ready to move on Malden, the order to march was countermanded, and the army instead of advancing against the enemy, recrossed the river to Detroit, over which it had passed a few weeks before to the conquest of Canada. During his delay of weeks the gathering of the Indian clans and re-enforcements pouring into the British garrison at Malden seemed to alarm General Hull. The surrender at this time, on the 17th of July, of our post at Mackinac was announced by the officers and troops paroled, and increased his fears, for it threatened the opposing forces of the Indians, Canadians and British in all the Northwest. The fort at Mackinac was the grand depot of the fur companies, and had shielded General Hull from all attacks from that quarter.

Three days previous to the retreat of General Hull from Canada, Colonel Proctor, of the British army, had arrived at Malden with reenforcements, and threw a detachment across the river to Brownstown to intercept any provisions and army supplies that might be advancing from Ohio to the American army. Colonel Brush, who was on the way from Ohio with the mail, flour, cattle and supplies for the fort at Detroit, was advised of the movements of Colonel Proctor and was ordered to halt at the River Raisin. To open the communication and aid Colonel Brush, Major Van Horne was dispatched with 200 volunteers and militia; but the detachment was led into an ambush at Brownstown and utterly defeated, but about one-half returning to the army. Both General Both General Hull and Major Van Horne were censured – the general for not sending a stronger force, remaining quietly in Canada and crossing his forces leisurely to Detroit; the latter for not heeding the information received that the enemy were in advance, and allowing his small force to rush into an ambuscade. General Hull's position was now embarrassing. Reenforcements were hastening to the support of Malden, his communications on Lake Erie were cut off by the British vessels, while the defeat of Van Horne indicated that his communications by land were also cut off. The general knew the land communications must be opened at all hazards, and dispatched Colonel Miller, with 400 men, on the route which Van Horne had taken, to clear the road to the River Raisin. Colonel Miller left Detroit August 8, 1812, and the next day in the afternoon, as he was

approaching Brownstown, came upon the enemy, covered with a breastwork of logs and branches of trees, protected on the one side by the Detroit river and on the other by swamps and thickets. The British were commanded by Muir and the Indians by Tecumseh. Captain Snelling, leading the advance guard, approached to within half musket shot, when he discovered the enemy. A fierce and deadly fire was opened on him, which he sustained with great courage until Colonel Miller, converting his march into order of battle, advanced to his support. Seeing how destructive the fire of the enemy was, while the bullets of his own men buried themselves for the most part in the logs of the breastwork, also perceiving some symptoms of wavering, Miller determined to carry the works by the bayonet. The order to charge was received with loud cheers, and the next moment one detachment poured fiercely over the breast works, routing the British and Canadians, and pressed swiftly on their retreating footsteps. Tecumseh, however, maintained his post, and Van Horne, who commanded the right flank of the American lines, supposing from his stubborn resistance that it would require more force than he possessed to dislodge him, sent to Colonel Miller for re-enforcements. The latter immediately ordered a halt, and with reluctance turned from the fugitives, now almost within his grasp, and bastened to the relief of his subordinate. On arriving at the breastworks he found the Indians in full flight. flight. He started again in pursuit, but arrived in view of the enemy only to see it on the water floating away beyond his grasp. He had, however, established the communication between Detroit and the River Raisin, and dispatched Colonel Snelling to Detroit with an account of the victory and a request for boats to remove the wounded, bring provisions for the living and re-enforcements to supply the places of the dead and disabled. General Hull promptly sent Colonel McArthur with 100 men and the boats, but with provisions sufficient only for a single meal. Colonel Miller was then some twenty miles from supplies, but not deeming it prudent with his slender force and scanty provisions to proceed, remained on the battle field and sent another messenger, declaring communication opened, and assuring him a few more men and provisions would keep it so, expecting, as soon as

supplies came and he was relieved of the sick and wounded, to march to Brush at the Raisin. The next evening the messenger returned, bringing instead of the provisions a peremptory order to return to Detroit with his forces.

On the evening of the14th General Hull sent Colonels McArthur and Cass, with a detachment of 400 men, to obtain by a back, circuitous and unknown route through the woods, that which Colonel Miller had secured and then been compelled to relinquish.

On the evening of the 15th General Hull sent a courier to the detachment under Cass and McArthur, ordering them before reaching the Raisin to return, as the fort had been summoned to surrender. The detachment marched until two o'clock that night on their return, and early the next morning arrived at the edge of the woods in the vicinity of Detroit, where they drew up in order of battle.

In the meantime General Brock, commander of the British forces, approached Detroit on the opposite side of the River Detroit, and commenced erecting batteries to protect his army and cover it in crossing the river. General Hull's officers proposed and urged him to permit them to cross and spike the guns and disable the enemy, but every project suggested was rejected, and the 24-pounders and howitzers were dumb on their carriages in front of these hostile preparations.

On the morning of the 15th of August, 1812, a messenger arrived from General Brock demanding an immediate surrender of the town and fort. General Hull replied, refusing in a very spirited manner. General Brock immediately opened his fire from a newly erected battery, and after knocking down chimneys and disabling a few soldiers, ceased firing about ten o'clock in the evening. The next morning General Brock, under the protection of his battery, commenced crossing the river and without loss succeeded. The opposing forces were nearly equal, but the position of the Americans gave them greatly the advantage. The American fort was of great strength, surrounded by a deep, wide ditch, and strongly palisaded, with an exterior battery of two 24pounders. At this time Colonel Anderson, Colonel Anderson, stationed at corner of Jefferson avenue and Wayne street with two 24-pounders, with his fuse ready, was confident he could with one charge have blown General Brock's close

column to pieces, but instead received an order from General Hull not to fire. The ditch was occupied by 400 men, while 400 more lay behind a picket fence which flanked the approach to it. Three hundred more held the town. Against this formidable army General Brock boldly advanced, riding in front of his column, apparently doomed to swift destruction, with his troops advancing, while with impatience every eye of our forces was sternly bent, and every heart beating intensely to hear the command to fire. In this moment of thrilling excitement a white flag was hoisted above the fort, and an order came for all the troops to withdraw from the outer posts and stack their arms. Such a cry of indignation arose as probably never before assailed the ears of a commander.

This shameful deed was done on the 16th of August, 1812, and by the articles of capitulation included Colonels McArthur and Cass, with their detachments that had been sent to the River Raisin, together with the detachment under Colonel Brush at the River Raisin that was entrusted with the supplies. Colonels McArthur and Cass, having heard the cannonading twenty-four hours before, were returning, and at the moment the white flag was raised were with their forces within one and a half miles from the fort, advancing so as to take the enemy in the rear. Thus ended a defense which was thought by the most intelligent officers would have resulted in the entire destruction of the British army.

The terms of capitulation surrendered 2,000 men, 40 barrels of powder, 400 rounds of 24pound shot, 100,000 ball cartridges, 24,000 stand of arms, 35 iron and 8 brass cannon and a large supply of provisions; and for weeks thereafter small boats were engaged in transporting the military stores to Malden.

General Hull was tried by court-martial, of which Martin Van Buren was judge advocate. Acquitted of treason, he was found guilty of cowardice, and was sentenced to be shot, but was pardoned by the President. His life was saved, but he was ever after a blighted and ruined man. It is sad to think he went down to the grave in sorrow and disgrace that one who had marched beside General Washington in the perilous advance on Trenton, stood firmly amidst the hottest fire at Princeton, gallantly led his men to the charge at Bemis

Heights, and faced without flinching the fiery sleet that swept the column pressing up the rugged heights of Stony Point, should be adjudged a coward. He had been a gallant subordinate officer in the Revolution; but a man may be a good major or even colonel, yet a very poor commander-in-chief- qualified and eminently fit to act under orders, whom personal danger never moves, but unnerved by great responsibility.

It is a singular coincidence that Napoleon was advancing on Moscow, and the very morning that Murat and Ney attacked and fell on the rear Russian Guard who began the memorable retreat, was the same morning that General Hull made his ignominious surrender of Detroit to General Brock, commander of the British forces.

A considerable force of British and Indians was stationed at Detroit from the time of the surrender until the following winter, while Colonel Proctor's headquarters were at Malden with the main British army.

In order to secure the force under Colonel Brush and the supplies in his charge, Captain Elliot, a British officer, was immediately after the surrender and capitulation sent to the River Raisin from Detroit, accompanied by a Frenchman and a Wyandot Indian, with a copy of the capitulation. Colonel Brush, learning from his scout that Captain Elliot was coming with a flag of truce, sent a guard out to meet him. Elliot and his companions were blindfolded and brought into the stockade. Colonel Brush would not believe Captain Elliot's story; thought it a hoax, and the copy of the capitulation a forgery, so utterly improbable did it seem to him that Detroit had been taken. For this reason he confined Captain Elliot and his companions in the blockhouse. The next day, August 17th, the story of the surrender was confirmed by an American soldier who had escaped from Detroit. Upon learning this, Colonel Brush packed up what provisions he could, retaining Captain Elliot's horse to aid in carrying the sick, and driving his cattle before him, escaped with his stores and army to Ohio, leaving orders to release Elliot on the next day, which was done. Elliot was of course indignant at his treatment and at the escape of Colonel Brush with so much of the supplies. To add to his rage, a great portion of the provisions and ammunition

left by Brush had been carried off and secreted by the inhabitants of the place before his release, they thinking it no great harm to take from their own what would otherwise fall into the hands of the "rascally British," as they called them. Captain Elliot sent for the Indian Chief Tecumseh and his band to pursue Brush, and encouraged the Indians to ravage and plunder the settlement, in spite of the remonstrance of Tecumseh.

The settlement was plundered not only of provisions and cattle, but horses, saddles, bridles, household furniture, and every valuable that had not been secreted. The settlement was so thoroughly stripped of horses that James Knaggs, who had for days been concealed in the settlement (a reward of $500 having been offered for his scalp), could find only one on which to escape to Ohio, and that horse had been hidden by a tailor in a cellar. Knaggs gave his coat and a silver watch for it. After much peril he succeeded in escaping. He was the scout or messenger who was entrusted with communication between Colonel Brush and General Hull when it was extremely hazardous to traverse the forests by Indian trails among hostile savages. Mr. James Knaggs subsequently fought under Colonel Richard M. Johnson at the Battle of the Thames, and with Medard Labadie of River Raisin carried Colonel Johnson, wounded, in a blanket from the field.

The chief Tecumseh was the soul of honor when his word. was pledged. When Tecumseh's hunting parties approached the white settlements, horses and cattle were occasionally stolen from the French settlers, but notice to the chief failed not to produce instant redress. The character of Tecumseh was that of a gallant warrior, an honest and honorable man, and his memory was respected by many of our old citizens who personally knew him. One incident will illustrate the character of the great Indian chieftain. When summoned by Elliot immediately after the surrender in August, 1812, to come to the River Raisin and pursue Colonel Brush, he found that most of the cattle of the settlement had been driven off, either by the settlers in order to save them or by the Indians as plunder. Therefore he experienced great difficulty in getting meat for his warriors. He, however, discovered a yoke of fine black oxen, belonging to a Frenchman by the name

"Well," said Tecumseh, "we are the conquerors. I must have the oxen, my people must not starve, but I will not rob you of them. I will pay you $100, which is more than they are worth, but I must have them.'

The cattle were speedily killed, large fires built, and the warriors were soon feasting on their flesh. During the evening Tecumseh got a white man to write an order on the British Indian agent, Captain Elliot (who was on the river some distance below), for the money. Young Rivard took the order immediately to Colonel Elliot, who refused to pay it, and treated him harshly, saying:

"We are entitled to our support from the country we have conquered, and I will not pay it."

The young man returned with a sorrowful heart and Elliot's answer to Tecumseh, who said: "He won't pay it, will he? Stay all night and to-morrow we will go and see."

The next morning he took young Rivard straight into the presence of the captain in the block-house. On meeting him he said:

"Do you refuse to pay for the oxen I bought?" Yes," said the captain, and reiterated the reason for refusal.

The chieftain felt insulted, and said:

"I bought them for my young men, who were very hungry. I promised to pay for them, and they shall be paid for if I have to sell all my own horses to pay for them. I have always heard that the white people went to war with each other and not with peaceable inhabitants; that they did not rob and plunder poor people. I will not."

"Well," said the captain, "I will not pay for them."

The chief replied:

"You can do as you please, but before Tecumseh, the Prophet and his warriors came to fight the battles of the great king, they had enough to eat, for which they had only to thank

the Great Spirit and their good rifles. Their hunting grounds supplied them food enough and to them they can return.'

He said further that the man was poor and had a sick father, as he knew, having seen him; that it was not right that this man should suffer for the evil deeds of his government, and that if this was the way the British intended to carry on the war he would pay the debt and then leave with his men for his home and let the British do their own fighting. Elliot was alarmed and frightened by the angry and determined chieftain, and brought out $100 in government scrip, but Tecumseh told him to take it back, as he promised the man the money and money he should have or he would leave. Elliot was with great reluctance compelled to pay the specie, and then Tecumseh made him pay the man a dollar extra for the trouble he had been to. Rivard went his way rejoicing with his $100, and Tecumseh's ire was appeased and his word vindicated.

Soon after this the block-house on the site now occupied by Major Chapman was by the command of Captain Elliot burned; also a portion of the pickets were destroyed, deeming it prudent to destroy them, as he knew it was impossible for the British to keep an armed force at this point. Elliot then left, and from this time until the month of October, hands of Indians frequently returned to the River Raisin and plundered the settlement.

In October, 1812, British officers came with a force of militia from Malden and took permanent possession of the town of Frenchtown. The officers occupied the houses of Jerome and Couture, below the brick house now owned by Louis Lafontain, not far from the present bridge of the Michigan Central Railroad. The Lafontain house was not then built, and was the site of Colonel Lacroix's residence; but the site of the building with those eastward was occupied with wooden buildings, all of which were burned to the ground at the time of the massacre in the following January. This location was made from the fact that it was adjacent to and commanded the only road from the south, which had been previously made by General Hull, and from which point the British naturally expected the approach of American forces; also because from its elevation it overlooked the opposite (south) side of the River Raisin, as General Harrison was daily expected on his way with his army to Detroit.

BY

Y the terms of the capitulation, Fort Detroit was immediately surrendered to the British forces under the command of Major-General Brock, together with all the troops, regulars as well as militia, and all public stores, arms, and documents. The troops were considered as prisoners of war, with the exception of such of the Michigan militia as had not joined the army. The Ohio troops were paroled and sent home by way of Cleveland, the Michigan militia released, and most of the regular troops were sent in flat-bottomed boats down the St. Lawrence River to Montreal and Quebec.

Major-General Brock left Detroit in command of Colonel Proctor, with two hundred and fifty men. He by proclamation suspended the laws of the Territory, and declared the Territory under martial law until such time as the danger then existing or to be apprehended should be removed.

The surrender of the northwestern army astonished and surprised the whole country, and was followed by indignation and a spirit of retaliation and revenge. The whole Northwest Territory was now laid open to the incursions of the savages. This army was regarded at the time by our Government as sure of success, and was expected to sweep everything before it, and this shameful surrender was not at first credited. Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia sent forth crowds of volunteers, eager to redeem the tarnished reputation of the country. Several members of Congress from Kentucky enlisted as private soldiers. The young and ardent Henry Clay at the musters thrilled the young men who surrounded him with his ardent zeal and eloquence. Ten thousand men were raised in a very short time and placed under General Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. To these were added portions of the 17th and 19th Regiments of regular infantry, and two regiments from Kentucky and Ohio.

Four thousand men raised by order of Governor Shelby of Kentucky, all mounted, were put under Major General Hopkins, of the militia, who, jointly with three regiments already sent to Vincennes by General Harrison, were expected to defend the frontiers of Illinois and Indiana.

September 12, 1812, General Harrison with about 2,500 men reached Fort Deposit and relieved the garrison, composed of about seventy men, who had gallantly withstood the attacks of hordes of Indians. Here he remained until the arrival of other troops, and occupied the time in sending out detachments against the Indian villages, all of which were successful. On the 18th of the same month, he returned to Fort Wayne, where he met General Winchester with re-enforcements of 2,000 men from Ohio and Kentucky.

In the latter part of September he arrived at Fort Defiance. Leaving his forces there he returned to the settlements to organize and hasten up the forces designed to constitute the center and right wing of his army. He abandoned the original plan of boldly marching on Detroit and recapturing it at once, and determined to advance in three different columns, by as many different routes, to the Miami Rapids, thence move suddenly to Brownstown, cross the River Detroit and seize Malden, which had been the source of so much annoyance to General Hull, and avenge the disgrace of the surrender.

The lakes being in possession of the enemy, provisions, ammunition and cannon had to be transported by land, through swamps and marshes, and along forest paths and Indian trails, which could be traced only by blazed trees, and traversed only when the ground was frozen. He therefore occupied his time in sending out detachments and hurrying up his forces, in order to be ready to advance when the frozen