Tecumseh’s Last Stand

by John Sugden

The War of 1812 has been regarded by many historians as a "small naval war" of little importance. Not so to the Indian tribes of the Old Northwest, who joined the British attempt to hold off the expansionist American armies in a desperate effort to retain their tribal lands, promised to them by the British in return for their alliance. The Indian force numbered some sixteen hundred warriors-Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Kickapoos, Potawatomis, Sacs, Ottawas, Muncey Delawares, Ojibwas, and Senecas among them. In September and October of 1813, after holding the frontier against the United States for more than a year, a small force of British and Indians under General Henry Procter and the Shawnee chief Tecumseh was driven from Amherstburg after the Battle of Lake Erie. They retreated to the River Thames. The succeeding engagement at Moraviantown, on October 5, 1813, was the most decisive American victory won on British soil in this war. The death of Tecumseh, who was killed while valiantly defending the field after the British had fled, cost the British-Indian alliance its most effective leader. The story of the campaign has never been fully told from the point of view of the Indians and the British, but innumerable legends have persisted about it, many of them contrasting the courage of the Shawnee chief with the alleged cowardice of Procter. In attempting to dispel the myths, John Sugden searched for surviving records in Britain, Canada, and the United States. He found a major source of information in the little-known minutes of General Procter's court-martial, filed in the Public Record Office at Kew, England. From this and many other sources, both published and unpublished, the author has comprehensively reconstructed the retreat and tackled the major why was Procter compelled to withdraw from Amherstburg after the loss of his squadron on Lake Erie; why and how did Procter and Tecumseh fight at Moraviantown; how was Tecumseh killed; and how did the engagement affect the fortunes of the British, the Indians, and the Americans in the remaining months of the war. Sugden further enhances our knowledge about the great Chief Tecumseh in the definitive account of the circumstances surrounding his death.

Genres: History, Native American

314 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

An independent scholar and a former associate editor of Oxford University Press's American National Biography project, John Sugden holds degrees from the Universities of Leeds, Lancaster and Sheffield.

Reviews

[Todd Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tecumseh’s final efforts to achieve battlefield victory over the United States during the War of 1812 are touchingly recounted. Sugden is a preeminent scholar on the history of the “Old Northwest”, of which Tecumseh is arguably the central figure. His courage and dedication to the cause of pan-tribal Native American alliance are considered at length, and the story of his finally days accurately discussed.

[Sicilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was educational but very boring. I would recommend this book to someone who is into Indians and British wars.