156 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Winchester moved so rapidly that he arrived at the River Raisin 
on the night of the 20th, and Colonel Wells came up next day with his 
detachment, bringing tents and other camp equipage. There was 
little regularity in their encampment. Lewis had allowed his men to 
select quarters and settle down wherever they pleased. They were 
ereatly elated by their success and seemed to forget that they had an 
enemy in the world.! Quantities of hard cider had been discovered 
and some men were drunk and quarrelsome. Desiring to escape the 
tumult created by “this parcel of dirty, noisy freemen,’’ the General 
took up his quarters at the house of Peter Navarre on the right bank 
of the river less than three hundred yards in rear. He afterwards 
stated that had he not been encumbered by so many wounded men, 
he would have retired to the Miami, but there is nothing in his conduct 
or correspondence at the time to give colour to this assertion. Wells 
was instructed to encamp his men on the right of the village and then 
to select a position to be fortified and occupied by the whole force. 
This was done; but as some of the troops were tired and all of them 
excited and unruly, no attempt was made to entrench that day. Patrols 
were sent out in several directions. One of these reported that they _ 
had gone as far as Brownstown without seeing any sign of an enemy. 
Another had seen two men, whom they suspected to be British officers, 
ride away from a house two miles up the river. All accounts agreed 
that the number of regular troops at Amherstburg and Detroit was 
small, and that there was little danger of an attack. Captain Hart, 
a brother-in-law of Henry Clay, came in with the information that 
Harrison had established his headquarters at the camp on the Miami 
the day before, and that a strong reinforcement was on the march. 
This was publicly announced and put everybody in high spirits.  Col- 
‘ onel Wells was sent back to hasten the movement of supplies; but in 
a letter to Harrison entrusted to him Winchester expressed no anxiety. 
Late at night a French Canadian arrived with information that a body 
of British and Indians three thousand strong was assembling at Browns- 
town. This report seemed so absurd that it was generally disbelieved 
by the principal officers, who were regaling “themselves with whiskey 
and loaf sugar.””? 
Frenchtown was a compactly built village of twenty dwellings, 
besides barns and outhouses, situated on the left bank of the river 
and on the right of the road leading to Brownstown, surrounded on 
three sides by a stout palisade of round logs split in halves and set 
in the ground, rising to a height of eight feet and sharpened to a point 
at the top. Blockhouses had been built at the angles during the sum- 

! Atherton, 40. 
2 Darnell, Journal. 
