Governor William Henry Harrison led roughly 1,000 U.S. troops against Tenskwatawa's forces near Prophetstown in the Indiana Territory, defeating the confederation Tecumseh had built to resist American expansion. Tecumseh himself was away seeking southern allies when his brother, the Prophet, ordered a premature dawn attack. The battle destroyed the movement's spiritual momentum and pushed many tribes toward alliance with Britain in the War of 1812.
Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, had assured his warriors that his magic would turn American bullets to water and had ordered the pre-dawn assault against his brother Tecumseh's explicit wishes to avoid provoking a fight before the confederacy was ready. The attack initially caught Harrison's camp off guard, and fierce fighting in the dark left both sides with heavy losses, but American lines held and the Shawnee-led warriors withdrew by morning, having exhausted their ammunition.
Harrison's men burned Prophetstown to the ground the next day, destroying stores of corn needed for winter. The military outcome was closer to a draw than the victory Harrison claimed, but its political effect was decisive: Tenskwatawa's credibility as a prophet collapsed, and the pan-tribal alliance Tecumseh had spent years assembling began to fracture. Tecumseh, returning to find his life's project in ruins, threw his remaining support behind the British in the war that broke out the following year — a war in which he would die at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. Harrison's fame from Tippecanoe later powered his 1840 presidential campaign under the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
Key people: William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa