The Battle of the Longwoods
The situation is still rather grim at Fort Detroit during the winter of 1813-1814. Colonel Lewis Cass has been succeeded by Lt. Colonel Anthony Butler. Butler, bedridden and suffering from a great deal of stress, takes stock of the situation. Fort Detroit is consumed with rampant disease (Cholera). He has inherited a dismantled fort. He has no cannon and not enough men to put the fort into any semblance of defense. He has barely enough food. Moreover, he is terrified that the British will regroup and attack, aided by disillusioned Natives who had joined the Americans after the disaster at Moraviantown, where their leader, Tecumseh, was killed. So far, in the middle of February, Butler is relatively safe from attack because the Detroit River has thawed due to an unseasonably warm spell with rain. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to contend with a Gordie Howe Bridge! Butler dispatches Captain Andrew Hunter Holmes of the 24th Tennessee Infantry from Amherstburg on an intelligence and foraging mission and if they should run into the British, they are to launch an “annoying attack” then retire in safety. He can count on an “elbows up” response from the British and Canadians. Holmes sets out along the Talbot Road with detachments of his own regiment as well as the 26th Vermont, the 27th New York and the 28th Kentucky. The target is Port Talbot, home of the Thomas Talbot. Holmes is to meet up with Captain Gill of the Michigan Rangers (Captain Andrew Westbrook’s unit) and Captain Lee of the Michigan Militia Dragoons at Rond Eau. There is no evidence that Westbrook (whose life was in disarray due to the death of his wife Sally two weeks before) took part in this venture. With the addition of the other two companies, the force is now about 180 strong. Holmes decides that any element of surprise is gone and the target switches from Port Talbot to Delaware. The American force swings north and connects with the Longwoods Road at Moraviantown (Thamesville and Fairfield) and heads for Delaware. The 113 miles between Detroit and Delaware is
one unbroken collection of trees. Hence the name “Longwoods”. Upon that road, Holmes comes across a 70-year-old “renegade Canadian” who informs him that the British are roughly 300 men strong up ahead. It is thought that this “renegade” was George Ward, whose farm lay a few miles down the road where Wardsville stands today. With this new information, Holmes decides to backtrack 5 miles to Twenty Mile Creek (so named because it is twenty miles from Delaware) and fortify the western side of a large ravine. Here, Holmes’s men erect a makeshift fort by creating an abatis (sharpened branches of felled trees facing the enemy) on the brow of the ravine straddling the Longwoods Road. The natural bluff facing east creates a fourth wall. Here, he will await the arrival of the British. Meanwhile, a foot of snow starts to fall. (To be continued.) Photo courtesy of the London and Middlesex Historian, vol 19, Autumn 1992.
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Byron Villager March 2026
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