Mackinac Island had been contested ground long before 1814. Whoever held this windswept rock controlled the Straits of Mackinac and, with them, the vast fur trade that was the economic lifeblood of the region. Fort Mackinac, perched on a ridge dominating the harbor, gave its garrison command over every vessel passing between the two Great Lakes. On July 17, 1812, before the American defenders even knew war had been declared, a mixed force of British regulars, Canadian voyageurs, and Native Americans captured the island without firing a shot. That early victory rippled outward: previously neutral Native tribes rallied to the British cause, contributing to a cascade of American defeats. By 1814, recovering Mackinac had become essential to American strategy in the northwest.

The British hold on Mackinac was more precarious than it appeared. After the American naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, British supply lines were severed. Captain Richard Bullock's garrison spent the winter on half rations, supplementing their meager stores with locally caught fish and maize. Men grew weak. Then, in February 1814, Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall of the Glengarry Light Infantry received orders to save the post. He carved a new supply route from York through the wilderness to the Nottawasaga River and on to Georgian Bay, hauling ninety Royal Newfoundland Fencibles, eleven artillerymen with four field guns, twenty-one Royal Navy sailors, and thirty carpenters through the frozen backcountry. Upon arriving, McDouall immediately strengthened the island's defenses. He recognized that the existing fort was overlooked by a higher wooded ridge - the very ridge the British had used to force the fort's surrender in 1812. His troops built a stockade and blockhouse on that upper ground, naming it Fort George.

Croghan's expedition sailed from Detroit on July 3, but instead of heading directly for Mackinac, the Americans first searched Matchedash Bay for the British supply base they believed was at Penetanguishene. Without pilots familiar with the treacherous waters - riddled with islets and submerged rocks - the squadron spent an entire week groping through fog and finding nothing. The detour was catastrophic. It broadcast American intentions across the region and gave McDouall precious time to prepare. By the time the American ships finally appeared off Mackinac Island, the British garrison knew exactly what was coming. McDouall had positioned his small force behind low breastworks at the edge of a clearing, with field guns trained on the tree line, and Native American allies concealed in the surrounding woods.

On August 4, the Americans landed on the island's north end - the same approach the British had used in 1812. Croghan's troops pushed south through dense forest toward Fort George. When they emerged from the tree line into an open clearing, British guns opened fire. The Americans were exposed and easy targets. Croghan attempted flanking maneuvers on both sides, sending Ohio militia volunteers around the British left and regular infantry through the woods to the right. The terrain was brutally difficult, and progress slowed to a crawl. Then the regulars walked into a Native American ambush. Thirteen Americans were killed, including Major Andrew Holmes and Captain Isaac Van Horne. Fifty-one more were wounded, including Captain Benjamin Desha. Confusion swept through the American ranks. McDouall, briefly drawn away by a false report of a second landing, returned his redcoated infantry to their positions. Croghan had no choice. He ordered a retreat through the woods to the beach, leaving two wounded men behind as prisoners. The Americans rowed back to their ships and sailed away. Fort Mackinac remained British.

The failed assault was not the end of the campaign's misfortunes. The Americans did locate and destroy the British supply post on the Nottawasaga River on August 15, and the British scuttled the schooner Nancy to prevent her capture. Commodore Sinclair left two gunboats - USS Tigress and USS Scorpion - to blockade the island and starve the garrison into submission. But in the Engagement on Lake Huron, British forces captured both vessels, securing their hold on the entire upper Great Lakes region through the war's end. The battlefield itself has an unlikely afterlife: most of the ground where Americans fell and Native warriors struck from the tree line is now the Wawashkamo Golf Links, laid out in 1898. Golfers play their rounds over soil that once ran with blood, on a course whose fairways trace the very clearing where Croghan's advance met its end.