After spending a few days at Fort Wayne, Johnson’s regiment proceeded down the Maumee to join Harrison’s army, and aid in the recapture of Detroit. On October 5, 1813, the British and Indian forces were routed at the battle of the Thames by the American army under Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and in effect, the Indian power was broken forever in the old Northwest. This battle, following closely upon Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, brought the war to an unofficial close in this region. The danger of Indian hostilities at Fort Wayne was never again critical, but the safety of the people about the fort was still menaced by occasional attacks. Such a one occurred late in 1813, when Major Joseph Jenkinson arrived to succeed Captain Hugh Moore as commander of Fort Wayne. On the march from Newport, Kentucky, three companies of militia which accompanied Major Jenkinson found it convenient, in the latter part of their journey, to convey their supplies by flatboats on the St. Mary’s river. At a sharp bend in the stream about a mile from the fort, the Indians ambushed the last of the boats and killed the men who were guiding it. Major Jenkinson’s period of service at Fort Wayne was brief. His family did not accompany him to the post, and after six months he chose to return to Kentucky where he was appointed adjutant of the state militia. The only existent letter of Major Jenkinson while he was stationed at Fort Wayne, throws some light on the attitude of the local French people toward slavery. The major, writing to his wife, complained that some of the French men living near Fort Wayne had thoroughly “corrupted Ephraim [the major’s slave] by their ideas”; so much so that it was necessary “to cool the fellow off, by two very hard whippings.”[34] In May, 1814, the command of Fort Wayne was given to Major John Whistler of the First United States Infantry. Major Whistler was not a stranger to Fort Wayne. As a lieutenant he had accompanied Wayne on his western campaign, and was here to assist in the building of the original fort. He remained as a special officer to oversee the maintenance of the forts of the surrounding region. Later, his wife joined him at Fort Wayne, and it was here that their son, George Washington Whistler was born in 1800.[35] Following Major John Whistler’s early service at Fort Wayne, he was transferred to Detroit, and from thence to Chicago, where he built Fort Dearborn and became its first commandant.