The siege of Fort Meigs took place in late April to early May 1813 during the War of 1812 in northwestern Ohio, present-day Perrysburg. A small British Army unit with support from Indians attempted to capture the recently constructed fort to forestall an American offensive against Detroit, and its Fort Detroit in the Great Lakes region which the British from the north in Canada had captured the previous year. An American sortie and relief attempt failed with heavy casualties, but the British failed to capture the fort and were forced to raise the siege.
Fort Meigs
Plan of the Battle of 5 May, from Benson J. Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812
Artillery at Fort Meigs
War of 1812 memorial obelisk at Fort Meigs
Fort Meigs was a United States fortification along the Maumee River in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio during the War of 1812. The British Army, supported by Tecumseh's Confederacy, failed to capture the fort during the siege of Fort Meigs. It is named in honor of Ohio governor Return J. Meigs Jr., for his support in providing General William Henry Harrison with militia and supplies for the line of forts along the Old Northwest frontier.
Dressed in clothing of the period, these guides at Fort Meigs Historic Site prepare to give a tour of the facility on a clear day in the summer
The museum entrance
Fort Meigs Monument, 1910s
Historic reenactors firing flintlock muskets during Independence Day 2014