<P> In May 1813, Procter and Tecumseh set siege to Fort Meigs in northwestern Ohio . American reinforcements arriving during the siege were defeated by the natives, but the fort held out . The Indians eventually began to disperse, forcing Procter and Tecumseh to return north to Canada . A second offensive against Fort Meigs also failed in July . In an attempt to improve Indian morale, Procter and Tecumseh attempted to storm Fort Stephenson, a small American post on the Sandusky River, only to be repulsed with serious losses, marking the end of the Ohio campaign . </P> <P> On Lake Erie, American commander Captain Oliver Hazard Perry fought the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813 . His decisive victory at "Put - in - Bay" ensured American military control of the lake, improved American morale after a series of defeats, and compelled the British to fall back from Detroit . This paved the way for General Harrison to launch another invasion of Upper Canada, which culminated in the U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed . </P> <P> Because of the difficulties of land communications, control of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River corridor was crucial . When the war began, the British already had a small squadron of warships on Lake Ontario and had the initial advantage . To redress the situation, the Americans established a Navy yard at Sackett's Harbor in northwestern New York . Commodore Isaac Chauncey took charge of the large number of sailors and shipwrights sent there from New York; they completed the second warship built there in a mere 45 days . Ultimately, almost 3,000 men worked at the naval shipyard, building eleven warships and many smaller boats and transports . Having regained the advantage by their rapid building program, Chauncey and Dearborn attacked York, on the northern shore of the lake, the capital of Upper Canada, on April 27, 1813 . The Battle of York was a "pyrrhic" American victory, marred by looting and the burning of the small Provincial Parliament buildings and a library (resulting in a spirit of revenge by the British / Canadians led by Gov. George Prévost, who later demanded satisfaction encouraging the British Admiralty to issue orders to their officers later operating in the Chesapeake Bay region to exact similar devastation on the American Federal capital village of Washington the following year). However, Kingston was strategically much more valuable to British supply and communications routes along the St. Lawrence corridor . Without control of Kingston, the U.S. Navy could not effectively control Lake Ontario or sever the British supply line from Lower Canada . </P> <P> On May 25, 1813 the guns of the American Lake Ontario squadron joined by Fort Niagara began bombarding Fort George . On May 27, 1813, an American amphibious force from Lake Ontario assaulted Fort George on the northern end of the Niagara River and captured it without serious losses . The British also abandoned Fort Erie and headed towards the Burlington Heights . With the British position in Upper Canada on the verge of collapse, the Iroquois Indians living along the banks of the Grand River considered changing side and ignored a British appeal to come to their aid . The retreating British forces were not pursued, however, until they had largely escaped and organized a counteroffensive against the advancing Americans at the Battle of Stoney Creek on June 5 . With Upper Canada on the line, the British launched a surprise attack at Stoney Creek at 2: 00 am, leading to much confused fighting . Through tactically a draw, the battle was a strategic British victory as the Americans pulled back to Forty Mile Creek rather than continuing their advance into Upper Canada . At this point, the Six Nations living on the Grand River began to come out to fight for the British as an American victory no longer seemed inevitable . The Iroquis ambushed an American patrol at Forty Mile Creek while the Royal Navy squadron based in Kingston came to bombard the American camp, leading to General Dearborn to retreat back to Fort George as he now mistakenly believed he was outnumbered and outgunned . The British commander, General John Vincent was heartened by the fact that more and more First Nations warriors were now arriving to assist him, providing about 800 additional men . On June 24, with the help of advance warning by Laura Secord, another American force was forced to surrender by a much smaller British and native force at the Battle of Beaver Dams, marking the end of the American offensive into Upper Canada . The British commander General Francis de Rottenberg did not have the strength to retake Fort George, so he built a blockade, hoping to starve the Americans into surrender . Meanwhile, Commodore James Lucas Yeo had taken charge of the British ships on the lake and mounted a counterattack, which was nevertheless repulsed at the Battle of Sackett's Harbor . Thereafter, Chauncey and Yeo's squadrons fought two indecisive actions, neither commander seeking a fight to the finish . </P>

The war of 1812 and the vietnam war were similar in that both were