The Fight for a Free Sea | Page 4

the vast empire of Canada lay exposed to invasion, and in
this quarter the enemy was singularly vulnerable. Henry Clay spoke for
most of his countrymen beyond the boundaries of New England when
he announced to Congress: "The conquest of Canada is in your power. I
trust that I shall not be deemed presumptuous when I state that I verily
believe that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place
Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet. Is it nothing to the British
nation; is it nothing to the pride of her monarch to have the last
immense North American possession held by him in the
commencement of his reign wrested from his dominions?" Even
Jefferson was deluded into predicting that the capture of Canada as far
as Quebec would be a mere matter of marching through the country and
would give the troops experience for the attack on Halifax and the final
expulsion of England from the American continent.
The British Provinces, extending twelve hundred miles westward to
Lake Superior, had a population of less than five hundred thousand; but
a third of these were English immigrants or American Loyalists and
their descendants, types of folk who would hardly sit idly and await

invasion. That they should resist or strike back seems not to have been
expected in the war councils of the amiable Mr. Madison. Nor were
other and manifold dangers taken into account by those who counseled
war. The Great Lakes were defenseless, the warlike Indians of the
Northwest were in arms and awaiting the British summons, while the
whole country beyond the Wabash and the Maumee was almost
unguarded. Isolated here and there were stockades containing a few
dozen men beyond hope of rescue, frontier posts of what is now the
Middle West. Plans of campaign were prepared without thought of the
insuperable difficulties of transport through regions in which there were
neither roads, provisions, towns, nor navigable rivers. Armies were
maneuvered and victories won upon the maps in the office of the
Secretary of War. Generals were selected by some inscrutable process
which decreed that dull-witted, pompous incapables should bungle
campaigns and waste lives.
It was wisely agreed that of all the strategic points along this far-flung
and thinly held frontier, Detroit should receive the earliest attention. At
all costs this point was to be safeguarded as a base for the advance into
Canada from the west. A remote trading post within gunshot of the
enemy across the river and menaced by tribes of hostile Indians, Detroit
then numbered eight hundred inhabitants and was protected only by a
stout enclosure of logs. For two hundred miles to the nearest friendly
settlements in Ohio, the line of communications was a forest trail which
skirted Lake Erie for some distance and could easily be cut by the
enemy. From Detroit it was the intention of the Americans to strike the
first blow at the Canadian post of Amherstburg near by.
The stage was now set for the entrance of General William Hull as one
of the luckless, unheroic figures upon whom the presidential power of
appointment bestowed the trappings of high military command. He was
by no means the worst of these. In fact, the choice seemed auspicious.
Hull had seen honorable service in the Revolution and had won the
esteem of George Washington. He was now Governor of Michigan
Territory. At sixty years of age he had no desire to gird on the sword.
He was persuaded by Madison, however, to accept a brigadier general's
commission and to lead the force ordered to Detroit. His instructions

were vague, but in June, 1812, shortly before the declaration of war, he
took command of two thousand regulars and militia at Dayton, Ohio,
and began the arduous advance through the wilderness towards Detroit.
The adventure was launched with energy. These hardy, reliant men
knew how to cut roads, to bridge streams, and to exist on scanty rations.
Until sickness began to decimate their ranks, they advanced at an
encouraging rate and were almost halfway to Detroit when the tidings
of the outbreak of hostilities overtook them. General Hull forthwith
hurried his troops to the Maumee River, leaving their camp equipment
and heavy stores behind. He now committed his first crass blunder.
Though the British controlled the waters of Lake Erie, yet he sent a
schooner ahead with all his hospital supplies, intrenching tools, official
papers, and muster rolls. The little vessel was captured within sight of
Detroit and the documents proved invaluable to the British commander
of Upper Canada, Major General Isaac Brock, who gained thereby a
complete idea of the American plans and proceeded to act accordingly.
Brock was a soldier of uncommon intelligence and resolution,
acquitting himself with distinction, and contrasting with his American
adversaries in a manner