additional 110 men. Lewis and Allen proceeded to the mouth of the Maumee River, then followed the frozen shoreline of Lake Erie northwards. By mid-afternoon on January 18, Lewis and Allen reached the south side of the River Raisin where a number of the French-speaking habitants of the settlement joined them.

Opposing the Americans, and protected by the settlement's houses, barns and fences, were 50 men of the Essex militia led by Major Ebenezer Reynolds. The militia was supported by a single 3-inch howitzer and between 100 and 200 Potawatomi and Wyandot warriors.

When Reynolds opened fire with the howitzer, Lewis ordered a charge across the frozen river and into the village. They quickly forced the militia and Indigenous warriors to retreat.

Lewis and Allen continued their pursuit of Reynolds until nightfall, then pulled back to Frenchtown. The Essex militia and Potawatomi had inflicted significant casualties on the Americans. Lewis reported 12 Americans killed and 55 wounded (two fatally). Meanwhile, the Essex militia suffered only a single casualty. Lewis also reported that two militiamen and one Potawatomi had been captured, and that at least 15 warriors had been killed. Although Winchester had disobeyed his orders, Harrison was pleased with Lewis's success. He immediately set out for the Maumee Rapids with reinforcements, and dispatched a messenger to Winchester ordering him "to hold the ground."

At Amherstburg, Colonel Henry Procter, commander of British forces on the Detroit frontier, learned of Reynolds's defeat in the early hours of January 19. He dispatched a company of the 41st Regiment of Foot, a detachment of the Royal Artillery, and a detachment of the Provincial Marine across the Detroit River to Brownstown where they linked up with Reynolds's men. The following day they were joined by additional men from the 41st Regiment, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Fencible Infantry and the Essex militia. His artillery consisted of three small howitzers and three 3-pounder guns drawn on sleds and manned by men from the Royal Artillery and Provincial Marine.

On January 21, Procter's combined force advanced to Stony Creek about north of the River Raisin where they bivouacked overnight.

thumb|upright|Map depicting the positions of American and the British-Indigenous force during the second battle.

Meanwhile, the Wyandot, Shawnee and militia attacked the exposed American regulars east of the village. The 17th and 19th U.S. Infantry struggled to hold their position as musket and artillery fire tore through their encampment. Allen led several companies of Kentucky from the village in an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce them. Winchester, who had arrived on the scene with Lewis, ordered Allen and the regulars to fall back to river. An attempt to make a stand failed, and with the Wyandot and Shawnee in pursuit, the Americans began fleeing across the frozen River Raisin. A second futile attempt was made on the south side of the river to hold back the enemy. Winchester, Allen, Lewis were swept up in the ensuing chaos as their men desperately tried to escape.

On the morning of January 23, 100 to 200 Indigenous warriors returned to Frenchtown. They entered the makeshift hospitals and robbed the wounded of their clothing and blankets. They killed those unable to walk, forced the remainder outside, and burned the two buildings. The survivors were taken away but any who struggled to keep up with their captors were killed. Most were brought to Amherstburg or Detroit and ransomed. Others escaped or were ransomed weeks or even months later. A few may have been tortured to death while some of the younger prisoners were adopted into Indigenous families and never returned.

Elias Darnell, whose brother Allen was among the wounded, wrote:

Many accounts refer to "drunken Indians" having committed the murders, however, this is disputed. According to Todd: "Whiskey was not the cause of the massacre. Their deliberate pilfering, and their orderly conduct throughout was not such as would be expected from drunken Indians." More likely, the warriors were seeking retribution for depredations committed by the Kentucky "Long Knives" during attacks on Potowatomi and Miami villages a few months earlier, and the desecration of Indigenous corpses following the battle on the 19th. In an account published in the Weekly Register after he was exchanged, Baker inflated the number of the dead to 60, and further claimed that multiple murders occurred in the three days following the 23rd.

Aftermath

The Battle of Frenchtown is widely known as the "Raisin River Massacre." Reports of the slaughter on the morning of the 23rd were quickly exaggerated in wartime propaganda, with political cartoons and recruitment broadsides depicting a drunken massacre and scalping by “savages” abetted by the British. The slogan "Remember the Raisin!" was used to encourage enlistment, and was adopted as a battle cry, notably at the Battle of the Thames.

In a letter to the Secretary of War, Harrison called Winchester's defeat a "national calamity."

The first published reports of the massacre appeared in American newspapers soon after the prisoners were paroled back to the United States. In his account, Isaac Baker described how the "dead bodies of my fellow comrades, scalped, tomahawked and stripped, presented a most horrid spectacle to my view." He further suggested that "some of the wounded had been scalped alive and burnt in the houses." In his introduction to Baker's "narrative of horrid butchery", the publisher of the Weekly Register, Hezekiah Niles, declared that the British not only "instigated and armed the savage monsters" but encouraged them "by purchasing the scalps of our murdered citizens." These claims reflect the false belief that Britain's Indigenous allies were under the control of British officers who were more than willing to encourage or at least accept barbarity. A century later, J. Mackay Hitsman wrote that of all the British generals "only Procter managed to blunder consistently."

At the time, British authorities lauded Procter for his victory over the Americans. Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of the Canadas, praised the colonel's "singular judgment and decisive conduct," while Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe commended Procter for his "judgment and promptitude." The legislative assemblies of both Upper and Lower Canada gave Procter a unanimous vote of thanks. Procter was appointed a brigadier general in February 1813, and a few months later was promoted to major general.

In September 1813, the American victory at the Battle of Lake Erie severed the British supply line and forced Procter to abandon Amherstburg and Detroit. He retreated east along the Thames River, pursued by American forces, roughly 3,500 strong, commanded by Harrison. Procter made a stand a few miles west of Moraviantown but was defeated at the Battle of the Thames when Harrison's mounted infantry overran the British lines. At his court martial a year later, Procter was found to have been "erroneous in judgment and deficient in energy" during the retreat. The conviction ended Procter's military career.

Legacy and honors

thumb|upright|Names of 12 of the American officers killed at the Battle of Frenchtown appear on the [[Kentucky War Memorial in Frankfort, Kentucky.]]

Nine counties in Kentucky are named for officers who fought in the Battle of Frenchtown, only one of who, Major Bland Ballard survived the engagement:

  • Allen County (after Lieutenant Colonel John Allen)
  • Ballard County (after Major Bland Ballard)
  • Edmonson County (after Captain John Edmonson)
  • Graves County (after Major Benjamin Franklin Graves (soldier))
  • Hart County (after Captain Nathaniel Hart)
  • Hickman County (after Captain Paschal Hickman)
  • McCracken County (after Captain Virgil McCracken)
  • Meade County (after Captain James M. Meade)
  • Simpson County (after Captain John Simpson)

A number of streets in Monroe memorialize the Battle of Frenchtown, including Kentucky Avenue and Winchester Street.

The Kentucky War Memorial in Frankfort, Kentucky records the names of 12 of the American officers who died at the Battle of Frenchtown.

In 1904, the state of Michigan erected a monument in Monroe south of the river to mark the site where the unidentified remains of victims of the River Raisin Massacre were buried. The monument is located at the intersection of South Monroe Street and West 7th Street. That same year, the Civil Improvement Society of the Women of Monroe erected an obelisk north of the river to mark the site of the battle. This marker mistakenly states that the Americans "fought desperately against 3000 British and Allies under Gen. Proctor."

The battlefield was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In March 2009, the United States Congress authorized the creation of River Raisin National Battlefield Park. The park became operational in October 2010. It is one of only four National Battlefield Parks in the United States, and the only one to commemorate the War of 1812.

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File:Battle of Frenchtown obelisk.jpg|This obelisk, located in River Raisin National Battlefield Park, commemorates the victims of the battle and subsequent massacre.

File:River Raisin Massacre monument.jpg|This monument south of the River Raisin commemorates the Kentuckians who died in the battle.

</gallery>

References

  • Official battlefield site
  • Description of the battle at the city of Monroe website
  • River Raisin Battlefield brochure