On July 8, 1813, British forces and their Native allies executed a high-stakes recovery mission near Fort George, Ontario, retrieving buried medical supplies before American troops could intercept them. The previous month, advancing American forces had captured Fort George, forcing the British to bury these critical provisions on the Chourous farm. When 500 Americans sortied from the fort to stop the recovery, a tactical miscalculation left 40 American soldiers in a flanking party surrounded and