| CRUIKSHANK] HARRISON AND PROCTER 157 
mer and the place put in a position to resist an attack, but Brush had 
partially destroyed these works before evacuating it in August.’ The 
river front was entirely open. All of the buildings were constructed 
of hewn logs with shingle roofs, and some were clapboarded. With 
their gardens and orchards they covered a quadrangular space of two 
hundred by three hundred yards, the longest side being parallel to the 
river. Lewis’s original command had taken up their quarters in these 
buildings, where they were comfortably housed. The troops brought 
forward by Colonel Wells, consisting mainly of men of the 17th United 
States Infantry and the Ist Kentucky Rifle Regiment, occupied the 
post of honour on the right, outside the enclosure, some being billetted 
in detached houses and the remainder encamped in tents. Along the 
river on both sides for several miles there were farm houses, forming 
in the whole a settlement which had a population of more than twelve 
hundred persons before the war began. North of the village, at a dis- 
tance of about one hundred yards, a deep hollow ran parallel to the 
river, crossing the road to Brownstown nearly at right angles, which, 
with an isolated farmhouse and orchard, afforded some cover to a force 
attacking from that direction. 
Winchester had with him then three companies of the 17th United 
States, three companies of the Ist Kentucky militia (Scott’s regiment), 
one company of the 2nd Kentucky militia (Jennings), five companies 
of the 5th Kentucky militia (Lewis), and six companies of the Ist 
Kentucky Rifles (Allen), making in all a force of about 975 of all ranks, 
including the wounded and their medical attendants. Orders had been 
given to strengthen the position, but little had been done beyond cut- 
ting some loopholes in the palisades. A general feeling of security 
prevailed. As the weather was bitterly cold and the snow lay deep 
everywhere, no outlying pickets were posted and no patrols were sent 
out during the night.” 
Procter learned that Reynolds had been driven from Frenchtown 
at two o’clock on the morning of the 19th. He quickly decided that 
there was no time to be lost in attacking the enemy at that place “with 
all and every description of force” within his reach. Fortunately most 
of the young men of the Petite Côte, were celebrating Queen Charlotte’s 
birthday at a public hall where they were warned for service in a body. 
Captain James Askin’s company of the 2nd Essex was detailed as the 
garrison of Detroit, under Major Muir, who was still enfeebled by illness. 
A corporal’s party of the Royal Artillery and the invalids of other regular 
corps with the least effective men of the militia were assigned for the 

: Williams, Two Western Campaigns, 25. 
* Winchester’s Statement; A. B. Woodward to James Monroe. 31 January,1813. 
