{021}
_First Bloodshed--Attitude of Political Parties--Plans for Invading
Canada--Capture of Michilimackinac--Engagements at the River Raisin and
Maguaga--Battle of Chicago--Hull's Surrender._
|It was perhaps characteristic of the conduct of the war, that the first
blood spilled should be American blood, shed by Americans. This occurred
in a riot, occasioned by high party feeling, and it is a curious fact
that it took place in the same city where the first blood was shed, also
by riot, in the great war of the Rebellion, half a century later. In the
night of June 22d, three days after the proclamation of war, a mob
in Baltimore sacked the office of the _Federal Republican_, edited by
Alexander Hanson, because he had opposed the war policy. The mob also
attacked the residences of several prominent Federalists, and burned one
of them. Vessels in the harbor, too, were visited and plundered. About
a month later Hanson resumed the publication of his paper, and in the
night of July 26th the mob gathered again. This had been expected, and
Hanson was ready for them. A large {022}number of his friends, including
Generals James M. Lingan and Henry Lee, offered to assist him in
protecting his property. When the rioters burst into the building, they
were at once fired upon, and one of them was killed and several were
wounded. The authorities were slow and timid in dealing with the riot;
and when at length a force of militia was called out, instead of firing
upon the mob, or capturing the ringleaders, they arrested Hanson and his
friends, and lodged them in jail. The rioters, thus encouraged by those
whose business it was to punish them, attacked the jail the next night,
murdered General Lingan, injured General Lee so that he was a cripple
for the rest of his life, and beat several of the other victims and
subjected them to torture. The leaders of the mob were brought to trial,
but were acquitted!
In this state of affairs, the war party in the country being but little
stronger than the peace party, the youngest and almost the weakest of
civilized nations went to war with one of the oldest and most powerful.
The regular army of the United States numbered only six thousand men;
but Congress had passed an act authorizing its increase to twenty-five
thousand, and in addition to this the President was empowered to call
for fifty thousand volunteers, and to use the militia to the extent of
one hundred {023}thousand. Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, was made
a major-general and appointed to command the land forces. Against the
thousand vessels and one hundred and forty-four thousand sailors of the
British navy, the Americans had twenty war-ships and a few gunboats, the
whole carrying about three hundred guns.
But these figures, taken alone, are deceptive; since a very large part
of the British force was engaged in the European wars, and the practical
question was, what force the United States could bring against so much
as England could spare for operations on the high seas and on this side
of the Atlantic. In that comparison, the discrepancy was not so great,
and the United States had an enormous element of strength in her fine
merchant marine. Her commerce being temporarily suspended to a large
degree, there was an abundance both of ships and sailors, from which to
build up a navy and fit out a fleet of privateers. Indeed, privateering
was the business that now offered the largest prizes to mariners and
ship-owners. Yet so blind was President Madison's Administration to the
country's main strength and advantage, that he actually proposed to lay
up all the naval vessels, as the only means of saving them from capture.
Of what use it would be to save from capture war-vessels which were not
to {024}sail the sea in time of war, he seems not to have thought. From
this fatal error he was saved by the pluck and foresight of Captains
Stewart and Bain-bridge. Those two officers happened fortunately to
be in Washington at the time, and succeeded in persuading the
Administration to give up this plan and order the vessels fitted for sea
at once.
War with Great Britain being determined upon, the plan of campaign that
first and most strongly presented itself to the Administration was the
conquest of the British provinces on our northern border. This had
been attempted during the Revolution without success, but none the
less confidence was felt in it now. And it was certainly correct in
principle, though it proved wofully disastrous in the execution. It
is observable that in all recent wars, the party on whose ground the
fighting has taken place has been in the end the losing party. Thus the
Mexican war in 1846-7 was fought in Mexican territory, and the Mexicans
were defeated. The Crimean war was fought in Russian territory, and the
Russians were defeated. The war between France and Austria, in 1859,
was fought in Austrian territory, and the Austrians were defeated. The
Schleswig-Holstein war was fought in Danish territory, and the Danes
were defeated. The war between Prussia and Austria, in 1866, was
fought in {025}Austrian territory, and the Austrians were defeated. The
Franco-German war of 1870 was fought in French territory, and France was
defeated. The Russo-Turkish war of 1877 was fought in Turkish territory,
and the Turks were defeated. The war of the American Rebellion was
fought in territory claimed by the rebels, and they were defeated. It
only needs that a war should continue long enough for us to see where
the battle-ground is to be, and we can then tell what will be its
result. The reason is obvious. A nation that is strong enough to carry
the war into its enemy's country, and keep it there, will certainly
prove strong enough to win in the end, unless interference by some other
power prevents it; while a nation that is too weak to keep war, with
all its devastation and ruin, out of its territory, must certainly be
defeated unless assisted by some neighboring people. The invaders
may, and probably will, lose the greater number of men in the pitched
battles; but it is not their harvests that will be trampled, not their
mills that will be burned, not their bridges that will be blown up, not
their homes that will be desolated, not their families that must fly
for shelter to the caves and the forests. Their sources of supply are
untouched. This principle was recognized by Scipio, when he declared
that the war with Carthage "must be carried into Africa." {026}As
England claimed to be mistress of the seas, and practically the claim
was almost true, the determination to send our little navy and a fleet
of privateers against her was essentially carrying the war into English
territory. And as this part of the contest was conducted with skill and
valor, it was gloriously successful.
An invasion of Canada being determined upon, the first question that
necessarily arose was, at what point that country should first be
attacked. To any one not skilled in military science the most obvious
plan would seem the best--to march as large a force as possible, without
delay, into Canada at the nearest point. A young officer, Major Jesup,
of Kentucky, sent a memorial to the Secretary of War, in which he set
forth a totally different plan from this. He proposed that a strong
expedition should be fitted out to capture and hold Halifax, which was
then a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, with the most important
harbor in the Canadian provinces. As a precedent, he could refer to the
capture of Louis-burg in 1748. But the Secretary, Hon. William Eustis,
of Massachusetts, spoke of it contemptuously as "a very pretty plan,"
and set it aside. Yet it was sound in principle, and if properly carried
out could hardly have failed to secure important results. In striking an
enemy on the flank, it is {027}always desirable, to choose that flank
by which he holds communication with his base. A blow on the other
flank may inflict injury, but it only drives him back toward his base. A
movement that cuts him off from such communication compels him either
to surrender or to fight at great disadvantage Canada's base--for many
supplies, and largely for soldiers--was England. The port of Quebec
was frozen up nearly half the year, and the occupation of Halifax by
an American force would have gone far toward severing the connection
between the provinces and the mother country. That harbor, too, was
all-important for the refuge and refitting of British naval vessels on
this side of the Atlantic.
Looking at the matter as purely a military problem, it was a pity that
this brilliant plan was not adopted. But in a larger consideration it
is probably fortunate for us that it was not. It might have
resulted--indeed, that was contemplated in the plan--in leaving the
Americans, at the close of the war, in possession of Canada. As the
structure of our government almost precludes the holding of conquered
provinces as such for any length of time, the Canadas must have soon
become States of the Republic. But, so far from that being desirable in
1815, it may be doubted whether even yet the time has arrived when it
would be wise to incorporate {028}that undesirable population, in a body
as they are, with the people of the United States.
In planning for the invasion of Canada, the Administration counted
largely upon a supposed readiness of the Canadians to throw off their
allegiance to Great Britain and join with the United States. Such
expectations have almost never been realized, and in this instance they
were completely disappointed.
In the preceding February, William Hull, Governor of the Territory of
Michigan, who had rendered distinguished service in the Revolution, had
been made a brigadier-general and placed in command of the forces in
Ohio, with orders to march them to Detroit, to protect the Territory
against the Indians, who were becoming troublesome. In June he was
in command of about two thousand men, in northern Ohio, moving slowly
through the wilderness. On the day when war was declared, June 18th,
the Secretary of War wrote him two letters. The first, in which the
declaration was not mentioned, was despatched by a special messenger,
and reached General Hull on the 24th. The other informed him of the
declaration of war, but was sent by mail to Cleveland, there to take its
chance of reaching the General by whatever conveyance might be found.
The consequence was, that he did not {029}receive it till the 2d of
July. But every British commander in Canada learned the news several
days earlier.
Hull arrived at Detroit on the 5th of July, and set about organizing his
forces. On the 9th he received from the War Department orders to begin
the invasion of Canada by taking possession of Malden, fifteen miles
below Detroit, on the other side of the river, if he thought he could do
so with safety to his own posts.
He crossed on the 12th, and issued a proclamation to the Canadians. In
this he told them that he came to do no injury to peaceable citizens,
who might remain at their homes and pursue their usual occupations in
security; that he neither asked nor needed their help, but would accept
the services of such as might volunteer; and that no quarter would be
given to any who adopted Indian modes of warfare or were found fighting
in company with the savages who were accustomed to scalp prisoners and
murder non-combatants. After the campaign had resulted disastrously,
General Hull was censured and ridiculed for this proclamation; but a
copy had been transmitted to the Secretary of War, and approved by him;
and indeed, if a proclamation was to be issued, it is difficult to find
any serious fault with Hull's. The error was in issuing any at all--a
{030}thing which a general seldom does with any good effect.
Hull fortified his camp on the east side of the river, and while waiting
for his artillery sent out reconnoitring parties toward Fort Malden,
and detachments to bring in supplies. As his troops grew impatient, he
called a council of war, explained the situation to his officers, and
offered to lead them in an attempt to carry the fort by storm, without
waiting for artillery, if they thought their men could be relied upon
for such an enterprise. Colonel Miller answered that his regiment of
regulars could be depended upon for anything they might be ordered to
do; but the three militia colonels very wisely answered that raw
militia could not be expected to storm a fortified place, unaided by
artillery--one of the most hazardous of all military exploits.
So it was decided to defer the attack, and in a few days came the news
that on the declaration of war, a force of over six hundred--British
and Indians--had promptly moved against the American post at
Michilimackinac--on the rocky little island of Mackinaw, commanding
the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan--and the garrison
of sixty-one officers and men capitulated on the 16th of July. This
disaster to the Americans roused the Indians to renewed hostility
against them, while it propor{031}tionately disheartened Hull, and
seems to have been the first step in the breaking down of his courage.
After a few skirmishes, he recrossed to Detroit on the 7th of August.
Meanwhile the British Colonel Proctor had arrived at Malden with
reënforcements, and on Hull's withdrawal to Detroit he threw a force
across the river to intercept his supplies. This force consisted of a
small number of British regulars and a considerable number of Indians
commanded by the famous Tecumseh.
Learning that a supply train, accompanied by a few volunteers, was
coming to him and had got as far as the River Raisin, about thirty-five
miles south of Detroit, General Hull sent out a detachment of about two
hundred men, under Major Thomas B. Van Horne, to meet it and escort
it to camp. This detachment was attacked by the British and savages
at Brownstown, twenty miles from Detroit. Van Horne was surprised, and
retreated to the edge of a wood. His men behaved badly, and could not be
got into line, another retreat was ordered, and finally they ran away
in confusion, having lost eighteen killed, twelve wounded, and seventy
missing.
Hull sent out another detachment, of six hundred men, under
Lieutenant-Colonel James Miller, to open communication with the supply
train, which {032}was more fortunate. At Maguaga, fourteen miles from
Detroit, they came upon the enemy intrenched behind a breastwork of
logs. The British were commanded by Major Muir, the savages by Tecumseh.
Miller at once ordered a bayonet charge, which his men executed in
gallant style. The enemy were driven from their works, after some hard
fighting, and pursued for two miles. They finally reached their boats,
and crossed to Malden, but nearly a hundred Indians lay dead on the
field, and the English had lost fifteen killed and forty wounded. The
American loss was fifteen killed and sixty wounded. Instead of pushing
on to the River Raisin, and securing the supplies. Colonel Miller
returned with his command to Detroit.
As the direct road on which all these operations had taken place lay
along the river-bank, in sight of the enemy and exposed to the fire of
his gunboats, Hull now sent out a detachment under Colonels McArthur and
Cass, to escort the train by a circuitous route, farther from the river.
During this gloomy state of things at Detroit, a bloody affair took
place on ground that is now within the city of Chicago. Fort Dearborn
stood at the mouth of Chicago River, and was occupied by a garrison
of about fifty soldiers, with several families. Captain Nathan Heald,
commanding the {033}post, had been ordered by General Hull to abandon it
and remove his force to Detroit. With so small a force, moving more than
two hundred miles through a wilderness in time of war, it was especially
desirable to retain the good will of the Indians. Captain Heald
accordingly called a council of those who professed to be friendly,
told them of his intended movement, and promised to give them all the
property in the fort that he could not take with him, at which they
were greatly pleased. But in the night, knowing their intemperance and
fearing their treachery, he destroyed all the alcohol, firearms, and
gunpowder which he could not take away. These were the very articles
that the Indians most highly valued, and when, after his departure next
morning (August 15th), they discovered the trick that had been played
them, they were very much enraged, and hurried on to overtake him. He
was moving slowly southward along the shore of the lake, when the crest
of a low range of sand-hills on his right was suddenly lighted up with a
blaze of musketry. The savages were there in ambush, mercilessly firing
upon the little caravan. As quickly as possible the wagons were drawn up
together, and the women and children given shelter in and behind them,
while the soldiers stood their ground, and returned the fire of the
Indians. It was a brave {034}and bloody fight, and when some of the men
had fallen the women took up their rifles and fired upon the savages
with all the courage and coolness of soldiers. But after heavy losses,
the survivors of the party were compelled to surrender. In the course of
the fight, an Indian had made his way to the wagons, and, springing into
one in which twelve children had been placed, tomahawked every one of
them. The victorious savages scalped all the wounded, claiming that they
had not been included in the capitulation, and the bloody trophies were
sold to Colonel Proctor, who had offered a premium for American scalps.
The fight near Fort Dearborn took place on the same day that the
detachment under Colonels McArthur and Cass left Detroit. The next day,
August 15th, the British General Isaac Brock, who had arrived at Malden
a few days before and assumed command there, formally demanded the
surrender of Detroit. This demand included a plain threat of massacre in
case of refusal. Said Brock in his letter: "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 my control the moment the contest commences." This is a
fine example of the art of putting things; The reader {035}would suppose
from Brock's words--"the Indians who have attached themselves to my
troops"--that the savages in red skins had insisted on accompanying the
expedition in spite of the most strenuous efforts on the part of the
savages in red coats to shake them off; whereas Brock had just held a
formal council with the Indians, and regularly arranged the terms of
alliance. Two years later, when peace was being negotiated, the British
commissioners spoke of these Indians, not as an irresponsible force, but
as regular allies, who must share in the treaty.
General Hull gave a defiant reply, ordered McArthur and Cass to return
at once with their detachment, and made admirable arrangements to defend
the place. In the afternoon there was an artillery duel between two
twenty-four pounders in the fort and a British battery at Sandwich on
the opposite side of the river.
Brock's force, according to his own testimony, numbered 1330 men,
including 600 Indians, and he had also two ships of war. Hull had
present for duty about 1000 men. * Brock sent a large body of Indians
across the river that night, at a point five
* It is impossible to reconcile the conflicting statements as to the
numbers on either side.
{036}miles below the fort, and early in the morning crossed with the
remainder of his troops, and at once marched on the place. Hull had
posted his regulars in the fort, and his militia in the town, where the
stout palings that surrounded the little kitchen gardens gave them an
admirable shelter. The two twenty-four pounders were loaded heavily
with grape and placed so as to command the road by which the enemy
was approaching, in close order, twelve deep. Never was there a better
opportunity to do wholesale execution by a single discharge. Everybody
was watching in breathless expectation to see the match applied and the
murderous iron go surging through those beautiful ranks, when, to the
astonishment cf friend and foe alike, a white flag was hung out upon
the wall of the fort. Brock himself was surprised, when, sending to know
what it meant, he learned that Hull had determined to surrender.
The articles of capitulation were drawn up, and the American general
surrendered not merely the fort and its garrison, but the whole
Territory of Michigan, of which he was Governor. Thus ended this
miserable campaign.
Hull's officers were incensed at his action, and he was subsequently
court-martialled, convicted of cowardice, and condemned to death; but
the President pardoned him, in consideration of his {037}age and his
services in the Revolution. The points of his defence were: that an
army in a situation like his, cut off from its supplies, must surrender
sooner or later; that if he had given battle, it would have exposed
all the inhabitants of the Territory to Indian barbarities; that his
situation was the fault of the Administration, rather than his own; that
his force was inferior to Brock's; and that his provisions were nearly
exhausted. Benedict Arnold himself was hardly held in greater contempt
by the American people than was General Hull for years after his trial.
Many believed him to be more traitor than coward. This state of feeling
was largely due to Colonel Lewis Cass--nearly forty years later a
candidate for the Presidency--who hurried to Washington with the news,
and greatly exaggerated the circumstances that bore against Hull. Cass's
action in this matter was exceedingly discreditable. On one point, the
important question of supplies, a letter written by him two days before
the surrender was flatly contradicted by his testimony at the trial.
Subsequent investigations, if they do not exonerate General Hull, have
at least greatly modified the blame attached to him.