The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock by Ferdinand Brock Tupper

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The surrender of Detroit was so unexpected, that it produced an almost
electrical effect throughout the Canadas: it was the first enterprize in
which the militia had been engaged, and its success not only imparted
confidence to that body, but it inspired the timid, fixed the wavering,
and awed the disaffected. Major-General Brock from this moment became
the idol of the great mass of those whom he governed; and when he
returned to York, whither he arrived on the 27th of August, he was
received amidst the heartfelt acclamations of a grateful people, rescued
by his promptitude from the ignominy of submitting to a conqueror. They
remembered that in the short space of nineteen days he had, not only met
the legislature and settled the public business of the province under
the most trying circumstances that a commander could encounter, but,
with means incredibly limited, he had gone nearly 300 miles in pursuit
of an invading enemy of almost double his own force and compelled him to
surrender, thus extending the British dominion without bloodshed over an
extent of country almost equal to Upper Canada.[71]

The conduct of the American general in so tamely surrendering is
inexplicable, as Detroit contained an ample supply of ammunition and
provisions for nearly a month, besides an abundance of wheat in the
territory, with mills to grind any quantity into flour. One of his
officers, Colonel Cass, in a long letter to the Honorable William
Eustis, the secretary of war at Washington, said: "I have been informed
by Colonel Findley, who saw the return of the quartermaster-general the
day after the surrender, that their whole force, of every description,
white, red, and black, was 1,030.[72] They had twenty-nine platoons,
twelve in a platoon, of men dressed in uniform. Many of these were
evidently Canadian militia. The rest of their militia increased their
white force to about 700. The number of Indians could not be ascertained
with any degree of precision--not many were visible. And in the event of
an attack upon the town and fort, it was a species of force which could
have afforded no material advantage to the enemy.... That we were far
superior to the enemy, that upon any ordinary principles of calculation
we would have defeated them, the wounded and indignant feelings of every
man there will testify.... I was informed by General Hull, the morning
after the capitulation, that the British forces consisted of 1,800
regulars, and that he surrendered to prevent the effusion of human
blood. That he magnified their regular force nearly five-fold, there can
be no doubt. Whether the philanthropic reason assigned by him is a
sufficient justification for surrendering a fortified town, an army, and
a territory, is for the government to determine. Confident I am, that
had the courage and conduct of the general been equal to the spirit and
zeal of the troops, the event would have been brilliant and successful
as it is now disastrous and dishonorable." Hull's behaviour, then, can
only be accounted for by the supposition that the boldness of his
adversary's movements led him to believe he had to contend with far
greater numbers; or, that having threatened to refuse quarter to the
white man found fighting by the side of the Indian, he was
apprehensive, in the event of defeat, that this threat would be visited
with severe retaliation, particularly by the Indians, whose fury, in a
successful assault, it might have been very difficult to restrain. To
their honor, however, be it said, that although they took a few
prisoners on the advance, the enemy sustained no loss of life beyond
that caused by the British batteries; and in general orders, at Detroit,
they were told, that in nothing could they testify more strongly their
love to the king, their great father, than in following the dictates of
honor and humanity by which they had hitherto been actuated.

"The news of the surrender of Detroit," says the American historian,
Brown, "was so unexpected, that it came like a clap of thunder to the
ears of the American people. No one would believe the first report. The
disastrous event blasted the prospects of the first campaign, and opened
the northern and western frontiers of Ohio to savage incursions.

"Previous to the surrender of Detroit, the governors of Ohio and
Kentucky, in obedience to the directions of the war department, had
detached powerful reinforcements to the aid of General Hull. Had he
deferred the capitulation but a few days longer, his army, Detroit, and
the Michigan territory, would have been saved.

"The forces advancing to his support consisted of 2,000 militia, under
Brigadier-General Payne, and a battalion of mounted riflemen, under
Colonel R.M. Johnson, from Kentucky; a brigade of Ohio militia, under
the orders of Brigadier-General Tupper;[73] and nearly 1,000 regulars,
under the command of General Winchester. They had reached the St. Mary's
River when the news of the capture of Detroit was received. But for the
well-timed arrival of the above force a wide scene of flight and misery,
of blood and desolation, must have ensued. Nearly half of the territory
of Ohio must have been depopulated, or its inhabitants fallen victims to
the scalping knife."

"The chagrin felt at Washington," observes James in his Military
Occurrences, "when news arrived of the total failure of this the first
attempt at invasion, was in proportion to the sanguine hopes entertained
of its success. To what a pitch of extravagance those hopes had been
carried, cannot better appear than in two speeches delivered upon the
floor of congress, in the summer of 1812. Dr. Eustis, the secretary at
war of the United States, said: 'We can take the Canadas without
soldiers; we have only to send officers into the provinces, and the
people, disaffected towards their own government, will rally round our
standard.' The honorable Henry Clay seconded his friend, thus: 'It is
absurd to suppose we shall not succeed in our enterprize against the
enemy's provinces. We have the Canadas as much under our command as she
(Great Britain) has the ocean; and the way to conquer her on the ocean
is to drive her from the land. I am not for stopping at Quebec, or any
where else; but I would take the whole continent from them, and ask them
no favors. Her fleets cannot then rendezvous at Halifax, as now; and,
having no place of resort in the north, cannot infest our coast as they
have lately done. It is as easy to conquer them on the land, as their
whole navy would conquer ours on the ocean. We must take the continent
from them. _I wish never to see a peace till we do._ God has given us
the power and the means: we are to blame if we do not use them. If we
get the continent, she must allow us the freedom of the sea.' This is
the gentleman who, afterwards, in the character of a commissioner--and
it stands as a record of his unblushing apostacy--signed the treaty of
peace."

Tecumseh, who was slain the year following, headed a party of his
warriors on this occasion, and in the rough sketch already mentioned,
Major-General Brock remarked: "Among the Indians whom I found at
Amherstburg, and who had arrived from distant parts of the country,
there were some extraordinary characters. He who most attracted my
attention was a Shawanee chief, Tecumseh, the brother of the prophet,
who for the two last years has carried on, contrary to our
remonstrances, an active war against the United States. A more sagacious
or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist. He was the
admiration of every one who conversed with him. From a life of
dissipation he has not only become in every respect abstemious, but he
has likewise prevailed on all his nation, and many of the other tribes,
to follow his example." Previously to crossing over to Detroit,
Major-General Brock inquired of Tecumseh what sort of a country he
should have to pass through in the event of his proceeding further.
Tecumseh, taking a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground,
drew forth his scalping knife, and with the point presently edged upon
the back a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, and
roads--a plan which, if not as neat, was fully as intelligible as if a
surveyor had prepared it. Pleased with this unexpected talent in
Tecumseh, with his defeat of the Americans near Brownstown, and with his
having, by his characteristic boldness, induced the Indians, not of his
own tribe, to cross the river prior to the embarkation of the white
troops, Major-General Brock, soon after Detroit was surrendered, took
off his sash and publicly placed it round the body of the chief.
Tecumseh received the honor with evident gratification, but was the next
day seen without the sash. The British general, fearing that something
had displeased the Indian, sent his interpreter for an explanation.
Tecumseh told him, that not wishing to wear such a mark of distinction
when an older, and, as he said, an abler warrior than himself was
present, he had transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief,
Roundhead.[74]

The unfortunate General Hull, on his return to the United States, was
tried by a court martial and condemned to death; but the sentence was
remitted by the president, in consideration of his age and services
during the war of independence.[75] His name was, however, struck off
the rolls of the army. His son, and aide-de-camp at Detroit, Captain
Hull, was killed in July, 1814, in the hard-fought battle near the Falls
of Niagara.

Major-General Brock's services throughout this short campaign, closed by
an achievement which his energy and decision crowned with such
unqualified success, were highly appreciated by the government at home,
and were immediately rewarded with the order of the bath, which was then
confined to one degree of knighthood only. He was gazetted to this mark
of his country's approbation, so gratifying to the feelings of a
soldier, on the 10th of October; but he lived not long enough to learn
that he had obtained so honorable a distinction, the knowledge of which
would have cheered him in his last moments. Singularly enough his
dispatches, accompanied by the colours of the U.S. 4th regiment, reached
London early on the morning of the 6th of October, the anniversary of
his birth. His brother William, who was residing in the vicinity, was
asked by his wife why the park and tower guns were saluting. "For
Isaac, of course," he replied; "do you not know that this is his
birth-day?" And when he came to town he learnt, with emotions which may
be easily conceived, that what he had just said in jest was true in
reality; little thinking, however, that all his dreams, all his
anticipations of a beloved brother's increasing fame and prosperity
would that day week, one short week, be entombed

"Where Niagara stuns with thundering sound."

* * * * *

In one of his letters to his brothers, (page 63,) Major-General Brock
said that he had visited Detroit, the neighbourhood of which was a
delightful country, far exceeding any thing he had seen on that
continent, and a cursory description of it, as it appeared in 1812, may
prove interesting.

The Detroit river, which connects Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, extends
from about latitude 41 deg. 48' to 42 deg. 18' north, and divides that part of
Canada from the United States. Possessing a salubrious climate, a
productive soil, and a water communication with the upper and lower
lakes and the river St. Lawrence, we can scarcely conceive any thing
more favorable than the geographical position of the adjacent country.
Michigan afforded a rich field for "fowling" and fishing, and its
forests were plentifully supplied with various kinds of game. It was the
opinion of a former governor of Upper Canada, Simcoe, that the
peninsula of that province formed by Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie,
Ontario, Rice, and Simcoe, would alone furnish a surplus of wheat
sufficient for the wants of Great Britain. The banks of the Detroit were
in many places thickly peopled and in a fair state of cultivation. The
inhabitants on the Canadian side were chiefly of French origin, who
began to occupy the country when Canada was still under the dominion of
France. They still retained that urbanity of manners which distinguishes
them from the peasantry of most countries. Further back, the country was
settled principally by Americans, partial to the United States. Three or
four years after the war, the houses were so numerous and so close
together upon the banks of the Detroit, that there was an appearance of
a succession of villages for more than ten miles. The farms were very
narrow in front, extending a long way back, and were allotted in this
awkward and inconvenient form, that their respective occupants might be
able to render each other assistance when attacked by the Indians, who
were at one time very numerous and troublesome in this vicinity.

The banks of the river Detroit are the Eden of Upper Canada, in so far
as regards the production of fruit. Apples, pears, plums, peaches,
grapes, and nectarines, attain the highest degree of perfection, and
exceed in size, beauty, and flavour, those raised in any other part of
the province. Cider abounds at the table of the meanest peasant, and
there is scarcely a farm that has not a fruitful orchard attached to it.
This fineness of the fruit is one consequence of the amelioration of
climate, which takes place in the vicinity of the Detroit river and Lake
St. Clair. The seasons there are much milder and more serene than they
are a few hundred miles below, and the weather is likewise drier and
less variable. Comparatively little snow falls during the winter,
although the cold is often sufficiently intense to freeze over the
Detroit river so strongly, that persons, horses, and even loaded
sleighs, cross it with ease and safety. In summer, the country presents
a forest of blossoms, which exhale the most delicious odours; a cloud
seldom obscures the sky; while the lakes and rivers, which extend in
every direction, communicate a reviving freshness to the air, and
moderate the warmth of a dazzling sun; and the clearness and elasticity
of the atmosphere render it equally healthy and exhilarating.[76]

The fort of Detroit was originally constructed to overawe the
neighbouring Indian nations, and its military importance as the key of
the upper lakes appears to have been well known to them. But, neither
possessing battering cannon nor understanding the art of attacking
fortified places, they could only reduce them by stratagem or famine,
and Detroit could always be supplied with provisions by water. In the
year 1763, the Indian chief, Pontiac, whose name has already appeared,
(page 164), formed a powerful confederacy of the different tribes, for
the purpose of revenging their past wrongs and of preventing their total
extirpation, which they were erroneously led to believe was
contemplated. In a sudden, general, and simultaneous irruption on the
British frontier, they obtained possession, chiefly by stratagem, of
Michilimakinack,[77] Presqu'ile, and several smaller posts; but there
still remained three fortresses formidable alike by their strength and
position, which it was necessary the Indians should subdue before they
could reap any permanent advantage from their successes. These were
Detroit, Niagara, and Pittsburg; and the first and last, although so
remote from each other, were invested almost at the same moment. The
consummate address, which the Indians displayed in this alarming war,
was supported by a proportionate degree of courage, determination, and
perseverance; nor ever did they approve themselves a more stubborn and
formidable enemy than in this final stand against the encroachments of
European dominion and civilization in North America. General Amherst,
sensible of the danger, sent immediate succours to those two western
garrisons, and thus prevented their fall. Captain Dalzell, after
conducting, in July, a strong reinforcement to Detroit, was induced to
think that he could surprise the Indian force encamped about three miles
from the fort, and he sat out at night with 270 men, adopting the most
judicious precautions for the secrecy and good order of his march. But
the Indians, apprized of his design, were prepared to defeat it, and
every step from the fort only conducted the English troops further into
the jaws of destruction. Their advance was suddenly arrested by a sharp
fire on their front, which was presently followed by a similar discharge
on their rear, and then succeeded by destructive vollies from every
side. In the darkness neither the position nor the numbers of the
Indians could be ascertained. Dalzell was slain early, and his whole
detachment was on the brink of irretrievable confusion and ruin when
Captain Grant, the next in command, perceiving that a retreat, now the
only resource, could only be accomplished by a resolute attack, promptly
rallied the survivors, who, steadily obeying his orders, charged the
Indians with so much spirit and success as to repulse them on all sides
to some distance. Having thus extricated themselves from immediate
peril, the British hastily regained the shelter of the fort, with the
loss of 70 killed and 40 wounded; and the Indians, unable to reduce the
fort by a regular siege, and pausing long enough to ascertain that the
garrison was completely on its guard against stratagem and surprise,
broke up their camp and abandoned the vicinity of Detroit.

The Indians, thus grievously disappointed in their designs on Detroit
and Pittsburg, now closely beleaguered Niagara, which they justly
considered as not less important. They hoped to reduce it by famine, and
on the 14th of September, surrounding a convoy of provisions which had
nearly reached its destination, they succeeded in making it their prey
by a sudden attack, in which 70 of the British soldiers were slain.
Shortly after, as a schooner was crossing Lake Erie with supplies for
Detroit, she was attacked by a numerous fleet of canoes, in which were
nearly 400 Indians. But this attempt was less successful, and, after a
warm engagement, the Indian flotilla was repulsed with considerable
loss, as, in a conflict with an armed vessel, they were exposed to the
same disadvantages which attended their operations against fortified
places. Niagara having at length been powerfully reinforced and well
supplied, the Indians abandoned all hope of reducing it, and thenceforth
confined themselves to their wonted predatory hostility. In the spring
and summer of the following year, the British troops attacked them with
such vigour and success, that they were compelled to propose, in Indian
phrase, to _bury the hatchet_; and in September a treaty of peace was
concluded, the conditions of which were dictated by the English.[78]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: The captain of the spies was killed and scalped on the
march. "Thus fell the brave, generous, and patriotic McCulloch, captain
of the spies,"--and in a foot note a few pages before--"Captain
McCulloch, of the spies, scalped an Indian, whom he killed in the
engagement," in Upper Canada! We quote from Brown's-American History, so
it appears that at least one patriotic American could _scalp_ as well as
the Indians!]

[Footnote 62: Christie's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 63: Christie's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 64: The American historian, Brown, observes: "In the
meanwhile, Michilimakinack surrendered to the British without
resistance. The indefatigable Brock, with a reinforcement of 400
regulars, arrived at Maiden; and several Indian tribes, before
hesitating in the choice of sides, began to take their ground and array
themselves under the British standard." Vol. i, page 64.--100 regulars!]

[Footnote 65: Now Colonel Glegg, of Thursteston Hall, Cheshire.]

[Footnote 66: His age was then about forty.]

[Footnote 67: The American historian, Thomson, in his "Sketches of the
War," says that General Hull surrendered "to a body of troops inferior
in _quality_ as well as number!" and he adds: "When General Brock said
that the force at his disposal authorized him to require the surrender,
he must have had a very exalted opinion of the prowess of his own
soldiers, or a very mistaken one of those who were commanded by the
American general."]

[Footnote 68: Including four brass field pieces, captured with General
Burgoyne, at Saratoga, in 1777, and which were retaken by the Americans,
at the battle of the Thames, in October, 1813.]

[Footnote 69: Afterwards named the Detroit.]

[Footnote 70: Appendix A, Section 2, No. 1. Jefferson's Correspondence.]

[Footnote 71: Christie's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 72: Doubtless an error for 1330, the entire British force.]

[Footnote 73: There is a tradition in the editor's family, that one of
its members removed from Guernsey to England early in the seventeenth
century, and that a son of his, a clergyman, settled in the island of
Barbadoes, whence he or his family emigrated to the then British
provinces of North America, now the United States.]

[Footnote 74: James' Military Occurrences.]

[Footnote 75: For his revolutionary services, see Appendix A, Section 2,
No. 2.]

[Footnote 76: Howison's Upper Canada. London, 1821.]

[Footnote 77: The British garrison was surprised, not being aware of the
war, and the Indians butchered nearly all the whites, in number about
100. An English trader, concealed in the house of one of the French
inhabitants, beheld the massacre from an aperture which afforded him a
view of the area of the fort. He describes it as follows: "I beheld, in
shapes the foulest and most terrible, the ferocious triumphs of
barbarian conquerors. The dead were scalped and mangled; the dying were
writhing and shrieking under the insatiated knife and tomahawk, and from
the bodies of some, ripped open, their butchers were drinking the blood
scooped up in the hollows of joined hands, and quaffed amid shouts of
rage and victory."]

[Footnote 78: Grahame's History of the United States.]

CHAPTER XII.

The following letters[79] relate chiefly to the enterprize against
Detroit, and, although not in the chronological order we have hitherto
observed, will form the subject of this chapter.

_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost_.

Head Quarters, Detroit, Aug. 16, 1812.

I hasten to apprize your excellency of the capture of this
very important post: 2,500 troops have this day surrendered
prisoners of war, and about 25 pieces of ordnance have been
taken without the sacrifice of a drop of British blood. I had
not more than 700 troops, including militia, and about 600
Indians, to accomplish this service. When I detail my good
fortune, your excellency will be astonished. I have been
admirably supported by Colonel Proctor, the whole of my staff,
and I may justly say, every individual under my command.

_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost_.

Head Quarters, Detroit, Aug. 17, 1812.[80]

I have had the honor of informing your excellency, that the
enemy effected his passage across the Detroit river, on the
12th ultimo, without opposition; and that, after establishing
himself at Sandwich, he had ravaged the country as far as the
Moravian town. Some skirmishes occurred between the troops
under Lieut.-Colonel St. George and the enemy, upon the river
Canard, which uniformly terminated in his being repulsed with
loss. I judged it proper to detach a force down the river
Thames, capable of acting in conjunction with the garrison of
Amherstburg offensively, but Captain Chambers, whom I had
appointed to direct this detachment, experienced difficulties
that frustrated my intentions. The intelligence received from
that quarter admitting of no delay, Colonel Proctor was
directed to assume the command, and his force was soon after
increased with 60 rank and file of the 41st regiment.

In the mean time, the most strenuous measures were adopted to
counteract the machinations of the evil-disposed, and I soon
experienced the gratification of receiving voluntary offers of
service from that portion of the embodied militia the most
easily collected. In the attainment of this important point,
gentlemen of the first character and influence shewed an
example highly creditable to them; and I cannot, on this
occasion, avoid mentioning the essential assistance I derived
from John M'Donell, Esq., his majesty's attorney-general, who,
from the beginning of the war, has honored me with his
services as my provincial aide-de-camp. A sufficiency of boats
being collected at Long Point for the conveyance of 300 men,
the embarkation took place on the 8th instant, and in five
days we arrived in safety at Amherstburg.

I found that the judicious arrangements which had been adopted
immediately upon the arrival of Colonel Proctor, had compelled
the enemy to retreat, and take shelter under the guns of his
fort: that officer commenced operations by sending strong
detachments across the river, with a view of cutting off the
enemy's communication with his reserve. This produced two
smart skirmishes on the 5th and 9th instant, in which the
enemy's loss was considerable, whilst ours amounted to 3
killed and 13 wounded; amongst the latter, I have particularly
to regret Captain Muir and Lieutenant Sutherland, of the 41st
regiment; the former an officer of great experience, and both
ardent in his majesty's service. Batteries had likewise been
commenced opposite Fort Detroit, for one 18-pounder, two 12,
and two 5-1/2-inch mortars, all of which opened on the evening
of the 15th; (having previously summoned Brigadier-General
Hull to surrender;) and although opposed by a well-directed
fire from seven 24-pounders, such was their construction,
under the able direction of Captain Dixon, of the Royal
Engineers, that no injury was sustained from its effect.

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