TIPPECANOE, BATTLE OF. An engagement fought on November 7, 1811, near the site of the present village of Battle Ground, on the Tippe canoe River, in Tippecanoe County, Ind., be tween an American force of about 800, including 500 Indiana and Kentucky militiamen, under William Henry Harrison, then Governor of In diana Territory, and an Indian force, estimated by Harrison at about 6000, but probably much smaller, under the actual command of White Loon, Stone Eater, and Winnemac. About 1808 Tecumseh and the Prophet, his brother, estab lished a village on the Tippecanoe River, and with this as their headquarters endeavored to bring all the Indian tribes of the West and Southwest into a confederation which should decide, in any given case, upon the alienation of Indian lands. Thich discontent was caused among the followers of Tecumseh and the Prophet by the Indian land cessions of 1809, and the danger of an Indian outbreak became daily more imminent. On October 11, 1811, while Har rison was building a stockade on the site of Terre Haute, one of his sentinels was killed from ambush, and Harrison, considering this the be ginning of hostilities, soon afterwards marched against the town on the Tippecanoe, where the Prophet was supposed to be inciting the Indians to attack the whites. On the night of November 6th he encamped within about a mile of the town, and posted his troops in the form of an irregular parallelogram, having previously ar ranged with the Prophet for a conference on the following day. Before dawn on the 7th the In
dians attacked the camp with great ferocity and bravery, but after more than two hours of stub born fighting were driven from the field. On the following day Harrison advanced to the town, found it deserted, and almost completely destroyed it. He then returned to Vincennes. The loss of the whites in the battle in killed and wounded was about 190; that of the Indians, though undoubtedly large, is not definitely known. At the time of the battle Tecumseh was in the South endeavoring to persuade the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees to join his projected confederation. The battle rendered virtually im possible the realization of Tecumseh's plans, weakened and almost destroyed the prestige of the Prophet, hastened the general outbreak of hostilities by the Indians against the Americans in the Northwest, and greatly enhanced the reputation of General Harrison, who later, partly on the strength of this success, was placed in command of the American troops in the West. Consult Pirtle, The Bottle of Tippecanoe (Louis ville, 1900), No. 15 of the "Filson Club Publica tions."