Fort Harrison burns, but Taylor's fifteen sick men hold the line

Captain Zachary Taylor had fifty men at Fort Harrison on the Wabash River, and sickness had cut that to fifteen who could stand and fight. On the evening of September 4, 1812, a warrior slipped in and set the blockhouse ablaze, and a force of roughly 600 Potawatomi, Wea, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and Winnebago warriors attacked the west wall as the fire tore open a twenty-foot gap in the stockade. Taylor's garrison fought the flames with a bucket brigade and sealed the breach with a hasty breastwork, holding through the night. By daybreak on September 5 the attackers had pulled back out of gun range…