Word that the Indians were again collecting around Fort Wayne induced Harrison to send Colonel Allen Trimble and five hundred mounted volunteers to the fort. A battalion of Ohio infantry was also sent to Fort Wayne with much needed provisions. While at Fort Wayne this group collected firewood since the garrison was unable to do so with the hostile Indians lurking in the woods.
On November 22, 1812, Captain Hugh Moore arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the post. Little is known about Captain Moore. He had been with Harrison from the outbreak of the war. At Fort Wayne he served as commander until the summer of 1813 when he was succeeded by Major Joseph Jenkinson. Captain Moore’s first order was the appointment of Antoine Bondie as issuing agent at the post. This was obviously in recognition of Bondie’s service during the siege. This position enabled Bondie to support his family, as his trading establishment was all but ruined. Later Bondie was also appointed captain of the scouts which were sent out occasionally from the fort.
On April 28, 1813, Captain Moore issued an order placing Lt. Philip Ostrander under arrest and prohibiting any member of the garrison from communicating with the younger officer. Lt. Ostrander was never brought before a military court, but died on July 13, 1813, while still imprisoned. There is no reason given for the arrest in the orderly book, other than the statement, “circumstances have transpired within this garrison of a most destructive, injurious and dangerous nature to the service.”[30] Brice in his short history of Fort Wayne says: “Lieutenant Ostrander ... who had unthoughtfully fired upon a flock of birds passing over the fort, had been reprimanded by Captain Ray [Rhea], and because of his refusal to be tried by courtmartial, was confined in a small room in the garrison, where he subsequently died.”[31]
This account is rendered impossible from the fact that Ostrander acted as commandant from the time of Rhea’s departure in disgrace, until the arrival of Captain Moore. As late as January 5, 1813, Lt. Ostrander was a member of a court martial, which found Alexander Scott guilty of contemptuous conduct to one of the officers, possibly Ostrander himself. After that date his name does not appear in the record until April 27, 1813, the day prior to his arrest, when the same Alexander Scott was tried and acquitted on a charge of traducing Lt. Ostrander’s character.[32] In what manner Scott supposedly slandered Lt. Ostrander is not stated in the proceedings of the trial; however, it is possible to surmise that there was some connection between the charge and Lt. Ostrander’s arrest the following day.
During the year 1813, Fort Wayne became the natural center for supplies used by the American armies operating in northern Ohio and eastern Michigan. In May of that year, Harrison addressed the Secretary of War, saying:
“I am persuaded that a demonstration in the direction of Fort Wayne by a body of mounted men would be attended by very happy effects. I am not entirely at ease on the subject of the garrisons in that direction. The enemy, if they understood their business will certainly make an attempt to carry some of our weak posts where we have large deposits ... I have always been partial to the assembling a body of Troops in the Vicinity of Fort Wayne. It is in the immediate line of communication between the Indians of the Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, and the South and West sides of Lake Michigan and Malden.”[33]
Following this logic, Harrison ordered Colonel Richard M. Johnson to proceed to Fort Wayne and from thence to scour the northwestern frontiers. After a difficult journey over the swollen St. Mary’s river and flooded countryside, Johnson’s men reached Fort Wayne on June 7. Grim excitement greeted their arrival. One of the ten flatboats bringing provisions to Fort Wayne had struck on a bar within sight of the fort. Before help could arrive, the three crewmen were killed by Indians lurking near the fort. Johnson’s cavalry pursued the red men, but nightfall and rain ended their endeavor.
Leaving their heavy baggage at Fort Wayne, the regiment moved across the St. Mary’s and established their camp in the present Spy Run district of Fort Wayne. After a day’s rest, Johnson’s men began a march two hundred miles in the region to the northwest of Fort Wayne. They returned to the fort on June 14. The result of this excursion was important, for never before had this land been traversed by such a large body of white men. The knowledge gained at this time, together with the information published by Capt. McAfee, played a significant part in the development of the northwestern part of Indiana.
After spending a few days at Fort Wayne, Johnson’s regiment proceeded down the Maumee to join Harrison’s army, and aid in the recapture of Detroit. On October 5, 1813, the British and Indian forces were routed at the battle of the Thames by the American army under Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and in effect, the Indian power was broken forever in the old Northwest. This battle, following closely upon Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, brought the war to an unofficial close in this region.
The danger of Indian hostilities at Fort Wayne was never again critical, but the safety of the people about the fort was still menaced by occasional attacks. Such a one occurred late in 1813, when Major Joseph Jenkinson arrived to succeed Captain Hugh Moore as commander of Fort Wayne. On the march from Newport, Kentucky, three companies of militia which accompanied Major Jenkinson found it convenient, in the latter part of their journey, to convey their supplies by flatboats on the St. Mary’s river. At a sharp bend in the stream about a mile from the fort, the Indians ambushed the last of the boats and killed the men who were guiding it.