In the west, the Americans, under Harrison, exerted themselves to recover Michigan. They were blockaded, it is true, and inactive within Fort George, but, on Lake Erie, the war was vigorously prosecuted. General Proctor was kept particularly busy. The Americans were inconveniently near. They showed no disposition to move. They had settled down and were practicing masterly inactivity at Sandusky. Proctor determined upon disturbing them. He moved rapidly upon Lower Sandusky, and invested it with five hundred regulars and militia, and upwards of three thousand Indians. The Indians were commanded by Tecumseh. Having battered the fort well and made a breach Proctor determined upon carrying the place by assault. The Indians, however, were worthless for the assault of a fortified place. Concealed in the grass of the prairie, or hidden in the trees of the forest, they could fire steadily and watch their opportunity to rush upon the foe, but they had a horror of great guns and stone walls. They kept out of range of the American cannon. Nothing could induce them to consent even to follow their British allies up to the breach. The assault was, nevertheless, determined upon, and Colonel Short led the storming party of regulars and militia. Under cover of the fire of cannon the gallant band reached the summit of the glacis and stood with only the ditch between them and the fort. The heavy fire of the enemy upon men in a position so exposed at first produced some confusion; but the storming party soon rallied and leaped into the ditch. It was then that they were smitten with such a fire of grape and musketry as no men could long withstand. The assailants retreated, leaving Colonel Short, three officers, and fifty-two men dead in the ditch, and having forty-one of their number wounded. General Proctor, finding his force inadequate to carry the fort by assault, raised the siege and retired to Amherstburgh.