midnight
They were well supplied with food and water and could afford to spend time and weary their assailants by merely defensive warfare . `` Still Harrison was anxious , thinking how strong were the foe , and how Hull and Winchester had failed and suffered ; he was looking hourly and anxiously up the Maumee for the hoped for re-enforcements . Since Navarre and Oliver went out he had heard nothing from those whom he had expected to come to his aid . But near midnight on the 4th , Captain Oliver , Major Trimble , and 15 men who had come down the river in a boat , made their way into the fort , bringing the glad tidings that General Clay and 1100 Kentuckians would probably reach the post before morning , being but eighteen miles distant . `` The cannonading at Fort Meigs was distinctly heard at Fort Winchester , where Oliver had found Clay on the 3d , and Clay was hastening as fast as possible to Harrison 's aid , moving down the river in eighteen flat scows , with sides furnished with shields against the bullets of the Indians who might be infesting the shores of the river . `` The head of the rapids was eighteen miles from Fort Meigs ; it was late in the evening when the flotilla arrived there ; the moon had gone down , and the sky was overcast with clouds , making a night so intensely dark that the pilot refused to go on before daylight . Trimble and the 15 others then immediately offered their services to go with Oliver to cheer Harrison and his men with the news that re-enforcements were almost at hand .