filled with water, the party groped their way to one of the gates, and were admitted.  Tecumseh and his Indians were extremely vigilant, and, at night, usually came close to the ramparts for the purpose of annoying our troops, as opportunity might offer.  So soon as general Harrison had received the information brought by captain Oliver and his companions, he made his arrangements for the ensuing day.  Captain Hamilton, attended by a subaltern, was immediately despatched up the river in a canoe with orders to general Clay.  The captain met him at daylight five miles above the fort, the boats conveying the reinforcements having been delayed by the darkness of the night.  Captain Hamilton delivered the following order to general Clay.  “You must detach about eight hundred men from your brigade, and land them at a point I will show you about a mile or a mile and a half above camp Meigs.  I will then conduct the detachment to the British batteries on the left bank of the river.  The batteries must be taken, the cannon spiked, and the carriages cut down; and the troops must then return to their boats and cross over to the fort.  The balance of your men must land on the fort-side of the river, opposite the first landing, and fight their way into the fort through the Indians.  The route they must take will be pointed out by a subaltern officer how with me, who will land the canoe on the right bank of the river to point out the landing for the boats."[A] As soon as these orders were received by general Clay, who was in the thirteenth boat from the front, he directed captain Hamilton to go to colonel Dudley, with orders to take the twelve front boats and execute the plan of the commanding general on the left bank of the river; and to post the subaltern with the canoe on the right bank, at the point where the remainder of the reinforcement was directed to land.  It was the design of general Harrison while the troops under Dudley were destroying the enemy’s batteries on the north-west side of the river, and general Clay was fighting the Indians above the fort on the south-east side, to send out a detachment to take and spike the British guns on the south side.

[Footnote A:  M’Affee.]

General Clay ordered the five remaining boats to fall behind the one occupied by him; but in attempting to do so, they were driven on shore, and thus thrown half a mile into the rear.  The general kept close to the right bank, intending to land opposite to the detachment under Dudley, but finding no guide there, and the Indians having commenced a brisk fire on his boat, he attempted to cross to the detachment.  The current, however, was so swift, that it soon carried him too far down for that project; he therefore turned back, and landed on the right bank further down.  Captain Peter Dudley, with a part of his company, was in this boat, making in the whole upwards of fifty men, who now marched into camp without loss, amidst a shower of grape from the British batteries and the