TOLEDO TO DETROIT. 273 



famous Indian massacre of 1812. Relics of the 

 bloody encounter are still found on the field. 



It was at a time when tlie British were making suc- 

 cessful inroads upon Michigan, and General Win- 

 chester, at the head of eight hundred Kentuckians, 

 had been ordered to Frenchtown, the old name for 

 Monroe, the same point toward which General Miller 

 had previously moved on a mission equally fatal. 



Winchester was warned of the advance of the 

 enemy, but thou":ht there was no cause for immediate 

 alarm, and on the night before the engagement, he 

 crossed to the side of the river opposite his men, 

 leaving the camp open to attack. The result was, that 

 he awoke the next morning to find Proctor's troops 

 putting his men to rout, at the point of the bayonet, 

 while their Indian allies were adding to the confusion 

 by their deadly assault. 



Although a part of the Americans escaped on the 

 ice of the river, the field was covered with tlieir dead 

 and wounded. General Winchester being among the 

 former. When the engagement was over, Proctor 

 rode away, leaving a detachment to guard the prison- 

 ers and wounded, with instructions that no violence 

 was to be committed ; but some of the sav^agcs who 

 followed him having become intoxicated, returned and 

 fell upon tlie prisoners with unrestrained frenzy. 

 Most of the latter had been placed in two small cabins. 

 These were fired, and the victims })erished in the 

 flames, the Indians pushing them back when they at- 

 tempted to escape through the small windows. The 

 remainder were massacred and their bodies left a prey 

 to the wolv^es. It was this horrible affair that aroused 

 the Americans and particularly the Kentuckians to 



