WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 213 



was very wet. It was next to impossible, to raise fires. We 

 had no tents, no axes, our clothes perfectly wetted through, 

 and we had little to eat. From a brigade of packhorses, near 

 us, we got some flour; we killed a hog, from a drove ; our bread 

 we baked in the ashes, and our meat was broiled on the coals. 

 This was the sweetest meal, I ever ?ite. .Two logs rolled close 

 together, to keep us out of the water, was my bed." 



From the Ohio river, to lake Erie, and from the Sandusky, 

 the Maumee river, inclusive (the ice excepted) the Pittsburgh 

 volunteer's description, is not a bad one of the roads, where 

 troops, pack horses, wagons and artillery were in motion, that 

 winter, except some few days, before and after new year's 

 day. 



Still determined on regaining Detroit, that winter if possible ; 

 after urging forward to join him at the mouth of Portage river, 

 all the troops at Upper and Lower Sandusky, and their bag- 

 gage; about the first of February, 1813, Harrison was with 

 all his force, again at the Maumee rapids. As it was the 

 General's intention to make the ground at the rapids, his 

 grand depot of troops, stores, artillery, &c., he ordered cap- 

 tain Wood, of the Engineers to fortify that position. The 

 county whose seat of justice is near these rapids now bears 

 his name — Wood. The fort was afterwards named Meigs, in 

 honor of governor Meigs. About the 20th of February, the 

 term for which two brigades of Ohio militia had enlisted ex- 

 pired. They had behaved very well, and their officers ad- 

 dressed a parting letter to general Harrison highly compli- 

 mentary. Their names follow -. Edward W. Tupper, briga- 

 dier general ; Simon Perkins, brigadier general ; Charles Mil- 

 ler, colonel ; John Andrews, lieutenant colonel ; William 

 Raven, colonel; Robert Safford, lieutenant colonel; N. 

 Beasly, major; James Galloway, major; Solomon Bentley 

 major; George Darrow, major: W. W. Cotgreave, major; 

 Jacob Frederick, major. 



These officers and their troops, had guarded the northeast- 

 ern frontier, from early in the summer of 1812, after Hull's 

 defeat. They had cut all the roads, and transported all the 



