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The Americans began the war with a three-pronged attack along the Canadian border that ended in, according to one newspaper account, "disaster, defeat, disgrace, and ruin and death. "It would be the fighting to the east, at sea, that would produce the war's first successes-and heroes-in ship-to-ship engagements in the Atlantic. Map adapted.from an 1812 map ofthe United States, published by P R. Tardieu.
in D etroit only briefly before crossing the river to attack Fort Malden to the south. Even though the fo rt was south of Detroit, it was in Canadian territory, causing som e of his Ohio militia to balk at crossing the border. They refus ed to go, they sa id, because as militia they were only obligated to fight within the bounda ries of the U ni ted States. With his supply line stretched all the way to Ohio, Hull was th reatened from Lake Erie by the British and from the wes t by hostile Indians. U nderway, he learned of a re-supply mission th at was coming from Ohio but never reached hi m and then of the surrender of the Am erican outpost at M ackinac Isla nd (between Lakes Huron and Michigan) to a large enemy force . Hull 's imagination got the best of him, and he imagined that this early action "had opened the northern hive ofln dians, to swarm down in every direction." Once his "demons" took charge, he abandoned his plans for Fort M alden a nd withdrew back across the river to D etroit. Needless to say, his action dispirited his troo ps and he further ingratiated himself to his me n
SEA HISTORY 134 SPRING 2011
when he abandoned the Canadian citizens, At the insistence of the popul ace, the who had joined his effort, to the mercy of federal government h as tened to provide protection to its citizenry living on the fro nthe British . Through a brilliant subterfuge, Bri- tier. Will iam Henry Harrison, the hero of tish General Isaac Brock, recently arrived Tippecanoe, was appointed m ajor general in the area with reinforcements, received and put in charge of all Kentucky troops. H ull 's surrender of Fort Detroit in just General William Hull over two weeks without ever firing a shot-an early example of the power of mind warfare! With the fall of the garrison at Mackinac Island, Hull feared that Fort Dearborn in C hicago was indefensible and ordered Captain Nathan Heald, in comma nd of some sixty-five soldiers and another two dozen civilians, to abandon it, giving Brock a second victory at the same time with no effort on h is part. Sadly, when Captain Heald carried out h is orders, Potawatomi Indians fell on them and, even after surrender terms were agreed upon, killed all but a few of the Americans. Hull's mental anguish over an imagined outcome had laid open the entire western frontier to the enemy. Surely not a good start to the war, and it was quickly fo llowed by equally devastating moves by other American officers .
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