General William Hull

“ Noel, think “our venerable Church” means no more than “our venerable selves,” will be ready to betray her into the hands of her adversaries, whensoever they may be deemed strong enough to carry her outworks, and to supplant the orthodox clergyman by the Calvinistic minister;—while those who reverence the Apostolical succession, or the general order of the Church, will form within our pale an intolerant party, intriguing for dominion, restless and oppressive, never to be satisfied until they have crushed or excluded all who have dared to profess their rejection of the Calvinistic theology. ”

“ Wherein is held forth to all concerned in Ireland's good settlement the benefits the Irish Transplantation will bring to each of them in particular, and to the Commonwealth in general, being chiefly intended as an Answer to a scandalous, seditious Pamphlet, entitled [The great Case of Transplantation in Ireland discussed] . Composed and published at the request of several persons in eminent place in Ireland, to the end all who desire it, might have a true Account of the Proceedings that have been there in the business of Transplantation, both as to the rise, progress, and end thereof. ”

“ The Americans fired into each other in the dark, and afterwards retired before the British reinforcements. Dearborn then put his army into winter quarters at Plattsburg, thus ending his much-heralded campaign against Montreal before it had well begun.
The American government was much disappointed at the failure of its efforts to make war without armies. But it found a convenient scapegoat in Hull, who was far less to blame than his superiors in the Cabinet. ”

“ The first stroke with the Tomahawk, the first attempt with the Scalping Knife, will be the Signal for one indiscriminate scene of desolation. No white man found fighting by the Side of an Indian will be taken prisoner. Instant destruction will be his Lot...
This was war with a vengeance. But Hull felt less confidence than his proclamation was intended to display. He knew that, while the American government had been warned in January about the necessity of securing the naval command of Lake Erie, no steps had yet been taken to secure it. ”

“ The articles of capitulation were drawn up, and the American general surrendered not merely the fort and its garrison, but the whole Territory of Michigan, of which he was Governor. Thus ended this miserable campaign.
Hull's officers were incensed at his action, and he was subsequently court-martialled, convicted of cowardice, and condemned to death; but the President pardoned him, in consideration of his 037age and his services in the Revolution. The points of his defence were: that an army in a situation like his, cut off from its supplies, must surrender sooner or later ”

“ We shall then have the command of the upper lakes.”
To these statements Hull added a warning, which carried at least equal weight:—
“If you have not a force at Niagara, the whole force of the province will be directed against this army.... It is all important that Niagara should be invested. All our success will depend upon it.”
While Hull reached this position, July 19, he had a right to presume that the Secretary of War and Major-General Dearborn were straining every nerve to support him; but in order to understand Hull’s situation, readers must know what Dearborn and Eustis were doing. ”

“ Gray hairs do not make a coward of such a man, though they should render him imbecile.
It is not easy at this remote period to appreciate the difficulties of the position in which Hull eventually found himself. At first he refused to take command of the expedition, but being urged by the government, accepted, though with the express understanding that in case of hostilities, he was to be sustained both by a fleet on Lake Erie, and an army operating on the northern and western frontier of New York. ”

“ Presuming that not more than a feint, if that should be deemed expedient, with the troops on Lake Champlain aided by volunteers and militia can be immediately effected against Montreal, and considering the urgency of a diversion in favor of General Hull under the circumstances attending his situation, the President thinks it proper that not a moment should be lost in gaining possession of the British posts at Niagara and Kingston, or at least the former, and proceeding in co-operation with General Hull in securing Upper Canada. ”

“ The Government therefore expected General Hull, with a force which it knew did not at the outset exceed two thousand effectives, to march two hundred miles, constructing a road as he went; to garrison Detroit; to guard at least sixty miles of road under the enemy’s guns; to face a force in the field equal to his own, and another savage force of unknown numbers in his rear; to sweep the Canadian peninsula of British troops; to capture the fortress at Malden and the British fleet on Lake Erie,—and to do all this without the aid of a man or a boat between Sandusky and Quebec. ”

“ Passionate orators, who meant to stay at home, demanded instant invasion. Our statesmen on the hill, profoundly blind as to what was needed against the disciplined foe, decided offhand that a small body of volunteers and militia would suffice. Kittens get their eyes open at the end of nine days. Statesmen are not kittens.
General Isaac Hull must have known better. He was a tried hero of the Revolution, an experienced veteran, and close personal friend of George Washington. Yet in July, General Hull, with a picked force of 300 regulars and 1,500 militia started “On to Canada!” ”

“ Brooding and shaken, like an old man utterly undone, Hull abandoned his pretentious invasion of Canada and retreated across the river to shelter his troops behind the log barricades of Detroit. He sent six hundred men to try to open a line to Ohio, but, after a sharp encounter with a British force, Hull was obliged to admit that they "could only open communication as far as the points of their bayonets extended." His only thought was to extricate himself, not to stand and fight a winning battle without counting the cost. His officers felt only contempt for his cowardice. ”

“ The American troops were unprepared to maintain their own position, and absolutely unable to conquer and annex Canada, as the government expected them to do. General Hull found himself with some eight hundred men facing more than fifteen hundred British regulars, and threatened in the rear by a thousand Indians.
What President Madison or any of his officers would have done, we cannot say. They appear to have thought that it was General Hull's duty to annihilate the British army, effectually dispose of the Indians, and present Canada to the American government. ”

“ General Hull, two days after entering Canada, called a council of war, which decided against storming Malden and advised delay. Their reasons were sufficiently strong. After allowing for the sick-list and garrison-duty, the four regiments could hardly supply more than three hundred men each for active service, besides the Michigan militia, on whom no one felt willing to depend. Hull afterward affirmed that he had not a thousand effectives; the highest number given in evidence two years later by Major Jesup was the vague estimate of sixteen or eighteen hundred men. ”

“ I think, gentlemen, if we weigh well the character of our enemy, we shall find him disposed to brave the impediments of nature—when they afford him a probability of gaining his end by surprise, in preference to the certainty of meeting British troops ready formed for his reception. But do not, because we were successful at Detroit in stampeding the United States troops, cherish the impression that General Hull is a sample of American soldiery. ”

“ On many points there is room for a diversity of judgment, but one thing is certain, General Hull was unfit for the station to which he was assigned. He had been a gallant subordinate officer in the revolution, but a man may be a good major, or even colonel, but a bad commander-in-chief. There are many officers who are fit only to act under orders, whom personal danger never agitates, but who are unnerved by responsibility. Let the latter rest on some other person and they will cheerfully encounter the peril. ”

“ But before these were completed, or the long summer day was quite over, there came another order from the commanding general; an order for the army to recross the river to Detroit—abandoning Canada and its people to the vengeance of the British; leaving unprotected its inhabitants, who, trusting Hull's promised protection, had refused to take up arms for defence against the Americans. That order was in consequence of news which had reached Hull that a considerable force of British regulars, militia, and Indians were coming to attack the little army in the rear. ”

“ It is distinguished in the sketeh by the narrow strip of land extending nearly across the mouth of the morass. Upon this the enemy had dug pits and placed sharpened stakes within them, so that, had the Americans attempted to reach the Point by that way many would have been impaled. The position of the Americans in the attack, and of the outworks and the abatis, will be better understood by a reference to the map on a preceding page.
** Major (afterward General) Hull says in his Memoir, "At about half past eleven o'clock, the two columns commenced their march in platoons. ”

“ There were steadfast men in the ranks who were eager to take the measure of the redcoats. The colonels were in open mutiny and, determined to set General Hull aside, they offered the command to Colonel Miller of the regulars, who declined to accept it. When Hull proposed a general retreat, he was informed that every man of the Ohio militia would refuse to obey the order. These troops who had been so fickle and jealous of their rights were unwilling to share the leader's disgrace. ”

“ The “Constitution” fired a broadside, but these shots, too, dropped in the water between them. As he came nearer, the “Guerriere” squared away, wearing first to port and then to starboard, firing alternate broadsides and manœuvring to avoid being [98] raked. He wanted to cripple the American’s rigging from a distance, if possible. But the shot all missed their mark, and the “Constitution” only replied with her bow-guns. Hull soon saw that this manœuvring might last the day out without coming to close quarters, so he hoisted his top-gallant-sails and made straight for the enemy. ”

“ The British rushed forward to the very woods, but fled before the murderous fire of the Americans from their covert. The latter in their turn pursued the British to their line, but fell back from the resistance in front and the hot fire that assailed them on the flanks. Major Hull, with a bravery that is some relief to his dark cowardice in the late war, repeatedly charged and took the enemy’s guns; but as the Americans had no means to bring them off, or turn them against their owners, they remained at length with the British. ”

“ He, however, had established the communication between the army and the river Raisin, and dispatched Captain Snelling to Detroit with the account of the victory, and a request for boats to remove the wounded, and bring provisions for the living, and reinforcements to supply the place of the dead and disabled. General Hull immediately sent Colonel McArthur with a hundred men and boats, but with provisions sufficient only for a single meal. ”

“ His position might have been such that no blame could attach to him for not making such diversion, but nothing could warrant him in entering into an armistice with the enemy, in which Hull was excluded. If he assumed such a responsibility in the hope that peace would be secured, he was bound to make as one of the first conditions, that no reinforcements should be sent to Malden and Detroit. One such act is sufficient (p. 121) to cause the removal of a commander, for he can never be an equal match against a shrewd and energetic enemy. ”

“ Houston, Samuel, wounded at the Horse-shoe, vii. 256. Howell, Jeremiah B., senator from Rhode Island, votes against occupying West Florida, vi. 243. Howick, Lord (Earl Grey) , British Foreign Secretary, iii. 407; his order depriving neutrals of coasting rights, 416–421 (see Orders in Council) ; dismissed from office, 421; iv. 79. Hull, Isaac, at Tripoli, ii. 428; captain in U. S. navy, commands “Constitution,” vi. 364; his orders, 364; chased by a British squadron, 369–371; captures “Guerriere,” 372–375; takes command at New York, 383. Hull, William, governor of Michigan Territory, vi. ”

“ This was Hull’s last expression of confidence or hope. Thenceforward every day brought him fatal news. His army lost respect for him in consequence of his failure to attack Malden; the British strengthened the defences of Malden, and August 8 received sixty fresh men of the Forty-first under Colonel Proctor from Niagara; [256] but worse than mutiny or British reinforcement, news from the Northwest of the most disastrous character reached Hull at a moment when his hopes of taking Malden had already faded. ”

“ On the 15th, he sent a flag, bearing a summons to the American general to surrender, in which he says: "It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians, who have attached themselves [Pg 619] to my troops, will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences." To this, General Hull answered: "I have no other reply to make, than that I am prepared to meet any force which may be at your disposal," &c. ”