at River Rouge, and also on the Clinton and St. Clair rivers. In 1809 the Lake Erie settlements had a population estimated at 1,300; Detroit and the down-river settlements had 2,200 and there were about 1,000 people in the northern part of the Territory. About four-fifths of these were French settlers.

Repeated visits of large bands of Indians, coming from all directions to Fort Malden, caused uneasiness at Detroit because it reminded the residents of the beginning of Pontiac's conspiracy. There were only 95 soldiers in Detroit and 79 at Mackinac, while one delegation of Indians which came down from the north was estimated to number 800. The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandottes, Missasaugas, Pottawatomies, and Winnebagoes all seemed to be combining for an Indian alliance. Detroit appealed to Washington for better military protection.

To quiet the trouble, Gen. Harrison, by means of many presents, promises of perpetual annuities and, presumably, the usual contributions of rum, secured a grant of 3,000,000 acres of Indian territory for white settlers, but Tecumseh declared the grant invalid and told Harrison he would resist every attempt to occupy the country. This was equivalent to a declaration of war, so Gen. Harrison gathered troops and Kentucky riflemen to the number of 900 men and built Fort Harrison on a bluff where the city of Terre Haute now stands. Then Harrison advanced toward the Prophet's town on the Tippecanoe River, where a battle was fought with the Indians, and a decisive victory was won November 7, 1811. This engagement is known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. It gave Harrison a great reputation. Tecumseh was absent in the South at the time trying to organize the southern Indians for his war against the Americans.

W

CHAPTER XXVII

THE WAR OF 1812 BEgins

HILE treaty relations were supposed to exist between the United States and Great Britain it was a peace in name only. Open conflict was avoided but the provocations to war were frequent. Great Britain was facing perils at home. Napoleon Bonaparte was dazzling the world by his military achievements on the continent and Great Britain had joined the opposition against him. This caused Napoleon to plan an invasion of Great Britain for, his conquering army once landed on the coast, a conquest would be comparatively easy. This situation led to extraordinary naval expansions by both governments. Great Britain was building ships rapidly but she was lacking in experienced seamen and must recruit them where she could, at any cost, to hold off the conquering Corsican.

Her statesmen took the ground that a subject of the King could not separate himself from his allegiance even by taking up foreign residence. Wherever he might be he was still subject to the call of the King to any service. While this was not intended to apply to citizens of the United States, it was acknowledged on both sides that many unnaturalized British subjects were living in the United States and some of them were serving on American ships.

The Government of the United States had also encouraged shipbuilding and had built several war frigates, as the United States, the Constitution, the Chesapeake, and the Constellation. Both British and French privateers began to prey upon American merchant shipping, the former to take off seamen under the claim that they were British subjects. The French hostility was a ruse employed to compel the American Government to declare war against Great Britain unless this practice was abandoned. The British ship Leopard fired on the American ship Chesapeake when Com. James Barron, of the Chesapeake,

refused to allow his men to be mustered by a British officer and men taken from her crew. Twenty men were killed and a number were taken off and impressed into British service.

A British propaganda of discontent was started in the United States in the hope of bringing on a civil war which would make the Government powerless but it failed after five years of promotion. Provocations continued and the United States Government saw that in spite of our impoverished and unprepared state we must eventually declare war or lose the respect of other nations.. War was declared June 19, 1812, regardless of the fact that Great Britain then had 254 ships of the line carrying 74 guns each; 247 frigates and 506 smaller vessels of war. She also had four armed vessels on Lake Ontario, a population of 400,000 in Canada to draw upon for military forces and 7,500 Canadians under arms. The Americans had only the small forts at Detroit, Mackinac, Niagara and Oswego to defend a lake coast of 1,700 miles and a puny naval force on the sea, while 3,500 American sailors had been forced into service on British warships.

Gov. Hull went to Washington to explain the situation at Detroit to the Government. He urged the strengthening of the defense at Detroit and the building of ships on Lake Erie. In response 1,200 troops were recruited in Ohio. Gov. Hull was placed in command of them. Lewis Cass, of Marietta, was made colonel of the Third Regiment with Robert Morrison and J. R. Munson as majors; Duncan McArthur was made colonel of the First Regiment, James Findlay of the Second, and James Miller was colonel of the Fourth United States Regiment, then stationed at Vincennes. Gen. Elijah Wadsworth raised three additional companies in Ohio.

This little army under Gen. Hull started for Detroit June 1, 1812, and soon entered a great morass known for many years as "the black swamp." Eighteen days later they were met by messengers from Detroit with the news that Tecumseh was gathering Indians in large numbers at Fort Malden and that Walk-in-the-Water was taking all the Wyandottes who lived below Detroit to the same place. News of the declaration of

war was slow in reaching Detroit, the Government at Washington having neglected to send immediate word. But the British posts all along the border were promptly notified and immediately prepared for war. Seeing these preparations, citizens of Detroit urged Reuben Atwater, who was acting Governor, to call out the militia and muster every available man for defense, but Atwater was afraid he would offend Hull by such action, so Solomon Sibley, George McDougall, John R. Williams and Elijah Brush took the authority into their own hands and mustered 600 men for defense of Detroit.

Judge James Witherell had been an officer of the Revolution, so he was placed in command pending the arrival of Hull's army. Hull, unaware of the declaration of war, loaded some of his supplies, his hospital stores, the muster roll of his army and other valuable documents and supplies on board the schooner Cuyahoga at the mouth of the Maumee River and sent them to Detroit. He placed two lieutenants, the wives of three officers and 30 soldiers on board for a guard. Another small schooner was dispatched with the sick and disabled. It was not until Hull had reached Frenchtown, now Monroe, on the River Raisin, that he received word that war was declared. The information came from Charles Shaler, postmaster at Cleveland.

The schooner Cuyahoga sailed confidently from the Maumee and started up the channel between Bois Blanc, or Bob-Lo, Island and the Canadian shore. As she reached Fort Malden a cannon shot fired from the fort across her bow halted her. Her commander was informed that war was declared and the boat was a prize of war and all on board were prisoners. When Gen. Hull's army arrived at River Raisin they stopped to build a bridge and there learned the fate of the schooner. Col. Cass was sent to Malden under a flag of truce to ask for the surrender of the schooner and the prisoners and was naturally laughed at for his pains.

The army made slow progress in spite of the haste that then began, for a bridge had to be built across the Huron River at Brownstown. The three Wyandotte villages between the Huron and the present site of Wyandotte, presided over by Chiefs

Split-Log, Lame-Hand and Walk-in-the-Water, offered no resistance. The troops were met at River Rouge by Col. Elijah Brush with a company of militia and they camped that night near the present site of Fort Wayne. Next day they arrived at Detroit and pitched their tents just north of the fort between Capitol Square and what is now Lafayette Boulevard.

The officers and men were eager to cross the river at once and attack the enemy, but Gen. Hull appeared to have no appetite for fighting. Detroit at this time had 160 new houses, all built since 1805, and the 800 inhabitants were enthusiastic at the marshalling of 2,200 soldiers with 43 cannon, most of them 24-pounders, for their defense. The force of the enemy across the river, all told, was less than 500 men.

The town was again inclosed by a strong stockade 14 feet high and of far larger area than any of its predecessors. It extended along the river front from the line of the Cass farm to the Brush farm on the east, up the line of Randolph Street to Congress Street; then westward to the line of the Cass farm where it met the western side extending down to the river.

On the more elevated ground north of the stockade stood the old Fort Lernoult. From the line of Congress Street rose a steep embankment toward the south parapet of the fort. The fort itself was a quadrangle of 400 feet on each side with a bastion at each corner. All around ran a ditch eight feet wide and eight feet deep. In the middle of the ditch was a line of large sharpened pickets and on the slope were other rows of sharpened stakes forming a formidable abatis for delaying assault on the fort.

Unable to resist the insistence of his officers Gen. Hull sent a large force of men across the river on July 12, making a landing near the present site of Walkerville. They were observed by British scouts but no resistance was offered and they made a camp on the farm of François Baby on the present site of Windsor. A scouting party was permitted to go down the river shore as far as Turkey Creek and they returned to report no resistance, although they had seen about 200 Indians near Fighting Island. Hull immediately ordered earthworks thrown up.