After Anthony Wayne defeated the Indian Confederation at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, the retreating Indians were locked out of Fort Miamis by their British allies. Wayne observed the artillery mounted at the British fort, and after returning to Fort Defiance he ordered Major Henry Burbeck to strengthen the garrison to withstand artillery fire. A parapet, an earthen wall ten feet thick that sloped upward six feet from the ditch to the pickets, was built outside the picket walls and around the blockhouses. It was supported by a log wall on the ditch side and by fascines or fagots, bundles of sticks. A ditch sixteen feet wide and eight feet deep surrounded the garrison except on the side toward the Auglaize River. Sharpened diagonal pickets, set one foot apart, projected over the ditch. A parapet and abatis protected the Auglaize River side. At the point, two lines of pickets converged toward a ditch eight feet deep from which river water was obtained. Within the fort were officers quarters, a bake oven, and a powder magazine.