The troops at Fort Defiance ate roots and bark.

Typhus broke out among them, and they died like flies.

For the failure to supply the army, the War Department was largely responsible, and Secretary Eustis very properly resigned in December.

This removed one glaring incompetent from the list but it failed to improve Harrison's situation.
It was not until the severe frosts of January, 1813, fettered the swamps that Harrison was able to extricate his troops and forward supplies to the shore of Lake Erie for an offensive against Amherstburg.

First in motion was the left wing of thirteen hundred Kentucky militia and regulars under General Winchester.