Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/448

 HULL

HULL

column led by Wayne at the capture of Stony- Point, N.Y., and for his conduct was made lieutenant-colonel. He was deputy inspector of Howe's division under Baron Steuben during the campaign of 1780, and was invited to enter the military family of Washington as an aide, which honor he declined by advice of Baron Steuben, and lie suggested his friend Colonel Humphreys for the position, which appointment was made. He made a successful attack with 600 men against Colonel de Lancey at Morrisania, Jan. 23, ITfO, capturing 52 prisoners, GO horses and a number of cattle, which he successfully guarded in a retreat to the borders of Connecticut, pur- sued by a large British reinfoi'cenient from forts Wasliingtouand Independence. For his conduct in this engagement he received the thanks of General Washington in general orders, and also the thanks of congress. He was granted leave of absence after six years' service and passed the remainder of the winter of 1781 in Boston, where he was married to a daughter of the Hon.

FORT /v\A<K»/MAW.

Abraham Fuller, of Newton, Mass. In July, 17S1, he was ordered by Washington to Bedford, N.Y., where he arranged with Count de Rocham- beau an attack on the British in New York. This action, in which lie was an aide to the Duke de Lauzun, re-;ulted in the transferof the seat of war from New York harbor to the Chesapeake; and when Washington led the army south, Colonel Hull was made adjutant and inspector general of the army in the Higlilands, serving until the evacuation of New York by the British, Nov. 2."5, 1783. He then took possession of the forts about New York and commanded the corps of liglit infantry which escorted General Washington into the city uf)on his return from Virginia. He became second in command of the only regiment not disbanded at the close of the war, Novem- ber, 17a3, General Heath being made its colonel. In 1784 he was ordered to make a formal demand on Governor-General Haldimand at Quel>ec for the surrr-nder of the frontier posts of Niagara. Detroit. Mackinac and others, still held

by the British in violation of the treat}' of Paris. This, Governor-General Haldimand, in the absence of instructions, declined to do, and it was not till after the Jay Treaty of 1794 that the forts were surrendered. Colonel Hull's regiment was disbanded in 17S6, and he practised law in New- ton, Mass., where he erected a large brick resi- dence and where one son and seven daughters grew up. In Shays's rebellion he commanded the left wing of General Lincoln's army, and by a forced march surprised and dispensed the insurgents in their camps at Pelham. In Januarj-, 1793, he went to Quebec as a commissioner to arrange a treaty with the Northwestern Indians, but the British policy prevented its consumma- tion. In 1798 he visited Europe and in 1799 he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas for I\Iiddlesex county. He served in both branches of the Jlassachusetts legislature and as a member of the council. He was a founder and charter member of the Society of the Cincin- nati, commander of the Ancient and Honorable artillery companj- of Boston, and in 1798 was elected major-general of the 3d division, state militia, which position he resigned in 1805, when he accepted the governorship of Michigan Territory from President Jefferson, and he re- moved his family to Detroit and built a brick house in that village in 1806. He was reap- pointed at the end of his first term by President Jefferson, serving 1805-13, and in February, 1812, he went to Washington to urge upon the government the necessity of additional troops to defend Detroit against the Indians. President Madison called for 1200 militia from the gover- nor of Ohio for that service and Governor Hull was requested to lead them to Detroit, which he declined to do, not desiring to assume a military command. When Colonel Kingsbury, who was appointed, fell sick. Governor Hull, in order to lose no time, assumed command and was given the rank of brigadier-general. He marched the three undisciplined and poorly-armed regiments to Urbana, Ohio, where 300 regulars, under Colonel Miller, joined him, and thej' cut a mili- tary road 200 miles through the wilderness, built bridges, causeways and block-liouses, and on reaching the site of Toledo, June 30. 1812, unaware that war had been declared, June 18, he transferred the invalids, stores and important papers to a schooner for Detroit. Wiien General Hull with the remainder of his army reached Del^'oit, July 5, he learned of the declaration of war and that the schooner had been captured at Maiden by the British commanding the place. On July 12, in obedience to instructions from the war department, he crossed the river into Canada with 1000 effective men, all that could be spared from garrison duty, and established a