HISTORY

Seprember 26, 1813
Capture of Ft. Malden

The latest movement of the Army of the Northwest took place on the morning of the 27th. Using sixteen armed vessels and almost one hundred small boats built by the troops. At 9AM Harrison's address was read to the men on each vessel and the ships all moved into the Detroit River

Hartley's Point, three or four miles south of Ft. Malden had been selected by Harrison and Perry as the landing site. The landing took place at about 4PM, on a low, sandy beach and observer carefully by the British. The army moved inland with the Kentucky Volunteers on the right, the regulars on the left, and Ball's Legion and the friendly Indians in the center. But no enemy was there. Proctor had fled northward with his army after learning of the landing, leaving Ft. Malden, the navy and storage buildings a smoking ruin.

Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War: "I will pursue the enemy to-morrow, although there is no probability of overtaking him, as he has upward of a thousand horses, and we have not one in the army. I shall think myself fortunate to collect a sufficiency to mount the general officers." Only one, and that a Canadian pony, was procured.

The next morning Harrison's army, excepting a regiment of riflemen under Col. Smith left at the fort, encamped in the Petit Côte Settlement and advanced on Sandwich.