During the winter of 1795-96, Hamtramck found the food and supply situation at Fort Wayne somewhat better, although there were about 90 children and old women entirely dependent on the garrison for their subsistence. Until the British post at Detroit was transferred to the United States, Fort Wayne was the headquarters for detachments at the following western forts: Defiance, Sandusky, Adams, Recovery, Jefferson, Loramie, Head of the Auglaise, and Michilimackinac. In June, 1796, Col. Hamtramck was ordered to proceed to Detroit and take command of the former British post there. After his departure, the force at Fort Wayne never numbered more than 100 men. These men held an important position along the first line of defense in the northwest. Other than Michilimackinac, there were no posts to the north or northwest until Ft. Dearborn was erected in 1803. The men at Fort Wayne acted as if they had little realization of their responsibility. The majority of the enlisted men of that day were drawn from the most turbulent elements of the east. The soldier’s life was not a popular vocation. At this western outpost, garrison life was more than harsh; it was extremely boring. The troops at Fort Wayne had nothing to do in their leisure time, and usually passed their days in drinking, fighting, and gambling.[20] In vain did the officers have insubordinate men flogged at parade (not infrequently the maximum penalty of 100 lashes was given), deprived them of their whiskey rations, and put them to hard labor. When, in 1812, Congress amended the articles of war to prohibit flogging, other substitute punishments, hardly less severe and equally degrading, were devised. Men were confined in small dark rooms, put astride spiked wooden horses, forced to wear the wooden collar, ankle bolts, and irons. In the Orderly Books for the Fort Wayne garrison, we repeatedly find non-commissioned officers demoted to the ranks for misconduct or crimes of one nature or another, only to be reinstated when their successors proved even more incapable. Yet, when this wild, bored garrison was besieged during the War of 1812, they successfully held the fort against a force six times as strong.