WI:Tecumseh wins the Battle of Thames

James Johnson and his mounted Kentucky riflemen attack the British six pound gun head on (and wonder of wonders the British get it working!). The British are tired and hungry but manage to bear the attack (a lot less steam because of the cannon fire however limited). Something goes amiss and orders get confused. The Indians get lucky and manage to turn the flank.

Harrison knows this is bad, the Indians have a nasty reputation for scalping and the battle is getting more and more confused. Desha's division is running and it looks like the Indians might leave a good chunk of first division surrounded and trapped the swamp, the Thames and that those stubborn Brits!

It agonizes him to no end but he must retreat.

They fall back to Amherstburg, but the British are too exhausted (and outmanned... and outgunned...) to follow.


The brave souls from Kentucky once again bear the brunt of the casualties and everybody starts to wonder if perhaps if maybe they aren't just a tad overzealous...

Harrison probably still resigns (but with a little more shame than OTL). Can he still become president with this hanging over his head?

Let's say for the sake of butterflies that R.M. Johnson bites the dust in the battle, Van Buren needs a new VP.

Tecumseh lives! Now the Indians were notorious on vanishing into thin after a big win, but maybe Tecumseh can keep them in line and manages to keep a semi-intact fighting force at the ready. Expect less cooperation from natives in the frontier and maybe a few more hit and runs. Probably the American settlers who suffer the most.

Procter manages to protect his career... for now. He dithered a lot in OTL and I don't expect an improbable win to change that. At some point he's going to dither and lose an engagement, it's only a matter of when. But he's got an extra few hundred British regulars who weren't captured now... but the Americans still control Lake Erie so he can't do much anyways except maybe have a little more organized of retreat.
 

Redhand

Banned
Harrison seemed to have had the guy's number and I think one defeat, most likely by the narrowest of margins, wont change much long term. The entire Canadian front was not friendly to giant gains or losses other than Detroit, which was a fuckup of the greatest magnitude by Hull.

The battle doesn't affect Ghent and the British realize that solid trade with the US is more important than some Indian Confedercy that could fall apart at any moment. The tide of settlers is relentless, and I doubt Tecumseh lives for that much longer under constant pressure. Even if he was miraculously able to form a workable polity after the war, the Erie Canal means it will be doomed.
 
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