The Surrender of Detroit by John Wycliffe Lowes Forster.

By MIRIAM GREENBLATT

Hull reached Fort Detroit on July 5, 1812. The word from Eustis was to quickly take Fort Malden, one of a series of British forts that had been built on the Canadian side of Lake Erie after the signing of Jay’s Treaty. Unknown to Hull, a group of Indians had been shadowing the Americans. They had been sent out by their chief, Tecumseh.

Hull made his first attempt to attack Fort Malden on July 12. Much to his chagrin, hundreds of militiamen refused to obey his orders. They had not been recruited to fight on foreign soil, they said. So although Fort Malden was defended by only a few British troops and could have easily been captured, Hull decided to wait.

While Hull dallied, events helped build up a sense of fear among the American troops. A contingent of soldiers had been sent back to escort supplies and militia requested from the governor of Ohio. But before they could reach Detroit, Tecumseh’s men attacked, leaving 17 Americans dead and many more wounded. Then news filtered in that Fort Michilimackinac, at the northern tip of the Michigan Territory, had surrendered to the British. Hull now took his troops back to Detroit.

Brock had used Hull’s delays to advantage. He arranged for a flotilla of ships to transport troops and supplies to reinforce Fort Malden. He also began a series of psychological operations designed to frighten the Americans further. He made sure that a bogus document got into Hull’s nervous hands. The document referred to 5,000 Indians ready to descend on Detroit. Then, on August 15, he sent a message to Hull demanding the immediate surrender of Detroit and added, “It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware, that the numerous bodies of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond control the moment the contest commences.”

Brock’s psychological tactics had the desired effect on Hull. During the Revolutionary War, he had seen the work of the Indians—the faces of scalped children, the remains of charred homes, and the mangled bodies of women. His own daughter and grandchildren were among those in Fort Detroit. When Hull was nervous, he would unconsciously stuff his mouth with wads of chewing tobacco until the brown saliva dribbled down over his beard, neckcloth, and vest. Now, watching the saliva dribbling down, Hull’s officers realized that the general was falling apart. He was convinced that there were hordes of British in front of him and thousands of Indians behind him. His numbers may not have been accurate, but the British and the Indians were indeed in those positions, awaiting the final word to attack Detroit.

A few days earlier, Brock had met with Tecumseh. Shortly after midnight on August 12, a scout brought the Indian leader to the general’s headquarters. Brock was impressed by the stately figure dressed in a simple suit of deerskin, fringed at the seams. Tecumseh was equally impressed by the tall, blue-eyed man wearing a scarlet coat and shiny boots.

The conversation between the two leaders took time, but both men came away pleased at the contact and ready to join forces. Brock wrote later that “a more sagacious and gallant Warrior does not I believe exist. He has the admiration of every one who conversed with him.” Tecumseh summed up his feelings about Brock in four words: “This is a man.” Their relations were further cemented when Tecumseh unrolled a strip of elm bark, removed his knife from his belt, and scratched out an accurate map of Fort Detroit and its surroundings.

When Hull received Brock’s demand for surrender on August 15, he panicked. He sent back a reply refusing to surrender but in words that clearly betrayed his uncertainty. Brock thereupon began bombarding the fort. There was a brief respite during the night that gave Tecumseh the opportunity to surround Detroit from the south side. Then, on the morning of August 16, the British and Indian troops launched an attack.

Most military historians agree that Hull could have repulsed the attack. He had more men and supplies than the enemy did. But it is also probably true that a long siege would have caused starvation and loss of life among the 800 civilians huddled in the fort. So Hull surrendered and at noon of August 16, Brock entered Fort Detroit and proclaimed that the whole Michigan Territory once again belonged to Great Britain. Then the Indians poured in, shooting their guns and seizing the horses. True to his promise to Brock, however, Tecumseh saw to it that no prisoners were molested.

Hull’s defeat was received with disbelief and fury throughout the United States. As one American soldier who had been at the fort wrote later: “We could have whipped hell out of the rascals but General Hull has proved himself a traitor and a coward. . . .We were made to submit to the most shameful surrender that ever took place in the world. Our brave Captain Harry James cursed and swore like a pirate, and cried like his heart would break.” Two years later, in 1814, Hull was brought before a court-martial. He was found guilty of cowardice and neglect of duty and was sentenced to be shot. However, President Madison spared his life on the grounds of Hull’s age and previous military service.

The fall of Fort Detroit was not the only disaster that the United States experienced in August 1812. About a week earlier, Hull had dispatched frontiersman William Wells to Fort Dearborn, on the present site of Chicago. He was to instruct Capt. Nathan Heald, commander of the fort, to evacuate its 100 or so soldiers and civilians as quickly as possible east to Fort Wayne. The garrison contained enough supplies for six months, and the American troops there did not want to leave. But Heald, as a good soldier, agreed to follow the general’s orders.

The area around Fort Dearborn was filled with Potawatomi Indians. Believing them to be friendly, Heald gave them all the trade goods from the post store that were not needed for the march to Fort Wayne. Under cover of night, he also dumped all the fort’s whiskey into the Chicago River and destroyed surplus weapons and ammunition. Unfortunately, Heald’s assessment of the friendliness of the Potawatomi was a gross error. Tecumseh’s agents and British traders had done their work well. When the Indians discovered that Heald had destroyed the whiskey and the guns, the two items they most wanted, they were furious.

On August 15, Wells led his party through the stockade door and along a path that would someday be Chicago’s famed Michigan Avenue. The Americans were escorted by a column of Potawatomi. Legend has it that Wells, who had lived among the Indians for much of his life, had painted his face with black gunpowder, an Indian sign that he expected death before sundown.

Shortly after the Americans left Fort Dearborn, the Potawatomi escort disappeared into the coastal sand dunes. A mile and a half from the safety of the fort, Wells spotted the Indian ambush. But it was too late. Heald and his men fought furiously with bayonet and musket, but the small force of 57 Americans was overwhelmed by some 500 Indian warriors. Wells himself was killed by the Potawatomi chief Blackbird. The chief then carried out an Indian ritual that paid tribute to Wells’s courage: Blackbird cut out Wells’s heart and ate it raw.

Most of the American civilians in the party also perished. Children huddled in a wagon were killed and scalped. Some of the soldiers’ wives, armed with their husbands’ swords, valiantly tried to fight off their attackers and were hacked to pieces. The few civilians who survived became captives of the Indians and were later distributed among villages in the area.