First draft for the William H. Harrison topic:


Three months into The War of 1812 the American nation faced a crisis in the northwest territory. With Fort Detroit captured and American forces on the backfoot, someone with experience in military as well as diplomatic affairs needed to be appointed to commander of the Army of the Northwest. William H. Harrison was a national hero from his victory against an ambush at Tippecanoe by the Indian leader Tecumseh, and he was a renowned statesman with numerous land acquisition treaties during his career. Immediately after his appointment, he established Fort Meigs in northwest Ohio to plug the gap created early in the war until he could receive enough reinforcements to mitigate the numerical superiority of the British and Indian forces.

A year after his appointment, Commander Harrison had reversed the tide of the war in the northwest; his army was on the offensive. After recapturing Fort Detroit his army chased Tecumseh’s Indians along with their British allies into Ontario. At the Battle of the Thames the Indian army dissipated along with the British forces after Tecumseh was slain. This campaign and its penultimate conclusion at the Battle of the Thames became one of the greatest American victories in the war of 1812 and earned future president William H. Harrison a gold medal for his service to his country.