the captured documents from the Cuyahoga Packet, Brock was able to accurately assess the growing and widespread disaffection within the American army from a stash of private letters captured at the Brownstown engagement. These came from several senior officers within Hull’s corps of officers and gave clear indications of the weakness of the enemy. In response, General Brock, despite the reservations and advice of Proctor and St. George, entered into negotiations with Chief Tecumseh for a substantial counterattack on the American position at Detroit. Encouraged by Brock’s aggressive stance and keen to see the Americans defeated, Tecumseh agreed to the plan.
On August 14, Brock issued a general order that firstly congratulated Proctor, St. George, and the men of the militias who had remained steadfast in the defence of their colony, while secondly expressing surprise at those of the militias who had deserted their duties. He then directed that all absentees immediately return to the colours or face the prospect of being punished according to the rules outlined in the new Militia Act passed earlier in the year.
Meanwhile on the American side of the river, General Hull, well aware of the growing groundswell of opposition and even the conspiracy against him, was restrained from moving against its chief plotters by the threat of it precipitating an open mutiny by the entire army. Instead, he detailed the two senior-ranking conspirators, Colonel Duncan McArthur and Colonel Lewis Cass, both of the Ohio State militia, to take a force of over 350 men and march by a circuitous inland route to link up with the supply convoy. Coincidentally, both armies began their respective operations at dawn the following day. As a result, the American’s lost their most aggressive commanders and a sizeable body of troops, while the British, further reinforced by detachments that had just completed the exhausting march overland from Long Point, advanced on Sandwich. By sunset of the 15th, the American detachment was some twenty-four miles away, while the British were looking across the Detroit River as their already emplaced artillery began a bombardment of the American troop encampments at Detroit. Also during the course of that day, General Brock sent an ultimatum to Hull calling for his surrender and using a carrot and stick address to reinforce his position:
The force at my disposal authorises me to require of you the immediate surrender of Detroit. It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware of that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond control the moment the contest commences. You will find me disposed to enter into such conditions as will satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honour … that will lead to any unnecessary effusion of blood.[6]
Faced with this threat, Hull replied with a seemingly brave and defiant rebuff:
I have received your letter of this date. I have no other reply to make, than to inform you that I am prepared to meet any force which may be at your disposal, and any consequences which may result from any exertion of it you may think proper to make.[7]
At the same time he sent urgent orders for McArthur and Cass to immediately march back to defend Detroit, and placed his Detroit garrison on full alert for an imminent British attack. Before dawn on August 16, 1812, six hundred of Brock’s Native allies crossed the Detroit River and landed at Spring Wells, three miles south of Detroit, to secure a landing ground. Shortly thereafter, a flotilla of small boats containing Brock’s main force of some 330 regulars, 400 militia, and five cannon made their own crossing, all under the protective screen of ships from the Provincial Marine department.*[8] Seeking to further magnify the apparent strength of his small invasion force, Brock had previously directed that as many of the militia as possible were to be issued cast-off or spare regular redcoat uniforms to make them look like “real” soldiers to the Americans. Landing unopposed and forming their column-of-march, Brock received intelligence that some of McArthur and Cass’s troops were only three miles to his south. Faced with the prospect of being caught in a vice between two enemy forces, Brock would have been entirely justified in retreating back to the east side of the river; instead he ordered an immediate advance upon Detroit. Awaiting his just-over-a-thousand troops and Native warriors were Hull’s garrison of an estimated 2,500 American troops, entrenched behind a line of strong earthworks and fortifications, bristling with no less than thirty-three cannon.
The plan of the town and fortifications at Detroit in 1812.
From Richardson’s War of 1812.
Advancing to within a mile of the fortifications, Brock halted the column and began to deploy his line. In a deft example of bravado and sleight of hand, the general spread out his units to make them appear more numerous. In addition, he made extensive use of the Natives to engage in psychological warfare by making probes and threatening attacks on the American flanks. By these ruses, and supported by the continued cannonade from his batteries on the east bank of the Detroit River, Brock succeeded in demoralizing General Hull and his army to the point where sizeable numbers of militia began abandoning their assigned posts for the sanctuary of the distant forests. Seeing his force dwindling, and already visibly shaken by the effect of the British bombardment, Hull was beset by the dilemma that as well as being the military commander of the garrison, he was also the governor of Michigan, making the welfare and safety of the civilian populace his direct responsibility. If he gave battle and lost, Brock’s Native warriors could well be unleashed, with terrifying consequences for all the Americans in Detroit. Making his decision, Hull gave the order for his troops to hold their fire while he entered into negotiations for a formal capitulation. Following a brief exchange of demands, General Hull not only agreed to surrender the fort, its garrison, and all supplies therein,*[9] , *[10] but also the relief column at Frenchtown on the River Raisin, the garrison at the Maumee Rapids, and the forces of McArthur and Cass — who were now conspicuous by their continued absence. In fact, these latter officers had previously deliberately ignored Hull’s orders to return when the threat was initially revealed on the 14th, and remained encamped overnight before making a more leisurely return march until they came within two miles of the fort and heard the sounds of the British cannonade from across the river. Without making any reconnaissance or notifying Hull of their presence, they ordered their troops to turn about once again and made a hasty retreat to the River Rouge, where they remained until officially notified that Detroit had been surrendered. Whereupon the two officers made a vehement public show of being outraged and surprised at Hull’s capitulation, and condemned him for sending them from Detroit at a time of danger. By this they successfully established their own alibis and distanced themselves from the inevitable official American censure that would follow, once news of the surrender became public.
In addition to these logistical and troop surrenders, in the aftermath of the surrender, General Brock’s proclamation to the populace of the Michigan Territory (August 16, 1812), stipulated a claim that was to have significant repercussions upon the future conduct and course of the war. Namely that the territory had been ceded to the control and authority of the British Crown, and therefore was now de facto part of British North America and Upper Canada.
Whereas the territory of Michigan was this day by Capitulation ceded to the Arms of His Britannick Majesty, without any other condition than the protection of private property, and wishing to give an early proof of the moderation and Justice of His Majesty’s Government, I do hereby announce to all the Inhabitants of the said Territory that the Laws heretofore in existence shall continue in force until His Majesty’s pleasure be known …
