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Chapter VI - Unwilling Warriors
Unwilling Warriors
General William Hull, the "sickly and [perhaps] senile" commander of the American forces and governor of Michigan, delayed movement north after the British captured an American fort near Detroit. His principle activity at the time seems to have been writing and issuing proclamations rather than effectively combatting British troops. The British commander played on Hull's incompetence by cleverly marching his troops back and forth near Detroit and spreading the frightening rumor that thousands of Indians were approaching at the rear. Fearing a massacre. Hull willingly surrendered his entire army without firing a single shot. By winter of 1812 the British controlled about half of the old northwest territories of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, American forces along the Niagara River were more aggressive. On October 13 an advance party of six hundred Americans crossed the Niagara and courageously fought their way to the outskirts of Queenstown Heights, Canada. Victory seemed imminent until the New York militia, which had nervously watched wounded troops being ferried across the river, refused to fight. They claimed that their military service did not obligate them to leave the country. When Americans were forced to surrender near Queenstown, one officer passionately demanded of the uncooperative men:
Are you not related to the men who fought at Bennington and Saratoga? Has the race not degenerated into shame? Where is thy blush? No! Where I command, the peaceful man, the child, the maid, the matron shall be secure from wrong. Men of New York, the present is the hour of renown!
His impassioned speech, however, fell on deaf ears. In fact, the American army moving across Lake Champlain toward Canada confronted the same problem with the New York militia. Without adequate troops, the invasion of Canada simply fell apart.
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