On a cold wet May day in 1813, during the War of 1812, Colonel William Dudley led a green regiment of Kentucky militia against the British and their Indian allies in an effort to relieve the siege of Fort Meigs. Their effort to capture the British cannons on the shore opposite Fort Meigs proved to be a success. Their failure to follow orders and return to their boats and cross over to the safety of Fort Meigs would lead to what would become known as Dudley's Defeat or the Dudley Massacre. Base on several years of research, James Emch has pieced together a chronological running narrative of the Dudley Massacre based on military reports, accounts of those present, family histories, old manuscripts, and diaries. The result of his effort is the first book ever written about those fateful events on May 5, 1813, that helped changed the old Northwest Territory forever.