Fort Malden and the legend of the circling warriors
Aug. 13, 1812: Brock reached Fort Amherstburg, now Fort Malden, and met Tecumseh. Days later Detroit fell. Legend says Tecumseh's warriors circled a clearing three times to look like a bigger army. The Canadian Encyclopedia says that lacks evidence.
Topics: Witching Hour
Get these every Sunday: the free Windsor News weekly digest.
Witching Hour is our nightly local history and folklore feature. Ghost stories and legends are retold as stories people tell, not reported as fact. Sources are listed below the story.
A summer on the Detroit River
In July 1812, early in the War of 1812, American Brigadier General William Hull crossed the Detroit River and occupied Sandwich, today part of Windsor, The Canadian Encyclopedia says. Amherstburg was weakly defended, but Hull did not advance. In early August, Tecumseh and his First Nations allies ambushed American supply columns near Brownstown, and on Aug. 11 Hull pulled his forces back to Fort Detroit.
On Aug. 13, Isaac Brock arrived at Fort Amherstburg with 300 men. Against the advice of most of his officers, he decided to attack Detroit. Tecumseh is said to have declared of Brock, "This is a man!" The encyclopedia says that whether the story is true or not, the two men held each other in high regard.
Brock sent Hull a summons to surrender, warning that once fighting began the large First Nations force would be "beyond my control." On the night of Aug. 15, about 530 warriors crossed the river in canoes. On Aug. 16, as Brock marched toward the fort, a white flag appeared over its walls, and Hull surrendered about 2,188 men.
The legend
A popular story says Tecumseh marched his warriors three times through an opening in the forest so Hull's lookouts would count a much larger army. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the story "lacks real evidence."
The fort today
Fort Amherstburg was built near the mouth of the Detroit River in 1796 and was the British Right Division's headquarters during the war. The British destroyed it when they retreated in September 1813, and nothing visible of it remains, Parks Canada says. Some of the earthworks at Fort Malden National Historic Site today date to the American occupation from 1813 to 1815.
