Michigan Historical Review

THE MICHIGAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 38:1 (Spring 2012): 129-53©2012 by Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved. A Stain Upon the Nation?: A Review of the Detroit Campaign of 1812 in United States Military History by Steven J. Rauch If the outcome of a military campaign determines a military leader’s rank in history, then Brig. Gen. William Hull has been condemned to one of the lowest rungs with little hope of redemption. The story of Hull and the surrender of Detroit to British forces on August 16, 1812, is a familiar one that has been recounted in American historical literature for 200 years. When the United States declared war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812, many Americans believed swift victory would be achieved. Before the declaration, the United States had dispatched an army of almost 2,000 Ohio militia volunteers and U.S. Army troops under the command of Revolutionary War veteran William Hull to the frontier settlement of Detroit in the geographically remote Michigan Territory. Soon after arriving at Detroit, Hull received orders to invade Upper Canada, which he did on July 12, 1812, at Sandwich (now Windsor, Ontario). However, Americans were shocked to learn that on August 16, 1812, Hull had surrendered Detroit and his entire army to enemy forces. What started as a promising campaign had ended in a humiliating American defeat, described by Col. Lewis Cass as “a foul stain upon the national character.”1 President James Madison and members of his administration blamed Hull personally and exclusively for the failure and ordered him court-martialed on three counts of treason, four counts of cowardice, and seven charges of neglect of duty and un-officer-like conduct. On March 26, 1814, the court acquitted Hull of all treason charges but convicted him on all counts of cowardice. He was also found guilty of five allegations of neglect of duty and un-officer-like conduct. The court recommended he be sentenced to death. On April 24, 1814, President Madison approved the court’s findings but commuted the death sentence 1 Colonel Lewis Cass to the Secretary of War, September 10, 1812, in Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, ed. E. A. Cruikshank (Ottawa, On.: Government Printing Bureau, 1912), 218. 130 The Michigan Historical Review Brigadier General William Hull (1753-1825) [Source: John Richardson and Alexander C. Casselman, Richardson’s War of 1812: With Notes and a Life of the Author (Toronto, On.: Historical Publishing, 1902), 16.] because of Hull’s exemplary service during the Revolutionary War. Hull was then dishonorably discharged and his name removed from the rolls of the United States Army.2 2 The story of Hull’s court-martial is a study in itself. In short, it was not a fair trial. The best summary is John G. Van Deusen, “Court Martial of Gen. William Hull,” Michigan History 12 (Autumn 1928): 668-94. For another account, see Milo M. Quaife, The Detroit Campaign of 1812 131 Viewing this event through the lens of countless American-history survey books, specialized U.S. military-history works, general War of 1812 narratives, and even War of 1812 histories for juvenile readers, assessments of Hull and this campaign have varied from proclaiming Hull’s outright treasonous motives, his senile and gentrified state, or his victimization by his own bad decisions.3 An example of this approach found in a 2010 textbook describes how the hapless Hull, “marched his men across the Detroit River but was pushed back by the British. Sickly and senile, Hull procrastinated in Detroit while his position worsened.”4 The qualifier of Hull being “sickly and senile” conjures a mental picture of a broken-down old man who had no clue about what he was supposed to do, or the energy to do it if he had. Unfortunately, this simplistic historical approach tends to focus almost exclusively on Hull’s actions and ignores many other factors; those factors, when examined closely, add context and complexity to the story of the American defeat. Consider this example from Mary Beth Norton et al. in A People & a Nation: “In July 1812, U.S. general William...