Battle of Monguagon / Michigan Wyandot and Monguagon
Battle of Monguagon
On August 9, 1812, Lieut. James Miller and a force of about 600 American regulars and militia, moved down the
Hull's Trace in an attempt to bring desperately needed supplies from Frenchtown (Monroe) to Detroit. A similar efffort had failed at
Brownstown on August 5. Near the Wyandot village of Monguagon, American scouts ran into a British and Indian force of about 400 men led by Capt. Adam Muir and Tecumseh. In the heavy fighting that followed, the Americans drove the British back through present-day Trenton and across the Detroit River, while Native forces withdrew into nearby woods. Despite this tactical victory, Miller returned empty-handed to Detroit, which American General William Hull surrendered to the British a week later.
Michigan Wyandot and Monguagon
The Michigan Wyandot who fought at Monguagon were nuetral at the beginning of the War of 1812. In the years leading up to the war, their villages at Monguagon and Brownstown had not joined the loose coalition led by the Shawnee brothers Tenskwatawa (The Prophet) and Tecumseh in its fight against American expansion onto Indian lands. However, in early August 1812. Tecumseh and Roundhead, his leading Wyandot supporter, convinced the Wyandot and their head chief, Walk-in-the-Water, to join them and the British. The Anglo-Native alliance was repulsed, but the Wyandot villages continued to block Hull's Trace, the American's supply route from Ohio to Fort Detroit.
Marker replaced on August 9, 2012, following a fund raising effort led by the Monguagon Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The text was revised and expanded.
Registered Site S0199
Erected 1962
Location: 3524 West Jefferson
Trenton,
Wayne County Topics:Native AmericansWar of 1812Home Latitude: 42.1360903, Longitude: -83.1828519