General William Hull Court-Martial: 1814

To expedite the trip to Detroit, Hull chartered a schooner, the Cayauga, and sent it ahead loaded with his instructions from the War Department and other military papers as well as his army's muster rolls, medical supplies, tools, and uniforms. He reached Detroit on July 5. In the meantime, war was declared, but because no one in Washington, D.C., was in any hurry to tell him, Hull did not hear the news until July 2. In contrast, the British at Fort Malden (a few miles from Detroit) received word days earlier and had captured Hull's schooner with its valuable cargo.

On July 9, Hull received orders to invade Canada if he believed his army "equal to the enterprise." Three days later, he led his men across the Detroit River and occupied the town of Sandwich. Despite this initial success, Hull did not attempt to seize either Fort Malden or the British naval base at nearby Amherstburg because he was convinced that he did not have the strength to capture those installations.

While in Canada, Hull's communication lines were cut by Britain's Indian allies, thereby severing his supply and intelligence links with the United States, and the two detachments he sent to reopen them were thrown back. There were also reports of approaching British reinforcements. Then, on August 3, Hull learned about the surrender of the American fort on Mackinac Island (located in the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan). Fearing that the latest news meant that an onslaught of hostile Indians from Michigan's interior would soon be upon him, he retreated back to Detroit on August 8.

To make matters worse, on August 9, contrary to repeated orders to attack the British forces along the Niagara River (near Buffalo, New York) and in Kingston (across the St. Lawrence River from upstate New York where the river meets Lake Ontario), the American commander for those areas, Major General Henry Dearborn, entered into a truce with his British counterparts. The truce was to extend to Hull's theater of operations if Hull concurred, but Dearborn sent word to Hull only by regular mail. The cessation of hostilities in the east allowed the British to send to Fort Malden the troops that would have otherwise fought Dearborn. Those troops arrived at Fort Malden on August 13.

On August 15, the British crossed the border three miles south of Detroit and demanded Hull's surrender. Even though Hull's fort could have repulsed an initial assault, his garrison would not have survived a long siege. In addition, the British commander stated that once an attack began, the conduct of his Indian allies would be beyond his control. Hull had a number of noncombatants inside his fort, including women and children. He also knew firsthand the savagery of Indian warfare and the disregard the Natives had for the lives of civilians and prisoners of war. Believing his cause to be hopeless and not wanting to needlessly shed blood, Hull surrendered Detroit on August 16 without firing a shot. Ironically, his nephew, Captain Isaac Hull of the U.S. Navy, defeated the H.M.S. Guerrieri three days later—the first American naval victory of the war—while in command of the U.S.S. Constitution.