Gen. William Henry Harrison Seeks to Confirm His Authority As Supreme Commander of the Western Army in the War of 1812

This letter appears on the Ohio History website as one of "Ohio's Fundamental Documents"

When war was declared in June 1812, the Americans had but 7,000 troops in the whole of the west, and their leading general, William Hull, was an old man and little respected. The British essentially controlled the Great Lakes and had the numerous Indian tribes as allies, and their initial efforts were crowned with success. Harrison had established a reputation as a victorious general when he defeated the Indians in 1811 at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and he was governor of the virgin Indiana territory, so many eyes turned to him to take an active military role. On August 28, the only senior U.S. general in the western sector, James Winchester, temporarily yielded command to Harrison, who on August 31 received a brigadier general's commission signed by President Madison. The immediate need was to head north to save Fort Wayne, then under actual Indian attack. This was accomplished by Harrison with speed and determination. At this moment of Harrison's triumph, Gen. Winchester arrived and assumed command of his force. On September 18, Harrison, America’s best general in the west, was a general bereft of command. He returned with a mounted force to Piqua, Ohio, his plans as yet undetermined, although mounted Ohio volunteers were being raised at his call for an expedition against the Indiana tribes.

Then, on September 24, Harrison broke the seal of a War Office order appointing him to the command of the Northwestern Army.  This meant that both Harrison and Winchester were brigadier generals, and both had commands, but Winchester was officially superseded by his previous subordinate, Harrison. Winchester was none to pleased about this situation, and amidst some confusion as to who had what authority, he sought to seize authority to the fullest extent possible by issuing orders for courts martial affecting Harrison's command.  

Meanwhile, Harrison was absorbed with the war. The War Department informed him that his force would include some 6000 men, and that a train of artillery was to advance from Pittsburgh for him; he was also clothed with authority to requisition funds and supplies of every kind. With these assets, Harrison was ordered to provide for the protection of the entire northwestern frontier, to retake Detroit, and to prepare to conquer Canada. Then in November, at the behest of President Madison, the Quartermasters Department was reorganized and six Deputy Quartermasters were appointed. One of these was Capt. William Piatt, who was given that post in the Western Army. James Morrison was also named to the same post with the same army, meaning that two men held the same rank and title, no one being superior to the other. The Western Army now had two Brigadier Generals and two quartermasters, an untenable situation.

Harrison took charge as commander at the end of September 1812 in a desperate situation. With the weather turning colder, the men were destitute of warm clothing and other supplies were short. It would be the quartermasters' job to make the most of the situation and secure the necessities of life for the army. Despite the weather and privation, Harrison intended to act promptly on his goals to secure Ohio and Indiana and retake Detroit. He traced a route for American forces across northern Ohio, marked sites for outposts and storehouses, and ordered roads built across Black Swamp to connect Upper and Lower Sandusky Rivers with the Rapids. He then proceeded up the Scioto River to Marion and Upper Sandusky to Findlay, then crossed the Black Swamp to a site on the Maumee River Rapids just southwest of Toledo, arriving on January 21, 1813. At that site he ordered construction of Fort Meigs. The War Department's selection of Harrison over Winchester was justified when, just one day after Harrison's arrival, Winchester and his command were decisively defeated at Raisin River, Michigan, resulting in the the highest number of Americans killed in a single battle during the War of 1812.

The day before arriving at the site of Fort Meigs, and while Winchester was getting shellacked in Michigan, Harrison wrote Secretary of War James Monroe requesting that he clear up the confusion as to his authority being superior to Winchester's, and again in order to avoid confusion, to select one candidate for his chief quartermaster rather than two named by the War Department. Letter signed, "Head Qrts N.W. Army, Miami Rapids, 20 January 1813", to Secretary of War Monroe. "The appointments of Col. Morrison and Capt. Piatt as Deputy QMGenl to this army with equal authority, is calculated to produce the most unfortunate results to the public interest as well from the confusion which it must produce in the accounts of that department as from the eternal clashing with regard to their duties in the field. I wish you to be so obliging as to decide between them. There are sound peculiar circumstances which render it impossible for me to have anything to do in the decision. General Courts Martial have been constantly ordered and acted upon by Genl. Winchester, upon what authority I know not. I have never heard that a General Court Martial could be ordered by any but the commanding general of an army, nor do I believe it to be lawful. The President may authorize a Col. in a separate Department to order Courts Martial, but in the same army or Department that authority can be vested in one person only without proving destructive to subordination. I must request you to decide upon this subject also." Letters of Harrison with significant content from the War of 1812 are very uncommon, this being only our second in all these decades.

A typescript of this letter appears on the Ohio History website as one of "Ohio's Fundamental Documents", and is referenced on a number of other War of 1812 websites. Harrison's peculiar reason to decline involvement was likely that he was previously familiar with Morrison, and did not want to be accused of favoritism.

Monroe responded by resolving both problems. He promoted Harrison to the rank of Major-General, a rank superior to that of any other man in the West. And Morrison was confirmed as Deputy Quartermaster General, with Piatt being reassigned.

Harrison and his men began constructing Fort Meigs on February 2, 1813, and shortly thereafter Harrison received his promotion to major general. The British and their Indian allies twice besieged the fort that year, but the fort was well built and the sieges were unsuccessful. After Oliver Hazard Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie on the 10th of September 1813, Harrison no longer had to remain on the defensive; he advanced to Detroit, re-occupied the territory surrendered by General William Hull, and on the 5th of October administered a crushing defeat to the British and their Indian allies at the Battle of the Thames, where the Indian leader Tecumseh was killed. His contributions were perhaps the most significant of any American general in the War of 1812, as they made it possible for the U.S. to retain the entire northwest. Harrison was a hero, and on the road to the presidency.