Battle of the Thames, also called Battle of Moraviantown (Oct. 5, 1813) in the War of 1812, decisive U.S. victory over British and Indian forces in Ontario, Canada, enabling the United States to consolidate its control over the Northwest. After the U.S. naval triumph in the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, the British commander at Detroit, Brigadier General Henry A. Procter, found his position untenable and began a hasty retreat across the Ontario peninsula. He was pursued by about 3,500 U.S. troops under Major General William Henry Harrison, who was supported by the U.S. fleet in command of Lake Erie. The forces met near Moraviantown on the Thames River, a few miles east of what is now Thamesville. The British, with about 600 regulars and 1,000 Indian allies under Tecumseh, the Shawnee intertribal leader, were greatly outnumbered and quickly defeated. Many British troops were captured and Tecumseh was killed, destroying his Indian alliance and breaking the Indian power in the Ohio and Indiana territories. After this battle, most of the tribes abandoned their association with the British. After destroying the Moraviantown, a village of Christian Indians, the U.S. troops returned to Detroit. The U.S. victory helped catapult Harrison into the national limelight and eventually the presidency. Quoted from Encyclopedia Britannica online article.

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The battle of the Thames was the culmination of a bloody campaign that saw American forces clash with the British and their Native American allies on multiple occasions. In a battle that included the future US president William Henry Harrison, American naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry and the legendary Shawnee leader Tecumseh the Americans prevailed, due in part to their imaginative use of Kentucky mounted riflemen to charge British regular infantry and artillery. Their victory allowed them to secure the North-West frontier, a crucial strategic gain in the War of 1812. Drawing on his expertise of US–Native American conflicts, historian John F. Winkler investigates the battle of the Thames, bringing the conflict to life through detailed analysis, combat reports and stunning specially commissioned illustrations.

If Sitting Bull is the most famous Indian, Tecumseh is the most revered. Although Tecumseh literature exceeds that devoted to any other Native American, this is the first reliable biography--thirty years in the making--of the shadowy figure who created a loose confederacy of diverse Indian tribes that exted from the Ohio territory northeast to New York, south into the Florida peninsula, westward to Nebraska, and north into Canada. A warrior as well as a diplomat, the great Shawnee chief was a man of passionate ambitions. Spurred by commitment and served by a formidable battery of personal qualities that made him the principal organizer and the driving force of confederacy, Tecumseh kept the embers of resistence alive against a federal government that talked cooperation but practiced genocide following the Revolutionary War. Tecumseh does not stand for one tribe or nation, but for all Native Americans. Despite his failed attempt at solidarity, he remains the ultimate symbol of eavor and courage, unity and fraternity.

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