On the cold New Year's Eve of 1812, friends and family gathered at the farmstead of Jean (John) Baptiste Couture and his wife Catherine, bringing food and spirits to celebrate La Saint-Sylvester and the beginning of 1813. As the couple's ten children and other children played outside, fiddlers, dancing, fellowship, and card playing briefly turned attention away from war, though talk soon returned to the Native and British occupation along the River Raisin. Hopes for a peaceful New Year ended on January 18, 1813, when U.S. forces attacked the Native Confederation and British along the River Raisin. After the French habitants were liberated, Kentucky regiment officers established headquarters in the Couture home, and Couture resumed his responsibility as Captain of the 2nd Michigan. On January 22, he was killed in the second Battle of the River Raisin while reinforcing the right wing of the U.S. Army. His son Medard hid his father's body near their home to prevent mutilation. Catherine Couture and her young children took refuge across the river at the home of Col. Francois Navarre and were devastated when a warrior entered wearing the bloody coat of their husband and father, confirming his death. On the morning of January 23, a Native warrior captured Medard while he tended U.S. wounded in the nearby Jerome house, but Ottawa Chief Waugon recognized him, covered him with a blanket, and declared, "His father lies dead in the yard, he is now my son." Waugon saved Medard's life, but the Couture family buildings were looted and burned.