Description
Tecumseh's Last Stand by John Sugden is a detailed study of the final campaign of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh. The final months are told in chapters beginning in August 1813 and ending with Tecumseh's death at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813. The final chapter examines the various stories about Tecumseh's burial. Under Tecumseh's leadership the united Nations of Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Kickapoos, Potawatomis, Sacs, Odawas, Muncey Delawares, Ojibwes, and Senecas held off the American forces for a year before their defeat at the Battle of Lake Erie. The small force of British under General Henry Procter and the Shawnee leader Tecumseh retreated to the Thames River. The succeeding engagement at Moraviantown, on October 5, 1813, was the most decisive American victory won on British soil in this war. The death of Tecumseh, who was killed while valiantly defending the field after the British had fled, cost the British-Indian alliance its most effective leader. John Sugden searched for surviving records in Britain, Canada, and the United States. He found a major source of information in the little-known minutes of General Procter's court-martial, filed in the Public Record Office at Kew, England. From this and many other sources, both published and unpublished, the author has comprehensively reconstructed the retreat and tackled the major questions: why was Procter compelled to withdraw from Amherstburg after the loss of his squadron on Lake Erie; why and how did Procter and Tecumseh fight at Moraviantown; how was Tecumseh killed; and how did the engagement affect the fortunes of the British, the Indians, and the Americans in the remaining months of the war.