Western theater of the War of 1812
Following the Northwest Indian War of the 1790s, the United States made it a policy to gradually remove Native Americans from the region and sell the land to white settlers.
[3] The United Kingdom, meanwhile, reduced their supply of lead and gunpowder to their Native American allies, which was intended to maintain the fur trade, but was also needed for combat.
General James Winchester was ordered to retake Detroit, but when he failed to take decisive action, William Henry Harrison- now appointed as a Major General- was given command of the Army of the Northwest.
That same August, a Native American force composed primarily of Potawatomi captured Fort Dearborn from the United States.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces under Major General Samuel Hopkins- commander of frontier forces- launched a punitive campaign against Kickapoo villages.
After these losses, the United Kingdom found it more difficult to move people, equipment, and trade goods to western outposts.
[13] Although smaller skirmishes between the United States and Native American continued after the United States secured Lake Erie and Detroit, the western war after 1813 largely centered around Fort Mackinac and Fort Shelby,[14] which guarded the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers near modern day Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
William Clark led a force of Army regulars and militia from Fort Belle Fontaine up the Mississippi River.
[15] British Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall arrived at Fort Mackinac and sent an expedition under William McKay to capture Prairie du Chien in July 1814.
The force consisted of militia, Native Americans, and residents from Green Bay and Prairie du Chien who supported United Kingdom.
[17] The United States dispatched an expedition under Major John Campbell to recapture the fort,[18] but 400 Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo warriors under Black Hawk ambushed them on 22 July at the Battle of Rock Island Rapids.
The United States ships destroyed a British fort at Nottawasaga Bay and left two armed schooners to blockade Mackinac.
[20] One of the largest raids was led by Brigadier General Duncan McArthur, who captured or destroyed so many horses and food stuffs that it set back British operations that Winter.
[20] In September 1814, the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo, supported by part of Prairie du Chien's British garrison, repulsed a second American force led by Major Zachary Taylor in the Battle of Credit Island.
"[21] He called for a grand council in Greenville, Ohio that July, where he forced Native American leaders to sign an agreement aligning them with the United States against the British.
