1. Enclosed was a copy of Maj. George Croghan’s 3 Aug. letter to William Henry Harrison (1 p.) reporting that the troops under his command had repelled a British attack on Fort Sandusky the previous evening. The British had lost “at least 200 killed, wounded & prisoners,” while the U.S. losses were “but one in killed, & but few wounded.”

2. Harrison wrote John Armstrong on 4 Aug. 1813, enclosing Croghan’s letter to him of 3 Aug. After bombarding Fort Sandusky with little effect, Harrison reported, the British had attempted to storm it, and had just entered the ditch surrounding the fort when “a masked port hole was suddenly opened and a six pounder with an half load of powder and double charge of leaden slugs, at the distance of 30 feet poured destruction upon them.” The surviving British troops “retired in disorder,” removed most of the dead and wounded during the night, and departed “with the utmost precipitation.” Before the battle, an emissary of the British commander, Gen. Henry Procter, had demanded that the U.S. forces surrender the fort or face massacre by Procter’s Indian allies, “whom it was impossible to control.” The American representative replied “that it was the determination of Major Croghan, his officers and men, to defend the garrison, or be buried in it.” Croghan, Harrison declared, although only twenty-one years old, was “a hero worthy of his gallant uncle (general Geo. R. Clark).” Harrison’s letter was printed in the Daily National Intelligencer on 12 Aug. 1813.

3. Armstrong was on his way to the northern theater of the war, where he attempted to direct the fall campaign from Albany and Sackets Harbor. His efforts were less than successful. Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson, the senior officer in the region, did not appreciate Armstrong’s interference, and Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, stationed at Lake Champlain, threatened to resign if forced to take orders from Wilkinson, whom he despised. Plagued by Wilkinson’s repeated illnesses and delays in moving troops and supplies, Armstrong was unable to orchestrate an assault on Kingston or to coordinate the movements of his two feuding generals in an attack on Montreal. Having failed to achieve either of the main objectives of the campaign, he returned to Washington in late December (Skeen, John Armstrong, 137, 138, 159–61, 162–66).