After American militia troops forcibly ended the 1812 siege of Fort Wayne, General James Winchester's Army of the Northwest marched down the north side of the Miami (Maumee) River to stop or retard advancing British troops sent to aid in the siege. After three days of difficult march, Ensign James Liggett of the 17th Regiment volunteered to lead four spies or scouts to the site of old Fort Defiance, but his small force was surprised and killed on or about September 25 near this place. American efforts to recover the bodies twice met ambushes from hostile Native Americans sympathetic to the British, and the dead were finally recovered and buried in a common grave; besides Liggett, they were Wyatt Stepp, Guy Hinton, William Bevis, and Nathaniel Mitchell of Woodford County, Kentucky, all of Captain McCracken's Company, 1st Rifle Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Militia. At the same time, Major Adam Charles Muir of the 41st Regiment of Foot led a combined force of British regulars, Canadian volunteers with several cannons, and Matthew Elliot's force of 800 Native Americans dispatched from Detroit in September 1812 to aid in the siege of Fort Wayne. Moving up the south bank of the Miami (Maumee) River and sending his heavy cannons by boat to old Fort Defiance, Muir skirmished with an American force, then learned from captured Quarter Master Sergeant Alexander McCoy that three American armies totaling 9,000 men were heading toward him. Muir attempted to establish several defensive positions against James Winchester's army, but when his Indian allies melted away, he chose not to face such a force alone and retreated back to Detroit. This place marked the southernmost point of the British invasion into Ohio during the War of 1812.