132 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
On September 30, he learned that Muir had retreated and moved for- 
ward to the site of Fort Defiance where he again formed an entrenched 
camp and awaited supplies. Nine days had been occupied in covering 
a distance of less than fifty miles. 
On reaching Piqua, on Sept. 24th, Harrison received a letter from 
the Secretary of War, dated only seven days before, placing him in 
supreme command of the Northwestern army which, in addition to 
all the regular troops in the military district, would include the whole 
of the volunteers and detached militia from Kentucky and three thou- 
sand ordered to join him from Pennsylvania and Virginia, making a 
total force of more than ten thousand men. A train of artillery was 
being equipped at Pittsburg. With respect to the vital question of 
supply he was practically given unlimited authority. “Command such 
means as may be practicable,” the Secretary wrote; “exercise your 
own discretion and act in all cases according to your own judgment.” 
After having secured the frontier against Indian incursions, he was 
instructed to retake Detroit and advance as far into Upper Canada as 
he might deem prudent with a view to the permanent conquest of that 
Province.! The Secretary’s next letter confirmed and even extended 
his authority. 
“As the difficulty of obtaining supplies, particularly of provisions, 
through the wilderness, appears to be one of the greatest obstacles you 
will have to contend with, which difficulty it is well known increases 
as the season advances, your own judgment will enable you to determine 
how far it may be practicable to advance and what posts or stations 
it may be expedient to maintain during the winter. You are already 
apprised of the solicitude of the government that everything that can 
be done, shall be done towards recovering the ground lost and extend- 
ing successful operations into Canada.’’? 
The contractor, commissary, and all officers of the quartermaster 
general’s department were made directly subject to his orders to enable 
him to act with greater freedom and vigour. In three days he had framed 
a plan of operations by which he hoped to concentrate the greater part 
of his troops at the Miami Rapids, seventy-two miles from Detroit 
within a month. Considerations of supply and transport as well as his 
instructions to protect the frontier settlements, induced him to move 
in three columns. The right division consisting of 250 cavalry, twenty- 
eight guns and two brigades of infantry detached from the militia of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia was to assemble at Wooster, Ohio, and thence 
advance by way of Upper Sandusky where it would be joined by a 

1 Atherton’s Narrative, pp. 7-9. 
? Eustis to Harrison, Sept. 17, 1812. 
