The site, located in present-day Vigo County, Indiana, at the northern edge of Terre Haute, was only two miles from the Wea village of Weauteno.

[5] The United States had suffered a series of defeats immediately after war was declared, at the hands of the British, Canadians, and Indians.

On September 3, 1812, a band of Miami arrived and warned Captain Taylor that they would soon be attacked by a large force of Native Americans.

A party of 40 men under command of Kickapoo Chief Namahtoha approached under a flag of truce and asked to parley with Taylor the next morning.

When the sentries opened fire on the arsonist, the 600-strong Indian war party attacked the west side of the fort.

All remaining invalids were armed to maintain defense, while healthy men were put to work repairing the hole left in the fort's walls.

[8] The Indian force withdrew just beyond gun range and butchered area farm animals within sight of the fort.

[12] Colonel Russell's companies joined with the local militia and 7th Infantry Regiment and marched to the relief of Fort Harrison.

Following the relief army to Fort Harrison was a party of thirteen soldiers under Lieutenant Fairbanks of the Seventh Infantry escorting a supply wagon loaded with flour and meat.

On September 13, 1812, the supply wagon was ambushed by a Potawatomi war party at a section of the trail known as The Narrows, an area near modern Fairbanks, Indiana, which has many ravines that serve as tributaries to Prairie Creek.

Eleven soldiers and all the provisions were lost to the United States,[15] and several Potawatomi warriors had been killed or wounded.

[17] The Potawatomi party left the Narrows, and attacked the house of a settler named Issac Hutson on September 16, in what became known as the Lamotte Prairie Massacre.

The same day, Gen. Harrison's forces relieved Fort Wayne, which eliminated the last Indian threat to Indiana Territory for the remainder of the war.

In retaliation for the attack on Fort Harrison and the Pigeon Roost Massacre, Colonel Russell continued on to Illinois with the Indiana Rangers and led an expedition against the Kickapoo on Peoria Lake.