Colonel Dudley's Defeat

Col. Wm. Dudley's defeat opposite Fort Meigs, May 5th, 1813: official report ..., by Leslie Combs.

"When Col. [William] Dudley [1766 - May 5, 1813] attacked the batteries of the enemy, opposite Fort Meigs, on the 5th of May, 1813, he advanced in three columns. The right, led by himself, carried them without the loss of a man.  The middle was the reserve. The left, headed by Major Shelby, formed at right angles on the river, to protect from below. This arrangement was scarcely made before the spies under my command (about thirty in number, including seven friendly Indians) who flanked at some hundred yards distance in the woods, were attacked by part of the Indian force of the enemy."

 "The enemy retreated. Our troops impelled more by incautious valour and a desire for military distinguishment than prudence, pursued. ...every step we advanced carried us farther from under the protection of our fort."


From Ohio History Central:

"While Dudley's Massacre was a defeat for the U.S. military, the destruction of the British cannon helped convince the British soldiers to lift their siege of Fort Meigs. The Native Americans persuaded the British to attack the fort again in July 1813, but once again, the U.S. defenders were victorious."

From The Life Of General Combs

Source

"By selling a small piece of land (all he had on earth) devised to him by a deceased elder brother, he soon completed his outfit as a volunteer, and, armed with holsters and broadsword, with only fifteen dollars in his
pocket, he started for the north-western army, which was then marching with all possible speed towards the frontiers of Ohio, in order to re-enforce General Hull. Never having been forty miles from home before this time, young and inexperienced as he was, nothing but his burning zeal for the cause to which he had devoted himself could have sustained him against all the perils and hardships of his long journey. When he arrived at Piqua, beyond Dayton, he found crowds of Indians, men, women, and children, principally from the neighboring Shawanee villages, who were besieging the commissary's and quartermaster's apartments for food, blankets, and ammunition."  [Source]


More about General Combs here.

Flag Still Flying

While in Piqua he [Joseph Paxton] was chosen as a volunteer spy in Captain Leslie Combs's company of spies.

...during the night they could distinctly hear the cannonading at Fort Meigs... . ...each man examined his gun and prepared for action as they now expected to have to fight their way into the fort...very soon came in sight of Fort Meigs and saw the American flag still flying...

Source: Congressional edition (Google eBook) (1841)

A Portrait Of General Leslie Combs

General Combs from Narrative of the life of General Leslie Combs:

General Leslie Combs (1793-1881) is descended, on the side of his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Richardson, from a respectable Quaker family of Maryland, connected by blood with the Thomases and Snowdens. His father was by birth a Virginian, and served as a subaltern officer in the revolutionary army under Washington, at the siege of Yorktown and capture of Lord Cornwallis.

Young Leslie Combs had just passed his eighteenth birthday, and was, by law, subject to militia duty, although he had not been inscribed on any muster-roll.

Equipping himself as a private of cavalry as speedily as possible, about a month after the army marched from Georgetown, Kentucky, he started alone on their track, hoping to overtake them in time to partake of their glorious triumphs in Canada, for, like the rest, he never dreamed of disaster and defeat.

Having risen from the ranks to the office of captain in two campaigns, without the aid of friends or fortune, by repeated acts of self-devotion, Leslie Combs had returned home naked and penniless, a cripple for life.

The Combs family.