Search Site Anishinabe | Algonquian Tribes | Ojibway Language

Shoshone Ojibwa's | Ojibwa Tribes

Battle of Tippecanoe Battle of Mackinac Island First Battle of Sacketts Harbor Battle of Brownstown Battle of Maguaga Capture of Fort Detroit Battle of Fort Dearborn Siege of Fort Harrison Siege of Fort Wayne Copus Massacre Raid on Ganonoque Battle of Queenston Heights Battle of Lacolle Mills Battle of Wildcat Creek Battle of Mississinewa River Raisin Massacre Raid on Elizabethtown Battle of Ogdensburgh Battle of Fort Meigs Battle of Fort George Second Battle of Sackett's Harbor Battle of Stoney Creek Battle of Beaver Dams Battle of Fort Stephenson Battle of the Thames Battle of Chateauguay Battle of Cryslers Farm Capture of Fort Niagara Battle of Longwoods Second Battle of Lacolle Mills Raid on Fort Oswego Battle of Big Sandy Creek Battle of Fort Erie Battle of Chippawa Battle of Prairie du Chien Battle of Campbells Island Battle of Lundys Lane Second Battle of Mackinac Island Siege of Fort Erie Battle of Cooks Mills Battle of Malcoms Mills Battle of Craney Island Battle of St. Michaels Battle of Stuarts Pond Raid on Alexandria Battle of Blandensburgh Washington D.C. Is Destroyed Battle of Caulks Field Battle of North Point Battle of Baltimore Battle of New Orleans

August 4 - September 21, 1814 Siege of Fort Erie

This battle was fought near where present day Fort Erie, Ontario is situated which is 4.9 miles or 7.9 kilometers northwest of Buffalo, New York. Almost one month earlier, whites had attempted to recapture Fort Erie and the rest of the Niagara peninsula region, but were soundly defeated by brave Ojibway Soldiers. After losing the Battle of Chippawa, the whites once again sent large numbers of reinforcements to the Niagara Falls region. Their movements were learned of by Anishinabe scouts of course, and after alerting their commanders of the new large force of white soldiers squatting once again in the Fort Erie region, their military commanders instructed their brave soldiers to attempt to stop the whites from hiding themselves in that region. Anishinabe ogimak were still in sorrow after the many casualties their brave soldiers endured at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, which occurred just eleven days earlier. However, they still continued to pursue their policy of defending their land.

Numbering over 5,500 soldiers, the larger white military force in the Fort Erie region commenced to building defensive works and on August 4, 1814 were attacked by Ojibway Soldiers. In an effort to get more weapons and ammunition, Anishinabe military commanders ordered scores of their brave soldiers to reach the nearby Buffalo region to attempt to capture the towns weapons and ammunition supplies. However, the bridge crossing the Conguichity Creek was destroyed and several hundred white soldiers were patrolling that region. In that battle that followed, Ojibway Soldiers inflicted 38 casualties on white soldiers but they were incapable of capturing those weapons and ammunition they badly needed. As this siege progressed, whites attempted to send more supplies to the besieged fort by sailing Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. On one occasion, Anishinabek captured two white boats (schooners) on the Niagara river. By August 13, 1814 Anishinabe military commanders ordered their soldiers to increase the bombardments on the white soldiers hiding in Fort Erie and around Fort Erie. It had little effect.

In a last ditch effort to recapture the fort, Ojibway Soldiers put forth an extremely gallant effort to enter the fort. They singled out the defensive structures (the batteries of the white soldiers) the whites had situated around the fort, to attempt to destroy those positions, and to use a frontal assault on the fort. What followed was not pretty. The weather was not good (it was raining heavily) and their equipment to climb into the fort was too small. Two contingents of brave Ojibway Soldiers attacked the sections of the forts batteries their commanders ordered them to, but they met with much resistance from the white soldiers. A large group of brave Ojibway Soldiers actually forced their way into the fort where a horrific battle ensued which inflicted a great many casualties on both parties. A large supply of gunpowder in the fort blew up after Ojibway Soldiers shot off one of the captured cannons of their white enemies. It inflicted many casualties on Ojibway Soldiers and white soldiers. After their horrible failure to recapture Fort Erie, Anishinabe military commanders had no choice but to call for more reinforcements which arrived late in August.

By mid September, white soldiers agreed to attack Ojibway Soldiers who had built defensive structures around the fort to protect themselves and the big guns they had either made or captured, earlier in the war. The white soldiers caught the Anishinabek off guard at two of the locations where they built defensive works. However, at the third defensive structure, white soldiers were completely routed and endured over 500 hundred casualties. On September 21, 1814 Anishinabe military commanders had tired of their white enemies great will to use fortification warfare, then ordered their brave soldiers to lift the siege. White casualties in the long battle were staggering. In all, 2,136 white soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured by the Anishinabek then either killed later on or enslaved. Anishinabe casualties must have been staggering as well. Ojibway leaders were war weary by this time. Large numbers of their brave soldiers had been killed or wounded trying to halt a white advance west into southern Ontario, from Niagara Falls.