On October 5, 1813, U.S. forces under General William Henry Harrison defeated a combined British and Native alliance at the Battle of the Thames in present-day Ontario. The battle took place during the War of 1812 after the Americans gained control of Lake Erie. Shawnee leader Tecumseh, who had tried to unite many Native nations against U.S. expansion, was killed in the fighting. His death led to the collapse of his confederacy. The American victory helped secure control of the Northwest frontier for the United States. It also weakened Native resistance across a wide region in the years that followed.
