Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/337

Rh ness in the rear of Detroit. Communications by the road he had opened had been cut off by the Indians, and two expeditions sent by Gen. Hull to reopen them had failed. Food and ammunition were nearly gone, the army was cut off from its base, and Detroit fell as a matter of course. Gen. Harrison, when he heard of the fall of Mackinaw, regarded it as the forerunner of the capture of Fort Dearborn and Detroit. On 10 Aug. he wrote to the secretary of war : " I greatly fear that the cap- ture of Mackinaw will give such eclat to the Brit- ish and Indians that the northern tribes will bear down in swarms on Detroit, oblige Gen. Hull to act on the defence, and meet and perhaps over- power the convovs and re-enforcements which may be sent to him." That Gen. Hull was right in saying that whoever commanded Lake Erie could hold Detroit was proved by the fact that Gen. Harrison, though within 100 miles of Detroit, was unable to advance for a year. Perry's victory gave the command of Lake Erie to the Americans, and Detroit dropped at once into our hands. Gen. Hull was surrounded, the woods behind him were full of Indians, and before him was the English army, backed up by the resources of Canada West, which contained ample re-enforcements of troops and supplies. But a victim was necessary to appease the disappointed hopes of the nation, taught to believe that Canada was to fall an easy prey. The anger of the people must be diverted from the government, which had gone into the war without preparation. At this juncture the man that was needed appeared in the person of Col. Lewis Cass. In a letter written 10 Sept., 1812, he threw all the blame upon his general, saying that, " if Maiden had been immediately attacked, it would have fallen an easy victory." But Col. Cass, in a coun- cil of war, had voted against such an attack, in company with a majority of the officers. He also said in this letter that there was no difficulty in procuring provisions for the army. But a month before, and four days before the surrender, he wrote to the governor of Ohio that the commu- nication must be kept open, and that supplies must come from that state. And on 3 Aug. he wrote that " both men and provisions are wanted for the very existence of the troops." The letter of Cass above referred to made a scape-goat of Gen. Hull, and was published all over the Union, and Col. Cass was immediately promoted to briga- dier-general in the army of the United States, and was also appointed governor of Michigan. Gen. Hull was tried by a court-martial, the presi- dent of which was Gen. Dearborn, who, instead of co-operating with Hull in the invasion of Can- ada, had signed the armistice that allowed the British troops to. be sent against Detroit. Gen. Hull was found guilty of cowardice, sentenced to be shot, and told to go home to Xewton and wait for the execution of the sentence, which, of course, was never executed. Public opinion has long since reversed this sentence, and the best histori- ans disapprove of it. The latest of these, Benson J. Lossing, calls the trial disgraceful, and its sen- tence unjust, and says the court was evidently con- stituted in order to offer Hull as a sacrifice to save the government from disgrace and contempt. Gen. Hull passed his last days at Newton, Mass., on his wife's farm. Notwithstanding the undeserved odium that had fallen on him, he was cheerful and contented, satisfied that sooner or later his countrymen woul3 see the truth and do him jus- tice.— His nephew, Isaac, eldest son of Joseph Hull, b. in Derby, Conn., 9 March, 1773; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 13 Feb., 1843. Isaac's father hav- <2^«^^ &lc£t> ing died, he was adopted by his uncle, Gen. Hull, who wished to educate him with a view to his en- tering Yale college, where he himself was graduated in 1772, but the boy's unconquerable passion for the sea made him an unwilling as well as an unsuc- cessful student. Following the bent of his genius, at fourteen he chose the sea for his field of action, beginning, in accordance with the custom of that time, as a cab- in - boy on a merchant ship belonging to one of his un- cle's acquaint- ances. The ves- sel was after- ward wrecked and the cap- tain was saved by the young sailor of six- teen. Before he was twenty- one years of age he was com- mander of a ship that sailed to the West Indies. He was in this position at the first establish- ment of the American navy, and so great was the reputation which he had already acquired as a skilful seaman, that he entered the service as 4th lieutenant, his commission being dated 9 March, 1798, his twenty-fifth birthday. Hull saw his first service under Com. Samuel Nicholson in the "Constitution." Two years later, while still on board the " Constitution," then the flag-ship of Com. Silas Talbot, the latter accepted a chal- lenge from the captain of an English frigate to engage in a day's trial of speed. Hull, already advanced to the grade of 1st lieutenant, sailed "Old Ironsides," and the admirable manner in which he did it was long a subject of eulogy. All hands were kept on deck during the entire day, and just as the sun disappeared the " Constitution " fired her evening gun, the signal that the sailing- match was ended. In the race the English frigate was beaten several miles, and her boastful captain lost his cask of wine. The manner in which " Old Ironsides" was handled was entirely due to Hull, whose skill in sailing a ship under canvas was ever remarkable. In this particular he was perhaps the most efficient officer of the American navy. Farragut said to the writer: "Isaac Hull was as able a seaman as ever sailed a ship." During the same cruise, Hull manned from the crew of the " Constitution" a small vessel called the "Sally": ran into Port Plate, Hayti, at noonday ; boarded and captured a French letter of marque known as the "Sandwich," while the marines landed and spiked the guns of the battery before the commanding officer could prepare for defence. Taken altogether, it was one of the test-executed enterprises of its character in our naval annals. On 18 May, 1804, Lieut. Hull was promoted to the rank of master commanding, and assigned to the brig " Argus," which vessel participated in several actions at Tripoli and elsewhere in the war against the Barbary states, the American squadron being commanded by Com. Edward Preble. Two years later Hull was made a full captain, and before hostilities began between the United States and England he was in command of the "Constitution," in which he was ordered to Europe to convey Joel Barlow, the newly appointed minister, to France, and to